I woke up really early and went down really early for breakfast. After yesterday's horrible traffic jam and parking experience, I decided to plan to be at the Messe early. Being early, I tried not to ogle at the buffet spread, as I was really hungry. After ordering coffee, I made a beeline for the delicious buffet line and also ordered an omelette. After settling down in my seat, I played my first game of the day: Spot the Gamer. Never heard of this game? It's an observation and deduction game. Here's how it works: Look around the restaurant discreetly. Observe the people eating and getting food. Take note of their appearance. What are they wearing? What are they eating? Do they look cheerful? What are they talking about?  If they are alone, are they in deep thought thinking about games? Do they laugh out loudly? Do they have a beard? Make your own conclusions.

I met my friends the day before today. We had a great dinner and chatted about whats hot and whats not last night. Today, we continued the discussion at breakfast. This was THE day of the ultimate games meetup. Our breakfast had a lovely buffet spread. Delicious Swiss cheeses, fresh fruit juices, sausages and salami. Ate a lot and had nice coffee. I secretly tried to spot other gamers in the breakfast room. One or two tables could be occupied by gamers. Not sure, though. We left the hotel around 9 am, and after a short drive, got caught in a traffic jam near the Essen Messe. Shyam thought this was strange, as usually, being a Thursday, the first day of Essen Spiele was normally pretty quiet. We were in a jam which nearly rival a KL rush hour jam, but more civilized. What was going on? What made it worse was the really fast-changing traffic lights which we encountered along the way. I guessed they were not used to this type of heavy traffic. When we finally reached the Messe, there were tons of people! Queues were building up at every entrance! What was going on? I dropped Shyam and daughter off by one of the entrances, as the queues were disconcerting and I was directed to a very distant car park. I found a parking space really far away from any of the entrances into the Messe. It was a long walk to my first Essen Spiele, but as I reached the nearest entrance. there was a buzz of excitement amongst the people there. Everyone was in a jovial mood. Ahh...the group effect of mass endorphin release...

Guten tag! Just got back from the ultimate games meetup in Essen Spiel 09! Had a really good time playing new games, discovering the vast variety of games available in Germany and Europe, and meeting new friends and game-related celebrities! I am preparing a Squark Blogs of my Essen experience, but meanwhile, I would like to announce our Games Meetups here in the following Borders Bookstores and Starbucks Coffee in Borders outlets in Malaysia.

The November 09 Games Meetups are scheduled as follows:

1st Sun (1 Nov) - The Curve, PJ
2nd Sun (8 Nov) - Tropicana City Mall, PJ
3rd Sun (15 Nov) - The Gardens Mall, KL
4th Sun (22 Nov) - Berjaya Times Square
4th Sun (22 Nov) - Queensbay Mall, Penang

Games to be played are:
New in Malaysia:
- Hurry Cup! (Hurrican).
- Ligretto (Playroom).

Classics:
- Cafe International (Amigo Spiele).
- Blokus Trigon (Sekkoia).

For the Whole Family:
- Baker's Dozen (Playroom).
- Stratagem (Playroom).

Party Fun:
- Wits & Wagers (Northstar).
- Pants on Fire! (R n R Games).

Miniatures:
- World of Warcraft (pre-painted miniatures).
- Monsterpocalypse (pre-painted miniatures).

I might bring a new game or two from Essen 09 as a surprise...he he.  Do join us and bring family and friends. It's free!

Guten Tag! Squark Games will be attending THE Ultimate Games Meetup: Internationale Spieltage SPIEL! In English, it's SPIEL 09-the international games convention in Essen, Germany, where thousands of gamers from all over the world gather in 8 convention halls, each as big as one convention hall in Mid Valley! This is more than 44,100 square meters of exhibition (read: gaming) space. This is THE games meetup for gamers of all ages and of all types. There will be casual gamers, as well as hard core gamers present. For many, this will be a great 4-days of gaming with friends and families. Some of these friends meet only once a year in Essen. We will be meeting old friends there as well as making new ones.

Spiel 09 begins on Thursday 22nd October and lasts until Sunday 25th October, providing 4 days filled with fun and excitement. No doubt most of the new game designs by hot game designers, e.g. Uwe Rosenberg, Reiner Knizia, Martin Wallace and Stephen Feld will attract lots of attention. Squark Games will be there trying out the new games as well as some of the older classics, and meeting up with game designers and suppliers. We will be playing games in the hotel after hours too with friends who cannot wait to try out new purchases.

What will be the hot games in Essen 09? Well, there are lots. Some will be hot before Essen because of the pre-Essen hype. These games will surely fizzle out when the real fans put them to the ultimate test by playing them and voting their ratings. Some games will be sleeper hits-unheard of until the gamers played them during Spiel and voting for them, sending these off the charts. Some games will be sure-fire hits. These games live up well to their hype. Just for fun, we at Squark Games attempt to predict the following top 5 HOT Games Essen Spiel 09:

At the Gates of Loyang
Dungeon Lords
Rise of Empires
Assyria
Stronghold

Mind you, don't go to the nearest bookie shop and place bets on these predictions. These are just for fun only and are not 100% accurate. In fact, they might not be accurate at all!

We will try to update our fans on what's hot and what's not on Twitter at Twitter/SquarkGames while we are at Essen IF there is free wi-fi available there. We will also be taking photos and videos while we are there. these  will be uploaded on this Squark Games website as well as our Squark Games Facebook Page.

While we are having fun in Essen, our Squark Games customers will not be forgotten as we will be looking out to find surprises in all forms for them. This will depend on what goodies we come across. A few lucky Squark Games customers will receive notification by email in November of what their surprises will be. To qualify for this, one must have made a purchase from Squark Games from October 2008 to 20th November 2009, inclusive. Extra points if you are on our Squark Games Facebook Page. So, if you plan on purchasing from Squark Games, do it soon and join us on Facebook... :)

Auf Wiedersehen!

Just a quick and exciting update. We have Space Hulk 2009 Edition in stock at the time of writing. This legendary game has a limited print run and is now sold out at Games Workshop, the publisher. There is hot worldwide demand for Space hulk 2009 Edition as online auction websites currently list pricing of USD 110 to 150. Our pricing is special and is valid while stocks lasts!