Chris has been gaming since the days of Pong, with a brief hiatus just after college (the dark PS1 days he calls it). In 1997 he married Kelly Brown which then meant their household would be a gaming ark filled with two of any gaming device. This ‘Gaming Noah’ will try most any game, but has a particular love for first person shooters, zombie games, and still is mad in love with music games.

Kelly’s early beginning was fighting over the single Atari 2600 joystick with her sister to play Pitfall. These days she is fighting with her husband, Chris Brown, over who gets to play games on the iPad. Some things never change, but her love of gaming has grown to include adventure games, shooters, button mashers, music games, casual games, and even Facebook games. She is also known as the ‘Hardcore Arcade Gamer’ for her love of downloadable console arcade games.

A gamer with a passion, Dave has lived games – digital and analog – since the Commodore 64 was still the height of technology. Through board, card and video, Dave games with his friends, family and fiancée’ in FPS, RTS, RPG and racing games amongst others. Dave is the owner and lead designer of Cerulean Games, Inc.

John has been playing games since he could wrap his pudgy, 4-year-old fingers around his rich cousin’s Magnavox Odyssey controller. Much of his youth was spent in Chicago arcades until he added PCs and consoles to his gaming repertoire. Now a New Yorker, John enjoys all of the current consoles, spending most of his time on Xbox Live. Shooters and RPGs are his genres of choice, but he’s more than willing to play whatever new hotness hits retailer shelves or digital download.

Growing up Erik always had a fascination with video games. His mother didn’t care much for him playing games and thought they were a waste of time. His dad, however, would take Erik to the arcade on occasion. Erik has owned an Atari 2600, NES, Super Nintendo, PSOne, PS2, N64, Gamecube, Xbox, Wii, and Xbox 360. Erik is always busy whether it be online gaming, working full time, going to school full time, or spending time with his wife and three kids (14, 2, and newborn).

Tylor is a twenty-something guy from middle America who has been hooked on gaming since he first blew into a Duck Hunt cartridge. Since then he has dabbled in everything from the smallest Flash game to the most epic JRPG and everything in between. When not gaming (or eating or sleeping or working) Tylor enjoys reading and writing on topics varying from film to politics to social justice.

Miles Messenger lives in southern California with his wife and 6 cats.  For most of his life, he has been playing video games.  His first video game console was the Sega Master System.  As time went on, he eventually got an NES and over the years he owned the SNES, Genesis, N64, PS1, PS2, Gamecube and Xbox. Many games were played as Miles grew up, but one series he really latched on to was the Final Fantasy series.  Miles has played almost all, if not all the final fantasy games released in the States.   At this time, Miles owns all the current generation consoles; PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.   He is addicted to Xbox’s achievement system and doesn’t see an end to his obsessive hobby.

Lauren Mae Nikkel is newly married to Loren, works in university admissions, and is a self-proclaimed vicarious gamer. She had no gaming experience prior to her marriage, and until recently only used the Xbox 360 to mostly watch Jane Austen films. In addition to loving literature, Lauren Mae enjoys herbal tea, lindy hop swing dance, and non-man-hating feminism. Her RPG future looks bright.

Husband, hardcore gamer, teacher, comic book nerd. Loren does it all with an extensive background in video games going back to playing the NES when he was just a lad. He is newly married to Lauren Nikkel, who though may be new to video games still kicks his butt in Peggle on a frequent basis. He is keen to first person shooters, arcade puzzlers, online multiplayer, and loves to hear the “bleep bloop” of his Xbox 360 at home.

Melisa has been a lo-o-o-o-ong time gamer, starting in the arcades and Atari to all the current console systems. She loves PC and handheld gaming. She has a special love for co-operative gameplay, RPG’s, Action/Adventure, hack and slash button mashers, fighting games, and strategy games. Casual games are also great for down times or a quick fix. These include puzzle games, simulation games, and hidden object games. Her gaming nemesis is the platformer. Why is there so much jumping!!! Ugh. Melisa may not be a gamer god but she plays for the love of the game.

Since the beginning of Quantrell’s gaming resume, he has always been a gamer that goes against the grain. When his friends played NES, he played on the Sega Master System. While others played Super Nintendo, he was on the Sega Genesis. And while the Playstation 2 was dominating, he played games in his dorm on a Nintendo Gamecube.