MxOS: Obviously, you have a major part in the creation and on-going story of The Matrix Online. You are taking the Wachowski Brothers’ story, which they are notoriously very parental about, and continuing it on. Tell us a little about the relationship you have with the Wachowskis and how it lead to them entrusting you with this project and their story.

PC: It started with a long discussion. They had a theme for the first year – “peace, and the things people do to wreck it,” some specific ideas for tone, gameplay and characters. One particularly surreal new character stands out – someone concerned with disposal. But they were also ready to release a little control. It’s a Massively Multiplayer game, after all. Chaos, or at least emergent behavior of a system, is the order of the day.

I was struck with their notion that the Exiles, like the Oracle and the Merovingian, were like Greek Gods. They are prone to human passions, powerful, but not strictly regimented into a Christian duality of good and evil. Still, big trouble for humans caught in their machinations.