2011.11.29pressrelease

VIRTRIUM LLC ANNOUNCES RETURN OF SEASONAL EVENTS

COMPANY CONTACTS:

Virtrium LLC - Rick Simmons, President / CEO, rick.simmons@virtrium.com

VIRTRIUM LLC ANNOUNCES RETURN OF SEASONAL EVENTS

Nov 29, 2011 PHOENIX, Arizona - Virtrium today announced the return of seasonal events and major changes to the player experience for dragons, as part of their most recent content updates.

In a series of significant content updates over the last few months, the Virtrium team has brought back “seasonal” content for both the summer and fall seasons. In an update in September, the team released the Summer Event, Pax Istaria, and added new player buildable structures for plots as part of the update. The seasonal events are now held on the “Resort” islands of Istaria and will remain in game for about 3 months for each event. This month, the team released a Fall event focused on Halloween type content such as a “Trick or Treat” quests where players collect candy from various NPC’s around the world used to “fuel” special abilities.

This isn’t all that we’ve accomplished in the last few months, of course, but we know that the seasonal events are important to players and wanted to bring them back again this year so that new players get to experience this particular content. We hope to have a seasonal event for each season moving forward so that within a year of playing, everyone will get to experience each of our major special events.

In addition, the team continued to improve player experience by revamping two of the major quests in game, the dragon “Rites of Passage”, and the dragon ability quests. “Dragons work a bit differently than bipeds do,” reports Jason Murdick, Lead Designer for Istaria. “Dragons gain many of their abilities via quests that can be done every 5 levels as the player advances. Though they get some core abilities just from leveling, much of what makes a dragon special is obtained via the ability quests. In addition, the Rite of Passage quests allow characters to grow to an Adult Dragon, and at level 100 an Ancient Dragon, making the whole play experience for dragons something unique in the gaming world.”

In addition the team updated many of the smaller areas in Istaria to improve the play experience around them. This added content to the “tier 5” portion of the game (levels 80-100) to help players of those levels gain experience at a steadier rate.

More information about Istaria can be found at http://www.istaria.com/

ABOUT VIRTRIUM - Virtrium LLC, founded in July 2006, is a privately held software development company founded to support the games and technology behind the massively multi-player online games market. Virtrium brings real, applied experience in technology design, development and implementation for the software and techniques behind MMO products – as well as experience behind product launch and continued development in a live, production environment. The company's mission is to provide software technologies and support services that enable the growth of niche entertainment products within the massively multi-player online games market. To find out more about Virtrium LLC, visit http://www.virtrium.com.

ABOUT ISTARIA: CHRONICLES OF THE GIFTED - Released in December 2003 as Horizons: Empire of Istaria and renamed in 2008 as Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted, Istaria boasts a dedicated following of players worldwide. 2008 saw a significant crafting expansion, massive plot revamp and the re-branding as Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted, demonstrating Virtrium's deep commitment to expand development and re-establish story as a significant feature of the game world. The ability to play as a flying Ancient Dragon, coupled with comprehensive crafting and community construction, allows Istaria fans to experience, explore and create a world epic in scope. Players are able to take on the role of Dragon, or one of 10 other races ranging from the lawful Elf to dark Fiends, as well as more unusual forms, such as the cat-like Saris and horned Satyr. For more information on Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted, visit http://www.istaria.com