Steve Wieck
Steve Wieck (also credited as Stephan Wieck) is best known as one of the founders of the publishing company, White Wolf, Inc. He is also one of the original writers of Mage: The Ascension.
Career
Steve Wieck and his brother Stewart Wieck had their first published work in 1986 as the adventure The Secret in the Swamp for Villains & Vigilantes from FGU.[1]: 215 Later that same year, while they were still in high school, the brothers began self-publishing their own magazine, Arcanum; Stewart soon retitled the magazine as White Wolf, publishing the first issue in August 1986.[1]: 215 The Wiecks were fans of Elric, and named their magazine after him.[2] Stephan Wieck wrote the Shadowrun adventure Queen Euphoria (1990).[3]: 280 The Wiecks had befriended the company Lion Rampant, and when that company encountered financial trouble, White Wolf and Lion Rampant decided to merge into the new White Wolf Game Studio, with Stewart Wieck and Mark Rein-Hagen as co-owners.[1]: 215–216
Steve graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1991 and left White Wolf to begin some MBA-equivalent training at GE.[1]: 217 Steve returned from GE with two years of business training, and Stewart made Steve the CEO of White Wolf in 1993.[1]: 220 [4]
The company encountered economic problems in 1995–1996, which caused a falling out between Rein-Hagen and the Wiecks, resulting in Rein-Hagen leaving White Wolf.[1]: 222
Steve co-designed the Exalted role-playing game with Robert Hatch and Justin Achilli, and the game was published in 2001.[1]: 227
Steve relinquished his role as CEO in 2002, and Mike Tinney became the new president.[1]: 227 Steve left White Wolf to take a seat on CCP's board of directors.[1]: 230 He served on CCP's board of directors for 9 years.[citation needed] In 2004, the Wiecks created DriveThruRPG, an online RPG PDF distributor.[5] DriveThruRPG later merged with RPGnow.[1]: 230 The merger formed OneBookShelf, Inc.[citation needed] As of January 2020, Wieck remains the CEO of OneBookShelf.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
- ^ "A Brief History of Game #11: White Wolf, Part One: 1986-1995 - RPGnet". www.rpg.net. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
- ^ Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
- ^ "bizjournals". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
- ^ SVENSSON, PETER (2007-12-04). "Slow-Starting E-Books Find Niche Markets". ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-09-19.