COLUMBUS, Ohio – Columbus resident Ryan Lockwood says he never misses the opportunity to attend the Origins Game Fair.

  • One of the longest running and largest board game conventions in the world is back in downtown Columbus for the weekend. 
  • Origins Game Fair is expecting to bring in more than 20,000 people over the course of the next few days. 
  • The event has taken place for 45 years in Columbus 

“This is different because you get a more human interaction. You can see people's reactions, you can see their game play a little more. You get to demo different games, you get to meet some of the designers. It's great for the city itself. It brings in people from all over," says Lockwood. 

The family friendly event, now in its 45th year in Columbus, offers a wide variety of tabletop games, electronic games, live role-playing, card games, props, and books.

 

 

And if you're not familiar with a game, there are plenty of instructors on hand to teach you the rules.

“So we've got over five-thousand scheduled events at the show. Some of them are competitive tournaments. We actually have a couple publishers here giving away over 10-thousand dollars in prize support. So there is an aspect of competition but there are also tons of events that are free play, casual, introductions to gaming," says The Game Manufacturers Association, Danni Loe. 

It's fun for all ages and a gaming getaway of sorts for Seth Overdeer of Indiana, who shares one of his biggest hobbies with his 10 year old son Logan.

“He likes playing and he's picking it up pretty quick. I have a board gaming group in my area, there's a bunch of us that play and we decided to start coming to this. It's kind of like a gaming getaway," says Overdeer. 

Atlas games Chief Operating Officer Jeff Tidball has attended the Origins Game Fair for two decades. 

He says despite the popularity of the video game industry, interest in table top games remains at its highest level ever.

 

 

“It's a much bigger hobby now then I ever thought it would become, you know back in the late 90s when I was first doing this. A lot of people assume, massive multi-player games were basically going to render a game like Dungeons and Dragons obsolete, but what we see now is that its exactly the opposite," says Tidball. 

Tidball and may others we spoke to agree, the Origins game Fair has national character, but its much easier to carry on a conversation and interact as opposed to mega-events such as Comic-Con.

Origins Game Fair runs thru Sunday at the Columbus Convention Center.

Tickets range from $30 for a single day ticket to $70 for a multi-day pass.