One of the highlights for most Origins attendees is the Dealer room, where games and gaming-related items are bought and sold.  This year, Wizards of the Coast decided not to expend any effort on Origins, which is disappointing.  The exhibit hall seemed far less busy than in previous years and there seemed to be fewer vendors this year than I recall in years past, as evidenced by a large "paint your own minis" section in the middle of the floor, a roped-off section in the back for medieval fighting demos with padded weapons and shields, etc. 

Attendance also seemed rather low this year.  That may be due in part to the fact that the ticket price was significantly increased over previous years.  Given that the tickets don't include the playing of games and pretty much only allow you to walk around and see what's going on, including the vendor room, the $60 asking price is rather high.  If game events were included in this, it would be worth the increase, I think.  But each game you choose to play can add $1.50, $3.00, or much more to that ticket price.

The Miniatures and Boardgames room in Exhibit Hall C was relatively empty, too.  While some of my favorites like the guys from Rogue Judges and Red Shirt Games were there, there were dozens of tables that seemed to remain empty virtually round the clock.  While this was a good thing in terms of making it easy to find a place to sit down and rest or start up an impromptu game of something-or-other, it didn't seem like a good sign for the convention as a whole.

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Two of the games I signed up (and paid) for apparently never took place, or were moved somewhere else without any notification.  One of them, the "Tech Support" game, was supposedly taking place in Exhibit Hall C after walking through the hall 2-3 times, we couldn't find it.  Another called "Red Shirt Down" was supposed to be located right near the game checkout library, but also didn't seem to be there.  That was $4.50 that both my brother and I won't be seeing again, even though we were in the right place at the right time.

And that reminds me... I remember as recently as a year or two ago that it was very commonplace for groups hosting games to have signs or placards up telling you who they were and what game they were doing.  For example, Rogue Judges puts up a giant banner with laminated color pages below it that show you precisely what games they are running, when, and even where.  At each table is a sign with a placard indicating the game being played there.  That makes it easy for you to locate the group, make sure they're running the game you thought they were, and even to find the table where that game is being played.  Red Shirt Games does a similarly great job.  They have a large sign visible from across the exhibit hall and each game table is labeled with the game being played there and the next day/time it's scheduled to play.  While Red Shirt and Rogue Judges aren't the only groups that do such a great job, they are more the exception than the rule.  Had their style of operation been the norm, I don't think Matt and I would have missed the two games we paid for and couldn't find.

One positive observation I made at Origins 2006 was that the number of women and children in attendance seemed to be higher than previous years.  This is a good thing for the hobby as a whole, as it means there is some variation in the player base as well as some "young blood" to keep things going in the future.  On the negative side, attendance seemed to be down overall and there didn't seem to be a lot of excitement or buzz about any of the games being shown, except for Mayfair Games whose booth had a very long line of customers waiting to check out late on Sunday afternoon.

On balance, I had a good time at Origins 2006.  I don't think it was as much fun as it was in 2005 or 2004. The apparent lower participation in the dealer room took something away from the convention, as did the fact that there seemed to be lots of empty tables all over the place.  I heard a number of other attendees comment on this as well.

By the way, if you want to see what Origins is all about, visit YouTube.com and enter "Origins 2006".  Most of the videos you'll see on that list are mine and depict various aspects