Origins Game Fair: What's it like?

[Distant Scholar]

I'm considering going to Origins this year, but I don't know much about it.

What's it like? Does it have a particular feel/flavor? In particular, I've gone to GenCon a couple of times; how do the two compare?

What sort of companies have a presence there, and what sort of offerings do they offer?

I've tried looking at their web page, but I couldn't find much useful information about 2013's show there.

[Lee Hanna]

I enjoy it, I've been every year since 1994. I was last at GenCon in '85, so I can't really make a comparison. I have read that the crowd is smaller than GenCon, and last year was an unfortunately bad year for that, due to lousy timing.

Origins seems to try to be all games to all people. There is no single focus, it's boardgames and RPGs and card games and seminars and miniatures games and LARPs and media guests and awards ceremonies. The only group not heavily represented are computer/console games.

Many (but not all) big game companies are there, as well as a lot of smaller companies. They run the same gamut as above, really. The big companies' presence seems to be hit-or-miss most years. There's several that sell out-of-print games (Crazy Egor) or heavily discounted remaindered games (Noble Knight, et alia).

The GAMA staff is pretty small, and they run another trade show in the spring, so they won't be doing a lot with their webpage or scheduling until May.