If you've read the reports from either Nick or myself about the EB Expo here in Australia, you'll know that the event was pretty good but didn't really show anything we didn't already know about six months ago, and from a Nintendo fan standpoint it felt like we weren't entirely welcome within the presence of the rival companies.

But the most obscure thing about the event was separate from the event itself - The EB Games Expo Official After Party. During the Sunday, the event girls were wandering around the expo handing out invitation passes for entry into the event, which was being held at a local Gold Coast nightclub and bar called East.

It looked like it might be worth checking out - with the promise of free game and EB gift card giveaways, prizes, the latest game demos and "Your favorite video game characters live", whatever that means. We had mental images of people in costume dancing on a stage, which would have been amusing. There was also a scheduled performance by Instant Bun, a group of breakdancers who performed in this year's Australia's Got Talent.

So, the invitation said that two people were allowed entry per invite, yet VIP pass holders from the expo were allowed free entry, and the club doesn't usually charge admission anyway. Confused yet? The invite said that doors open at 7 and stressed to be there early so as to not miss the giveaways, so we made sure to be there early and beat the impending rush of an empty alleyway. A small handful of people turned up to wait at about 10 to, and around 7pm a bouncer opened the doors.

About as well-lit as the expo itself.

The interior of the club was decked out with a few balloons featuring the EB Games logo, and the DJ's stage had the after party logo. Music was already pumping and as people trickled in, they began to take seats around the venue. Fliers for the after party advertised a $10 pizza slice + Corona beer special. Considering a whole large pizza usually goes for between $5 and $10 here in Australia, the offer didn't seem as special as advertised. A few of the venue staff circled around urging visitors to buy drinks, and... that's pretty much all that happened. People came, sat around drinking, and listened to pounding club music. Where were the festivities? Was this the right place? We could get this experience at just about any nightclub...

At 8pm I asked some of the event managers when the giveaways would take place, as we wanted to get photos. After all, we'd skipped dinner to get to this place on time and were counting on getting the festivities out of the way and then grabbing a late bite to eat afterward. "Within the next half hour", we were told. That was fine, we could wait if there was the potential of free games. 9 o'clock rolled around, and some guy dressed as Jack Sparrow appeared to mingle with the crowd and take drink orders. Was this one of the advertised "game characters"? Technically, yes. There had been no announcements made by anyone, not even a welcome or a thanks for coming, still virtually no indication that we were in fact in the right place and the venue didn't just have EB balloons for the fun of it.

Finally, at 9:30 someone took the stage and confirmed our suspicions that there was an EB games-related event taking place tonight. "Things will kick off in about an hour", he said.
Oh. So the "come at 7, get here early so you get free stuff" thing on the invitation actually meant 10:30. Perhaps they had their watches on New Zealand time? Who knows. The "latest game demos" that were promised were revealed to be two Xbox 360 consoles hooked up to the stage, both featuring whatever incarnation of Fifa Soccer that had most recently been released. Yay...

At that point, we decided to bail, grab a quick dinner nearby and return in time for the actual partying that was going to take place at this party. We visited the nearby and appropriately-named Mario's Italian restaurant, just in time to order a meal as they were closing up shop for the night. It was a little expensive and in their haste to pack up they got a pizza order wrong, but overall the quality was superb and the food delicious.

We would have gone to Luigi's but that was a few blocks away.

We hurried back and this time were greeted at the door with showbags featuring the EB Games logo. What wonders awaited us inside? A soccer ball. No EB gift cards or coupons, no upcoming game catalogues, no advertisement fliers, just a soccer ball. Interesting.
While we were gone, someone dressed as Master Chief had appeared and was posing for photos, and I must say the costume looked pretty cool. After a little while, the announcer appeared once more and began a quiz show. The questions were all centered around EA games and their various developers, and the prizes were Super Soakers. Really? I imagine this was the planner's interpretation of "game giveaways".

Finally, the Queensland-based members of Instant Bun were welcomed onto the dance floor where they gave a quick but impressive performance before mingling and getting photos with fans. After this we'd just about had enough of the party and left, as we needed to be up early to pack up and check out of our hotel. It had been made pretty clear by this point that any prizes or gifts that were going to be given probably weren't worth the effort. I can't say the same for any of the other attendants of the after party, but for the majority of the night it seemed to be ridiculously planned and nothing that we couldn't have experienced at home with a club mix CD and a quick run to our local toy store. In fact, I suspect that half the attendants were simply regulars to East and had come for the nightclub, previously unaware of the expo event taking place. If Nick and I attend a future EB Expo and someone offers us an invitation to an after party, there'd have to be a very good reason for us to attend something like this again.