George Ziets

George Ziets is an American game developer . His best-known works include the Mask of the Betrayer expansion for the computer role-playing game Neverwinter Nights 2 and the action role-playing game Dungeon Siege 3 .

Career

Training and entry into the game industry

George Ziets graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in psychology and attended graduate school in the later 1990s . He studied psychology and film and earned a masters degree from the University of Maryland before embarking on a career in the gaming industry. Ziet's first known publication in the game industry was an article entitled The Mightiest of Dragons for Dragon Magazine's # 158 birthday issue in 1990. In 2001, he secured his first game industry job at Westwood Studios , where he was a writer on the short-lived science fiction MMORPG Earth & Beyond worked. In 2004, Ziets was hired by Turbine, Inc. and worked as a designer on The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online .

Switch to obsidian

In 2006 Ziets moved to Southern California and got a job as a designer with Obsidian Entertainment . He was hired during the development of the computer role-playing game Neverwinter Nights 2 and, after the game was completed, was named the creative lead for the first expansion to Neverwinter Night 2 , entitled Mask of the Betrayer . Ziets was primarily responsible for the creative direction of the add-on, including the conception of the characters and the plot. Mask of the Betrayer was released in 2007 and received mostly positive reviews, including praise for the plot and the narrative elements.

Ziets left Obsidian in 2008 and spent a year as Lead Quest Designer for The Elder Scrolls Online at ZeniMax Online Studios , but returned to Obsidian in 2009 as Creative Lead for the action role-playing game Dungeon Siege 3 and its download expansion Dungeon Siege 3: Treasures of the Sun . He designed a hundred-page concept book that served the development team as a working basis, expanded the fictional canon of the Dungeon Siege game world and thus gave the series a new direction. During the development of Dungeon Siege 3 , Ziets continued to contribute as a writer to the post-apocalyptic RPG Fallout: New Vegas . In 2011 he and his fellow writers were nominated by the Writers Guild of America in the Best Videogame Writing category for the Writers Guild of America Award .

He left Obsidian in 2012 after hiring a project under development, but was hired as a freelance story designer for Obsidian's Kickstarter project Project Eternity that same year . In 2013 he joined the inXiles Kickstarter project Torment: Tides of Numenera as a freelance area designer , and in April 2014 he became a permanent employee and took on the position of lead level designer for the project.

Design philosophy

Ziets is a proponent of freedom of action and choice in computer games. The specialty of computer games lies in their interactivity, the narration of a game is divided between the developer and the player. The aim must therefore be to include the player as equally as possible in this exchange by offering as many decision options as possible.

“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. "

“I prefer to focus on making meaningful decisions for the player. An overarching story arc can be essentially linear, but the player can be offered meaningful decisions at predefined points in the story. (And when it comes to meaningful decisions, I mean decisions that have visibly different consequences or branch out in the plot structure.) In this way, the design team maintains control over the number of possible outcomes and solutions, while the players feel that their decisions are being made are significant and create a recognizably different gaming experience. And * all * of these decisions should have consequences or they shouldn't be offered in the first place. "

- George Ziets : Iron Tower Studio Roundtable: Story

Ziets also describes the freedom in choosing and designing one's own character without any specifications from the developer as an example of such freedom of choice. One of his goals is still to present the player with novel, unpredictable decisions and twists, as these increase the memorability of a gaming experience. It is also important to maintain the balance between all areas (gameplay, narration, art design), as each area is equally important.