Jack Emmert is an American

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

who has worked primarily on

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

s and computer games.

Career

Jack Emmert had been playing ''

Champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the Victory, victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and w ...

'' since it came out in 1981. Emmert spent his teenage years reading comic books and playing ''

AD&D In insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) is a policy that pays benefits to the beneficiary if the cause of death is an accident. This is a limited form of life insurance which is generally less expensive, or in some cases is an add ...

''. During his student years, Emmert wrote several pen and paper RPG supplements to make ends meet. After a lengthy stint in academia, Emmert co-founded

Cryptic Studios Cryptic Studios is an American video game developer specializing in MMORPG, massively multiplayer online role-playing games. It is headquartered in Los Gatos, California and was a wholly owned Perfect World (company), Perfect World subsidiary, a ...

. He designed the MMORPGs ''

City of Heroes ''City of Heroes'' (''CoH'') was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game which was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSOFT. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004, and in Europe by NCsoft Europe on Febru ...

'' and ''

City of Villains ''City of Heroes'' (''CoH'') was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game which was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSOFT. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004, and in Europe by NCsoft Europe on Febru ...

''. Emmert was the chief creative officer and directed the design of all games from Cryptic Studios, and was involved in the development of ''

Marvel Universe Online ''Marvel Heroes'', also known as ''Marvel Heroes 2015'', ''Marvel Heroes 2016'' and ''Marvel Heroes Omega'', was a free-to-play massively multiplayer online action role-playing video game developed by Gazillion Entertainment and Secret Identity Stu ...

''. Emmert and the rest of Cryptic later decided that ''Champions'' would be a great replacement for the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

IP they had lost, thus Cryptic purchased the ''Champions'' game and the ''Champions'' universe from

Hero Games Hero Games (''DOJ, Inc dba Hero Games'') is the publisher of the Hero System, a generic roleplaying rules set that can be used to simulate many different genres, and was the co-developer of the ''Fuzion'' system. History In 1981, George MacDon ...

in 2008. Emmert was the online producer for ''

Star Trek Online ''Star Trek Online'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Cryptic Studios based on the ''Star Trek'' franchise. The game is set in the 25th century, 30 years after the events of '' Star Trek: Nemesis''. ''Sta ...

''. In March 2010, Bill Roper was promoted to chief creative officer, succeeding Emmert (who became the chief operations officer).Bill Roper Departs Cryptic Studios
/ref> In March 2011, Emmert was promoted to chief executive officer when

John Needham John Turberville Needham FRS (10 September 1713 – 30 December 1781) was an English biologist and Roman Catholic priest. He was first exposed to natural philosophy while in seminary school and later published a paper which, while the subjec ...

left to pursue other opportunities in the gaming industry. On June 8, 2016, Jack Emmert was made CEO of

Daybreak Game Company Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in ...

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

-based studio, as the head of the Daybreak Games studio responsible for the Action Combat

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

DC Universe Online ''DC Universe Online'' (''DCUO'') is a free-to-play action combat massively multiplayer online game set in the fictional universe of DC Comics. Developed by Dimensional Ink Games and co-published by Daybreak Game Company and WB Games, the game w ...

(DCUO), Emmert will oversee all development in Austin and will report into Daybreak headquarters in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. In May 2022, Emmert was put in charge of NetEase's new US-based studio,

Jackalope Games The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns. The word ''jackalope'' is a portmanteau of ''jackrabbit'' and ''antelope''. Many jackalope taxidermy mounts, including the original, ...

References

External links

Jack Emmert :: Pen & Paper RPG Databasearchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emmert, Jack Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Role-playing game designers Year of birth missing (living people)