William C. Wake, William.Wake@acm.org, July, 2004
Originally appeared in Simages, August, 2004
(Trademarks are capitalized).
The Origins ’04 International Games Expo (http://www.originsgames.com) is a game conference sponsored by the Game Manufacturer’s Association (GAMA). It was held at the Columbus (Ohio) Civic Center, June 23-27, 2004.
This is a huge conference. It used a lot a lot of small conference rooms and ballrooms, and three cavernous rooms (each the size of a football field). Two of these large rooms were full of tables for gamers; the other was host to a sales floor with about 225 vendors.
As you might expect, there were a huge number of simultaneous events (more than 100 in certain hours). Events were divided into several categories: special events, CCGs (Collectible Card Games, e.g., Magic the Gathering), LARPs (Live Action Role Plays), Miniatures (including the "Origins War College"), RPGs (Role-Playing Games, e.g., Dungeons & Dragons), Seminars, and Tabletop (board and card games).
I tried many games, and had fun with each, including: Freight Train (an easy-to-learn train game), National Security Decision Making (a LARP, though the organizers perhaps wouldn’t like that label), Hex Hex (a "hate your neighbor" card game), Bridge (the classic), Aquarius (a domino-style card game), Cargo (a strategy board game), Yu Yu Hakusho (a CCG), and others.
I took advantage of the vendor’s area to pick up a bunch of games (not all new, but mostly new to me). So far, my family has enjoyed all the ones we’ve played: Aquarius (Looney Labs), Bang (Mayfair), A Dog’s Life (Euro Games), Early American Chrononauts (Looney Labs), Hex Hex (Smirk & Dagger), Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot (my high-schoolers’ favorite) (Playroom), Sherlock (Playroom), and Trans America (Rio Grande).
WizKids had huge lines for their click-base miniatures. (These build formulas into the figure’s base in a very clever way). But their Pirates of the Spanish Main was even more popular: it’s a miniature "wargame," but you first punch your ship out of a plastic sheet and assemble it.
There were a number of party games (ala Cranium or Pictionary), but none appealed to me very much. There were almost no word games, except Palabra (a rummy-style word card game) and Super Scrabble (with a bigger board and quadruple-score tiles). CCGs and RPGs seemed to be the dominant categories.
This was a good conference. Some of the logistics were tricky for a first-timer, and it was too big to have an intimate feel. But I had a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about the breadth of games that are out there. I’d consider attending again next time: June 30-July 3, 2005, in Columbus, Ohio.