J.C. Herz (jc@joysticknation.com) is the principal of Joystick Nation Inc., a research and design practice that applies the principles of game design to products, services, and learning systems. Drawing from an understanding of ecology, online social dynamics, complex

Territories Computer games, networked anthropology, popular culture, social software

systems and information theory, J.C.'s focus is multiplayer interaction design, and systems that leverage the intrinsic characteristics of networked communication. Clients include multinational corporations, nonprofit organizations and the U.S. Defense Department.

J.C. sits on the National Research Council’s Committee on Creativity and Information Technology, and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s study group on patterns of emergent behavior in massively multiplayer persistent worlds. She is the author of two books, Surfing on the Internet (Little Brown, 1994), an ethnography of cyberspace before the web, and Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds (Little Brown, 1997), a history of videogames which traces the cultural and technological evolution of the first medium that was born digital, and how it shaped the minds of a generation weaned on Atari. J.C. published 100 essays on the grammar and syntax of game design in New York Times between 1998-2000 (archived online; free of charge, but registration required).


Gigs

• Principal, Joystick Nation, Inc., research and design firm
• Professor, Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University
• Columnist/first video game citic, the New York Times
• Former lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, the University of California’s Institute for Creative Technologies, the Annenberg Center for Communications, Yale

Creations

• Author, Surfing on the Internet (Little Brown, 1994)
• Author, Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds (Little, Brown 1997),
• Author, numerous articles including:
• Harnessing the Hive: How Online Games Drive Networked Innovation
• Computer Games and the Military
• Korea, World Capital of Broadband and Massively Multiplayer Online Games
• 500,000 Star Warriors Can't Be Wrong
• Learning From The Sims
• Principles of Networked Media

Education

• B.A., Biology and Environmental Studies, Harvard University 1993

Passions

Favorite Game of All Time: Atari Missile Command