William C. Dietz obit

Sci-Fi gaming author, William C. Dietz has passed away

 

He was not on the list.

William C. Dietz, 80, an author most notable in the gaming world for creating books and novels around popular gaming franchises, has passed away.

The news came on Sunday, March 15, with his family updating his personal Facebook account, confirming the news.

It’s not quite clear when and how he passed. We just know it’s official as of Sunday, March 15. There is no obituary posted as of yet in Washington state, where Dietz is often attributed to having lived and studied.

For those unfamiliar with his work, Dietz was primarily a sci-fi author, covering his own themes in the Andromeda Wars trilogy, among other sci-fi works. Though with his notoriety in the space, many gaming franchises contracted Dietz to write novels for their games, offering extra story context for popular franchises. His list of gaming work involves the following:

 

Halo: The Flood (2003)

StarCraft II: Heaven’s Devils (2010)

Mass Effect: Deception (2012)

Resistance: The Gathering Storm (2009)

Star Wars – Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire (1997)

Star Wars – Dark Forces: Rebel Agent (1998)

Star Wars – Dark Forces: Jedi Knight (1998)

Star Wars – Escape from Dagu (Canceled) (2004)

Many of these works were follow-on storylines fans of the genres and franchises could read into. Some of which had tie-ins to the games specifically, such as The Flood with Halo’s original launch. The Flood offered quite a bit more perspective on who the Covenant and The Flood were at the time, with future games later expanding on the two threats.

The Star Wars trilogy that was released had direct story relations to the Star Wars Jedi Knight games. Katar is still an OP Jedi in the extended universe, but it’s largely not canon for those very reasons.

Meanwhile, the book, like StarCraft II, was released as part of the initial Wings of Liberty launch in Spring 2010. Heaven’s Devils followed Jim Raynor’s backstory during the Guild Wars, providing essential context for his character arc in StarCraft II’s campaign.

The Mass Effect book was originally announced in 2010, but was later published in 2012, in time for Mass Effect 3. It had some continuity issues with the world-building in the trilogy, but it is still a strong piece on the extended lore and universe of Mass Effect.