Patrick Hudson, Executive Producer points out that they haven't been secretive, "because we are advertising on our website that we're looking for people with MMO experience."

Hudson explains the origin of the project. "We've got a lead designer here, his name's Ian Fischer, he's been here for a long time. He's always wanted to do an MMO. He's been playing MMOs since the early days, MUDs, before that."

The idea was proposed to Ensemble right after Ultima Online came out. 'Why don't we do an MMO?' At the time, Ensemble was in no position to be thinking about it. But Fischer persisted ever since.

"After we shipped Age III," Hudson says, "We started diving up the studio to do more games than we've ever done, and get beyond Age of Empires." A small team was put around Fischer to start working on a prototype.