We’ll it must be that time of the year again… when Dr. Jeff Brand and the gang at Bond Uni deliver their report on the Australian Game Industry for the IEAA (Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia). The usual stats are available — splits between gender, game ‘genre’ preferences, gamers versus non-gamers — plus the R18+ “debate”. It shouldn’t really be a continuing debate since the report for this year is that the average age of a gamer is now 30 (up from 28 last year)… yet we still don’t have a R18+ for games (but its available for other media). Its definitely worth a read… even if only for a general overview of the state of play in Australia.

You can get your hands on a copy of the report at the IEEA site http://ieea.com.au (its a 2.80MB PDF).

Links
Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia: http://ieea.com.au

Over the weekend - while in Newtown, Sydney - I managed to stumble across a cool bookshop simply called the “FIlm and Televsion Bookshop”. It was a small shop but had some top quality books, including many I had purchased from overseas. At the back of the shop was a green gleaming gem of a book that just screamed “buy me”. I already had this book on my wish list, so I couldn’t resist.

The book was “To Infinity and Beyond!”, the history of Pixar studios. This is a beautifully presented hard bound, cloth covered book which tracks Pixar’s first 20 years. I’m really looking forward to reading it… and sharing it with my kids, especially my son who has grown up with Pixar animation and seems to love all things Pixar.

Links
Film and TV Bookshop: http://www.filmtvbookshop.com.au
To Infinity and Beyond:
http://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Beyond-Story-Animation-Studios/dp/0811850129/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223372044&sr=8-1

After a short hiatus traveling across this great land of ours, I managed to get hooked up to an internet connection long enough to share with you some happenings on my blog. This week, in Sydney, I will be aboard the “Ark” in my role as Research Manager at UsabilityOne. Its not as biblical as it seems, rather I’ll be chairing and presenting at the Advancing Intranet Management in the Public Sector conference presented by Ark Group Australia. I

‘m looking forward to meeting all the delegates over the next couple of days, and am really excited about speaking on customisation and personalisation (something that is huge within the games industry). Hope to see you there!

Links
Ark Group: http://www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/default.htm