Patrick Brennan - Australia

This section contains the columns of Patrick Brennan, who will be reporting from Australia.

About Patrick Brennan:

Patrick Brennan stumbled across the new age of gaming when (his company being taken over) he was advised to do nothing but surf the net on full pay for a few months in the late 90's. The Games Cabinet and Billabong sites helped re-kindle a love affair with gaming that has led to over 100 new games and 300 different titles every year since. Although game reviewing and session reports have taken a back seat over the last few years due to the demands of a young family (who are coming of gaming age quickly), Patrick was one of the major content contributors to BoardGameGeek during its foundation years.

A member of several gaming groups in Sydney, Australia, including the famous Pymble Gaming Arena (aka the PGA), gaming adventures have included the long haul over the Pacific to attend the Gathering Of Friends and Gulf Games ... where he's enjoyed celebrating friendships enabled by the wonderful world of the Internet gaming community.

Patrick lives in Sydney, Australia.

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Headlines

June 12, 2007 - Patrick Brennan: Australian Games Expo 2007
June 12, 2006 - Patrick Brennan: My Australian Games Expo Experience
May 29, 2006 - Patrick Brennan: Australian Games Expo
February 19, 2006 - Patrick Brennan: Australia Games Expo 2006
February 8, 2006 - Patrick Brennan: My CanCon Experience

Articles

Patrick Brennan: Australian Games Expo 2007

I’ve spent two wonderful days in Albury at the Australian Games Expo over the long weekend. By nearly all measures it was bigger and better than last year’s inaugural event. Exhibitor numbers were up 70%, attendance was up 60%, tournament numbers were up. I don’t know any sales figures of course, but the retailers all seemed pretty happy—or at least talked the talk!

Most of the key local B&M players were there—Mind Games, Tin Soldier, Games Paradise, Ventura, Funatical—as well as online retailers such as Caterpillar. There were a number of self-publishers, including a few kamikazes adding to the colour of the event … all you can do is wish them well.

Especially welcome was the international presence of Rio Grande Games (doing demos, not sales) and Z-Man Games. Zev from Z-Man finally gave us Aussies some prices that seemed comfortable and right. I’m still looking forward to the day that Aus publishers co-produce with leading international publishers so that we don’t have to pay the shippage that drives prices to ridiculous levels.

Posted by Patrick Brennan on June 12, 2007 at 05:00 PM in Patrick Brennan - Australia - Comments (2) - Link

Patrick Brennan: My Australian Games Expo Experience

What a fabulous inaugural Expo! Congratulations and thanks to the organisers, and the Albury Wodonga gaming community, for making it a very enjoyable, rewarding and welcoming experience for all the visitors.

The highlight for us old-timers of course was catching up with our internet gaming buddies from all over the country. I met and played with gamers from Brisbane, Melbourne / Geelong, Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide. There was bonhomie as far as the eye could see.

Posted by Patrick Brennan on June 12, 2006 at 06:00 AM in Patrick Brennan - Australia - Comments (2) - Link

Patrick Brennan: Australian Games Expo

A reminder for all the Aussies out there that the inaugural Australian Games Expo is on in Albury over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, which is just under 2 weeks from now. The city council is on board – there’ll be street banners!! Any Euro gaming event with street banners has got to be seen.

By all accounts there’ll be serious industry participation, with bigwigs flying in from overseas. The tournament prizes for Settlers and Carcassonne will be trips to Essen. There’ll be plenty of retailers spruiking their wares with open gaming. I’m looking forward in 20 years time to saying, hey, I was there at the first Expo when it all started!!

Hope to see you there.

Patrick

Posted by Patrick Brennan on May 29, 2006 at 05:00 AM in Patrick Brennan - Australia - Comments (0) - Link

Patrick Brennan: Australia Games Expo 2006

Here’s some exciting news for the Aus gaming scene ... a new Euro dedicated gaming convention!!

It’s to be held in Albury on the Queen’s Birthday weekend, June 10th and 11th. What sets this apart from the ordinary convention are the tournament prizes ... fully paid airfares and accommodation to the Essen games fair for the winners of the Settlers Of Catan and Carcassonne tournaments!! *blink*. There is a slight catch ... they’ll be run simultaneously so you can’t win both ;-). But what a super enticement to get the Expo up and going successfully.

Posted by Patrick Brennan on February 19, 2006 at 02:30 AM in Patrick Brennan - Australia - Comments (1) - Link

Patrick Brennan: My CanCon Experience

I had the pleasure of attending Canberra’s premier annual gaming convention, CanCon, last weekend. It’s largely a miniatures / wargaming event, but Don Bone and his crew reserved a corner of the 150-table sized hall for Euro’s so I took the opportunity to wander down from Sydney with two friends of mine, Lindsay Scholle and Rick Doig, with the intention of meeting up with new gamers and trying out some games we hadn’t got round to yet.

Posted by Patrick Brennan on February 8, 2006 at 02:30 AM in Patrick Brennan - Australia - Comments (1) - Link

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