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

Early life and education

Ziets earned a degree in Psychology from Georgetown University and spent the late 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 A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

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''.

Career

In 2004, Ziets was hired at

Turbine, Inc. WB Games Boston (formerly Turbine Inc., then Turbine Entertainment Software Corp., and originally CyberSpace, Inc.) is an American video game developer. The studio is best known for its massive multiplayer online role-playing games, ''Asheron's ...

and was credited as a designer on '' Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar'' (''LOTRO'') and ''

Dungeons & Dragons Online ''Dungeons & Dragons Online'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine for Microsoft Windows and OS X. The game was originally marketed as ''Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach''. Upon switching to a h ...

'' (''DDO''). Ziets relocated to southern California in 2006 to become a designer at Obsidian Entertainment. He was recruited during development of '' Neverwinter Nights 2'', 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. ''MotB'' shipped in 2007 and received mostly positive reviews, winning praise for its story and narrative elements. Ziets left Obsidian in 2008 and spent a year at

ZeniMax Online Studios ZeniMax Online Studios LLC is an American video game developer and a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, specializing in massively multiplayer online games. The company developed ''The Elder Scrolls Online'' and its downloadable content. ZeniMax Onli ...

, but he returned to Obsidian in 2009 to serve as Creative Lead on '' Dungeon Siege 3'' and its expansion, ''Dungeon Siege 3: Treasures of the Sun''. He expanded the fictional canon of the ''

Dungeon Siege ''Dungeon Siege'' is an action role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft in April 2002, for Microsoft Windows, and the following year by Destineer for Mac OS X. Set in the pseudo-medieval kingdom of Ehb, the hi ...

'' world, producing a 100-page sourcebook that was used as source material by the development team. 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: New Vegas'' writing team and attended the 2011 Writers Guild Awards in Los Angeles. He left Obsidian after a project got cancelled in 2012, however he returned soon after as a freelance writer on ''

Pillars of Eternity ''Pillars of Eternity'' is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive. It was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on March 26, 2015. The game is a spiritual successor to the ' ...

''. In March 2013 it was announced that Ziets would join the writing team at inXile on '' Torment: Tides of Numenera'', and he later joined inXile as a full-time employee in April 2014. Ziets left inXile in July 2019 to found his own studio, Digimancy Entertainment.

Early life and education

Career

References

External links