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Sprite - Welcome to another great Stratics house of commons with the developers of Horizons! Tonight's topic will be the new writer Peter S. Beagle's role in Horizons.

Sprite - Please send those questions to [QT]Ishu - to do so type /msg [QT]NICK My question here. Please only send questions to our QT's as those sent to myself or the developers will not make it into the lineup.

Sprite - The full logs will be posted on http://hz.stratics.com after the chat. We'll begin with a quick intro from our guests...now would be a good time to send in those questions!

Peter S. Beagle - Hi, everybody. You can't possibly be more ignorant about chat rooms than I am - though anyone's welcome to try - but I'll do my best to answer questions reasonably sanely, and fake the rest. Glad to be here.

DavidBowman - Hello everyone. Thank you for coming. We're very happy to have Peter join us to answer some questions together.

Rawdge|TG - Hey everybody, my name is Rawdge, and I'm one of the Designers here working on Horizons.

Amadan-TG - Hey everyone! I am Jim Poole. I am the Live Events Coordinator. I work on putting together our live events.

AmonGwareth|TG - Hello. I'm Jason Murdick. I'm a Designer and sometimes Programmer for Horizons.

Manga-4tw - Greetings all, I'm Mark Vargas, Design Lead for Tulga Games.

Fridlekh - Hello, my name is Timothy Wells, I'm an intern and do things that are doable my people named Tim.

Sprite - *Lithad* So Peter, have you written in the past? Anything we would know?

Peter S. Beagle - I'm best-known for THE LAST UNICORN, I suppose, but I've written five or six other novels, a lot of nonfiction, an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a number of screenplays, and a lot of nasty letters to people who haven't paid me. Like that.

Sprite - *Plink* Mr. Beagle, how willing are you to integrate existing player based lore into your future plans for the storyline of Horizons?

Peter S. Beagle - I'm a pragmatist. I'll look at all the material available to me, and explore what seems to work, or what piques my interest. Fan-based material counts like anything else.

Sprite - *LO|InGame* With Mr. Beagle working on the lore and backstory of Istaria, and players submitting quests which might also contain lore, who is going to be keeping everything straight?

DavidBowman - The Quest Editor will allow players to submit quests directly to a database. This will allow us to review them and after they have been checked for consistency with existing material and future goals, can easily be moved to the Live environment. So, the Live team will make sure that it is kept straight.

Sprite - *tel* How did you find a job with Horizons Peter? Were you a player before you became an employee? Will we be seeing you in game?

Peter S. Beagle - Horizons came to me, through my business manager Connor Cochran, and although I've never been a gamer I was promptly intrigued. For one thing, I'm a sucker for anything I've never done before - that's literature I'm talking about - which is how I came to write an opera libretto, among other strange jobs. I don't yet know whether or not you'll be seeing me in the game itself, but it's not impossible.

Sprite - *Plink* So then how much material will you be contributing do you think?

Sprite - *gopher* Peter, I am wondering how your stories will be integrated into Horizons. Most lore in Horizons at the moment exists in the form of short text monologues. Will your new lore be entered into the game in this difficult to read format?

Peter S. Beagle - I've always thought that my strength lies essentially in characterization and dialogue. I'm learning the game as I go along, as I've implied; but I'm hoping to expand the way in which lore is presented - possibly even through the medium of a voice-over for each species which would be different for each race. As a novelist, I know how to handle different varieties of narration, and if it seems to work in Horizons, that's what I'll do.

DavidBowman - I'd like to add that we'll be experimenting with new methods of presenting written material to take advantage of Peter's abilities.

Sprite - *Varangaard* Have you had the chance yet to familiarize yourself with the story of Horizons? I'm interested in hearing what you think of Istaria and the 'theme' of its story.

Peter S. Beagle - From my limited - VERY limited - acquaintance with gaming, what intrigues me about Horizons is its comparative lack of hacking, slashing and exploding. The emphasis on schooling and cooperation caught my attention immediately. As far as I can tell, it makes Horizons unique.

DavidBowman - In conversations with Peter, we've been exploring how to make the 11 species/races of Istaria more distinctive in their voice. And this requires a fleshing out of each of their histories.

Sprite - *LO|InGame* Mr. Beagle, could you share with us some of the areas you feel need attention, and/or an overview of what you're working on first?

Peter S. Beagle - I'm not sure what I'll be working on first, but I'm hoping, on the one hand, to simplify some of the history of Istaria and its races' relationship to each other; and, on the other hand, to make clear the distinctions between individual cultures.

Sprite - *tel* Will players be interact directly with what you create? Do our actions affect the outcome?

Peter S. Beagle - It seems obvious to me that the players' actions inevitably affect the outcome of the story, and even the history of Istaria. That's part of the charm of the game.

DavidBowman - We'll be using our event format as part of our ongoing work with Peter. He'll help us provide a richer voice for the written portion, while supporting the event's concepts.

Sprite - *lithad* Have you read over any of the player lore yet? How do you think you will start writing for Horizons, do you have an idea for a plot already, characters, etc?

Peter S. Beagle - I've literally just come on board five minutes ago, and I'm still in the process of familiarizing myself with the history, lore and total concept of the game. Gimme a minute.

Sprite - *gopher* In addition to the “Gifted” and the “Withered Aegis” there are also many indigenous peoples in Istaria, such as Skulks. Will you be concentrating primarily on the main storyline (the war), or will you be flushing out the lore of these less important races?

Peter S. Beagle - My father was a history teacher, and I've always been intrigued by the lives of the "less important" people - those who found the "war to end war" going on in their back gardens, and just tried to stay alive while being trampled by great events. I'm already curious about, and stimulated by, what John Masefield called "...the scorned, the rejected, the men hemmed in with the spears. We'll see.

Sprite - *Plink* Peter, what are your views of online fantasy worlds? The good, the bad, the unknown...

Peter S. Beagle - Plink, these are a whole new universe for me. I've written fantasy novels, television scripts - I know something about alternate worlds and parallel universes, but this is my first experience with any of these. I can't wait to get properly started, and I'm praying to Superdog (my own personal deity, and another story altogether) that my imagination will be up to the task.

Sprite - *Ranqthas* Peter, have you been able to actually roll and play a character in Horizons? Do any of the Istarian races grab your interest?

Peter S. Beagle - I'm not about to favor one race over another - I just want to flesh out the historic areas where there seem to be gaps and questions. I've always loved dragons (Ursula LeGuin rocks!) - but then I've always been a cat person, so there you are...

Sprite - *PJ* Will there be any coinciding efforts to make what official lore that does already exist more accessible to players?

DavidBowman - Yes. We have written material to which we refer, it is being strengthened internally, but we've just begun working with Peter to provide opportunities for him to explore characters within that lore. The combined results will be provided through quests and events at a minimum. In addition, we've begun discussing methods of providing alternate formats of text for Peter to use (and for us to take advantage of).

Peter S. Beagle - When I was first learning to write filmscripts, a good friend explained to me that I no longer would have the luxury of the novelist's voice-over - I'd now have to learn to make the camera become my narrator. Right now, I don't know the rules of the barn, nor am I fully conversant with what I can't do. I'd say that my first challenge will be realizing for real that I'm dealing with a multiplayer awareness, as opposed to one reader, one viewer.

Sprite - *Varangaard* The heavy, long-term involvement of a professional author is pretty uncharted territory in online gaming - or any gaming. What do you think will be the greatest challenges in adapting from novel writing to a more immediate environment of developing a story over online medium?

Sprite - *LO|InGame* For David, Manga, and Rawdge: you must have discussed some new systems or content that leverage Mr. Beagle's abilities. Care to share?

DavidBowman - We started with the desire to strengthen our writing in general, specifically our lore. This lead indirectly to Peter's involvement. The business negotiations have just concluded, and now we are in the process of exploring the potential. The tools we have currently are quests and tutorial in-game. We know that in-game books are on our list, and other forms of in-game writing. NPC dialogue will definitely benefit. But we aren't beating up the tech team with demands until after we've had a chance to explore this for some more time. :-)

Sprite - *Lithad* Mr. Beagle will you be working in the office with the developers, or will your position allow you to work from home?

Sprite - *Plink* So, Peter, how will this new background information appear in game? Or will it appear as a novel or something?

Peter S. Beagle - Don't know yet, but what I can do from home I will. I suspect that I'll be spending a lot of time in the San Francisco office, though. The background information is meant specifically for Horizons - I don't have any plans to co-opt it for other work of my own.

Sprite - *LO|InGame* Will we ever learn more of the lost and mysterious Gnerph culture? It may have started as a bit of humor, but it's part of Istarian history now, and I'd hate to see it lost.

Sprite - *gopher* Will there be Giant Killer Gophers in the new istaria?

Peter S. Beagle - As it happens, I majored in the Gnerph culture in college (the University of Pittsburgh is the only one that offers such a degree. And I have a tenderness for Giant Killer Gophers - dated one once, as a matter of fact.

Rawdge|TG - In addition, I'd like to add the Gnerph culture is alive and well within Istaria. It shows up more often than people think, as the culture is a deep and multifaceted one. We will be exploring more of it in the future to be certain.

Sprite - *Varangaard* The backdrop of IStaria can be pretty grim - the very existence living races' cooperative is threatened by undead. Do you think humor can exist, and play a part, in such a setting?

Peter S. Beagle - Varangaard, I'm Jewish. If that isn't an answer by itself, I don't know what is.

Sprite - *Plink* So Roger, had you ever read anything by Peter S. Beagle?

Rawdge|TG - Unfortunately (I'm gonna get some glares now) no, not yet. But David mentioned loaning me some of his copies for a weekend.......

Sprite - *Kumu* Next Question: Is it possible to remove Copy/Paste from the developers? It makes too many errors requiring weeks of patches to actually get fixed =/

Amadan-TG - What do you mean by that Kumu? What do you mean by that Kumu? Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes it is a lot easier to copy/paste something. But I will make sure everyone makes sure to fix their copy and paste errors!

Amadan-TG - What do you mean by that Kumu? What do you mean by that Kumu? Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes it is a lot easier to copy/paste something. But I will make sure everyone makes sure to fix their copy and paste errors!

Sprite - That will wrap it up for tonight. I’d like to thank the developers for coming! The log for tonight’s chat will be up shortly on http://hz.stratics.com

Sprite - Thank you all for joining us! You can join #Horizons to chat more about the game.

Amadan-TG - Thanks for coming everyone!

DavidBowman - Thanks everyone for coming and chatting.