Origins 2011 – Part 1

The 36th Origins Game Fair was held in Columbus, Ohio, June 22-26, 2011. Attendance increased from 2010 by 7.8%, going from 10,669 attendees to 11,502, while the number of full show badges ($75 onsite) went from 6,444 in 2010 to 6,545 in 2011. The number of day passes went from 4,225 to 4,957. (Statistics are from the Origins Game Fair website.)

NB: For 2012 and 2013, the dates for Origins are changing to May, specifically May 30 – June 3, 2012 and May 29 – June 2, 2013. These dates land in the school year for many people, possibly causing problems for people with children, university students, and teachers. If you would like to voice a concern, be sure to fill out the 2012 Date Change Survey. Scroll down to the bottom for the survey. More on this in Origins 2011 - Part 2.

Ribbons

Since my 2010 Origins article went down with Boardgame News (Whoops! —WEM), I'm going to repeat a little of what was written, plus I'm sure there are some "newbies" here who may not have seen the article at all. Such a shame! It was awesome. (Insert winking, grinning smiley here.) Okay, so what are ribbons and how do they work? They are actual physical ribbons in various colors that are stuck on badges, usually along the bottom. They typically have foil lettering on the front identifying the type.

The cost of event ribbons went up, from $16 last year to $20 this year. These ribbons allow access to all events covered by the corresponding ribbon. These should not be confused by the "fun" ribbons given out or sold at the convention, or the ribbons used for participating in the Mayfair Ribbon Quest. Nor should they be confused with the ones given to Guests, Press, Educators, and any number of other special attendees. All-in-all, there are quite a lot of ribbons. I have seen kids walking around with ribbons hanging from their badges down to the floor. Likely a tripping hazard, but what do I know – I don't have kids.

Here is a list of the event type ribbons:

1. Amtgard – unlimited play in the Amtgard boffer combat area (I have no idea what that means)
2. Big Experiment – access to all Looney Labs events (except in 2012 they are adding a separate "Are You a Werewolf" ribbon)
3. Board Room – access to the Board [Game] Room (The "must have" ribbon!)
4. HOT – access to all historical miniature events
5. Mayfair – access to the Mayfair Games room, including all scheduled events and tournaments
6. Origins After Dark – access to the Origins After Dark events. Events began at 6 p.m. each evening; geared towards the 18-and-over crowd
7. Puffing Billy – access to Puffing Billy train game events and tournament qualifiers
8. War College – access to the War College seminars
9. War Room (Ending 2011) – same as the Board Room except for war games. Starting in 2012, this ribbon will be merged into the Board Room ribbon, i.e., war games will be available in the Board Room
10. Werewolf (Beginning 2012) – $10, access to Looney Labs "Are You a Werewolf" events

Board Room

Started in 2006, the Board [Game] Room continues to be very popular. CABS (Columbus Area Boardgaming Society) is the host. For 2011 it was moved to Exhibit Hall F, behind Exhibit Hall E, with access from Exhibit Hall D (the open gaming, board games, and miniatures hall). I can't say I'm enamored with the location; it's quite a hike to get back there. Good thing I brought my Skechers Shape-ups(TM). At least the added exercise helped me to wear off the overabundance of yummy food I ate while attending Origins (see the "Food" section below). It may be all hype, but I'm willing to believe.

My Skechers Shape-ups, like walking on a cloud (Photo from Skechers website)

The Board Room ribbon ($20) gives attendees access to the huge CABS library of games. This year's library contained 1,018 games. Over the course of five days, there were 1,720 checkouts: Wednesday 328, Thursday 373, Friday 449, Saturday 491, Sunday 79. A total of 479 different games were checked out.

Top fifteen breakdown:
• Dominion (checked out more than twice as often as second place!)
• Innovation
• Agricola
• Dominion: Prosperity
• Dominion: Intrigue
• Tie between Small World and Can't Stop
• Tie between The Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne
• Tie between 7 Wonders and Alien Frontiers
• Tie between Power Grid and Tichu
• Code 777
• Twilight Struggle

I'm sure the only reason Tichu was not at the top was because most players bring their own decks! For comparison, the top thirteen games checked out in 2010, starting with most popular, were: Dominion, Dominion: Intrigue, Innovation, a tie between Stone Age and Carson City, a tie between Lost Cities and Power Grid Factory Manager, a tie between Power Grid and Small World, and a tie between Fresco, Race for the Galaxy, Agricola, and Founding Fathers.

Quarriors! in the Board Room, slightly over-acted

Again this year, every ribbon holder received a free game. I am not sure how many companies donated; I couldn't get a list this time. I did see the following games go by though: The Heavens of Olympus, Chicago Express expansion, Mousquetaires du Roy, Asteroyds, Black Friday, and Priests of Ra.

There was some snafu regarding the ribbons. CABS was not selling them this year, and they were available only at registration. For some reason, Origins ran out of ribbons fairly early. I'm not sure why this happened; they sold out last year so they should have been ready. Some other ribbon was substituted but I heard that there were issues with these such as the guard for the room didn't recognize them as valid and neither did the CABS people giving out the games. Hopefully next year things will run more smoothly.

Board Games Room and Origins Awards Games

The Board Games room in Exhibit Hall D (not to be confused with the Board Room, run by CABS) usually has lots of stuff going on with a large space for open gaming. Some companies run demos in there, for example, this year WizKids was showing Star Trek: Expeditions. Table Top gaming events are run in there; these are ticketed events generally run by a GM (Game Master) and listed in the Origins Event Guide. Note: You may download an Excel spread sheet of Table Top events from the Origins website. You might also find a few giant games to play as well.

Giant Formula Dé

In an unprecedented move, this year GAMA made available all the games to be voted upon, during Origins, for the 37th Annual Origins Awards. The games were available for checkout in the open gaming area of the Board Games room. Voting was also moved to the front of this hall. In the past the games were simply displayed in a glass showcase. Attendees still received one vote. I am not sure whether this solved one of the biggest problems, in my opinion, with voting in the past: Vendors who had a game nominated would hand out ballots in their booths in the exhibit hall and ask attendees to fill them out, voting for their game. I saw this happen successfully three times. At least this is a step in the right direction.

Rio Grande Games Room

Another ribbon was required here, but this one was FREE! Actually they ran out of ribbons but no one was turned away. Over 1,000 attendees visited the room. The Rio Grande Games room was upstairs, across from the Exhibit Hall D. It was a little tricky to find but they put banners around to direct attendees. It was very well organized, with several friendly representatives available to teach a variety of Rio Grande games. (Over 20 different games were available.) The room held about 25 to 30 tables and was open roughly between the hours of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Snacks were available a couple times a day. The room did fill up – there was even a line Saturday evening.

For 2012 the Rio Grande Games room will be on the first floor across from the exhibit halls so it should be easier to find. Likely it will be the former location of the Big Experiment. Looney Labs told me it would be canceling the Big Experiment in 2012 due to the date change as the publisher lost most of its student volunteers.

Auction

This year GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association) ran the auction. In the past it had been run by Troll and Toad. It was done in two parts: a silent auction and a live auction. Bidding was free, although bidders had to register for the live auction in order to participate. Sellers were charged a registration fee of $1 per item for each type of auction. The website listed a 15% commission on the sale price as well, but it is unclear whether it was on all auction items or just on the live auction items.

Unfortunately there was no consignment shop this year. This was my favorite part of the auction area. The regular auction takes too much time to sit through, so I rarely go to it. (There's no set schedule for items.) I emailed John Ward, the Executive Director for GAMA, about why it was discontinued but did not receive a reply. Hopefully he'll read this and reply in the comments. My only guess is that GAMA sees the silent auction as a replacement. If anyone participated in the silent auction, please leave a comment and let us know how it went!

Food

One of my favorite topics: FOOD! If you aren't already acquainted with the North Market, located about a block from the convention center, it is the place to eat lunch during Origins. The second floor has seating all round the open middle, which looks down on the main floor. There are picnic tables out front. If you are lucky (or unlucky, depending), there may be live music outside.

View from the second floor of the North Market

There is also a room with a studio kitchen, called The Dispatch Kitchen, where food editor Robin Davis' weekly cooking segments are filmed for WBNS-10TV Columbus. This is also where they hold their School of Cooking Series classes.

Sadly, my favorite stop for lunch, Barry's New York Deli, has closed. It had been sold (over a year ago) and was no longer run by Barry's family. This year I ended up at Tom Vasel's favorite deli, Heil's Family Deli instead.

Heil's Family Deli – you can just barely see the owner, Alex, peeking out from above the large display case near the customer

The Reuben sandwich is huge and quite tasty, although I wish they could grill it. (It is served warm, but I don't think they have a grill.) Check out the photo below. I don't drink Mtn Dew – a friend put it there as a size reference. Another friend (Bob!) put the red bull in front; it's especially helpful I'm sure. You can see a photo of Bob playing Quarriors! earlier in the article – he's the one on the far right.

Heil's Family Deli Rueben and farm fresh deviled eggs

This year a friend helped me to "branch out" by trying the big dogs at Best of the Wurst. The hot dog was pretty darn good. I even went back later in the week for another. I also tried the pork and beef BBQ at Holy Smoke. The portions are huge. (Good thing I had someone with whom to share it!) They offer a variety of sauces, from mild to super hot.

I love love love Taste of Belgium – not only for their deliciously sweet Belgian waffles but also for their crêpes. (At rush hour it may take a while to get your crêpe since they make them up fresh.) The waffles are thick and almost as sweet as a cookie, chewy on the inside and crisp on the outside. They are best when served still warm off the griddle. You may add chocolate, strawberries and/or whipped cream toppings too! Mmmmmmmmm waffles.

Taste of Belgium waffles <wipes up drool>

If you want to be really decadent, try a scoop of ice cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams on top of your Belgian waffle. My favorite is the Dark Chocolate. I took some video while walking around, both from above and on the main floor. Warning: You may want to eat something before watching.

Here's a quick tour of the North Market with a few stops at my favorite places

The Dice Tower Annual Dinner

Once again, listeners, hosts, co-hosts, and contributors of The Dice Tower podcast converged upon Max & Erma's restaurant for dinner. We pretty much take over the downstairs dining room every year. Of course I had one of my favorites, the Tortilla Soup (an excuse to eat lots of cheese in bowl; hey, there are a few veggies and some chicken thrown in). Of course we ordered the literally hot-off-the-cookie-sheet macadamia nut cookies. Um. Where's the cookie sheet? And the cookies were cold! We asked our waiter to explain and learned that someone either burned themselves on the hot cookies or the hot cookie sheet. Why do stupi… uh, certain people have to spoil things for others? Our waiter brought out replacement plate of cookies hot-off-the-cookie-sheet (minus the cookie sheet). He got a big tip.

Stay tuned for more Origins in Part Deux!