Thanks guys! Nope, I'm still glad I went, and don't view it as a wasted week, as anytime away from work is a good week; and after a few days to rest and dwell on my experience, I'm still not sure what went "wrong" (in my
opinion, of course) with the show this year. The "wrong" centers mainly on a few things, which I'll highlight below...but first, a brief explaination on how the whole gig works:
- There is a Dealers (or Exhibits) Hall, where vendors sell games and LARP (Live Action Role Playing) paraphanalia, and other items such as tee shirts and apparel, DVD's, a battle area where you can sword fight (with foam armaments), and have a Blood Drive Area. You can also DEMO games, often with the designers themselves, and participate in Beta Testing.
- There is an Event Hall where you can pay for Event Tickets to secure a seat in a specific game, or pay Origins Tokens to buy your way into a game. If there is an open seat after 10 minutes after the game is scheduled to commence, you pay to get in, on a first come first served basis. Event Tickets will trump buying your way in on site. For instance, there was a RISK game played a couple nights in a row; the first night I checked didn't go off, and the second night had a full six players. These six players had purchased Event Tickets to the game in advance to secure the seats. If you know there is a specific game you want to play, and it's on the schedule in the Event Hall, then buying an Event Ticket is the best way to secure a seat, if it goes off.
- There is a Miniatures Hall whereminiatures are played, such as Flames of War, SG1, Axis & Allies Miniatures, Star Wars, etc., and all manner of hybrids are played. This runs the gamut from small layouts to some that are 10-foot square and larger! Truely amazing battles go on here. Again, you can secure a seat with an Event Ticket, buy your way in with Origin Tokens, or I believe in this area, use a HOT Ribbon (Historical Oriented Themes? ...I'm not quite sure what HOT stands for, and as I haven't played in here before, I'm not entirely sure as to it's mechanics).
- There are games and miniatures happening in the main concorse areas, and a few nooks and crannies. Mayfair Games, for instance, has a section of the concourse all to themselves.
- There are seminars going on in numerous small rooms. Military specific seminars are put on by the Origins War College, and a seat at which can be secured by with an Event Ticket, buy your way in with Origin Tokens, or with the purchase of a War College Ribbon. Event Tickets trum Ribbons, Ribbons trum tokens...in decending order. Some seminars are free, and first come first served.
- There is a LARP component that transpires all over the place. LARPers dress up a live the lives of everything from Vampires, to Pirates, to Wild Westeners, to Fantasy, to Sleuthers, etc. This can be very interesting!
- And lastly, and an interesting component, is two areas (ball rooms actually) set aside for the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society (CABS), called the Board Room and War Room. The Board Room allows you to play boardgames (think RISK)...family games, Euro games, card games, that are completed in short sessions; whereas the War Room allows you to play wargames (think Advanced Squad Learder, etc.), which are the cardboard counter-type simulation games that take place over many hours of days to complete a game. You can purchase a Board Room and/or War Room Ribbon (separately), which allow you to walk in and play 24 hours a day...either sign out a game, join in a game started by someone else, or bring your own game (a lot of people try out new games they've just bought in the Dealer's Hall); or you can buy your way into a game with Origin Tokens. There are no Event Tickets for these areas.
OK...now that you understand a bit of the mechanics of how the Fair works, these are the things I found wrong this year, and hence my rather low rating:
1. The Event Staff (volunteer and otherwise) were generally clueless, which can be forgiven to a degree, and far too many were rude, which can never be forgiven in a customer service vein. Purchasing my Boardroom Ribbon and Event tokens (basically, Origins money-type wooden tokens used to buy your way into a game) onsite, for instance, required a long line to stand in, which was expected, but once I survived my trip to the head of the line, the young woman behind the desk was a not quite all there; while her computer gave her problems, she deserted me to ask a question of a senior member (which I thought related to my purchase, but in fact not related at all!), and by the time she got back about 15 minutes later, she realized she gave me my tokens, but not the Ribbon I paid for (of which I thought she was seeking an answer to "something" on). 15 minutes may not seem a long time...unless you'd been standing in line for well over an hour! While waiting for Miss Seaworthy, I had to put up with Mr. Sunshine, who being a senior staff member, one would expect anything other than being a rude SOB, as he was trying to figure out why I was just standing there...ahhhh, maybe to get MY RIBBON!!!!!!!!!! He backed down after I "educated" him.
2. The game host for the Axis & Allies Miniatures Slugfest did not follow up on his event. He seemed mainly concerned with the Axis & Allies Boardgames (the original, Guadalcanal, D-Day, etc.) tournaments in the Event Hall, and never apparantly checked on the miniature's Slugfest going down properly in the Miniatures Hall. The Event Staff didn't know where the game was being played (and if fact, it wasn't); the miniatures game going on at the tables next to the assigned area (when I asked them if anyone was there) said there were nothing but crickets at the empty tables next to them, and had a couple people ask; and when I asked the Slugfest host what the story was...yup, he was rude. I sincerely hope the Slugfest plays next year, as I'd love to play in it, but I have no high hopes.
3. The games being played in the Event Hall (where boardgames that you've bought Event Tickets to play specific games in) seemed much less in numbers, and a lot of the games from last year were not represented. The was a huge, and I mean HUGE, Pokemon Championship in there....and the ton of little kids was quite annoying. A few of the gaes I was going to try and buy my way into never happened, as there weren't any players, ot were totally booked and had no room. Feast or famin. I guess this is to be expected to some degree...but I simply did not see the numbers of bodies in there that I had seen last year. I had noticed that there weren't as many games on the lists for me to sign up for this year, which reinforced my decision to stick with a Boardroom Ribbon.
4. The seminars were not as good for meas last year...again, to me anyways. Last Year, the War College was hosted by Armchair General, and there a lot of seminars geared toward military history. This year had a general theme geared more to teachers, which is cool, but I'm not a professional teacher. And whereas Armchair General had a hand in things this year, it was a small hand.
5. Last year, the Expo was held around the 4th of July, at which attendees had the opportunity to view a huge parade and fireworks show; and a weekend long foodfest, which supplemented the sad array of dining choices otherwise available. This year, the Fair was held a week earlier. (Note: this year the Origins International Game Expo was changed in name to a Game Fair).
6. Even the LARP contingent was a smaller...and duller.
Well, those are some of the more major issues I had with the show. But let me stress that I did have a lot of fun, as well. But with the price of flying from Massachusetts, and hotel for a week....the thing needs to be firing on all thrusters to make it worth the money invested. Perhaps it was just an odd year. I won't e too quick to pass judgement.