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.

To the Expo itself. It was organised by retailers for retailers to evangelise gaming to the broader family community; it wasn’t specifically for the Euro-minded gamers. It felt like it came close to break-even for attendance as the two Halls were full, almost crowded, throughout both days.

I’m not sure if the retailers did enough business to cover overhead but I noticed a lot of families wander out with purchases. The fact that no discounting was allowed was understandable in meeting the Expo’s objectives, but hugely disappointing for the gamer crowd who made up the core of the attendance. It raised the perennial question of whether to pay full brick & mortar price when online overseas purchases come in at 50-75% B&M price in Australia and I’m sure this was a factor in reducing sales at the event.

All your regular B&M retailers were there - Mind Games (the organisers), Tin Soldier, Games Paradise, etc. Milsims weren’t there to ensure that deep online discount prices didn’t scare the other retailers from attending - got to remember back to the Expo purpose; evangalism -> new customers -> new sales. But other online presences made it in - Unhalfbricking and Caterpillar for example, the latter a recent startup specialising in quality kids games including the Haba line. Traditional stands featured poker and chess. There were also some “kamikaze” businesses selling their dreams - the highlight being the A$330, 4 hour, property business simulation that teaches the family how to be a financial success in life.

A special mention to Don Bone who manned a stall featuring a whole swag of new imports from his new distributor line. They were all open and available for play and I sat and happily went through these looking for special games of interest and trying a few.

On the gamery side, the Carcassonne and Settlers tournaments (with first prizes being trips to Essen) were healthily attended and lusted after. Personally, I’m glad I didn’t enter the tournaments. Great if you’re the winner; not so great to make the semi’s or finals in both and not win, as you’ve just spent two days playing little but Carcassonne and Settlers and you’ve missed out on most of the Expo. I know Neil and the crew are aware of it though, so next year I’m sure tournaments will be shorter and cleaner - but just as rewarding for those who thrive on the intensity of competition.

The Albury Wodonga gaming club opened up the doors at their super gaming venue, a neighbourhood centre in suburbia, every night of the weekend and we poured back there after the Expo closed. It really is a very friendly and sociable group, with a mature gaming bandwidth - from Euros thru to Bloodbowl, Diplomacy, miniatures, role-playing. Something for everyone.

In summary, I’m so glad I made the effort to go down. I made new friends, turned e-friendships into real friendships with faces attached, played lots of new games and overall felt good about helping contribute to an Expo that will hopefully thrive and grow and become a yearly centerpiece for our own Aussie gamer gathering. No doubt a lot of businesses and a lot of gamers hesitated about going along, wanting to see if it fell or stood - I know Hasbro and others sent representatives to check it out. Well ... from a gamer perspective it was fantastic!! Now that it’s on the map, I’m hoping that other gaming organisations (like Diplomacy and Go which traditionally use the long weekend for their own championships) will enter the spirit, join up and move to Albury for the weekend.

Suggestions for improvements? There were families in off the street who needed to have someone on hand to guide them to the gateway games - you can’t help but twitch watching them open the rules to Caylus. The tournaments need to be shorter. I’d love to see a flea market at lunch one day where everyone gets an hour to sell off their second hand games. I’d obviously like to see some discounting, even if it’s minimal at 5%, to encourage and establish sales patterns - otherwise the core gaming presence will not buy much here. I’m hoping we might be able to see more of the new overseas stuff and less stock of years past - where were California, Vegas Showdown, etc? The latest Nurnburg and Essen batches were sadly lacking. It all comes back to helping the gaming business here invest and mature I guess.

Lastly, it’s all about the games of course, so here are some thoughts on the new games (new to me anyway) that I checked out.

JERICHO - A beautifully themed, hit-the-leader filler card game which was light, fun and fast. It works, but not much decision making, so maybe a little unsatisfying.

MYKERINOS - A lighter Louis XIV, where you’re placing cubes out to gain majorities, followed by decisions to trade off powers vs points. A solid 7, but both games were won by the person unchallenged in one colour - it’s just not worth it to compete in anything but what you’re locked into by mid-game.

NACHT DER MAGIER - As a dexterity game it’s pretty ordinary. But when we fired up the glow in the dark pieces and moved to a pitch black room, suddenly the fun and atmosphere was abundant. Novelty value only though. I was thinking about picking it up, but the $97 price tag, for a kids game ...

MONTANARA - A lightish 2 player that started well, but mid-game felt like it was all about re-arranging piles and messing with hands rather than progressing against objectives. It was fine but perhaps lacked the tension and decision-making that normally screams out play me more.

TIMBUKTU - I really enjoyed this, probably because it has such a different feel to your normal Euro fare. I can’t tell if it degenerates into wing and a prayer stuff, playing on hope rather than calculation and knowledge, but I’d like to find out with more play.

THE GAME NED KELLY - An Aussie variant on Hnefatafl based on our bushranger history. I’m not a Tafl player so can’t compare to others, but this works well and is fun if you play fast and furious, which we did. A more studious approach may lead to a bit of a slug-fest. For anyone interested, the creators will be sharing a stand at Essen with Don Bone who will be presenting his latest, Freya’s Folly (a solid game itself).

GOBBLET - it seemed a fine 2 player abstract after the displayer cunningly let me win in about 10 moves ;-)

BEETLEZ - on the theory that the less said about this the better ... bleh.

SUSHI EXPRESS - if you want to gamble on a dice roll, this seems as fine a way to do it as any, but I’m not sure the mechanic is that interesting in the first place. It was fine and fun, but my preference stays with Der Heisse Schlacht Am Kalten Buffet in this mode.

COCKROACH POWER aka BUG BLUFF - Either the card I give you is what I say it is or it isn’t. The game starts fairly dully, but as the stakes build, and people know that other people know that other people want to give you a particular card, and did they or not ... a short, fun, simple Vizzini game.

KAYANAK - Superbly themed kid’s game of ice fishing, where you punch holes in the board (actually in the A4 paper slipped between two boards which have holes in them) through which you dangle a magnetic fishing pole to catch metal fish. I’d pick it up in a second if not for the darned A$80 price tag.

I’m so looking forward to some Aussie companies picking up production rights and capabilities in the future and getting the price points down - hopefully the Expo will help kick-start things along this way.

So ... if you haven’t gathered, I had a blast and I’m looking forward to next year already!! Again, a thank you to everyone who contributed to make it happen, and a thank you to everyone who came along to help make it a success.

Patrick

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