Matt Chat 434: George Ziets on Narrative Design, Dungeon Siege III and Pillars of Eternity

Interview - posted by Infinitron on Mon 2 December 2019, 22:31:25

Tags: Baldur's Gate III (Obsidian Entertainment); Dungeon Siege III; George Ziets; Matt Barton; Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity

After taking a week off, Matt Barton is back with another episode of his interview with George Ziets. The episode starts with a couple more questions about Mask of the Betrayer, which soon leads to more discussion of George's narrative design preferences with regards to settings, stories and choices. After that George talks a bit about Dungeon Siege III, which he returned to Obsidian to make (following a short period at Zenimax working on The Elder Scrolls Online) after having been promised he would get to be narrative lead on Obsidian's Baldur's Gate III (which as we know never got off the ground). Without going into details about internal politics, George confirms again that he was forced to go against his design preferences and simplify DS3's narrative, leading to a title that satisfied neither Dungeon Siege fans nor classic Obsidian RPG fans.

Another game that George has some misgivings about is Pillars of Eternity, which he thinks could have turned out better if Obsidian had selected a single story pitch instead of doing a "contest" that ended up combining elements from multiple pitches. Matt doesn't spend much time on Pillars though and chooses to move straight on to Torment: Tides of Numenera, which is the topic of next week's episode. There might be another one after that, too!

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