GamersInfo.net: What was your very first video game experience (not necessarily the first game you played) and why do you think that has "stuck in your head" to this day?

David Bowman: Pong. I saved for months to buy it.

I don't think anybody who didn't grow up with the television set being this passive device that you watched can understand the excitement that getting a television to do something, anything generated inside of me. This was a time when there were only three channels (we could only get two of them where we lived), and you had to get up and go to the television to change between them. Actually controlling this dot as it moved back and forth on the screen was magic.

GamersInfo.net: Did you grow up wanting to work in the gaming, not necessarily electronic, industry? Or were your goals different? And if so, what were they?

David Bowman: The industry is younger than I am. I had no idea what I wanted to do growing up. My extended family all owned their own businesses. My dad had a bar and a bowling alley. My grandfather was a general contractor. My uncles were in construction. I spent the time I wasn't in school working in the bowling alley, and driving a bulldozer, dump truck or a backhoe. I would often come home dirty, exhausted and knowing that I didn't want to do this for the rest of my life. It's honest and true work, but I hoped I could do something that would make a larger difference in the world. I didn't have a clue what that would be, but since I was good at school, I assumed I would just keep going to school until some professor magically recognized my talent and told me "David, you should be a X.". I was very externally motivated, looking to my family and teachers to explain to me what I was supposed to do, why I was alive.

GamersInfo.net: Tell me about your "professional" life before Horizons. What experience do you have? And what are you most proud of?

David Bowman: Prior to Horizons I was the Vice President of Production at Turbine Entertainment. I worked on Asheron's Call and left Turbine when Asheron's Call II was in pre-production. Before Turbine, I worked at Bungie Studios as a designer. I am proud of Asheron's Call. I am also proud of the Myth series; I think that there are things that could have been better, but we worked so hard to achieve what we did, and many thousands of people have had fun due to our efforts. As to what am I most proud of in the gaming part of my life, it would be Horizons. We have come through an incredible sequence of events to even be here, growing Horizons today. Thousands of people enjoy Horizons, and as we continue to improve it, that number will grow.

As I mentioned above, I stayed in school, looking for what I wanted to do. I have a B.A. in English and Behavioral Psychology. I made some money doing computer programming in the 80s. Went back and got a Masters in Orientation and Mobility. I taught blinded Veterans at the VA hospital in Hines, Illinois. I spent two years in Ecuador teaching teachers how to do Orientation and Mobility instruction. Spent a few years as a director for blind students at Arizona State University and then four and a half years teaching in junior high schools in Himeji, Japan. This is too much like a resume... I'm proud of my time teaching blind students. I think I made a positive difference in the lives of many people.

In my life, I am most proud of my two children. They are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and they are my unit of measurement.

GamersInfo.net: You state that you looked for external motivation during high school, yet your life choices - Ecuador, working with the blinded, teaching in Japan - these are not the actions of someone externally motivated. What changed to make you give so much of yourself and your time to others? When and how did you come to the realization that you wanted to?

David Bowman: When I finished my undergraduate programs, and no professor or magician appeared to tell me what I was supposed to do with my life, I started to listen a little bit to what my heart was telling me. I looked at my life, talked with my friends, and stumbled forward. One of the best things about my family was that while they didn't provide much direction, they were always sure I could do whatever I set my mind on to do. I had friends, who were blind, and I asked who had been the most respected people in their lives, and they always mentioned their Orientation and Mobility instructors. This was something I knew I could do and had made an incredible difference in the lives of intelligent, great people who just happened to also be blind. So, I entered Western Michigan University's graduate program in Blind Rehabilitation.

After I got my M.A. I worked with blinded veterans and then was offered a chance to help start an education program for teachers of blind students in Ecuador through the Peace Corps. I needed to experience more of the world, and I thought I could make a difference, so I went.

It hasn't been until the past couple of years that I think I've finally decided what I want to be. I've always known who I wanted to be and how I wanted to act toward other people, but how to spend my time when the world has so much to do? Making persistent online worlds can help shape and change this world's future to the same degree that television, movies and books have shaped it to-date. This is worth spending some of my life's brief span.

GamersInfo.net: What's the last book you read that had an effect on your life and why? And if you don't read books, what's the last movie?

David Bowman: Don't read books? Is that possible? No single book has made a huge difference in my life, they cumulatively have. I finished A Wind in the Door last night with my children. I read Eragon on Sunday. Growing up I would read a book every day that I could. Books were the most significant thing that let me know that the world was bigger than Houghton Lake, Michigan. They let you feel another person's mind in a way that very little else can. One of the biggest prices I pay for working on Horizons is the time limit it places on reading.

GamersInfo.net: Outside of work, what are your passions and hobbies? What would you be doing RIGHT NOW if you could get up from the keyboard and go do it?

David Bowman: When I'm not here in the office, I'm with my family. They are my passion.

I would take my family to Adelaide, Australia. I got married there, and the nicest people I have ever met, anywhere in the world, live there. I want my children to know that people this kind exist.

GamersInfo.net: Cats or Dogs? Hamburgers or Hot Dogs? Or....something I didn't mention?

David Bowman: Dogs. Newfoundlands if I didn't live in the desert. Chicken... hamburgers and hotdogs only if there is no dead bird available.

GamersInfo.net: What was the process that brought you to working on the Horizons team?

David Bowman: I had worked out a timetable for leaving Turbine with the CEO. I was only interested in persistent worlds. I interviewed at a number of companies who were trying to make them, but hadn't seen a technology that interested me. Then I met the Artifact Entertainment team at E3. The Turbine and AE crew all went to dinner and then a movie. During that time, I spoke with them about their technology and their approach. The idea of separating the server, the simulation and the client into platform technologies was what I was looking to find. I interviewed with them and by July was brought on to help them launch Horizons.

GamersInfo.net: You stated that Artifact's "idea of separating the server, the simulation and the client into platform technologies was what I was looking to find". Can you explain how this is significant and what its appeal is to you?

David Bowman: Making persistent worlds is one of the most complex forms of game creation. It has some of the highest production costs and greatest technological risks. The best way to lower the cost of future persistent worlds is to create a standardized set of tools for their creation. Almost all game companies think of themselves as game companies (duh!) first, and don't create their technologies to be re-used. Why should they when the computer hardware platforms they are building on change so quickly? But persistent world technology has three components: server, simulation, and client. It is possible to create a solid platform for the server portion and much cheaper to create future products if you do. The simulation portion varies depending on the game, but often has common parts that can be used for future products as well.

We are continually working on growing Horizons. This is possible because the server and simulation are abstracted away from Horizons. Our next persistent world will cost a fraction of the cost of developing Horizons. This is because of the forethought that went into creating a server that acts as a platform, independent entirely of the game.

GamersInfo.net: Name the five greatest games of all time:

David Bowman: Elite, M.U.L.E., the Marathon, Ultima and Warcraft series. Five is way too small to have much meaning, so I picked the ones that I had the most fun with. So many games have been great.

Now if I were to define great as something that caused change, I'd say:

• M.U.L.E. for multi-player local
• Quake/Marathon for multi-player remote
• UO for graphic massive multi-player
• WoW for getting the mainstream's attention for persistent worlds

David Bowman: The games industry is over a quarter century old and can stop pretending that it is young now. It was started by young people, and it has attracted young people, but that moment in time has passed. The rules of business apply to business, and games are a business. Like any business, there are companies that will use the idealism, naivetй and passion of employees to make a product that makes the owners rich... if they are extremely lucky, and there are companies that will provide quality working conditions, employee recognition, fair compensation, and employee participation in success in order to retain highly skilled, passionate, and seasoned creators of high-quality products. Companies like Bioware and Ensemble Studios appear to have adopted the second methodology and consistently make high-quality, good return-on-investment games. The treat-the-employees-as-expendable companies will be weeded out through Darwinian business survival processes.

GamersInfo.net: What do you feel is the most important lesson you've learned that you could pass on to someone new to the business from your time on the team?

David Bowman: If you value stability over all, then work for a long-established, successful company. If you can handle the roller-coaster of a start-up (and make sure your family is prepared to deal with it as well), then there can be more opportunity to influence the product you are making if you join the start-up.

GamersInfo.net: As a game developer and a parent, how do you hope that games will influence your children as they grow? What fears do you have about that influence and what do you think we, as gamers and parents, should do to alleviate those negative influences?

David Bowman: Parents are responsible for their children. Not the government, not the movie industry, the record industry, the school system, or the gaming industry. My wife and I are raising our two children, and we will have the responsibility of helping them survive and discover who they are. Violence is gross, nudity is beautiful, sex is for adults. My children don't watch violent television or movies because we know what they watch. They don't play violent games because we know what they play. They know enough about reproduction for the world to make sense, but they aren't going to be watching movies or TV about sex, reading books about sex, or playing games with sexual content until we decide. If parents care, take the time to know what their children are doing, and spend their money on products that promote quality experiences then there will be plenty of products that promote quality experiences. I do my part, I make games that bring people together, promote community, and allow for construction, not just destruction.

GamersInfo.net: The launch and subsequent subscription period of Horizons has been difficult at best. What in your life that is completely unrelated and irrelevant to the success of this game would you like to see change in the future?

David Bowman: I started with a firm division between my company time and my family time. Due to the failure of the business to take care of its employees and its customers, I've been thrust into a position of responsibility for the welfare of the employees, their families and the customers. The firm division has disappeared, and I'm left with battling between my family's immediate needs, the needs of the company and the needs of the customer. This has left me with little time for me. I've carved out time for my family by stringently reserving my mornings for my children and taking one weekend day off for family. I spend about two hours every night playing Horizons, but this usually feels like work, because I'm focused on the needs of the product. I've been trying to play other games a bit every evening to both remember why people play games and to shift my mind out of gear. All of this is relevant to my professional life.

The first year I was here, before it all became so serious, I was able to escape up to Payson and climb for hours through a very wild, very tight cave and to hunt for quartz crystals in the pine covered mountains. My children are now old enough to go with me into the cave, but I haven't taken the time. Something has to change. I keep feeling like if I work just a little bit harder I'll get past the latest challenge and we'll reach a stable situation that allows me to have time for me.