Rating: 
Summary: Pure fluff
Review: J.C. Herz may be able to articulate herself well, but the subject matter warrants more than what she offers. The content of the book is already well known my any video game scholar or enthusiast; she has no real new ideas or revelations. And there are other books, such as Kent's Ultimate History of Video Games, that are more suited for a person new to games. She is a gifted writer, however, and her use of metaphor is well done. I would not recommend this book to anyone except those that must read every video game book known to humanity.
Rating: 
Summary: Rewiring Minds with wit and sarcaism.
Review: J.C. Herz's book Joystick Nation is a smart, funny, and rather nastalgic look at video games, thyier history and the impact they have had on the culture of today. Herz provides a healthy bit of video game history is coupled with stories the author's remembers from her youth during the early (and what she calls, Golden Age) of video games. Video game violence, sexism, Japanese effect and opther topic are discussed in Joystick Nation. I would recommend this book for any member of the video game generation, if they first got thier experiance playing Space Invaders in a dimly lit arcade or just ripped off the package from thier brand new N64.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is a great read for gamer developers in between reading other books about vector math, pixel shading, and what not. Sometimes, you need to take a look back and realize it's not all about how many polygons you can cram into your renderer or how many microseconds you can shave off of your graphics engine. This is supposed to be fun, man!There are some entertaining anecdotes and Herz's writing style is fresh, witting, stylish, and biting (reminds me of a female version of Neil Stephensen). She makes some observations and remarks that were humorous as much as they were dead-on. The analogy of Pac-man as the all-consuming capitalist icon, for example, send me rolling with laughter and earned me concerned looks from the other people in the library. Needless to say, this is not a documentary on the history of video games. You will not find a detailed timeline here of what company hired who and make what game that grossed how many copies. Blah, blah, blah... Frankly, who cares? There's enough of those already.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is a great read for gamer developers in between reading other books about vector math, pixel shading, and what not. Sometimes, you need to take a look back and realize it's not all about how many polygons you can cram into your renderer or how many microseconds you can shave off of your graphics engine. This is supposed to be fun, man! There are some entertaining anecdotes and Herz's writing style is fresh, witting, stylish, and biting (reminds me of a female version of Neil Stephensen). She makes some observations and remarks that were humorous as much as they were dead-on. The analogy of Pac-man as the all-consuming capitalist icon, for example, send me rolling with laughter and earned me concerned looks from the other people in the library. Needless to say, this is not a documentary on the history of video games. You will not find a detailed timeline here of what company hired who and make what game that grossed how many copies. Blah, blah, blah... Frankly, who cares? There's enough of those already.
Rating:
Summary: Good Enough
Review: While not as engaging as the competition, this book offers enough to be read. Some of the stories are the same that you see in many other books, but this book does give you a better grasp of the emotional atmosphere of the 80s and early 90s (the book came out in 97, making it a bit dated, but much of the material is surprisingly relevant today). Easy reading, with the chapters being somewhat artificially broken, good for leisure time.
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