Origins Game Fair

Image:Origins Exhibitors Hall.jpg

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.{{cite book | title = 40 Years of Gen Con | year = 2007 | last = Laws | first = Robin D. | author-link = Robin Laws | publisher = Atlas Games |isbn=978-1-58978-097-2| page=72}}{{cite web| url=http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDArchives_History.asp| title=The History of TSR| publisher=Wizards of the Coast| access-date=2005-08-20| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924195557/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDArchives_History.asp| url-status=dead| archive-date=2008-09-24}}

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."{{Cite web|title=Origins Game Fair Postponed to October; Origins Online Scheduled for June|url=https://www.originsgamefair.com/news/origins-postponed-origins-online-scheduled-june|access-date=2020-06-17|website=Origins Game Fair|language=en-US}}

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.{{Cite web|title=Board Gaming's Industry Body Refuses To Say A Word About Black Lives Mattering [Update]|url=https://kotaku.com/board-gamings-industry-body-refuses-to-say-a-word-about-1843990186|access-date=2020-06-17|website=Kotaku|date=11 June 2020 |language=en-us}} 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.{{Cite web|title=Origins Online|url=https://www.originsgamefair.com/origins-online|access-date=2020-06-17|website=Origins Game Fair|language=en-US}} 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".{{Cite web |last=Dohm-Sanchez |first=Jeffrey |date=July 8, 2024 |title=GAMA Reports Origins Game Fair 2024 Attendance |url=https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/57292/gama-reports-origins-game-fair-2024-attendance |access-date=July 9, 2024 |website=ICv2 |language=en}} 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%".

Image:Origins Smithee Awards.jpg" (the man in the gaudy jacket) consulting with his helpers at the 2007 Smithee Awards at the Origins International Game Expo]]

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.

Several reports of sexual harassment emerged after 2018 Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio.{{cite web | url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/6/22/17494500/sexual-harassment-origins-board-game-fair | title=Accusations of sexual harassment rock the board gaming community: First-hand reports from the Origins convention spark outcry | publisher=polygon.com | date=22 June 2018 | accessdate=28 August 2021 | author=Hall, Charlie}}{{cite web | url=https://www.tabletopgaming.co.uk/news/multiple-reports-of-sexual-harassment-emerge-from-this-years-origins/ | title=Multiple reports of sexual harassment emerge from this year's Origins Game Fair | publisher=tabletopgaming.co.uk | date=22 June 2018 | accessdate=28 August 2021 | author=STAFF}}{{cite web | url=https://plus1player.com/read/harassment-at-tabletop-convention | title=Sexual Harassment Accusations at Tabletop Gaming Convention | publisher=puls1player.com | date=25 June 2018 | accessdate=28 August 2021 | author=Arlette, Kristine | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200130163639/https://plus1player.com/read/harassment-at-tabletop-convention | archive-date=30 January 2020 | url-status=dead}} After multiple first hand accounts were published on social media {{cite web | url=https://twitter.com/bgbrainkatie/status/1008339359001702400?lang=en | title=For anybody that is concerned about the situation that happened the other day. It was me, and I'll be talking to GAMA today. | publisher=@GeekEnby | date=17 June 2018 | accessdate=28 August 2021 | via=Twitter}} and Reddit,{{cite web | url=https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/8t0wpb/are_you_gonna_play_the_victim_all_life_long_my/ | title="Are you gonna play the victim all life long?" My experience as a woman in board gaming, in brief. | publisher=u/abigaila | date=22 June 2018 | accessdate=28 August 2021 | via=Reddit}} GAMA, released a public statement regarding the complaints and has since then updated its anti-harassment policies.{{cite web | url=https://www.originsgamefair.com/show-policies | title=Show Policies/Code of Conduct | publisher=GAMA | date=2019 | accessdate=28 August 2021}}

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

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• {{official website|http://www.originsgamefair.com/}}

{{Wargames}}

Category:Gaming conventions

Category:Trade shows in the United States

Category:Recurring events established in 1975

Category:1975 establishments in Maryland