Horizons: Horizons Interview with Cynthia Woll

For few not familiar with Horizons and ATARI can you tell us what you do for ATARI, and how you will be working with Artifact Entertainment on Horizons?

Cynthia Woll: I am the Executive Producer for Online Games for Atari, and Horizons will be only the second game we're publishing in the massively multiplayer online space. My main role is to facilitate communication between the Artifact team and the different groups here at Atari such as QA, marketing, PR, manufacturing, distribution, and so on. I'm the gatekeeper for the overall schedule, and the front line for any issues that may arise. Since we've been playing the game here in the office in Santa Monica over the past several weeks, we've all become more and more excited that Horizons is Atari's early entry into the field - it's going to be an amazing game.

Horizons will be ATARI's first foray into the MMOG genre. When did the talks first begin between ATARI and Artifact Entertainment concerning publishing the title and what made Horizons standout when there are quite a few MMOGs seeking a publisher.

Cynthia Woll: The talks began several months ago between Jason Bell, Senior VP of Creative Development for Atari, and the Artifact team. The things that stood out for us initially were the quality of the team, the tools and technology, and a creative vision that solves most of the design flaws of current generation fantasy MMORPGs. It was clear that the world-building tools Artifact had developed would allow for quicker and better content creation than other games are capable of, therefore providing a richer and more rapidly changing environment for the player to explore. The world is zone free, and the community aspects of the game are currently without parallel. The graphics are detailed and beautiful, and then of course there were the dragons. The whole package looked like a clear winner to us - so much so that Atari was willing to reverse its "wait and see" attitude toward online gaming and take the plunge.

You can find the rest of the interview by clicking here