Dreamhack: The First Day

Friday, 28th of April

• I am in "Vollie HQ/Subs"

• Walking around, making sure people are going where they intend to go

• lots of competitiveness in freeplay zone in both individual and group games ↳ CSGO, Overwatch, LOL, arcade games, competitive just dance (with prize money)

• Bring your own computer zone (BYOC). Culture of playing video games in a public setting

• Collection of volunteering lanyards

• Cosplayers - main stage, in Rod Laver Arena

• "Artist's alley'' zone - fan made art, DND dice, cosplaying items

• Dreamhack - challenges for a reward. Scan QR codes, points per QR code vary. 10 points is a spin at the wheel in the Expo Hall. You can win up to a gaming laptops/monitors. Unlimited spins as long as you have 10 points. Only 1 spin per time you queue up.

• My shift - 2.30pm until 8.30pm. 30 minute break

• Super smash bros (SSB) arena . lots of spectators ↳ Very visible in groups & out groups / social categorisation → different communities ↳ to splay ↳ trading card games (TCG) (MagicTG, Pokémon) ↳ FPS games ↳ DND, board games

• Volunteers very open, playing / communication with attendees is high

• Ratio of attendees - range of ethnicities, age groups and genders ↳ predominantly male dominated convention (both in staff / volunteers & attendees) ↳ especially in free play zone I arenas . low % of women

• Prizes that tempt individuals in the community (razer, racing chairs, t-shirts, RGB keyboards, headsets , marvel figures, game specific rewards (Rainbow 6 siege) ↳ "celebrating gaming culture" ↳ volunteers!

• People with and without skill - many different levels. People also here purely for the E-sports ↳ mobile gamers , but also Pc / console.

• Formation of groups in the volunteers: 4 team leaders, staff ↳ determined by whether they have volunteered before

• Lots of spectators around cosplay competitions, super smash bros competitions in fighting hall (expo), speed running, etc. ↳ High levels of immersion

• Social identification. in groups and out groups.

• During my time in Dreamhack today, I spent most of my time packing giveaway bays with a league of legends theme.

• Bags consisted of squishies/stress toys (2 per bag), a lanyard, and two wristbands.

• These bags were originally going to be thrown at attendees to catch, and those of us volunteers who were packing the bags got curious to what that would feel like. (This turned into us throwing drawstring giveaway LOL bags to each other at full force).

• Speed running packing the bags - holding 3 or 4 at a time. We finished all of the packing within 3 or 4 hours.

• Trash Taste Podcast and cafe - crowd control

• Guiding attendees to the live music - it felt like the wrong target group/market. Rave like music?

• AS A VOLUNTEER, YOU EXPERIENCE THE EVENT IN A WHOLE NEW WAY /LENS.

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Dreamhack: although I was volunteering at Dreamhack this year, I had never been to a Dreamhack event before. I had arrived around 1pm on the first day, with an hour and a half to spare before I had to start my volunteer shift. I didn't know what to expect. As it was the first day of my shift, I didn't have my pass to get access to areas that volunteers do. I walked up to the staff only entry area near Rod Laver and Margaret Court Arena, and the security asked me if I was staff. In my head I kind of laughed, but I said, "Yeah, I'm working with ESL." Which, isn't a complete lie - I was, except I was a volunteer. Then they let me in. No security checks, nothing. They gave me a wristband and let me into the paid areas of the event. It made me wonder - if I could just say that, and they let me in, what stops the rest of the public from doing so as well?

After I'm let in, I walk up into the second floor of Margaret Court Arena to Volunteer HQ. Here, I collect my lanyard, and drop my bag off. After this, I take the rest of the time that I have left to look around Dreamhack. I went to purchase a Dreamhack hoodie (it looked cool), and as I was looking around the arenas, I had noticed a café with a large queue - and then I realized that it was trash taste, a podcasting channel that I used to watch all the time when I was younger. Since I had time left, I queued, and ordered food. After I waited to be seated, I was allocated to a table with three other people. It was kind of awkward. Anyway, trash taste comes and goes from your table, and they interact with you. (I got 0.5 pics of all of them). They were filming too. Then I had no time left and had to go back to Volunteer HQ to start my shift.

This is when I started to meet the people I was going be working with over the first day. Most of the first hour was waiting around in Volunteer HQ for task, since we were all 'sub' volunteers. The reason I had chosen this on the preference forum was due to the fact that it allowed me to be able to experience every aspect and part of being a volunteer at Dreamhack, rather than spending my time only in one arena, or expo hall.

When they were in need of assistance, myself and all of the other volunteers in HQ (around three of us), were asked to pack bags for attendees, which were all doing to be given away the next morning. At first, these were all to be thrown at attendees, however it was later decided that they will be handed over instead. However, prior to knowing this, me and the other volunteers were curious about how it would feel like to have them thrown at you. They were drawstring bags with a league of legends logo on it, with x2 squishies, x2 wristbands and one league of legends lanyard. It was really fun, throwing bags at each other. We were filling bags up four at a time per person, and we had a super streamlined process. We had everything finished within 3 to 4 hours, when we had run out of giveaway bags.

Next, was the trash taste podcast. It was the first day of Dreamhack, and because of it being a Friday as well, we weren't expecting a high turnout for the podcast event. That is, until we had to open the second floor doors, to let the crowd outside of the bottom floor doors sit down. We were expecting a turnout of 300 people, and we ended with a turnout of over 1000. When the podcast was ending (around 7.30-8pm), we were directing everyone possible to the live music at Rod Laver Arena (the podcast took place at Margaret Court Arena). I honestly believe that it was the wrong target market. The music was basically a rave, like nightclub music. After directing the attendees to the live music in Rod Laver Arena, myself and another volunteer went over for crowd control, and to see the turnout of attendees. There were maybe 15 people there, 20 if you are lucky. It was really dead. After that, it was 8:30, most attendees had already gone home, and the volunteer shift had ended. That was day one!