GAMA has their Expo show which is where vendors, retailers, media, manufacturers etc have a trade show for those discussions you want to have. Fyi. It's in Louisville in Feb 2025 next year
19:00 paint-&-take has been in the exhibit hall for about 20 years now; that's not something they just moved into there to fill space this year or anything
Yeah you all need to come down to the Hyatt side for RPG's. They are trying to have more boardgame/mini games near the convention exhibit hall side. My gaming group hosted nearly 300 rpg events alone in the Hayes room near the Hyatt.
I am a dice maker that was at Origins this year in Artist Alley. I know that there were 14-15 dice maker companies in Artist Alley and the Vendor Hall. These makers make their own dice. I think it's easy to walk by a dice vendor and just assume they are manu dice. In 2023, there was only around half the amount of handmade dice makers. Each of these makers have their own style and can be incredibly different from one another.
7:15 did you guys know about all the RPG events over in the hotel conference rooms / ballrooms? You don't see them from the exhibit hall/main gaming hall, but there's a lot of RPG gaming over there
You are comparing the GAMA 2023 10 x 10 (ten) size both cost with the GAMA 2024 10 x 20 (twenty) size both cost.... The 2023 would have to be doubled (2 x 10' spaces) to figure out the actual cost, which would then be $2510 vs $2615. It has gone up, about 4%. Certainly not 76% more. I'm not a huge fan of GAMA, but you have to compare apples to apples.
I have been going to Origins since 2000, if you want to ask me questions I will be happy to answer. With that said - my experience started as a MTG player in 98 to being an insane volunteer. this will be fun.
As someone who has gone off and on since 2006 and went the last three years, I definitely think they have been improving since the pandemic pause, but I will listen to your concerns here certainly!
Comment on the pride crossover after COVID when they cancelled their 2020 show they had to do new contracts with convention center and I believe it resulted in the date shifts
@@kristingenchi7697 Even before that, Pride and Origins didn't always line up. Back in the 00's it often overlapped with 4th of July weekend. Other years, it overlapped with ComFest, which was even more of a parking nightmare than Pride.
There is so much to do at origins, theres hundreds of events you can register for free including tabletop RPG and demoing/playing board games. The increase in pricing is insane but I can only imagine how much they have to pay the convention center itself. Shit rolls downhill unfortunately and it's rough to see how bad it's rolled down to the vendors, this makes it very difficult for small indie companies to come and demo their games
I'm just typing up stuff as I listen so there will be a chain here. The app is always bad and there were a lot of people complaining about it being very unfriendly to users. Letting people into the vendor hall at the same time the vendors get into the hall is such a bad idea, it makes things harder for the vendors to open and the visitors can't interact with the booths after paying extra for this access.
Any professional company should be explaining the reasoning behind their requirements so everyone can understand the reasons. If you just say because I know better is very childish and not how you should be sharing a professional relationship with your vendors. There has to be a reason they're requiring it, such as GAMA's insurance is forcing them to require vendors to have workers comp? We won't know since they won't say
Do you check in with registration? A lot of those people working at registration are volunteers and don't really have a lot of knowledge when fixing these badge issues.
Day passes are crazy at $45, there aren't any signs showing where to go for registration and absolutely no advertising anywhere in Columbus near or outside the convention. Most people I talk to here in Columbus in the board game scene haven't even heard about origins before.
Thanks for sharing with us, that's unfortunate to hear how tough it is to be a vendor and interact with GAMA staff this was my second year as an attendee and I had a great time. I've wondered what it's like as a vendor so it's nice to hear the other side
My dudes, there was an entire hall dedicated to miniatures gaming. Just because it's not Games Workshop doesn't mean there's no miniatures. Honestly, half the stuff you're saying here is just factually incorrect.
Where was the "entire hall dedicated to miniatures gaming"? I know there was a section in Hall C for miniature gaming events as well as some specific miniature gaming groups in Hall C, but I wouldn't call that an entire hall. Years ago, there was a dedicated miniature gaming hall, then a back section of a hall for miniature games and vendors, now it's just pockets of them in the gaming hall from what I seen.
@@kevinprice7620 it definitely wasn't an entire hall dedicated to minis gaming, but just looking at the map of the main gaming hall: just game space - HMGS has 2 islands both at 40x40 - Ohio War Kings had a 20x40 space - Buckeye Gamers had a 40x40 space - Red Shirts had a 40x50 space some retail space included - Mantic and Warlord each had a 20x40 - Catalyst had their own 40x40 space - the guys from the video had a 20x40 space note that this does *not* include the guys from Ares that had a mix of minis + tabletop stuff, or the minis table in our area, or all the games from folks like Frattenspiel that were just 'general' minis events and not nested under a specific group or org no, it wasn't an "entire hall" but it was more than there's been in a while. It just definitely leaned much more historical than it had in a while, and there were noticeably fewer sci-fi games that would fall into the WH40K camp
@@ulkesh99 I think the show can be great for attendees. I think specifically they had trouble as an exhibitor with a miniature game or wargame at a RPG and Board game focused convention
@@ulkesh99 we ran 6 Napoleonic Minis games at 4 hours each, playing Quatre Bras using the Charge! rules, and had the designer teaching, and we weren't even in the HMGS area.
I was going to be the one running the Dropfleet tournament in 23 but things happened as described in the video. What I observed made me not want to return I attended for events before covid and there was many events and vendors that I wanted to take part in other than just the drop verse events. As well as I would have loved to observe the pride festivities
My question is how did you expect to make money by going to Gen con? I thought you guys owned a game store and do not make or publish anything. Is this not true? I lived in Ohio for thirty years and knew four game store owners well. None of them expected to go to Gen con as an exhibitor. We all went as attendees. Much of that time I just bought a one day pass or simply did the vender hall. My gamer friend Steve who is an artist/producer of minis and decals for minis did go as an exhibitor occasionally. (He lives in Cleveland) When he did he took the smallest type of booth and staffed it with our mutual friend Richard so he could go talk to other venders.
We run the TTCombat booth and bring our extensive stock of their games, so we aren't there as just a FLGS. This is part of a deal with TTCombat to cover their presence at US shows. At other Conventions we de very well, to include GenCon. Anywho, they have wanted us to keep trying to go to Origins because they had been going in the past pre-pandemic and wanted to try to keep going and see of it recovers. We gave it multiple tries and I just don't think it makes sense for their IPs and products (anymore). They sort of have too many SKUs for a smaller booth too, but the real catch is attendance and do those attending have even a small interest on their games?
GAMA has their Expo show which is where vendors, retailers, media, manufacturers etc have a trade show for those discussions you want to have. Fyi. It's in Louisville in Feb 2025 next year
19:00 paint-&-take has been in the exhibit hall for about 20 years now; that's not something they just moved into there to fill space this year or anything
Yeah you all need to come down to the Hyatt side for RPG's. They are trying to have more boardgame/mini games near the convention exhibit hall side. My gaming group hosted nearly 300 rpg events alone in the Hayes room near the Hyatt.
I am a dice maker that was at Origins this year in Artist Alley. I know that there were 14-15 dice maker companies in Artist Alley and the Vendor Hall. These makers make their own dice. I think it's easy to walk by a dice vendor and just assume they are manu dice. In 2023, there was only around half the amount of handmade dice makers. Each of these makers have their own style and can be incredibly different from one another.
7:15 did you guys know about all the RPG events over in the hotel conference rooms / ballrooms?
You don't see them from the exhibit hall/main gaming hall, but there's a lot of RPG gaming over there
They clearly didn't know about most of what was going on outside of their immediate space in the Exhibitor's Hall.
To add almost all roleplaying would have occured in the Hyatt space
You are comparing the GAMA 2023 10 x 10 (ten) size both cost with the GAMA 2024 10 x 20 (twenty) size both cost.... The 2023 would have to be doubled (2 x 10' spaces) to figure out the actual cost, which would then be $2510 vs $2615. It has gone up, about 4%. Certainly not 76% more. I'm not a huge fan of GAMA, but you have to compare apples to apples.
They missed the note in the header that the price in 2023 was per table.
I have been going to Origins since 2000, if you want to ask me questions I will be happy to answer. With that said - my experience started as a MTG player in 98 to being an insane volunteer. this will be fun.
The Film Festival room was supposed to be free and simulcast on Twitch. The Smithee Awards on Friday was free. Where were you seeing a movie for $25?
As someone who has gone off and on since 2006 and went the last three years, I definitely think they have been improving since the pandemic pause, but I will listen to your concerns here certainly!
Comment on the pride crossover after COVID when they cancelled their 2020 show they had to do new contracts with convention center and I believe it resulted in the date shifts
@@kristingenchi7697 Even before that, Pride and Origins didn't always line up. Back in the 00's it often overlapped with 4th of July weekend. Other years, it overlapped with ComFest, which was even more of a parking nightmare than Pride.
There is so much to do at origins, theres hundreds of events you can register for free including tabletop RPG and demoing/playing board games. The increase in pricing is insane but I can only imagine how much they have to pay the convention center itself. Shit rolls downhill unfortunately and it's rough to see how bad it's rolled down to the vendors, this makes it very difficult for small indie companies to come and demo their games
I'm just typing up stuff as I listen so there will be a chain here. The app is always bad and there were a lot of people complaining about it being very unfriendly to users. Letting people into the vendor hall at the same time the vendors get into the hall is such a bad idea, it makes things harder for the vendors to open and the visitors can't interact with the booths after paying extra for this access.
Any professional company should be explaining the reasoning behind their requirements so everyone can understand the reasons. If you just say because I know better is very childish and not how you should be sharing a professional relationship with your vendors. There has to be a reason they're requiring it, such as GAMA's insurance is forcing them to require vendors to have workers comp? We won't know since they won't say
Do you check in with registration? A lot of those people working at registration are volunteers and don't really have a lot of knowledge when fixing these badge issues.
Day passes are crazy at $45, there aren't any signs showing where to go for registration and absolutely no advertising anywhere in Columbus near or outside the convention. Most people I talk to here in Columbus in the board game scene haven't even heard about origins before.
Thanks for sharing with us, that's unfortunate to hear how tough it is to be a vendor and interact with GAMA staff this was my second year as an attendee and I had a great time. I've wondered what it's like as a vendor so it's nice to hear the other side
I don't agree with everything said here, but it is good to hear a vendor's perspective on this con.
My dudes, there was an entire hall dedicated to miniatures gaming. Just because it's not Games Workshop doesn't mean there's no miniatures. Honestly, half the stuff you're saying here is just factually incorrect.
Where was the "entire hall dedicated to miniatures gaming"? I know there was a section in Hall C for miniature gaming events as well as some specific miniature gaming groups in Hall C, but I wouldn't call that an entire hall. Years ago, there was a dedicated miniature gaming hall, then a back section of a hall for miniature games and vendors, now it's just pockets of them in the gaming hall from what I seen.
@@kevinprice7620 it definitely wasn't an entire hall dedicated to minis gaming, but just looking at the map of the main gaming hall:
just game space
- HMGS has 2 islands both at 40x40
- Ohio War Kings had a 20x40 space
- Buckeye Gamers had a 40x40 space
- Red Shirts had a 40x50 space
some retail space included
- Mantic and Warlord each had a 20x40
- Catalyst had their own 40x40 space
- the guys from the video had a 20x40 space
note that this does *not* include the guys from Ares that had a mix of minis + tabletop stuff, or the minis table in our area, or all the games from folks like Frattenspiel that were just 'general' minis events and not nested under a specific group or org
no, it wasn't an "entire hall" but it was more than there's been in a while. It just definitely leaned much more historical than it had in a while, and there were noticeably fewer sci-fi games that would fall into the WH40K camp
sounds like you guys did NOT have a good time
Wish we had.
@@WhereYouGoForGames That's too bad. My spouse and I had a blast.
@@ulkesh99 I think the show can be great for attendees. I think specifically they had trouble as an exhibitor with a miniature game or wargame at a RPG and Board game focused convention
@@ARANGATA Weird, I saw numerous miniature/war games going on in the gaming hall, some of which were events or demos. Oh well.
@@ulkesh99 we ran 6 Napoleonic Minis games at 4 hours each, playing Quatre Bras using the Charge! rules, and had the designer teaching, and we weren't even in the HMGS area.
I was going to be the one running the Dropfleet tournament in 23 but things happened as described in the video. What I observed made me not want to return I attended for events before covid and there was many events and vendors that I wanted to take part in other than just the drop verse events. As well as I would have loved to observe the pride festivities
4:35 Um... y'all missing wargaming, which was why Origins was founded in the first place :)
My question is how did you expect to make money by going to Gen con? I thought you guys owned a game store and do not make or publish anything. Is this not true? I lived in Ohio for thirty years and knew four game store owners well. None of them expected to go to Gen con as an exhibitor. We all went as attendees. Much of that time I just bought a one day pass or simply did the vender hall. My gamer friend Steve who is an artist/producer of minis and decals for minis did go as an exhibitor occasionally. (He lives in Cleveland) When he did he took the smallest type of booth and staffed it with our mutual friend Richard so he could go talk to other venders.
We run the TTCombat booth and bring our extensive stock of their games, so we aren't there as just a FLGS. This is part of a deal with TTCombat to cover their presence at US shows. At other Conventions we de very well, to include GenCon. Anywho, they have wanted us to keep trying to go to Origins because they had been going in the past pre-pandemic and wanted to try to keep going and see of it recovers. We gave it multiple tries and I just don't think it makes sense for their IPs and products (anymore). They sort of have too many SKUs for a smaller booth too, but the real catch is attendance and do those attending have even a small interest on their games?
@@WhereYouGoForGames Thanks for the explanation.
That chirping sound in the background makes this video almost unlistenable.