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Origins Game Fair is an annual gaming convention that was first held in 1975. Since 1996, it has been held in Columbus, Ohio at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Origins is run by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA). Origins was chartered to serve gaming in general, including wargaming and miniatures gaming.

Origins is the site of the annual Origins Awards ceremony. For many years, the Charles S. Roberts Awards for historical boardgames were presented at Origins, but these are now presented at the World Boardgaming Championships. Board games, trading card games, LARPs and role-playing games are also popular at Origins.

Origins Game Fair was formerly known as the Origins International Game Expo. The name was changed in the summer of 2007.

Origins typically has a theme each year, which affects some of the events and decorations like banners or art, and the Origins mascot will be depicted wearing an outfit related to the theme as well. The theme in 2012 was Time Travel. In 2014 it was Monster. 2014 was also the 40th Origins convention and, keeping with the Monster theme, they introduced the mascot Crit. In 2015 the theme was Space. In 2016 it was Robots. 2017 was Dragons. 2018 was Mystery. 2019 was Mythical. A survey was distributed online to help select the theme for the 2020 show. The options were: Scary Fun, Games Around the World, Adventure, Futuristic, and Top Secret. According to the 2019 Origins Sitebook, the theme for 2020 will be Games Around the World.

History

Origins started in 1975 with a gathering of game players in Baltimore, Maryland. The Interest Group Baltimore, a local wargaming club, worked with the Baltimore-based Avalon Hill game company to put on the first show that year at Johns Hopkins University.

Avalon Hill produced the first commercial war games in 1958. In a nod to Baltimore's position as the home of Avalon Hill and the birthplace of the commercial wargame hobby, Don Greenwood, a game designer with Avalon Hill and founder of the convention, suggested calling the show "Origins". Over the next few years, both Avalon Hill and SPI (another wargame company) ran the show. As the show continued expanding, the Game Manufacturers Association assumed management in 1978. RuneQuest debuted as Chaosium's first RPG at the Origins convention in Ann Arbor, Michigan in July 1978.

In each of 1988 and 1992, Origins and Gen Con joined together to hold a single convention in Milwaukee.

In April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was announced that Origins would be postponed from its usual mid-June date to October 7–11. In its place, an event called Origins Online was to be held that would allow attendees to "demo and buy games and merchandise" and offer "streaming workshops and educational seminars with guest authors, artists and game designers, plus hundreds of games online that attendees can sign up to participate in."

In June, due to a lack of response by GAMA concerning Black Lives Matter and the George Floyd Protests, some members of the community who were intending to run or participate in Origins Online events stepped down, and others joined them in solidarity. Such a large number of people withdrew, it is speculated that Origins Online may not have been able to run without them. Regardless of the reason, Origins Online was cancelled completely, and GAMA offered to "match, dollar for dollar, any exhibitor, sponsor, advertiser, or vendor who donates the amounts they are owed for Origins Online to one of" several different black organizations. Soon after, the regular Origins convention was cancelled for 2020 as well, citing fears of a second wave of COVID-19. This would mark 2020 as the first year without an Origins convention since 1975.

ICv2 reported that Origins had "17,706 attendees" in June 2024 which was "up over 9% from 2023's attendance total, which was 16,082 people, but still down around 14% from the last pre-pandemic show in 2019, where Origins drew 20,642 people". Additionally in 2024, Origins "had 326 exhibitors, up for 2023's count of 305" and event totals went "from 6,135 to 6,528, up about 6%".

Venues

Columbus, Ohio

Throughout the first twenty years of its life, Origins migrated from city to city, until in 1996, GAMA decided to anchor Origins in a single location. After considering a number of possibilities, GAMA chose Columbus, Ohio.

Controversies

Several reports of sexual harassment emerged after 2018 Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio. After multiple first hand accounts were published on social media and Reddit, GAMA, released a public statement regarding the complaints and has since then updated its anti-harassment policies.

See also

• Gen Con
• UK GamesExpo
• Festival International des Jeux
• Spiel

References

1. "Origins Game Fair 2014 – Time For a Monster of a Weekend!". wormholeriders.org. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
2. Laws, Robin D. (2007). 40 Years of Gen Con. Atlas Games. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-58978-097-2.
3. "The History of TSR". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2005-08-20.
4. "Origins Game Fair Postponed to October; Origins Online Scheduled for June". Origins Game Fair. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
5. "Board Gaming's Industry Body Refuses To Say A Word About Black Lives Mattering [Update]". Kotaku. 11 June 2020. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
6. ^ "Origins Online". Origins Game Fair. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
7. ^ Dohm-Sanchez, Jeffrey (July 8, 2024). "GAMA Reports Origins Game Fair 2024 Attendance". ICv2. Retrieved July 9, 2024.
8. ^ "1974". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2012-02-10.
9. ^ "1975". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2008-08-28.
10. ^ "1976". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2008-01-30.
11. ^ "1977". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2008-08-28.
12. ^ "1978". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2008-08-28.
13. ^ "1979". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2008-11-20.
14. ^ "1980". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2009-01-05.
15. ^ "1981". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2008-11-20.
16. ^ "1982". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2008-08-28.
17. ^ "1983". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2008-08-28.
18. ^ "1984". Charles S. Roberts Awards. Alan Emrich. Archived from the original on 2012-02-10.
19. "14,000 To attend Origins Game Expo at Greater Columbus Convention Center". Press Releases. Experiencecolumbus.com. 2004-06-22. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
20. ^ "Facebook Post from Convention Management after 2013 event". Facebook. 2013-06-18. Retrieved 2014-06-19.
21. ^ "Origins Game Fair". Origins Game Fair.
22. "Facebook Post from Convention Management after 2014 event". Facebook. 2014-06-18. Retrieved 2014-06-19.
23. Nicole Bunge (June 10, 2015). "Origins Attendance Up Over 23%". ICV2. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
24. "Origins Attendance Report". Facebook. June 20, 2016. Archived from the original on 2022-02-26. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
25. Niebling, William. "Origins Attendance Up". ICv2. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
26. "Future Dates". Origins Game Fair. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
27. "Origins attendance up substantially this year". ICV2. Archived from the original on June 22, 2018. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
28. "Origins Game Fair Where Gaming Begins". Retrieved August 8, 2018.
29. ^ "Future Dates--Origins Game Fair". Retrieved May 31, 2021.
30. "Origins Game Fair". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2021-10-09.
31. "GAMA Reports Origins 2022 Attendance". www.icv2.com. Retrieved 2022-06-22.
32. "GAMA Reveals Origins 2023 Attendance". www.icv2.com. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
33. "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
34. Hall, Charlie (22 June 2018). "Accusations of sexual harassment rock the board gaming community: First-hand reports from the Origins convention spark outcry". polygon.com. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
35. ^ STAFF (22 June 2018). "Multiple reports of sexual harassment emerge from this year's Origins Game Fair". tabletopgaming.co.uk. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
36. Arlette, Kristine (25 June 2018). "Sexual Harassment Accusations at Tabletop Gaming Convention". puls1player.com. Archived from the original on 30 January 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
37. "For anybody that is concerned about the situation that happened the other day. It was me, and I'll be talking to GAMA today". @GeekEnby. 17 June 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Twitter.
38. ""Are you gonna play the victim all life long?" My experience as a woman in board gaming, in brief". u/abigaila. 22 June 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Reddit.
39. "Show Policies/Code of Conduct". GAMA. 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2021.

External links

• Official website

v t e Wargames
Professional wargaming	Professional wargaming Kriegsspiel Western Approaches Tactical Unit Sigma war games
Recreational wargaming	Recreational wargaming Miniature wargaming Board wargame Computer wargame Naval wargaming
People	19th century Johann Hellwig (1743–1831) Georg von Reisswitz (1794–1827) Julius von Verdy du Vernois (1832–1910) William McCarty Little (1845–1915) 20th century H. G. Wells (1866–1946) Jack Scruby (1916–1988) Don Featherstone (1918–2013) Tony Bath (1926–2000) Charles S. Roberts (1930–2010) Allan B. Calhamer (1931–2013) Phil Barker (born 1932) Gary Gygax (1938–2008) Redmond Simonsen (1942–2005) Jim Dunnigan (born 1943) Richard Berg (1943–2019) John Hill (1945–2015) Tom Dalgliesh (born 1945) S. Craig Taylor (1946–2012) Paddy Griffith (1947–2010) Marc W. Miller (born 1947) Larry Harris, Jr. (born 1948) Don Greenwood Frank Chadwick Stephen V. Cole Greg Costikyan (born 1959) Gilbert Roberts (1900–1986) 21st century Craig Besinque Ty Bomba Richard Borg James M. Day Mike McVey Joseph Miranda Rick Priestley Andy Chambers Mark Simonitch Jerry Taylor Dan Verssen Martin Wallace Matt Ward
Organizations	Groups Castle & Crusade Society Game Manufacturers Association International Federation of Wargaming International Wargames Federation Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers Events Charles S. Roberts Award Gen Con Origins Game Fair Origins Award World Boardgaming Championships

• Gaming conventions
• Trade shows in the United States
• Recurring events established in 1975
• 1975 establishments in Maryland