Misplaced Pages

#289710

33-734: History of Categories The Origins Awards were initially presented at the Origins Game Fair in five categories: Best Professional Game , Best Amateur Game , Best Professional Magazine , Best Amateur Magazine and Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame . Since the first ceremony, the game categories have widened to include Board games (Traditional, Historical and Abstract), Card games (Traditional and Trading ), Miniature wargaming (Historical, Science Fiction and Fantasy ), Role-playing games and play-by-mail games . There are additional categories for Graphic Design , for game expansions and accessories, and for game-related fiction . During

66-494: A house organ that talked about current and future SPI games, including a fair amount of information on SPI's game design process. In 1974, SPI started to ship some of their wargames games to J.D. Bardsley in the UK, who acted as a sales representative using the name SP/UK. Bardsley sold the games either via mail order or face to face at games conventions. Sales increased rapidly, and by March 1976, SP/UK had sold 25,000 units. To handle

99-411: A foldout map and 78 pieces punched from card stock. This advertising campaign led to a much larger subscriber base and SPI came to be seen as a serious competitor to Avalon Hill, the company that had founded the board wargaming hobby. While S&T had started as a wargaming ' fanzine ', under SPI it became more of a military history magazine that included a wargame. So in 1972, SPI started Moves as

132-622: A greater likelihood of developing successful games. Although starting with small to medium size wargames, SPI found an insatiable market, with subscribers clamoring for an ever-wider range of wargames, including historical simulations that were daunting in their scope and complexity, such as War in the East , War in the Pacific , The Next War , Terrible Swift Sword and Campaign for North Africa , each with several maps, thousands of counters and multiple rule books. Campaign for North Africa

165-545: A lack of historical accuracy in Avalon Hill's 1965 release, Battle of the Bulge . Thomas Shaw, at the time in charge of Avalon Hill, asked Dunnigan to design and submit his own wargame. The result was Jutland , published by Avalon Hill in 1967. Two years later, after designing 1914 for Avalon Hill, Dunnigan struck out on his own after concluding there must be a "more effective way to publish games." He quickly gathered

198-538: 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. Regardless of the reason, Origins Online

231-609: A little later, also tackled fantasy and science fiction subjects, such as Starforce: Alpha Centauri and War of the Ring (a Lord of the Rings game), eventually starting a new magazine, Ares which, like S&T , included a new science fiction or fantasy game in each issue. At this time, the company also attempted to tap into the growing popularity of role-playing games , with DragonQuest and Universe , responses to Dungeons & Dragons and Traveller respectively;

264-625: A loan secured by SPI's assets. TSR began selling SPI's inventory in 1982, but later acquired the company's trademarks and copyrights in 1983 and continued a form of the operation until 1987. Jim Dunnigan had been introduced to Avalon Hill wargames while serving in the U.S. Army in Korea. Upon his return to civilian life in 1964, Dunnigan began to contribute articles to Avalon Hill's house publication The General and independent wargaming magazine Strategy & Tactics . In one of his contributions to The General , Dunnigan criticized what he saw as

297-594: A magazine publisher; not only did it start to publish a variety of wargames, but each issue of Strategy & Tactics included a complete wargame, comprising a map, rule book and a sheet of die-cut counters. In SPI's first two or three years, it embarked upon an expensive advertising campaign, including — but not limited to — full page advertisements in Scientific American magazine. New subscribers received free copies of its most successful game, Napoleon At Waterloo , an "easy to play" pocket-sized game with

330-525: 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. After multiple first hand accounts were published on social media and Reddit, GAMA , released a public statement regarding the complaints and has since then updated its anti-harassment policies. Simulations Publications Simulations Publications, Inc. ( SPI )

363-417: A staff of like-minded designers, including Al Nofi and Redmond A. Simonsen . Dunnigan acquired Strategy & Tactics , which had been in financial trouble, from its founder Christopher Wagner. Dunnigan founded Simulations Publications in 1969 with Redmond Simenson as co-founder to keep Strategy & Tactics in publication. However, SPI quickly proved that it was primarily a game publisher rather than

SECTION 10

#1732772188290

396-869: The Greater Columbus Convention Center . Origins is run by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA). Origins was chartered to serve gaming in general, including wargaming and miniatures gaming . Origins is the site of the annual Origins Awards ceremony. For many years, the Charles S. Roberts Awards for historical boardgames were presented at Origins, but these are now presented at the World Boardgaming Championships . Board games , trading card games , LARPs and role-playing games are also popular at Origins. Origins Game Fair

429-686: The 1980s and 1990s, awards were also given to Computer games . Starting in 2003, the Origins Awards began a new category called the Vanguard Award, which honored highly innovative games. Charles S. Roberts Awards Originally, the Charles S. Roberts Awards and the Origins Awards were one and the same. Starting with the 1987 awards, the Charles S. Roberts were given separately, and they moved away from Origins entirely in 2000, leaving

462-514: The Monster theme, they introduced the mascot Crit. In 2015 the theme was Space. In 2016 it was Robots. 2017 was Dragons. 2018 was Mystery. 2019 was Mythical. A survey was distributed online to help select the theme for the 2020 show. The options were: Scary Fun, Games Around the World, Adventure, Futuristic, and Top Secret. According to the 2019 Origins Sitebook, the theme for 2020 will be Games Around

495-524: The Origins Awards as a completely separate system. In 1978, the awards also hosted the 1977 H. G. Wells awards for role-playing games and miniature wargaming . * - Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons were deemed different enough to be inducted on separate occasions. Origins Game Fair Origins Game Fair is an annual gaming convention that was first held in 1975. Since 1996, it has been held in Columbus, Ohio at

528-915: 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. 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." In June, due to

561-591: The SPI intellectual properties that they now owned, TSR released several titles that were ready for publication but had been stranded by a lack of money for printing, such as Battle Over Britain and Richard Berg 's latest contribution to the Great Battles of the American Civil War series, A Gleam of Bayonets: The Battle of Antietam . TSR also reboxed and republished several popular SPI titles from

594-538: The World. 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

627-488: 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

660-550: The cash, were forced to give over their inventory stock to TSR in early 1982, and were effectively out of business. TSR originally claimed they acquired SPI, but as that would mean they also would be responsible for their debts, quickly changed that statement. Thus, SPI's assets—but not its debts and liabilities—were acquired by TSR in 1983. TSR refused to honor SPI subscriptions and used the "assets, not liabilities" agreement to ignore SPI's debts. This policy alienated many of TSR's potential customers. In an effort to make money from

693-500: The increased sales, SPI formed a formal British subsidiary, Simpubs Ltd. in June 1976. Simpubs immediately created the bi-monthly periodical Phoenix with J.D. Bardsley as managing editor. Like many new wargame companies in the early '70s, early SPI games left a lot to be desired physically. A typical early game came in an envelope with only a one-color map and one large folded sheet for the rules. However, SPI quickly set about improving

SECTION 20

#1732772188290

726-456: The mid-1970s under the TSR logo, including Air War , Blue & Gray: Four American Civil War Battles , and Napoleon's Last Battles . But TSR halted all current SPI game development, and most SPI game designers resigned and moved to rival company Avalon Hill, lured by the formation of a subsidiary specifically for them called Victory Games . TSR soon learned that one reason for SPI's demise

759-552: The other with rules exclusive to the individual game; the component games would each cover a different battle from the same war, era, or genre. The scale of the games ranged from the strategic to the operational and down to the tactical level. Three of the more popular games were tactical: Sniper! , FireFight and Air War , all of which were later reprinted by TSR. SPI started out publishing games on historical subjects, but soon started producing games that were more hypothetical (e.g. World War III , Invasion: America ), and

792-517: The perceived expansion of the gaming market in the late 1970s. When the expansion did not deliver the expected higher profits, only higher sales, the money needed to be returned. First efforts led to discussions with Avalon Hill to merge with or acquire SPI, but that did not materialize, partially due to the increasing losses in cash for SPI thanks to the increases in costs from inflation and the decreases in revenue. AH did purchase five of SPI's titles, which helped with operational costs. However, more money

825-401: The physical quality of the components with better printing and boxes under the guidance of Art Director Redmond A. Simonsen . In 1973, they introduced a flat plastic box that was molded to be a counter storage tray with a clear cover. The actual cover of the game was a printed sheet that backed the clear plastic. This allowed SPI to produce the boxes in bulk, as they were identical for each game,

858-477: The printed sheet provided the cover and could be printed with all the other components of the game. This system became the hallmark of SPI games, and was later emulated by Simulations Canada , whose early games utilized a smaller storage tray, with the cover of the rules booklet doubling as the cover sheet. SPI used a unique feedback system, polling the readers of S&T as to which games they would be interested in seeing (and buying). This market research gave SPI

891-529: The term "Adventure Gaming" also replaced "Wargaming" in company advertising. In an attempt to expand its customer base, SPI entered into a much-publicized arrangement with Lorimar Productions to produce the Dallas role-playing game based on the soap opera Dallas in 1980. The game proved to be an infamous failure, and Simonsen later remarked that the 80,000 copies printed were 79,999 too many. SPI had shopped for venture capital providers to take advantage of

924-445: 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". 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%". Throughout the first twenty years of its life, Origins migrated from city to city, until in 1996, GAMA decided to anchor Origins in

957-410: Was an American publisher of board wargames and related magazines, particularly its flagship Strategy & Tactics , in the 1970s and early 1980s. It produced an enormous number of games and introduced innovative practices, changing the course of the wargaming hobby in its bid to take control of the hobby away from then-dominant Avalon Hill . SPI ran out of cash in early 1982 when TSR called in

990-466: Was an ultra-detailed and virtually unplayable game, covering the entire North African campaign down to the level of individual fighter pilot ratings and supply trucks. At the other end of the spectrum, SPI created a new series of smaller games called 'folio' games, often created in groups of four and sold both individually and together as a "Quadrigame". Each of the four component games included two rules booklets, one with rules common to all four games, and

1023-500: 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. 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

Origins Awards - Misplaced Pages Continue

1056-510: Was formerly known as the Origins International Game Expo . The name was changed in the summer of 2007. Origins typically has a theme each year, which affects some of the events and decorations like banners or art, and the Origins mascot will be depicted wearing an outfit related to the theme as well. The theme in 2012 was Time Travel. In 2014 it was Monster. 2014 was also the 40th Origins convention and, keeping with

1089-404: Was needed. SPI negotiated a promissory note loan (at the time mentioned as $ 225,000 but here listed as $ 400,000 from TSR (the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons ). The note was guaranteed by SPI's assets. SPI used the cash to pay their venture capitalists, and were broke but happy. However, less than two weeks later, TSR called in the note. SPI, with no cash available and no options to get

#289710