The Game Expo Discord

20th March 2023

Prior to filling out the google forms found on The Games Expo website in January, I had always thought about what it would be like to work at, or volunteer at a games convention, and what type of experience that it would equip me with for this industry. I was eager, and so I had searched up Gaming Conventions in Melbourne 2023. This is when I found The Games Expo, which I had never heard of before. I then filled out the google form, and was then accepted into the Volunteer group for the convention and was prompted to join the discord server

for communication reasons. I was then welcomed by Vot, the manager of Volunteers, and the expo alongside the comedy that is known well within the games community. The server had a good, almost homely vibe, and was very casual. Despite this, communications were strong, and the server was very organized. With different roles, voice channels, and text channels depending on the type of communication. There was even a text channel to share photos of your pets, and another one for social chatter. Looking back on it now, it has a completely different vibe when compared to the Dreamhack discord servers provided to us for when you volunteer. Although it is a much larger event. However, the Dreamhack server only has 1 channel for volunteers, mainly for important communication and information needed for the event happening in Melbourne in April.

"PAX started humble and grassroots just like us! We hope to build the same kind of rapport but with an even more diverse group of gaming enthusiasts"

Vot

I had already felt this from when I had joined the discord server. Everyone volunteering was extremely enthusiastic, with some flying interstate to help out in the convention. These expectations of PAX vs TGX were also made very clear during the Volunteer Orientation on Friday, the 10th of March.

"Ok so, PAX is not directly applicable because it is significantly larger than TGX. That means more volunteer bodies are required per zone, which introduces complex management structure - not to mention what you've said, where the volunteers run their own department, and so do a significant amount of prep and planning, and perform the activities of the area, whereas at TGX the people running the sub departments are separate to the show volunteer force. Each activity zone with constant activity will have a volunteer team lead. The rest will be "loose", and managed directly by Volunteer Management and TGX Management (think more like a 'spareboard' force but not as much on the move)."

Vot stated that this wasn't going to be PAX, or like any large scale gaming convention - and that they weren't trying to become PAX, etc. They wanted to create their own community: an event that is more tight-knit, where members of the community can come together, rather than enjoy the event in their own individual groups (of course you could do this at TGX if you wished to do so as well).