Is Origins going downhill?

I've been reading a number of reports from people who went to Origins and they all say the same thing. Everyone is saying that it is going downhill, or that it felt like a largish local convention this year. (This is 90% from miniatures focused forums, so the RPG area might ave felt different).

Was that your experience? What was wrong? What should they be doing different?

On one forum I commented that they should move location, away from GenCon (and the San Diego ComicCon as well).

I also suggested that they should try to move the data as well. This is tougher because summer is when you can get convention attendance (especially for one that is ever targeted at those of school age) and the summer season is very tight.

Could a focus change work? What do you think it should be?

This was the first year I had no events get canceled. It did seem like attendance was down and the dealer room was not that great. But I don't see anything wrong with it being a big local convention. We had a blast!

Looks like the Origin Awards went off smoothly this year, which is great.

This was my first ever Origins and I had a blast! Tons of games and I was able to get into any I wanted to play with my generic tickets. It may not be up to previous years, but it was still well attended.

Personally, I think folks ought to not spread doubt (which is usually unintentional and not "targeted" at anyone here) that could cause folks not to attend and suggest they support the event as best they can.

I would hold off judgment of Origins this year until we hear the returns from Gen Con, too. From what I've been hearing, it's not been a good year for big, national conventions, due to gas prices and rising costs of flights and hotels. That could be a major factor for all shows.

Of course, with the much, much, MUCH bigger electronic game element to Gen Con this year, it will be hard to measure versus last year's performance...

Comic-Con International numbers this year should help gauge what the effect of rising costs are. Last year was a record-breaker, and it's been growing every year. If it's off, then that's a definite indicator that general convention going is down.

Local and region cons are not affected as greatly, and might show a growth spurt during times of expensive travel as people decide to stay local rather than go national...

I had alot of fun. "downhill" is a subjective evaluation.

I played alot of RPGA games (the Xendrik ones were good, and of the three cores, 1 good, one middle, one meh; Spider Queen was fun for a special)

WOTC not having a booth was known, and understandable with Gencon soon after, and their apparent cost-cutting recently.

Wizkids not having much of any presence was odd, and seems to fit a "downhill" trend. (they had what seemed like an unstaffed booth just displaying some stuff, unless I missed something)

I keep playing too much RPGA and feel like I'm missing out on fun unique experiences. Next year I'm telling myself to focus on board and mini games.

I wanted to play in decent tourneys of Battlelore, Carcasssone, and Memoir '44. But according to my read of the schedule, there were few slots of these, and severely limited seating (I still think the Mem '44 tourneys were a typo, only allowing 2 seats. I don't want to play one game! I want to play a round robin tourney and have the possibility of winning a series of games to come out on top...assuming I win, at least.) Maybe "real" tourneys for these games are all at WBC, but I can't do both cons, and WBC doesn't have as much diversity.

There didn't seem to be a "new hot bardgame release" like past Origins had. Maybe that's just the state of the industry. The NDSM needs some new ad posters! ("Saddam, check your six" is outdated, thankfully!)

FFG should have a booth, but didn't.

Another disappointing thing was that Privateer Press and Rackham don't bring their entire lines for sale, just new stuff. Part of the fun of the dealer room is having the chance to see *everything*, even the stuff the FLGS might not have or be willing to get.

I got lucky buying individual boosters of Night Below in small batches (2 frost giants, 2 dire wraiths, 2 scorrows, 1 raistilin!)

a bit of decline is fine by me. It recalls Origins of the past! I wonder if numbers were really good.

I think if they keep trying to bill Origins as family-friendly, they need to vett their dealers better. LARPErs wearing outre' outfits is to be expected and is avoidable, but the Dark Angels booth (http://www.williamnickjohns.com/the-Journey-so-far/ NSFW ) parading women in slutty underwear for commercial purposes shouldn't be allowed. I have 2 kids with me, and I'd like to cruise around the dealer room without that. (Even without kids, frankly.)

I run lots of games in the boardgame room. The boardgame room felt extra empty and our numbers were way down. The dealer hall also felt empty. Some of my group felt that it was the date (they felt the problem that it was after July 4 instead of before). Personally I feel that it is chronic poor organization. This year the event lists were not posted until 1 month before the convention and even then there were missing items. Our events were also missentered into thier system (were tripple checked things so it was not us) with either wrong times or durations. While this would be forgivable for 1 year, this has been the case for at least the last 3. I really want Origins to succeed, but I fear that unless they get thier act together real soon there will be no more Origins.

Yeah, there was NO pre-reg book, only a huge pdf online. That probably hurt some, as well as the late online pre-reg system which was horrible.

I wonder if gaming companies are simply looking for more diversity in their cons? I hear a lot about RPG companies hitting comic cons, DragonCon, stuff like that. Origins might be caught in a bit of a squeeze.

That said, I've always enjoyed Origins. I'd love to go again.

Mystaros said:

I would hold off judgment of Origins this year until we hear the returns from Gen Con, too. From what I've been hearing, it's not been a good year for big, national conventions, due to gas prices and rising costs of flights and hotels. That could be a major factor for all shows.

Of course, with the much, much, MUCH bigger electronic game element to Gen Con this year, it will be hard to measure versus last year's performance...

Click to expand...

I'm not so sure the electronic component has any direct impact at all at this stage. Sure, more exhibitors and bigger E3 style booths - but that does impact on attendance, as such. It may in a few years - but not this year.

Without putting too fine a point on it- I rather thought the lack of any con updates from sources such as your Gaming Report .Com from the floor of Origins rather said it all. I don't think it's saying much to note that Origins was not being treated as a large national con by the press or the major manufacturers.

No WotC, no Wizkids, no FFG. A dealer room that was reportedly a fourth or so of Gencon's and without much real traffic. Nice if you are a shopper I suppose - but if you are an exhibitor - not a good situation at all and there is no reason to sugar coat this.

Origins is getting smaller - and Gencon is getting bigger and tracking for 30,000 attendes this year. Moreover, Origins' dealer room is getting smaller in terms of exhibitors too.

Gencon? Again - the absolute reverse. The trend is bigger and larger; onwards and upwards.

The one thing that could reverse this for Origins is for the con to ride the surge in the popularity of boardgames and miniatures and somehow focus upon those games as its main draw and emphasis. But from all accounts, it was not able to translate that aspect to success this year either.

If they don't turn it around REAL soon, I really don't think that treating Origins as a national games convention is juistifiable anymore. Arguably, the absence of WotC, Wizkids and FFG and many others just highlights the fact that Origins simply isn't being treated as a serious national convention any longer by the major players in the industry.