A War Game Widow goes to Columbus

Downtown Columbus from a hotel window.

For more than ten years the city of Columbus, Ohio has hosted the Origins Game Fair at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Origins is the second largest gaming convention, or con as it's known colloquially, in the country. It is the premier convention by gamers for gamers. All types of board games, miniatures, live action role playing (LARP), collectible card games and game accessories are demoed, bought, sold and played at this convention. On the nerd scale, from one to ten, this convention is about an eight. It does not, I repeat, does not get much nerdier than Origins. How do I know this? I went. I have seen Origins with my own two eyes.

The board gamers are on the fringes of nerd society. They are cut from the same cloak cloth as the basement-dwelling D&Ders. Gamers spend inordinate amounts of time in their own heads so they often lack the social skills comic book nerds have cultivated. Even the comic book nerds need to whine about book-to-screen adaptations of their heroes which causes them to seek more nerds. Hero worship is an integral part of the Comic-Con nerd personality, while the gaming nerd needs only need to e-mail the game designer to clear up any confusing rules. This lack of real human interaction stunts the gamer even more. There is no hero worship in board gaming. There is no paragon to strive for just winning a monotonous game so you can play again...and again...and again.

One might argue that the nature of board gaming would mean the gaming nerd is more socially apt than the comic nerd. The social skills required to sit with a group of individuals and play a 1-4 hour game are essential for a good gaming experience. But with the advances in video games and computer games the traditional gaming nerd is practically extinct. He or she has become a video gamer who spends their time by themselves and only dabbles in board games when pressed by traditional board gamers.


David was born into a family of gamers. His father taught him and his brothers to play games like Advanced Civilization and Panzer Blitz (Avalon Hill). Games that looked like Risk to the lay-person. But if you likened Advanced Civ to Risk they would laugh and say, "Risk is a game for children. It is a toy. This," they would say sweeping their hand over the board like a king over their land, "is a game of skill and strategy. This is not a war game. This is not a game for the weak." And it's not. I learned how to play Advanced Civ. It's an ordeal that can take a whole weekend if you're playing with the max amount of players (7). If you are playing with an experienced set of players, like I was, turns can happen quickly and it's easy to get lost and never ever want to play again.

We would have never gone to a gaming convention had we been living in California. Gaming is just not as popular there as it is here. I think it has to do with the long winters and lack of anything better to do. David has met more gamers here than he ever would have back home. Including our good friends Jim and Rhonda. They have been to Origins numerous times and encouraged David and I to join them for a portion of the weekend. We said "Why not?" and made the two and a half hour drive to the capital.

I'm a city girl. When I am told it's a long drive I expect to drive a little ways out of town and immediately onto a freeway. Then take that freeway all the way to our destination. Our GPS took us out of our county into the neighboring county and then back through our county a few miles from our house. We went in a circle and then through teeny-tiny towns. Towns so small they didn't even have an official USPS mail truck. Just some dude in his beat-up old station wagon with a US MAIL thingamabob on the roof of his car. I kept asking David if he was sure we were on our way to Columbus because nothing about this route seemed right. A little ways down the road I turned to my left and out the window I saw a man in a blue shirt, black suspenders and a straw hat operating a rusty, ancient farm machine. "OMFG, we are in Amish Country!" Except I didn't say O-M-F-G. I cussed in God's Amish Country. "David, David I just saw an Amish dude! OMG, slow down! They drive buggies out here with real horses if you run into them it is so not fair." David just said, "See how awesome this trip is? Would you have ever seen an Amish person back in So-Cal or ever imagined you'd be on your way to Columbus?" "No," I replied, "and I certainly don't want to stop at Grandpa's Cheesebarn so keep driving."

We got to Columbus at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I was already tired and we still hadn't even arrived at the convention center yet. A long day was still ahead. When we arrived at the center I split from David to take a few laps around the vendor/exhibit hall and then out and from one end of the center to the other. I caught a glimpse of Brian O'Halloran AKA Dante of Kevin Smith's Clerks fame. He was a special guest at this year's con. I called David to see where he was and he told me he had forgotten to put on deodorant that morning and had gone in search of some. The stench of BO was so strong in the hall, whether from unwashed nerds or just because it was hot outside, it wouldn't have mattered if he was wearing deodorant or not.

Shouldn't my day pass bracelet have 12-sided dice instead of regular dice?

As far as cons go this one was pleasant. There weren't so many people that you couldn't get to see everyone or everything. (San Diego's Comic-Con comes to mind and now that the Twi-hards have taken over it's even worse.) The people were polite and there were very few dressed in costumes. People who dress up and go to conventions are often dragged into pictures with strangers. They want inordinate amounts of attention and I refuse to give them any. Rhonda wanted to gossip about the girl dressed as Catwoman and the half-naked Steampunk girls. Who cares if that girl is wearing a bikini top and chain mail skirt? Ignore them. I am more concerned about the people who can't dress themselves in normal everyday clothes. The guy with pants belted and pulled up to his ears or the girl who looks like she fell into a 90's time warp.

David bought a few games and I bought some Lego earrings. I took a look at the Geek Chic booth. Purveyors of the finest board game/dining tables. I helped Rhonda pick out a pair of earrings. We had dinner and drinks with Jim and Rhonda. It was a good time even if I didn't want to game and was foot-stamping angry and wanted to go home every five seconds. When we finally did decide to go home the sky opened up and poured rain in what is proving to be typical Ohio fashion. We had just made it to the car before we could get soaked. I was upset at this point. I was disoriented, cranky and sure we were going to hydroplane off the highway. We made it home by about 1 AM which really isn't that late. I don't know if we will go next year. I feel like we should. Like this was our "toe in the water" testing of Origins. The water may not be the finest but its definitely the nerdiest.

Nerd Accessories