Who is Rick and Company? Were they AE, Tulga, etc?

[medweasel]

Hello everyone. I was just wondering who Rick and Company are? I know they're the Original Dev's and that Hz is in good hands with them but I don't remember if they were from Artifact Entertainment or Tulga or neither. Were they the people who were here first? Were they developers or actually owners at one point? And if they were owners then why sell to EI?

Also, what happened to Tulga? Are they still a company? I really liked when they were working on Hz, they seemed like they were doing a good job or maybe it was the fact that David Bowman and the rest of the original crew were hired on by Tulga. I remember Tulga was developing it's own mmo which is why alot of people thought they sold Hz so that they could better fund that project. Whatever happened to that? Was Tulga a good company like I thought they were or not? Surely they should have done a bit more research into EI, Lol. But then again, that wasn't their job. I understand that companies buy and sell.

Anyway, any answers to these questions would be so appreciated. I really like the new company and the owners and it's so nice to have a team who cares about Hz on the job again. Plus it's nice to have honest owners once more. I just wish that David Bowman was with them.

[C`gan]

To understand who Virtrium LLC is, please read:
http://gamersinfo.net/index.php?art/id:1837

[medweasel]

Sweet, so it is former Tulga employees then. Yay, I really liked what Tulga was doing. I wonder if they also own the rights to that "Settlers" expansion that they were working on? I'd love to see that make it live.

So, does Tulga still exist? Did Tulga reform to Virtrium? Or did some members of Tulga leave and form Virtrium on their own? If Virtrium is what's left of Tulga then what happened to that MMO that they were working on? So many questions Lol. Thanks for the link by the way, that helped so much. Long live Horizons. May the skies be full of Dragons once more and may all the Bi-Ped's have really large umbrellas, Lol.

[gopher65]

I don't think Tulga really exists anymore. If it does, it is in name only.

Vi was formed by people who use to work for Tulga. According to the Wiki article on HZ Rick (the owner of Vi) was actually one of the very first employees of AE way back in 99 when they were first conceptualizing HZ. Man. I can't believe he kept working on the game through all the management changes, the issues after issues that arouse, and then still came back to buy the game 0_0.

He must really love HZ.

I've never seen him post or anything though.

[Rayth]

I haven't been paying much attention. But Tulga had announced Dark World Online and not sure what happened to them or the game after that. Tulgagames.com appears to be gone, so I would assume they are dead. Quick google search didn't give me much on the fate of Tulga, although I didn't really look much.

David Bowman has a commitment with Certain Affinity, if I remember correctly. Lead Designer or some such.

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

Just about everyone that was Tulga is now Virtrium except for David Bowman.

[Vahrokh]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon...ire_of_Istaria

A nicely enough resume of what happened in the past, up to the present. Names included.

[medweasel]

Thanks so much for all of the info. At least someone owns Horizons that loves the game. Rick must love Hz seeing as how he's been through it all with this game and then bought it. I'll support Rick and Virtrium and any projects they may create. I like small "family" companies. There's alot of disadvantages to being a small company but there's also alot of advantages too.

[medweasel]

Sheesh, anyone see where things went wrong here? Lol. Things were looking up for HZ and subscriptions were steadily climbing. Settlers would've made the game fresh and new and opened the door to many new customers. It would've also shown the world that Hz isn't dead, it has a new expansion. Then something awful happened. Tulga sold to EI. Why oh why? What possessed them to do this? I think maybe they were trying to start over and get their new mmo released. But it just seems like this decision ruined everything for everyone. Not only is Tulga no longer around, it seems. but their new mmo is nowhere to be heard of. Settlers has completely dissappeared from sight and mind. Why not still release it soon? And everyone's having to start over. Although I'm glad that Rick owns the game now. He's been with it since day 1 and it seems like he's poured his soul into the game. I hope he's successful.



this was taken from the above link - Horizons from Wiki



January 19 2006
The "Ancient rite of passage" has been completed several weeks ago, 'Horizons' is gaining subscriptions and is slowly but steadily increasing the available content.Rumor has it that Tulga has now been working on a new game client (with new graphic engine) for around 9 months. May 9 2006
An expansion for Horizons, known as Settlements, was announced. Few facts are available to date, but some that are known include new racial housing for the dwarf and dryad player races, and the introduction of harpies as a monster. July 21 2006
EI Interactive buys Horizons from Tulga, EI promises to continue the game in its current form, but the exact consequences of this sale are unknown. August 1 2006
EI Interactive changes the billing system of Horizons. The new system is set up through an insecure network and many subscribers complain of being billed twice or (In some situations) more. August 5 2006
EI Interactive places strict moderation rules on the community forums. All posts and topics are to be read by a moderator before being approved for the forums. The move is rumored to be EI's response to the number of complaints on their billing system that were popping up in the forums. October 2006
EI Interactive no longer allows member registration on the forums. November 28 2006
Pixel Magic Corporation announces their acquisition of EI Interactive. [2] December 23 2006
Horizons announces that the Blight shard (a test server that dozens of players played on regularly) would be shut down December 27th. August 2007
The Blight shard was restored, along with a new customer support site and the reopening of the community site to new member registration. An interview at GamersInfo.net has been conducted to reveal that Virtrium, LLC is the new owner of the game Horizons, purchasing all of the remaining assets from Tulga Games. The owner of Virtrium is former Tulga employee Rick Simmons and he is joined by other former employees as well. Interview - Rick Simmons - Horizons: Empire of Istaria

[Landowyn]

It was Settlements. Settlers is a real-time building game of some sort. The expansion had very little work done on it and very little real work had been done on it. It's nowhere ready to be released and is probably not in Virtrium's pipeline.

Tulga didn't sell Horizons to EI, Chris Baker made a deal with EI to run the game while obviously retaining some rights to the IP, which he then licensed or sold to Virtrium when EI failed to deliver on its part of the deal.

[Amadan]

Just about everyone that was Tulga is now Virtrium except for David Bowman.

Not sure that's an accurate statement. But, a true statement would be, everyone at Virtrium was working for Tulga.

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

Not sure that's an accurate statement. But, a true statement would be, everyone at Virtrium was working for Tulga.

My words were bass-ackwards. Sorrah, can't edit after 15 minutes.

[Tryagain]

Sheesh, anyone see where things went wrong here? Lol. Things were looking up for HZ and subscriptions were steadily climbing. Settlers would've made the game fresh and new and opened the door to many new customers. It would've also shown the world that Hz isn't dead, it has a new expansion. Then something awful happened. Tulga sold to EI. Why oh why? What possessed them to do this? I think maybe they were trying to start over and get their new mmo released. But it just seems like this decision ruined everything for everyone. Not only is Tulga no longer around, it seems. but their new mmo is nowhere to be heard of. Settlers has completely dissappeared from sight and mind. Why not still release it soon? And everyone's having to start over. Although I'm glad that Rick owns the game now. He's been with it since day 1 and it seems like he's poured his soul into the game. I hope he's successful.

DWO was an idea. No discernable work was ever made on it. if you followed Bowman's strategy it was most likely made to generate more interest in HZ. Why ? Tulga had no chance of more investor dollars. There would have been a natural cap that Horizons could obtain subscribers wise and HZ was never ever going to fund the development of a NEW MMO.

As far as the rest I really am not inclined to believe claims of rising subs back then at least not at the rates claimed. Chris baker is an accomplished investor. One does not offload a product that is now starting to make money to a bunch of yahoo's like EII. In fact Baker would have probably had his pick of the offers had he been able to show that the game was making money and that subscriptions were on a more than steady rise. The very hand off to EII tells me this was not the case.

Now and the present you have developers that seem to demonstrate more passion for the game than Tulga ever did. This is probably due to different leadership that has a different set of goals in mind. Now the best thing for Vitrium to do is shed the shackles of the past and build a stable game now that will pay the bandwidth bills and allow them to collect a paycheck. All the while doing something they love while plinking away at the game.

play the game have fun and forget about the past. Cause its all just a really bad nightmare for this game.

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

Now and the present you have developers that seem to demonstrate more passion for the game than Tulga ever did. This is probably due to different leadership that has a different set of goals in mind. Now the best thing for Vitrium to do is shed the shackles of the past and build a stable game now that will pay the bandwidth bills and allow them to collect a paycheck. All the while doing something they love while plinking away at the game.

Please, you seriously have to drop the whole "David Bowman kicked my cat and ruined my game that would have never existed at all without the direct influence of David Bowman wherein many of the features primary selling points the direct creation of said David Bowman" charade. The "different leadership" you're talking about is the same people who were actually running the things before the buyout, and none of this perceived change is due to David being gone. You'll even note in Ophelea's article with Rick that David is still doing consulting even though he has obligations elsewhere.

As for Chris Baker, did you even pay attention during the Artifact Years and the pre-blackout era? This guy was pouring money into something that didn't even have a client and server 6 months before it was supposed to launch. I can't fairly judge Mr. Baker, I've never met him, but given how clear it was that Horizons should have folded years before Tulga existed when things were run by David Allen and crew you can draw your own conclusions. As further evidence, look who he sold the game to last summer. Spend more than 10 minutes around Edward C. Andercheck and you know this guy is not the kind of person to trust in making you money.

Either way, Horizons is back in the hands that have had the greatest positive influence on the poor thing.

[Varraven]

If I remember correctly, one of the things mentioned that might possibly be added with the "expansion" (really just a free update to the game I suppose) was mounts. I sure wish Horizons had mounts. As a player who mainly runs bipeds, it can take a very long time to travel, to certain areas anyway. These are probably a huge time off, though, considering how much remodeling, artwork, mechanic changes, etc., would have to be done. But I still hope

[Varraven]

Oops, I apologize for my post above being a little off the topic of discussing. Reading through the other posts made me think out in the blue a little.

[Vahrokh]

As far as the rest I really am not inclined to believe claims of rising subs back then at least not at the rates claimed. Chris baker is an accomplished investor. One does not offload a product that is now starting to make money to a bunch of yahoo's like EII. In fact Baker would have probably had his pick of the offers had he been able to show that the game was making money and that subscriptions were on a more than steady rise. The very hand off to EII tells me this was not the case.

I have the feeling (notice, it's just a feeling) that the plan was something like:

- Horizons has too many flaws and can't be "sold" as a new game any more (including the current player base which will oppose drastic changes).

- Hand Horizons to EI so that they become "the cash cow" and free resources

- Create a new product from scratch using that income (you'll never know the full extents of the "sale" to EI, which in fact got "revoked". The "Evolution Engine" blurb persists even on the new Virtrium site.

Too bad, the cash cow revealed to be unable to even eat grass to live, so... back to square zero. And now they HAVE to make Horizons profitable (maybe while others still make the other game? Dunno) before Chris money becomes zero. Our hopes will last till either Horizons is back in shape or Chris money ends. I really hope for the former.

[Varangaard]

Regarding mr Baker's involvement, I don't think there is any. I've no knowledge how long he has been an investor in HZ (referencing above posts, since the beginning it appears) but during the final Tulga stretch we know he was the only principal investor.

We'll never know what moved in his mind unless he speaks up himself, but one year ago he decided to sell all the assets. I'd suppose, he saw the rising subscriptions numbers and Tulga starting to break even, and was also tired of financing a non-cash-cow. How much he actually cared about the game is evident in him choosing the first two-bit players arriving to his doorstep (obviously, as an investor, he is most concerned with getting his money's worth).

Only, it seems he did not get his money's worth. It is still hearsay, but seems quite a few have dug out the same tale: the deal with EII was "get the game now, pay later". EII was either unable or unwilling - with all their shenanigans I suspect the latter - so Virtrium struck at an opportune time (EII had missed a payment deadline most likely) and offered what most likely was REAL cash for the HZ IP. Handshake, the deal is done, mr Baker invokes some clause in their contract and pulls HZ away from EII/PME/NGW and Virtrium are the new owners.

It should be obvious that mr Baker wanted rid his involvement a YEAR ago already, to the point of not scrutinizing the buyer, and now he has sold the assets for cash. I don't believe he wants anything to do with HZ anymore, note even as an investor. Virtrium most likely is running on money out of their own pockets, and subscription fees.

edit:

- Create a new product from scratch using that income

Good plan up to this point, but there's a problem: Chris Baker had no game company at this point. Tulga was nothing but a name on a paper. He's also an investor so HZ sale wouldn't have been a major boost to his resources - probably something at the scale of pocket change. If he really had wanted to produce a new game (and he is no game producer) he could have sold around Evolution Engine license and offered start-up cash for a new game company. But he did not.