What strategies are most effective in fostering a diverse and inclusive gaming community?

When you're fostering a community that you want to be diverse, especially when you want to keep it positive, it's really important for you to have very clear rules and make sure that you're building, especially your social media platforms, with those in mind. That way when people express themselves, they know exactly what's allowed, what isn't allowed, and how they can also share their thoughts in ways that are constructive. Hopefully, these structures and boundaries allow for that communication. Thank you.

How do you balance fostering a positive environment while also allowing for open discussions and constructive criticism among community members?

When you're working in the games industry, there are going to be a lot of times that you're doing betas and things like that testing, or you've had a launched game and players have a lot of thoughts on that. Sometimes they're not always the most positive thoughts, but they're still really valid and important, especially to your QA team. So, it's really good to allow them space to have those feelings and understand that it's not personal. But at the same time, they have to stay within the boundaries of not being attacking or making specific comments about your team but just being constructive about the particular area that they want to give you feedback on.

What are some of your highlights from GQF 2023?

Yeah, it's my first year here, so for me, it was just a lot of times I'll go to fan shows, and there's a certain group of people that you kind of run into over and over. It's a very small industry. It was really great to meet people from other disciplines like QA, localization, that I wouldn't probably run into being part of the community track. So, for me, it was just more getting to know different people and kind of learning more about what they do.

Describe GQF in three words!

I would say education, fun, and then collaboration.