Podcast appearances and mentions of Ray Muzyka

In this Community of Innovation podcast episode, Drs. Allison Sekuler and Rosanne Aleong welcome Brice Scheschuk, Managing Partner of Globalive Capital and co-founder of MindFrame Connect, and Dr. Ray Muzyka, founder of ThresholdImpact. Our guests will dive deep into the craft and discipline of mentorship as they talk about what it takes to become a great mentor. Tune in to hear the key principles of mentorship and ways to improve your mentoring skills.

In the sixth episode of ReBootHealth, I speak with Ray Muzyka. Ray is a family physician turned gaming founder (BioWare) turned prolific investor (Threshold Impact). Ray co-founded BioWare in the early1990's and continued to work with Electronic Arts after they acquired BioWare in 2008. Ray has a wealth of knowledge in so many areas, it was hard to narrow down the show to only a few topics. We eventually decided to dig into his thoughts on qualities that make great founders and the role of mentors and advisors (all 3 areas in which Ray is familiar). We end the show with a brief chat about Ray's love of games and specifically his thoughts on poker. This was a particularly enjoyable show as I had the privilege of diving deep with one of the most knowledgeable, humble, and generous angel investors in the Canadian innovation ecosystem. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable. · Ray's full bio · Ray Muzyka's book list Please write a review on Apple Podcast. For other episodes or to learn more you can visit us at ReBootHealth or follow us on Twitter: @Reboothealth1 Episode recorded on July14th, 2021. 05:40—The founding of BioWare, compatible co-founders and leadership 13:24—Defining the qualities of great founders. 20:24—Building a founding team. 25:08—Potential challenges for new founders. 28:14—The importance of mentorship. 38:15—Where to find a mentor for coaching and support. 40:47—The role of poker in Ray's life and its relation to entrepreneurship. 50:10—An overview of the Canadian healthcare innovation landscape.

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we return to our series on Baldur's Gate with an interview with James Ohlen, who was lead designer on the title. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:50 Interview 52:50 Break 53:21 Outro Issues covered: starting a comic book store at 19 right before the market crashed, the origin of Minsc, starting at BioWare, building an IP bible as a way to start, working the killer hours and becoming the lead designer, putting in the 25000 hours, getting lucky and selling millions of copies, the impossibility of faking love, the choice between real-time and turn-based leading to pause-and-play, being delayed by Diablo, having contributions from everyone for design, sharing credit, feeling of playing D&D more important than perfect translation, balancing being easy due to so many party members, feeling smart, finding patterns in your party, relying on save and load, random numbers, the team testing the game, using characters from the binder, finding the voice for Minsc, writers taking ownership of voice, the passing of a player, bringing in characters from more players, growing the Sword Coast, staying away from the main space others were used, the perks of working for Wizards, four types of player, learning to respect player types, the end of a game being less tested, fighting the "dumbing down" due to overplay, engaging with the community, Karzak the Half-Orc and Gromnir and criticism, incorporating another player's character in to some coming work, caring so much for the license, being able to put infinite hours in. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Arcanum Worlds, Odyssey of the Dragon Lords, Wizards of the Coast, Kevin Martens, Image Comics, Magic: The Gathering, Cameron Tofer, Augustine Yip, Warcraft, Doom, Dungeons & Dragons, Shattered Steel, Scott Grieg, Malcolm Gladwell, Fallout, Civilization, Gold Box (series), TSR, Interplay/Black Isle, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Feargus Urquhart, Blizzard, Diablo, David Brevik, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Michael Backus, Chris King, Lukas Kristjanson, Gary Gygax, Ross Gardner, Dean Anderson, Icewind Dale, Trent Oster, Beamdog, Richard Bartle, David Gaider, Drew Karpyshyn, LucasArts, Starfighter, Mark Garcia, Sands of Tim/Brett-e Davis, Hitman 3, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Troika, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: More Prince of Persia! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Baldur's Gate. We talk about racing through versus following multiple sidequests, about tactical battling, and about the huge variance in verb sets for different party members, amongst other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Chapters Two and Three Podcast breakdown: 0:57 Baldur's Gate 1:02:11 Break 1:02:43 Feedback Issues covered: meeting Drizz't, chasing side quests and not knowing where to go, balancing with side content, the hidden cost of racing through, replaying battles, dynamic difficulty, JRPGs vs western RPGs for grinding XP, low XP rewards, getting too much data, potential fixes for allowing multiple styles of play, giving the player points to spend, discussing XP accrual when you choose not to level up, milestone-based leveling, giving the player options, enjoying the tactical battles, wanting more clarity as in an action point system, the blessings of the Random Number Gods, multiple whiffs, old manuals, quest scripts ending and dropping into systemic play, QA and ISV, the possible ways in which different departments could have been responsible for a bug, a digression into multiclass vs character with two classes (and its interplay with race), the wide gap between verbs for different archetypes, verbs not represented in this game, the huge change to go to 3rd-5th and have skills, adding class abilities, discretely placed content vs curated content, finding the very specifically placed items that feel like tabletop, the possibility for an ecology, building tension without combat, introducing players to game worlds, timed quests, thinking hard about when to initiate timed quests, time and failure, time being an important element in your game. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Temple of Elemental Evil, JFK, Elder Scrolls (series), World of Warcraft, Super Metroid, Ocarina of Time, Path of Exile, Fallout (series), X-COM, Calamity Nolan, Ray Muzyka, GURPS, Diablo, Dragon Age (series), Divinity: Original Sin, Ashton Herrmann, Ultima VI, Dan Hunter, Vampire: the Masquerade, Brian Mitsoda, Aliens, DOOM (1993), Warren Linam-Church, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Chapters Four and Five Twitch: brettdouville and timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series about Baldur's Gate, the 1998 CRPG from BioWare that revitalized the genre. We situate the game in time, talk about BioWare as a company, and then turn to a lot of Dungeons & Dragons nerdery. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Through Chapter 1 Issues covered: explaining Brett's intro, flashbacks, 1998: a great year in games, the setting, 2nd edition AD&D, founding BioWare and "the doctors," different flavors of CRPGs, how the backgrounds hold up, feeling like your way through an explorable world, talking a little bit about methodical combat, hiding some of the complexity of combat scheduling, the varieties of turn-based combat, how they might have gotten to the combat, how we're using combat, scripted AI characters, the (new?) tutorial, THAC0 explained, table-driven combat and war-games, discussing the difficulty levels in this and the other games, having to reload, statistical difficulty vs statistical gentleness, player expectations in early D&D modules, leaning more towards role-playing, BioWare and dialogue/ethics systems, mixing in other genre elements, evolving towards loyalty quests, feeling like the tabletop, having all the text, party members not meshing, changing perspective, being banned from Candlekeep, classic characters, death of a dad figure, reinforcing the main quest, building up a party, multi-classing vs two classes, potential party members, kicking party members out for roleplaying reasons, letting characters die, characters not interacting well, including VO, VO and character, needing to gather a party before venturing forth, playing evil characters, the affect of game-making on mood, animating the deaths of children, abstraction and craft, having to deliver, project rhythms, sense of flow, playing "right" vs efficiently, incentivizing the player, intrinsic vs extrinsic rewards, achievements as a psychological motivator. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Planescape: Torment, Dungeons & Dragons, LoZ: Ocarina of Time, BioWare, Shattered Steel, Half-Life, Metal Gear Solid, Grim Fandango, Resident Evil 2, Starcraft, Unreal, Thief: The Dark Project, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Xenogears, Tales from the Sword Coast, Icewind Dale (series), Forgotten Realms, Wizards of the Coast, TSR, Magic: the Gathering, Hasbro, Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, EA, Mass Effect (series), Dragon Age (series), Diablo, Blizzard, Fallout (series), Black Isle, Obsidian Entertainment, inXile Entertainment, David Brevik, Temple of Elemental Evil, GDC, GURPS, Shadowrun, Storyteller, Call of Cthulhu, Dark Souls, Cyberpunk 2077, "etcetera,etcetera," Sam, Lani Lum, Nintendo, Tomb Raider, Bethesda Game Studios, Pete Hines, Starfighter (series), Republic Commando, Soren Johnson, Michael, Halo, The Witness, Assassin's Creed: Origins, Chris Hecker, Christian Bale, Hitman, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Through Chapter 3 Errata: Apparently, Shattered Steel was *not* a Windows 95 title. We regret the error. Twitch: brettdouville/timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Ray Muzyka co-founded BioWare in the early 1990s after completing his MD. He practiced full-time rural locum tenens Emergency/Family Med for two years, then medicine transitioned to part-time rural locums for the next decade as his second career for the next two decades focused on his role as BioWare’s CEO. BioWare was the fastest growing company in Alberta in 2002 and has won many industry awards for quality/innovation, and multiple years on Canada’s Top 100 Employers Awards. BioWare received its first external (private equity) funding from Elevation Partners in 2005. After acquisition by Electronic Arts in 2007, in 2009 Muzyka was promoted to SVP/Group GM of EA’s BioWare Label which by 2012 had eight studios, ~$500MM USD annual revenues, and ~2000 FT+PT staff worldwide. Ray retired after 20 years in videogames in late 2012, with his third career chapter at ThresholdImpact (www.thresholdimpact.com) mentoring entrepreneurs in medical innovations and social enterprise technology. He is an active angel impact investor (https://angel.co/ray-muzyka) across North America. Dr. Muzyka obtained his BMedSc from UAlberta in 1990, his MD from the U of A in 1992 and CCFP in 1994, and his MBA from the Ivey School of Business (UWO) in 2001. He is a member of YPO, A100, Founding Chair of UAlberta Venture Mentoring Service, Venture Advisor and Investment Committee Member at iNovia, Advisory Board Member at Voyager Capital, Public Member on the U of A Board of Governors, is a mentor Fellow at CDL West, Rockies and Toronto, is a CDL-Global Founding Partner, and serves on multiple private company boards. He was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2018, AIAS’s Hall of Fame in 2011, Alberta’s Business Hall of Fame in 2018, received GDC’s 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award, Canada’s Top 40 under 40, E&Y’s Entrepreneur of the Year (Prairies), U of A’s 2015 Alumni Innovation Award, MacEwan’s 2017 Allard Chair in Business, among other awards.

The latest headlines & happenings in Edmonton's tech community. This week: Scotiabank is donating $1.25 million across five years to fund the Scotiabank Artificial Intelligence Research Initiative in the University of Alberta’s Department of Computing Science, G2V Optics has raised a $1.875M seed round, Alberta Innovates is cutting 125 jobs, DrugBank has been accepted into CDL-West, Dr. Ray Muzyka has won the VCAA Rod Charko Service Award, and nine individuals have been selected to serve on the new E-RIN steering committee.

This week, Scott and Vic once again welcome a celebrity guest into their dank bunker. Yes, it’s none other than Dr. Greg Zeschuk, who represents 50-percent of the legendary “BioWare Doctors.” Greg, along with his partner Ray Muzyka, made some of the greatest games this industry has ever known including the Baldur’s Gate series, the … Continue reading "Episode 22: Butt-kickin’ for Goodness!"

Star Wars The Old Republic prepping for more server mergers! This week Gary Gannon, Larry Everett, and Justin Lowe break down the latest SWTOR news including the latest server merger announcement, future content and how it will impact story, and chat bubbles...will Larry ever get his glorious chat bubbles? Join The Republic live every Monday at 6PDT on GAMEBREAKER.TV

Dragon Age Podcast Episode 19 - An Unofficial Capacity In this episode Dave and Mike hang out with guest host, Victor Wachter, and talk about RTS games, comics, TV, and more. In the news we cover an interview with BioWare founders, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, and the latest Dragon Age II preview coverage. This week's Mega Mod of the Moment is Dark Times: The Confederacy of Malkuth - Act I. If you enjoy our show, you can show your support by reviewing us on iTunes, posting on our BSN General Discussion Thread, or leaving a comment here in the Dragon Age Podcast Official Forums. Also, if you feel so inclined, feel free to join our BSN Social Group, our Steam Group, our Xfire Club, or follow us on twitter. You can listen to the podcast here: There's supposed to be something here. Do you have flash installed? You won't be able to see this without flash. swfobject.embedSWF("http://dragonagepodcast.com/modules/swftools/shared/1pixelout/player.swf", "swfobject2-id-159117637014", "290", "24", "7", "", { "playerID": "159117637014", "autostart": "no", "loop": "no", "soundFile": "http://dragonagepodcast.com/sites/default/files/dapodcast_ep19_anunofficialcapacity.mp3" }, { "swliveconnect": "default", "play": "false", "loop": "false", "menu": "false", "quality": "autohigh", "scale": "showall", "align": "l", "salign": "tl", "wmode": "opaque", "bgcolor": "#FFFFFF", "version": "7", "allowfullscreen": "true", "allowscriptaccess": "sameDomain", "base": "http://dragonagepodcast.com/sites/default/files/", "src": "http://dragonagepodcast.com/modules/swftools/shared/1pixelout/player.swf", "height": 24, "width": 290 }, { "id": "swf159117637014" }); Add us to your favorite feed reader: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DragonAgePodcast Add us to iTunes If you want to download the file, just click below. Or you can right-click-Save As... dapodcast_ep19_anunofficialcapacity.mp3 Links Rapid-Fire Interview with the Doctors! Kotaku - Don't Worry, Dragon Age II Is For You, Too PC Gamer - Dragon Age 2 preview: the Hero of Kirwall Xbox360Achievements.org - Product Manager, Randall Bishop Talks class, Sex and Weapons. Age of Empires III Batman: Arkham Asylum The Walking Dead The Geekbox Neverwinter Nights Podcast VO Auditions for BG2Redux Dark Times: The Confederacy of Malkuth - Download Mirror

Peanut-Butter & Jelly, Chicken & Waffles, both ingenious combinations! So why not Guns & Wizard Hats? Well I might have a few reasons. This week, Scott and I gnaw on an interesting article by Wired's Chris Kohler regarding Ray Muzyka's and Cliff Bleszinski's RPG/Shooter portents. We touch on such topics as big-ass swords, stat tracking, and the troublesome word that is "genre." As always, you'll find the original article in the sow notes. Also, your thought are always fascinating; you should leave them in the comments section below.Some discussion starters:- What risks do developers running adding genre elements from RPGs into Shooters?- Are their some genre elements that are incompatible?- What RPG elements would you add to existing genres, if any?To listen to the podcast:- Subscribe to the EXP Podcast via iTunes here. Additionally, here is the stand-alone feed.- Listen to the podcast in your browser by left-clicking the title. Or, right-click and select "save as link" to download the show in MP3 format.- Subscribe to this podcast and EXP's written content with the RSS link on the right.Show notes:- Run time: 29 min 57 sec- "BioWare's Muzyka: Line RPGs, Shooters Blurring" by Chris Kohler, via Wired- Music provided by Brad Sucks

Listen UP's Game Developers Conference 2009 Specials continue with Bioware's Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk joining John and Garnett to talk about Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, and their experiences building rpgs. After that David Jaffe comes on to talk about the gaming press and the balance they hope to hit on his next game project. And then James Stevenson and Ryan Schneider from Insomniac Games shed a little light on the newly announced Ratchet and Clank game and get into the evolution of community design in shooters.

Listen UP's Game Developers Conference 2009 Specials continue with Bioware's Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk joining John and Garnett to talk about Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, and their experiences building rpgs. After that David Jaffe comes on to talk about the gaming press and the balance they hope to hit on his next game project. And then James Stevenson and Ryan Schneider from Insomniac Games shed a little light on the newly announced Ratchet and Clank game and get into the evolution of community design in shooters.