About Me, Chris Cesarano

There has never been a part of my life without video games. I remember being three years old trying to play Donkey Kong on the family Colecovision, and after that broke we got a Nintendo Entertainment System loaded with games like Super Mario Bros. and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Since then I've had at least console from each generation and have played through and favored a variety of genres, gaining exposure to as much as I could. I even got to play a few major PC titles, though unfortunately that aspect of the hobby has never been as appealing to me.

When I was in high school I got it in my head that I was going to ignore my artistic hobbies and backgrounds and try and get into game development instead, seeking to work design. While I enjoyed the articles of sites like Gamasutra, learning and absorbing as much as I could, programming was just not the path for me. So I switched over to web design with a minor in journalism. My current career path of front-end web development is very fulfilling, and has also given me further exposure to concepts of Human-Computer Interaction and Usability. It is a very interesting and widespread field, and I am fascinated by the psychology of computer use.

However, I still love to write and love playing video games on my free time. So when I'm not working on my web development skills, I'm playing video games and writing my thoughts on them. By implementing my knowledge gained not only from studying developer articles and commentary on Gamasutra, but lessons learned in web design and development, I have gained a deeper look into what makes a game good.

About GamerTagged

I came from a website that had a very good community where I had been appointed a moderator and helped take charge of some of the more creative ideas. Unfortunately, I had a lot of conflict over ethics with the founder and chose to take my leave. In an effort to try and start a similar but new community, I founded GamerTagged.net. Yet none of the other folks from the site I came from were that interested in writing, and soon I found it being more of a blog than the giant network of multimedia gamer entertainment I had envisioned it becoming.

So I have now transformed it into a blog, where I practice a variety of methods of writing about games. I look at myself as more of a critic, and feel the modern industry is filled with too many news craving journalists and not enough that know how to properly break it down. It feels as though hype and budgets are what determines review scores (another broken system), and not polish and quality. As such, I try to have what small influence I have by critiquing games as best as I can, praising the good and bringing the bad out into the open.

I also run a column called Critical Hit over on the social-networking site GameKrib. I usually update it on Saturdays, but sometimes life is too busy or there's nothing to discuss.

Statistics

Name: Chris Cesarano
Occupation: Dot-Com Developer
Profession: Front-End Web Developer
Hobbies: Video games, writing, table-top role-playing games, board and card games, analysis of television and film, reading, web and graphic design, devouring unhealthy foods
Religion: Christianity
Political Affiliation: Moderate/Libertarian/Constitutionalist
Favorite Films:October Sky, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Watchmen, Wasabi, The Fifth Element, Alien Trilogy, Predator Trilogy, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Hot Fuzz, Suicide Kings, Back to the Future Trilogy, Cloverfield, Gojira
Favorite Books: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, The Death Gate Cycle, A Song of Ice and Fire, 1984, Sphere
Preferred Music:Melodic Power Metal, Classic Progressive Rock, 80's Metal
Favorite Games: Godzilla: Monster of Monsters, Mega Man X, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy IV, VI and VII, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy Tactics, Metroid: Prime, Metroid: Other M, Halo 1, 2, ODST and Reach, Bioshock, Darksiders, Brutal Legend, Left 4 Dead, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Dead Space, Resident Evil: Remake, Resident Evil 4