Jesper Juul is a Danish game designer, educator, and theorist in the field of

video game studies Game studies, also known as ludology (from ''ludus'', "game", and ''-logia'', "study", "research"), is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them. It is a field of cultural studies that deals with a ...

. He is an associate professor at the

Danish Design School The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, more commonly known as the Danish Design School (Danish: ''Danmarks Designskole''. often abbreviated as DKDS) is an institution of higher education in Copenhagen, Denmark, offering a five-yea ...

. Juul is co-editor, with William Uricchio and Geoffrey Long, of the

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publ ...

br>Playful Thinking
series. He has previously worked at the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

Game Center, Comparative Media Studies at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

, and the Center for Computer Games Research at the

IT University of Copenhagen , latin_name = , image = Logo IT University of Copenhagen.jpg , motto = Dedicated to the digital world , established = 1999 , type = Public , endowment ...

. Born in Denmark, in 1970, he graduated from the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

where he earned a

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

degree in Nordic literature. He earned a PhD. in video game theory from the

IT University of Copenhagen , latin_name = , image = Logo IT University of Copenhagen.jpg , motto = Dedicated to the digital world , established = 1999 , type = Public , endowment ...

Theoretical work

Though his 1999

thesis concerned the rejection of narrative as a useful tool for understanding video games, and though Jesper Juul is often considered a ludologist, his more recent work deals with the fictional aspects of video games as well. Juul's book on video game theory, ''Half-Real: Video Games Between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds'' was published by MIT Press in 2005, and named by designer Ernest Adams as one of the
50 Books for Everyone in the Game Industry
. His second book
A Casual Revolution
concerns the rise of

casual games A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessio ...

and the expansion of the video game audience in terms of both age and gender. Juul says that his third book
The Art of Failure
is about his personal experiences of being an obsessive completionist and the frustration that results of it. It discusses the paradox that players seek out video games even though video games often make players unhappy.Ayoub, Nina C. "Screen Spleen". The Chronicle Review March 18, 2013.

Other work

Juul has also worked as a designer and programmer in video game and chat development, and participated in the Indie Game Jam. He co-organized the first

Nordic Game Jam ''Nordic Game Jam'' is an annual game jam that takes place in Copenhagen, created in 2006 by Gorm Lai and the Danish chapter of the International Game Developers Association in collaboration with Jesper Juul (the IT University of Copenhagen) and ...

and Computer games and Digital Textualities, one of the first academic conferences on video games. Juul is a judge at the

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

Nuovo awards. Juul runs a blog on video game theory
The Ludologist

References

Books by Juul

* * *

About Juul

* Nina C. Ayoub.
Screen Spleen
" The Chronicle Review, March 18, 2013

External links

Jesper Juul's website.

The Ludologist Blog.

Website for Half-Real with sample chapters and a dictionary of video game theory.

Wall Street Journal Interview with Jesper Juul.

Excerpt from The Art of Failure on Salon.

The Guardian review of The Art of Failure

Clive Thompson on The Art of Failure

Wall Street Journal review of A Casual Revolution

Pop Matters review of A Casual revolution

Simon Carless on Juul's 2006 Serious Games Summit keynote
{{DEFAULTSORT:Juul, Jesper Danmarks Designskole faculty Living people Danish video game designers Video game researchers New York University faculty MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty IT University of Copenhagen faculty University of Copenhagen alumni Year of birth missing (living people)