>I am curious: at Origins, which games attracted
>the most audience? What are HQ main competitors
>in 2002?
Couldn't tell you, as I spent most of my time at Origins running my own events. I was unable to play in more than one event, due to conflicting schedules, and thus spent most of my free time wandering the Exhibit Hall, chatting with acquaintances, or finding what little food to eat that I could. As I have been slowly divesting myself of a goodly chunk of my roleplaying collection, I did not spend much time at the booths of most roleplaying vendors. I purchased mainly board- and (non-collectible) card games which were fun and could be grasped easily by my non-gamer friends (the only people I really play games with, any more).
There were only two new roleplaying games launched at Origins, to my knowledge: /Silver Age Sentinels/, a superhero game by Guardians of Order (publishers of /Big Eyes, Small Mouth/), and /Children of the Sun/, a steampunk fantasy game by a new publisher whose name I do not recall. Wizkids' collectible-figure games attracted a lot of attention, based on the size of the crowds flocking to their demo area. I know /HeroClix/, their superhero battles game, is very big here in Ann Arbor, although I can't attest to /Mage Knight/. Their big rollout for Origins was a new /Battletech/ licensed game, which looked damn impressive.
The "D&D Revival" showed no signs of slowing, that I could tell, and the sheer number of new small companies exclusively producing D20 materials is mind-boggling. Given that several old veterans (such as Atlas Games and Dream Pod 9) made their initial marks in the industry with high-quality products for other people's popular games, we may yet witness the birth of many new independent roleplaying games... although the OGL feeding frenzy may winnow the choices down to a mere handful. The majority of these companies are producing far more material than Issaries, and most of it of equal or greater quality.
That's where the competition lays...
-- Michael Richard Schwartz | Language is my playground, mschwartz_at_... | and words, its slides and Ann Arbor, Michigan USA | swingsets. -- yours truly
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