Karl T.

We went to Origins Game Fair last week. My previous post covered the games we played; this post is about everything else.

The convention was, overall, pleasant -- not as crowded as I expected for the 50th year, at least in the parts we frequented, but we had critical mass for all the games we played and it was nice to not have to push through crowds like at GenCon.

We had one excellent teacher, several good ones, and a couple terrible ones. In one game it became clear two hours in that we were missing an important rule, and another was very disorganized. There is a wide range from "enthusiastic fan who wants to evangelize the game" at one end to "I'm hoping to book enough game-running slots to get free admission" at the other, and I don't know if there is any sort of feedback to the convention. I didn't see a way to let them know that that person running Terraforming Mars was outstanding and should be invited back, for instance. And maybe that's not even the right model; I have no idea how Origins makes decisions about who can run games, or if they even do. They collect the tickets at games, so they know both how many people registered for a game and how many actually showed up, but I don't know if that affects future years for that game, that game-runner, or nothing.

I was satisfied with most of the games we played; we expected both positive and negative reactions, so a game I don't like very much (or feel neutral about) is still useful data. We can try many more games than we can ultimately bring back to our gaming groups, after all, so eliminating candidates is important too. That said, we identified half a dozen games that we liked enough to want to get (though one of them is way too expensive so we won't unless that changes), so I consider that to be very successful.

We did not do a good job of pacing this year, exacerbated by getting locked out of most of our choices for the middle day, when our first-draft schedule had some breaks built in. We ended up with a lot of long, solid blocks and didn't factor in the cognitive load of learning all those games. We can invite friends over and play games we already know for ten hours and be quite happy, but that doesn't mean ten straight hours of new convention games with strangers are a good idea. I need to remember this for next year. Also, we should front-load more and give ourselves more breaks on Friday and especially Saturday. There is a temptation to book Saturday solid because it's Shabbat so it's not like we're going out for lunch or having dinner much before 10PM, but it's a mistake.

In two or three games this year, the game-runners used an app to choose the starting player (everyone touch this phone). For the game that was on Shabbat I declined and was ready to accept going last, but the person just shrugged and randomized a different way, which was nice. I've see people use that app (or an app, anyway) before, and it always makes me wonder: did this problem need an app? We have been randomly choosing a meeple or rolling dice for this for decades and I've never felt that to be lacking. Only later did the info-security aspect occur to me: I should also maybe not be eager to hand over a fingerprint impression to someone who knows my name (from the event ticket), just on general principle.

We went to two seminars (though both on the same day, so they didn't help as much with pacing as they could have). One was pretty good; in the other one, halfway through I asked Dani if he was enjoying it, he said "no me neither", and we left as discreetly as we could. Three other people followed us out, almost like they were waiting for someone to start. The presenter probably had interesting things to say but did not seem to have prepared the talk. We've had that experience before with this particular fan group (some groups run "tracks" of activities), so I'll pay more attention to that in future years. Origins also has a films room, a few comedy or music performances, and a little bit in the way of crafts, so we should look at those too. I don't think I can lure Dani into the figure-painting area, but I used to enjoy that and it could be a way to break up a non-Shabbat day.

Most of the games are run in one of the big halls in the convention center. I think there's a cumulative draining effect from the harsh fluorescent lights and the background noise of all those other games, and that's another thing to take into account when we try to build a schedule -- if that information is available in April when we choose events, which I don't remember.

Some game-runners were good about accommodating my vision needs, but a few brushed me off and in one game, both the game-runner and two of the other players were kind of rude about it. When I asked for help during the game because I couldn't see and couldn't memorize everything ("which tile is that (points)?" etc), I picked up some sighs and the vague sense that the reaction might have been different if I were not the only woman at the table. I can't point to anything specific and I'm not someone who jumps to conclusions about sexism, but this kinda felt like it. I was often the only woman at the table in the games I played and most of the time I didn't pick up this vibe, so I think it was just that one group of people.

We did one quick run through the dealers' room. We only saw one "general" games vendor, as opposed to publishers selling their own games. We also walked past a lot of banners, plushies, dice, jewelry, miniatures, and LARP gear. Several publishers had raffles for unspecified games or expansions/components, winner must be present at such-and-such time on Sunday. That's easy for the vendor but hard for participants, so even though we got handed free tickets at some games we played, we didn't bother with any of them.

The first year we went to Origins we got a hotel that was about a mile away, so we walked to the convention in the morning and stayed all day. There aren't a lot of good places in the convention center to sit and take a break for an hour, though, so after that, we started paying for closer hotels. This year we were right across the street from the convention center, and being able to go back to the room for an hour between sessions turns out to be a really huge win. Also, our hotel had coffee available all day in the lobby, so that was a nice bonus. We never had to stand in the long lines at the coffee places in the convention center (or pay $5 or more for a cup of coffee).

The multi-day heat wave started during the convention. This made the drive home a little challenging. Under normal circumstances we wouldn't have made that extra stop to get something cold to drink and sit in Panera's air conditioning, but it sure helped this time! Originally we had planned to leave Columbus after the hottest part of the day, but a no-show game-runner messed with our plans and we left earlier.