Archive for Mary Prasad
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Mary Prasad
United States
Hillsborough
North Carolina
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Note: Since this report comes several months after Origins, I've updated the game information to be as current as possible. As mentioned in Part 1, the dates for Origins are changing in 2012; check the end of this article for details. (Editor's note: My apologies to Mary for not posting this report weeks ago when she submitted it. Holidays! —WEM)
Exhibit Hall
In the exhibit hall, which sold out for the second year in a row, a section was reserved for the Library, which allowed Origins' guest authors a place to interact with attendees: selling books, signing autographs, and socializing. Another space (at the top of the stairs in the Seminar Hall) was reserved as a reading room, with authors such as Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole, Aaron Allston, Walter Hunt, and Jean Rabe conducting readings from about 6-9 p.m.
Mayfair custom hotel key card
Mayfair Games
Mayfair really expanded its presence at Origins, with custom hotel key cards for some nearby hotels as well as custom street signs in the Exhibit hall. (You can see one in the photo below in the upper-left, but the light caught one face, so it is pretty blown out.)
Some of the beautiful custom tables for Catan games
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Mary Prasad
United States
Hillsborough
North Carolina
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The 36th Origins Game Fair was held in Columbus, Ohio, June 22-26, 2011. Attendance increased from 2010 by 7.8%, going from 10,669 attendees to 11,502, while the number of full show badges ($75 onsite) went from 6,444 in 2010 to 6,545 in 2011. The number of day passes went from 4,225 to 4,957. (Statistics are from the Origins Game Fair website.)
NB: For 2012 and 2013, the dates for Origins are changing to May, specifically May 30 – June 3, 2012 and May 29 – June 2, 2013. These dates land in the school year for many people, possibly causing problems for people with children, university students, and teachers. If you would like to voice a concern, be sure to fill out the 2012 Date Change Survey. Scroll down to the bottom for the survey. More on this in Origins 2011 - Part 2.
Ribbons
Since my 2010 Origins article went down with Boardgame News (Whoops! —WEM), I'm going to repeat a little of what was written, plus I'm sure there are some "newbies" here who may not have seen the article at all. Such a shame! It was awesome. (Insert winking, grinning smiley here.) Okay, so what are ribbons and how do they work? They are actual physical ribbons in various colors that are stuck on badges, usually along the bottom. They typically have foil lettering on the front identifying the type.
The cost of event ribbons went up, from $16 last year to $20 this year. These ribbons allow access to all events covered by the corresponding ribbon. These should not be confused by the "fun" ribbons given out or sold at the convention, or the ribbons used for participating in the Mayfair Ribbon Quest. Nor should they be confused with the ones given to Guests, Press, Educators, and any number of other special attendees. All-in-all, there are quite a lot of ribbons. I have seen kids walking around with ribbons hanging from their badges down to the floor. Likely a tripping hazard, but what do I know – I don't have kids.
Here is a list of the event type ribbons:
1. Amtgard – unlimited play in the Amtgard boffer combat area (I have no idea what that means)
2. Big Experiment – access to all Looney Labs events (except in 2012 they are adding a separate "Are You a Werewolf" ribbon)
3. Board Room – access to the Board [Game] Room (The "must have" ribbon!)
4. HOT – access to all historical miniature events
5. Mayfair – access to the Mayfair Games room, including all scheduled events and tournaments
6. Origins After Dark – access to the Origins After Dark events. Events began at 6 p.m. each evening; geared towards the 18-and-over crowd
7. Puffing Billy – access to Puffing Billy train game events and tournament qualifiers
8. War College – access to the War College seminars
9. War Room (Ending 2011) – same as the Board Room except for war games. Starting in 2012, this ribbon will be merged into the Board Room ribbon, i.e., war games will be available in the Board Room
10. Werewolf (Beginning 2012) – $10, access to Looney Labs "Are You a Werewolf" events
Board Room
Started in 2006, the Board [Game] Room continues to be very popular. CABS (Columbus Area Boardgaming Society) is the host. For 2011 it was moved to Exhibit Hall F, behind Exhibit Hall E, with access from Exhibit Hall D (the open gaming, board games, and miniatures hall). I can't say I'm enamored with the location; it's quite a hike to get back there. Good thing I brought my Skechers Shape-ups(TM). At least the added exercise helped me to wear off the overabundance of yummy food I ate while attending Origins (see the "Food" section below). It may be all hype, but I'm willing to believe.
The Board Room ribbon ($20) gives attendees access to the huge CABS library of games. This year's library contained 1,018 games. Over the course of five days, there were 1,720 checkouts: Wednesday 328, Thursday 373, Friday 449, Saturday 491, Sunday 79. A total of 479 different games were checked out.
Top fifteen breakdown:
• Dominion (checked out more than twice as often as second place!)
• Innovation
• Agricola
• Dominion: Prosperity
• Dominion: Intrigue
• Tie between Small World and Can't Stop
• Tie between The Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne
• Tie between 7 Wonders and Alien Frontiers
• Tie between Power Grid and Tichu
• Code 777
• Twilight Struggle
I'm sure the only reason Tichu was not at the top was because most players bring their own decks! For comparison, the top thirteen games checked out in 2010, starting with most popular, were: Dominion, Dominion: Intrigue, Innovation, a tie between Stone Age and Carson City, a tie between Lost Cities and Power Grid Factory Manager, a tie between Power Grid and Small World, and a tie between Fresco, Race for the Galaxy, Agricola, and Founding Fathers.
Again this year, every ribbon holder received a free game. I am not sure how many companies donated; I couldn't get a list this time. I did see the following games go by though: The Heavens of Olympus, Chicago Express expansion, Mousquetaires du Roy, Asteroyds, Black Friday, and Priests of Ra.
There was some snafu regarding the ribbons. CABS was not selling them this year, and they were available only at registration. For some reason, Origins ran out of ribbons fairly early. I'm not sure why this happened; they sold out last year so they should have been ready. Some other ribbon was substituted but I heard that there were issues with these such as the guard for the room didn't recognize them as valid and neither did the CABS people giving out the games. Hopefully next year things will run more smoothly.
Board Games Room and Origins Awards Games
The Board Games room in Exhibit Hall D (not to be confused with the Board Room, run by CABS) usually has lots of stuff going on with a large space for open gaming. Some companies run demos in there, for example, this year WizKids was showing Star Trek: Expeditions. Table Top gaming events are run in there; these are ticketed events generally run by a GM (Game Master) and listed in the Origins Event Guide. Note: You may download an Excel spread sheet of Table Top events from the Origins website. You might also find a few giant games to play as well.
In an unprecedented move, this year GAMA made available all the games to be voted upon, during Origins, for the 37th Annual Origins Awards. The games were available for checkout in the open gaming area of the Board Games room. Voting was also moved to the front of this hall. In the past the games were simply displayed in a glass showcase. Attendees still received one vote. I am not sure whether this solved one of the biggest problems, in my opinion, with voting in the past: Vendors who had a game nominated would hand out ballots in their booths in the exhibit hall and ask attendees to fill them out, voting for their game. I saw this happen successfully three times. At least this is a step in the right direction.
Rio Grande Games Room
Another ribbon was required here, but this one was FREE! Actually they ran out of ribbons but no one was turned away. Over 1,000 attendees visited the room. The Rio Grande Games room was upstairs, across from the Exhibit Hall D. It was a little tricky to find but they put banners around to direct attendees. It was very well organized, with several friendly representatives available to teach a variety of Rio Grande games. (Over 20 different games were available.) The room held about 25 to 30 tables and was open roughly between the hours of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Snacks were available a couple times a day. The room did fill up – there was even a line Saturday evening.
For 2012 the Rio Grande Games room will be on the first floor across from the exhibit halls so it should be easier to find. Likely it will be the former location of the Big Experiment. Looney Labs told me it would be canceling the Big Experiment in 2012 due to the date change as the publisher lost most of its student volunteers.
Auction
This year GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association) ran the auction. In the past it had been run by Troll and Toad. It was done in two parts: a silent auction and a live auction. Bidding was free, although bidders had to register for the live auction in order to participate. Sellers were charged a registration fee of $1 per item for each type of auction. The website listed a 15% commission on the sale price as well, but it is unclear whether it was on all auction items or just on the live auction items.
Unfortunately there was no consignment shop this year. This was my favorite part of the auction area. The regular auction takes too much time to sit through, so I rarely go to it. (There's no set schedule for items.) I emailed John Ward, the Executive Director for GAMA, about why it was discontinued but did not receive a reply. Hopefully he'll read this and reply in the comments. My only guess is that GAMA sees the silent auction as a replacement. If anyone participated in the silent auction, please leave a comment and let us know how it went!
Food
One of my favorite topics: FOOD! If you aren't already acquainted with the North Market, located about a block from the convention center, it is the place to eat lunch during Origins. The second floor has seating all round the open middle, which looks down on the main floor. There are picnic tables out front. If you are lucky (or unlucky, depending), there may be live music outside.
View from the second floor of the North Market
There is also a room with a studio kitchen, called The Dispatch Kitchen, where food editor Robin Davis' weekly cooking segments are filmed for WBNS-10TV Columbus. This is also where they hold their School of Cooking Series classes.
Sadly, my favorite stop for lunch, Barry's New York Deli, has closed. It had been sold (over a year ago) and was no longer run by Barry's family. This year I ended up at Tom Vasel's favorite deli, Heil's Family Deli instead.
Heil's Family Deli – you can just barely see the owner, Alex, peeking out from above the large display case near the customer
The Reuben sandwich is huge and quite tasty, although I wish they could grill it. (It is served warm, but I don't think they have a grill.) Check out the photo below. I don't drink Mtn Dew – a friend put it there as a size reference. Another friend (Bob!) put the red bull in front; it's especially helpful I'm sure. You can see a photo of Bob playing Quarriors! earlier in the article – he's the one on the far right.
Heil's Family Deli Rueben and farm fresh deviled eggs
This year a friend helped me to "branch out" by trying the big dogs at Best of the Wurst. The hot dog was pretty darn good. I even went back later in the week for another. I also tried the pork and beef BBQ at Holy Smoke. The portions are huge. (Good thing I had someone with whom to share it!) They offer a variety of sauces, from mild to super hot.
I love love love Taste of Belgium – not only for their deliciously sweet Belgian waffles but also for their crêpes. (At rush hour it may take a while to get your crêpe since they make them up fresh.) The waffles are thick and almost as sweet as a cookie, chewy on the inside and crisp on the outside. They are best when served still warm off the griddle. You may add chocolate, strawberries and/or whipped cream toppings too! Mmmmmmmmm waffles.
Taste of Belgium waffles <wipes up drool>
If you want to be really decadent, try a scoop of ice cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams on top of your Belgian waffle. My favorite is the Dark Chocolate. I took some video while walking around, both from above and on the main floor. Warning: You may want to eat something before watching.
Here's a quick tour of the North Market with a few stops at my favorite places
The Dice Tower Annual Dinner
Once again, listeners, hosts, co-hosts, and contributors of The Dice Tower podcast converged upon Max & Erma's restaurant for dinner. We pretty much take over the downstairs dining room every year. Of course I had one of my favorites, the Tortilla Soup (an excuse to eat lots of cheese in bowl; hey, there are a few veggies and some chicken thrown in). Of course we ordered the literally hot-off-the-cookie-sheet macadamia nut cookies. Um. Where's the cookie sheet? And the cookies were cold! We asked our waiter to explain and learned that someone either burned themselves on the hot cookies or the hot cookie sheet. Why do stupi… uh, certain people have to spoil things for others? Our waiter brought out replacement plate of cookies hot-off-the-cookie-sheet (minus the cookie sheet). He got a big tip.
Stay tuned for more Origins in Part Deux!
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Mary Prasad
United States
Hillsborough
North Carolina
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Editor's note: This article first ran on BoardgameNews.com on Feb. 11, 2009. —WEM
Have you ever wondered how board games are made? This article will give you a glimpse into the making of many popular board games, including the products of Rio Grande Games, Kosmos, Abacusspiele, and Amigo Spiel.
After attending the Spiel game convention in Essen, Germany in October 2008, my husband Snoozefest (a.k.a. Ravindra Prasad) and I stayed in Germany to travel around. A friend of ours, Tom Hilgert, kindly arranged for us to tour Ludo Fact GmbH and Ludo Packt GmbH – those being, respectively, a game production company and a logistics firm that manages the inventory and shipping of games. The tour took place on November 7, 2008. Our tour guide, Gertrud Geiger, sales leader at Ludo Fact, did a fantastic job explaining how the factory works.
Facts, Facts and More Facts
Ludo Fact is located in Jettingen-Scheppach, Germany about 25 miles from Augsburg, a city you may remember seeing on the game board of Thurn and Taxis – a game which was likely made at Ludo Fact. Owner and President Mr. Horst Walz started the company in 1995, taking the name from Latin: Ludo from "ludere" (play) and Fact from "facere" (make). Mr. Walz wanted the name to reflect his main business, the production of game boxes and playing material.
Assembly line, boxing up the game inserts and pieces
Today Ludo Fact can produce 2,500 game boxes per hour, per assembly line, with some variability depending on the number of components in the games. This production rate results in an average of 40-50,000 units per day, and over the course of a year, the company produces somewhere in the neighborhood of ten million games and puzzles. Its busiest season is from August to February when employees often work six days a week. The company employs about 170 staff members, with 30 or so in the offices (sales, purchasing, planning, etc.) and around 140 in production. Those numbers may fluctuate depending on the season. Currently, approximately 100 publishers from roughly 20 countries put their trust in Ludo Fact, and Ludo Fact plans to increase these numbers in 2009. (Whew! I was running out of ways to say "approximately.")
Fun Fact: When a game wins the Spiel des Jahres (Germany's "Game of the Year" award), the publisher must be able to quickly produce hundreds of thousands of games. Ludo Fact has been able to meet these requirements to the satisfaction of their clients.
Ludo Fact is a full-service company, producing game boxes, game boards, puzzles, and die-cut punchboards, in addition to purchasing game components (e.g., wooden cubes, pawns, cards) from all over the world to be included in games as needed by its clients. This gives customers "one-stop" shopping convenience and the ease of one point of contact for everything from determining prices to nailing down a delivery schedule.
Once the games or puzzles have been boxed up, they are handed over to Ludo Packt, a logistics company established in 2000. The Ludo Packt warehouse can store as many as 15,000 pallets and fills about 20 trucks a day. During its peak season, the company ships at least two containers a week just to the USA; a 40 ft. (12.19 m.) container can hold about 26 pallets (6.56 ft. high/2 m.), or if filled only with game boxes (i.e. with no wooden pallets), about 40 pallets. (More on pallets later.)
Ludo Packt offers clients state-of-the-art web access from which they may generate dispatch orders, as well as view their stock availability and dispatch information. The company also provides special services such as supplying shop-floor ready displays directly to the client's retail customers or adding promotional material, display holders, and other items to their shipments for trade fairs.
Fun Fact: Rio Grande Games alone ships 30-35 containers a year with about 40 pallets in each container.
The Process
Ludo Fact receives printed paper and cardboard from outside sources. These are fed into machines specifically made for gluing and will eventually become box tops, box bottoms, game boards, puzzles, or game pieces.
Stacks of cardboard and printed papers await gluing
Large customized dies are used to cut cardboard – after it has been glued – into game pieces or puzzles.
Dies for cutting cardboard pieces
Close-up of the die used for cutting Elfengold
Some of the boards will be partially or fully punched out in order to fit into game boxes. Below you can see Ubongo boards as they come off the die-cutting machine. Of course the game boxes are not that big!
Stacks of Ubongo boards, off the die-cutting machine
Different machines are used for making boxes, depending on their size. I've included a shot of the small game box production machine with some of the cases of papers in the background. The machines for making box tops and bottoms do both the gluing and assembling so that a full box top or bottom comes out of the machine.
Empty boxes are stacked until they can be assembled with game pieces, inserts, and rules. Note the workers assembling a game in the photo near the beginning of the article.
Once the games have been put together, and the lids put on, they are shrink-wrapped. Here is the same game from the assembly line going into shrink. Can anyone identify the game?
Into the shrink-wrap machine!
Next the games are stacked and placed into corrugated cardboard boxes. Here's that same mystery game.
Placing games into the corrugated cardboard boxes
The corrugated boxes are in turn stacked on a pallet (the wooden base) and put into another machine that wraps them for shipping. Pallets vary in size from about 4.27 to 6.56 feet (1.3 to 2 meters) for UK and the U.S.
Pallets of boxes, ready to go out
Some pallets are loaded onto trucks while others are placed into temporary storage racks. Note the worker in the truck, near the bottom right of the photo – this will give you an idea of just how tall those racks are!
Pallets in temporary storage, waiting to be shipped
Ludo Packt will ship all sizes of boxes, even single games. You can see some of the smaller items in storage at the bottom of the racks in this next photo.
Rows of boxes and pallets in storage. Can I just have one box? As a souvenir??
I want to thank Tom Hilgert for arranging the tour, Gertrud Geiger for being our tour guide and for providing most of the information in this article, and Jay Tummelson for providing additional information when my memory failed me!
My husband Ravindra Prasad and our friend Tom Hilgert outside Ludo Fact, empty-handed...
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Mary Prasad
United States
Hillsborough
North Carolina
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Note: This report was delayed first due to the demise of Boardgame News, then due to personal issues – still, I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures at BGG.Con 2010!
2010 was the sixth year of the BoardGameGeek Convention or BGG.Con, which was held once again at the Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport hotel, November 17-21, 2010, now five days long instead of four! Attendance was about 1100, up from the previous year's 925. This pretty much maxed out the current space. BGG.Con is set to move to the Hyatt Regency in 2012, allowing them to expand membership once again. In 2011, though, it will be held at the same hotel, the aforementioned Westin, November 16-20. Unfortunately for those of you who want a ticket for 2011 but have not yet purchased one, BGG.Con 2011 sold out in only five days! There is a waiting list for tickets.
Typically there is a long line for registration but it moves fairly quickly. Well, technically there are two lines, dividing the alphabet by last name. Check out my short video of BGG.Con registration, which although less than five minutes long, took me around ten hours to put it together (thanks to having to reinstall/upgrade iMovie and having to relearn the interface, ugh).
This year attendees were required to wear wristbands. There is a shot of one in the video above; look for Michelle Alden as the lovely model. These were not a fan favorite. Some people were able to talk registration volunteers into allowing them to attach their wristbands to their badges or lanyards but this will not be allowed in the future.
John Boone posted this humorous photo on BGG
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Mary Prasad
United States
Hillsborough
North Carolina
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Dragon*Con is usually held in Atlanta, Georgia, over Labor Day weekend; for 2010 that was September 3-6. They hail themselves as the "largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe." Wow, that's a big tagline – not to mention possibly offensive to certain aliens.
Memberships usually do not sell out so you may wait to register at the convention. In fact, this year the line was so incredibly long for preregistration that it might even be faster to wait (although next year may see a switch as all those who were in the prereg. line figure this out). I will say that the badges for preregistration are larger and possibly valuable (to those who collect them). On the other hand, hosting hotels sell out very quickly. If you want to book a room in a Dragon*Con block, you should sign up as soon as they open. If you do not get one in a block, you can try to reserve a room anyway. I advise that you do not tell them you are attending the convention since some hotels will not allow you to book a room if they know you are attending the convention. Yes, this actually happened to me. If you belong to an organization like AAA, you can try to get a discount that way, or just ask what specials they have running. Once in a while I get a rate that is better than the convention rate (this may involve paying ahead). You should ask about refund policies before booking.
Fun Facts: (from the Media Relations Handbook) approximate number of attendees 35,000; volunteers 1,700; guests 400; years 24; hotels 5; days 4.
Three of the many Lara Croft/Tomb Raiders at Dragon Con. Note the preregistration size badges.
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Mayfair custom hotel key card
Some of the beautiful custom tables for Catan games
