The sun peeks over the horizon. The neon sign on the window flickers to life, and a bell jingles as the front door of your favorite local game shop swings forward — it’s time to open up shop! 

We’re starting something new on the Discord Blog today: Staff Picks. Every month, a few Discord employees will let everyone know what they’ve been playing recently, why they’ve enjoyed it so much, and give recommendations on what they think you should try out, too! 

A little backstory if you’ve never been to a locally-owned game shop before: along the shelves of certain stores, you might see cards or signs with an employee’s name and their recommendations if you’re unsure what to play. We’re doing that, but on the Discord Blog! 

For this first article in the series, think of it as your first time at the game shop! You’ll meet the faces you’ll start to get familiar with over time, and hear what they tend to play and what they’ve played this month.

Let’s meet the staff lineup! 

What’s your name? What do you do at Discord? 

Matt, Gaming Platform Partnerships. I've been at Discord for just over five years. I've had the privilege of working with game devs and major game platforms. My work has spanned across Discord Game Stores, to building verified servers, to integrating Game SDKs, to launching awesome products like Discord voice on console.

What platforms do you usually play games on? 

PC, PS5, Xbox, Steam Deck, and sometimes my phone.

What’s your most played game this month?

It's a three-way tie between Helldivers 2, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

Tell us one game recommendation for us to get to know you well. 

The original DOOM. id Software overall is the studio that converted me into the obsessive gamer I am today: Starting with Commander Keen, then blowing my mind with taking down Mecha-Hitler in Wolfenstein 3D, but DOOM is a game I spent years playing before moving on to anything else (also probably because I didn't have enough allowance money to play anything else).

What’s your name? What do you do at Discord? 

Emi — I’m an account manager primarily working with developers, publishers, and studios in the gaming space.

What platforms do you usually play games on? 

PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch for the most part! But my N64, GameCube, and Wii games are precious to me too.

What’s your most played game this month?

HELLDIVERS 2. Helldivers never die. Except it seems like they're dying quite a bit whenever my “Guard Dog” Rover is around but I can't imagine why. We do our best out here.

Tell us one game recommendation for us to get to know you well. 

Duck Game. This is one of a handful of games that I choose to play with friends when we want something easy with max fun. It’s a 2D action game, and the play is simple: become a duck, choose your weapon, and try to be the last one standing for each level. You can even put on hats!

‍What’s your name? What do you do at Discord? 

Hey! My name is Jonathan, I work in marketing at Discord. I’ve been involved with all the marketing you’ve enjoyed, but none of the stuff you didn’t like. I’ve worked in gaming most of my career and honored to be part of the Discord team. 

What platforms do you usually play games on? 

PS5 and Switch.

What’s your most played game this month?

I’ve been playing a lot of Outlast Trials with friends. Awesome, brutal, first-person psychological survival horror game. It uses proximity chat or in-game walkie-talkies, but my crew uses Discord to chat because we are definitely not typically horror game players. It’s wonderfully dystopian but in between these high-stress missions, you can arm wrestle or play a game of chess against other players. 

Tell us one game recommendation for us to get to know you well. 

WWE Day of Reckoning. This isn’t indicative of the games I typically play but definitely speaks to who I am as a person. Day of Reckoning was the first game where I really got invested in creating characters in a game. My best friend and I would create our own roster of wrestlers with unique looks, personalities, and gimmicks before getting together in person (memory card in hand) to battle it out. We’d cut promos as our characters, start feuds, create our own wrestling stories, and then play things out in-game. It was involved and definitely speaks to who I am as a person: a guy who loves to roleplay.

What’s your name? What do you do at Discord? 

Alex — I’m a user experience researcher. While some people just think this means I test out UIs in usability tests, that’s not the case at Discord. I’m our UXR for gaming, which means I study players and the broader gaming market. 

What platforms do you usually play games on? 

PC, Switch, PS5. But I’ll also drag out my Wii U, 3DS, or PS Vita for something here and there.

What’s your most played game this month?

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I’m about 70 hours in and only 65% of the way done, according to my PS5. 5% of that time is spent taking screenshots that I don’t know what to do with and redoing the conversation choice options.

Tell us one game recommendation for us to get to know you well. 

This question plagues me because the game I will actually recommend to “get to know me well” doesn’t contain any of the elements I usually love about a game. I would’ve recommended 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim or Triangle Strategy if you’d asked me a year ago because they both have the trifecta of what I care most about in video games: vibey art style, sick soundtrack, and engrossing narrative (bonus points for being so deeply convoluted that you need a red string theory-tracking board to piece it all together — Kingdom Hearts is my favorite and most formative series). But, 13 Sentinels seems to already have had a sizable blip in the cultural zeitgeist recently and I’ll save Triangle Strategy for a longer thought piece, so I’m making my real inaugural pick Consider It. 

Consider It is a game on the Switch and PC that costs less than $5 USD. It has a bare-bones art style, no soundtrack, and no overarching lore, but I love it. Consider It consists of microgames, a la Wario Ware, that ask you to simply read the room and make an action based on your reading of the room. Then, it judges you on whether you read the room well enough and if you were “considerate” enough (get the title now?). And, well, isn’t that just the perfect game to describe what I want for this world?

There’s even an online competitive mode on the Steam release which pits you against others to be more considerate. It takes forever to get a match right now — the game deserves to have more players, so this is my bid to grow its popularity. Make Consider It online a thing, so I can play this competitively and so others learn how to be more considerate. Thanks.

What’s your name? What do you do at Discord? 

Tracie! I am a social media manager here at Discord. I help run our social channels and support various social events (a little behind-the-scenes: there is more than one voice behind the curtain of the Discord social channels). I also run our largest public Discord server, Town Hall.

What platforms do you usually play games on? 

PC gaming has and always will be my primary choice! But I also love my Nintendo Switch.

What’s your most played game this month?

This one is a bit of a throwback, but I’ve been replaying Fallout 4. I actually never finished my first playthrough when it released. I’m getting excited for the new Fallout live-action show, so I decided to get back into the game! Replaying this, I’m actually in shock this game was released in 2015 — where has the time gone? 

For multiplayer gaming with friends, we’ve been addicted to THE FINALS this past month. Very fun, and we’re always looking to play “just one more game”.

Tell us one game recommendation for us to get to know you well. 

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. My all-time favorite game for its story, gameplay, and immersive world that I absolutely fell in love with. So much so that I’ve become enamored with The Witcher — I’ve read every book and have a textbook amount of knowledge about the world of The Witcher. I’m always down to chat about anything Witcher-related. I also realize that I may be the biggest “single-player RPG” person of the Discord group. Immersive RPGs are my jam.

What’s your name? What do you do at Discord? 

I’m Cody, or Aspekt, whichever you prefer! I manage the company blog that you’re reading now, and write the words you see in the in-app Changelog — it’s strange knowing I get to write dumb jokes, awful puns, and videos of birds that every user on the platform gets a pop-up for. 

What platforms do you usually play games on? 

It depends — if I’m having a lowkey day, I like to play single-player games on Xbox. If I’m feeling competitive, I move to my PC… even though I still use a controller most of the time… I’m sure someone is reading that with disgust right about now. 
‍
I don’t consider myself much of a “mobile gamer,” but I play Marvel Snap daily and Warzone Mobile just released today as I write this, so maybe I am??? Who knows. 

What’s your most played game this month?

I’m trying my best to clear out every sidequest in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but Marvel Snap has been my go-to every day for, um… 15 months. I’ll try my best not to just say “I played Marvel Snap” every month or slap in a screenshot of my sick new card split. 

Tell us one game recommendation for us to get to know you well. 

Resident Evil 4, the OG version. The remake is incredible, but the original has a special place in my heart and has a few gameplay beats that the remake doesn’t. Plus, it’s available on basically everything! I think I’ve completed it on basically every platform it’s been on so far. (Except for the Zeebo.)

What’s your name? What do you do at Discord? 

The name’s Lil, aka Milktea in gaming spaces. I’m a Product Designer working on gaming-related projects!

What platforms do you usually play games on? 

Recently, exclusively on PC — though I solely played on Nintendo consoles until early adulthood. I’m still more comfortable on a gamepad than keyboard.

What’s your most played game this month?

It’s gonna have to be VALORANT — it’s tough finding a better evening routine than hopping on a Discord call with my friends and winning games (and losing too, I guess) as a team.

Tell us one game recommendation for us to get to know you well. 

Once upon a time ago, I played Super Smash Bros. Melee competitively. My role eventually morphed from playing to doing activist work, which led to co-founding Smash Sisters (for our women and non-binary friends). Smash has radically shaped my life and who I am today — I practically grew up in the community.

What’s your name? What do you do at Discord? 

Mark. Creative Director, just trying to make fun little videos that make folks happy about the fun little features we have. The fun stuff. 

What platforms do you usually play games on? 

Mostly PC, sometimes Xbox, and I love my little Anbernic handheld. Makes flying way more fun. 

What’s your most played game this month?

Been on the Helldivers 2 train. I’m going to apologize to my other Helldivers. Because sometimes my orbital throws go to strange places and there’s not a lot I can do about it. And panic firing the grenade launcher doesn’t help either. Look, I’m sorry, ok. 

Tell us one game recommendation for us to get to know you well. 

I don't know if this will help people get to know me but I really enjoyed playing through Sea of Stars. The pixel art style was amazing and I liked the combat mechanics with the combo and lock break stuff. The conch grind is a different story though. Anyway, if you want a retro-inspired RPG, check this one out. 

Welcome to our Grand Opening! 

Some of us love multiplayer games. Some of us love single-player games. Some are competitive, and some like to relax and unwind when they game. Our little squad is be here to share with you what we’ve personally been enjoying, not telling you what we think you should play while using Discord.

As we release pieces, you’ll see both familiar and new faces from time to time! We’ll pop in about once a month to show off what we’ve been playing, and what we think you should check out. We hope you’ll find something new and exciting to try out 

If there’s a game you think one of us should try out, let us know! Mention us on X, or tag us in a post on Instagram or TikTok.