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George Ziets

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George Ziets
NationalityAmerican
Known forVideo game design

George Ziets is an American video game designer best known as the Creative Lead for the 2007 PC title Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer.

Early Life and Education

George Ziets earned a degree in Psychology from Georgetown University in 1996 and spent the remainder of the 1990s in graduate school. He studied psychology and film, earning an MA from the University of Maryland in 1999. In 2001, he secured his first games industry job at Westwood Studios, working as a writer on the short-lived science fiction MMORPG, Earth & Beyond.[1]

Career

In 2004, Ziets got a job at Turbine, Inc. and was credited as a designer on Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LOTRO) and Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO).[2]

Ziets relocated to southern California in 2006 and became a designer at Obsidian Entertainment. He was recruited during development of Neverwinter Nights 2,[3] and after the game shipped, he was promoted to Creative Lead on the first Neverwinter Night 2 expansion, Mask of the Betrayer (MotB). Ziets was responsible for MotB’s overall creative vision, including characters and story.[4] MotB shipped in 2007 and received mostly positive reviews, winning praise for its story and narrative elements.[5][5][6]

Ziets left Obsidian in 2008 and spent a year at ZeniMax Online Studios, but he returned to Obsidian in 2009 to serve as Creative Lead on Dungeon Siege 3[7] and its expansion, Dungeon Siege 3: Treasures of the Sun. He expanded the fictional canon of the Dungeon Siege world, producing a 100-page sourcebook that was used as source material by the development team.[8][9] At some point during the development of Dungeon Siege 3, Ziets also contributed to the writing of Fallout: New Vegas. In 2011, he shared a WGA nomination for Best Videogame Writing with the Fallout: NV writing team and attended the 2011 Writers Guild Awards in Los Angeles.[10]

Trivia and Quotes

  • Ziets has been a proponent of player choice in video games, stating that:

"I prefer to focus on meaningful player choices. An overarching storyline can be essentially linear, but the player can be offered critical choices at pre-defined points in that storyline. (And by critical choices, I’m talking about choices that have visibly different consequences, or lead to branches in the story structure.) That way, the design team maintains control over the number of possible outcomes and paths, while players understand that their choices matter, and result a distinctly different experience. And *all* choices should have consequences, or they shouldn’t be offered at all."[11]

  • Ziets’s first known game industry publication was an article entitled, “The Mightiest of Dragons” that appeared in the 1990 anniversary issue of DRAGON magazine, #158.Ziets, George (1990). ""The Mightiest of Dragons"". Dragon (158). TSR, Inc.: 10–17.

References

  1. ^ Cantousent (August 19, 2007). "George Ziets, Creative Lead for Mask of the Betrayer". Obsidian Entertainment. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  2. ^ "MobyGames Developer Profile - George Ziets". MobyGames. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help); Text "http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,83003/" ignored (help)
  3. ^ "NWN2 Wikia: George Ziets". Wikia. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  4. ^ "Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer Q&A - Story, Classes, and Enhancements". GameSpot. April 30, 2007. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  5. ^ a b Biessener, Adam (November 2007). "Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer". Game Informer. Archived from the original on April 20, 2008. Retrieved May 26, 2009. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Onyett, Charles (October 15, 2007). "Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer Review". IGN. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
  7. ^ BuckGB (March 3, 2011). "Dungeon Siege 3 Interview". Game Banshee (UGO Networks). Retrieved December 1, 2011.
  8. ^ Jason Wilson (January 29, 2011). "Dungeon Siege 3". GamePro. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
  9. ^ Brett Molina (December 21, 2010). "Six things you didn't know about 'Dungeon Siege III'". USA Today. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
  10. ^ "2011 Writers Guild Awards Videogame Writing Nominees Announced". Writers Guild of America, West. January 6, 2011. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  11. ^ "Roundtable: Story". Iron Tower Studio. May 23, 2008. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  12. ^ "IMDB Profile: George Ziets". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved November 30, 2011.

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