Origins Problems

Overall Daedalus had a good show and we had a blast. There was a serious problem with our tournaments though. On two ocassions WotC decided to boot us out of our scheduled areas in order to run impromptu Magic tournaments. Despite frequent requests to keep us informed and having our spaces verified our tournament organizers weren't notified until the last minute that they had to relocate their tournaments and couldn't use the areas that had been scheduled for them. Participants showing up for those tournaments in the originaly scheduled areas were told that the tournaments had been canceled by WotC/Andon staffers. They didn't just do this to Daedalus/Shadowfist, I believe as many as five other companies/games got this treatment. All in all nearly a dozen tournaments got trashed all so WotC could run unscheduled tournaments featuring their products.

The really upsetting thing for Daedalus is the fact that we had people drive down from all parts of the east coast wanting to participate in the scheduled Shadowfist events (including a regional championship) who didn't get in because of WotC's decision to bump these tournaments in favour of improptu tournaments for their own products. Just because a gamer plays a CCG that isn't published by WotC (and I'm not talking simply about Shadowfist here players from several other games were affected as well) shouldn't mean that their needs should be subservient to those of WotC's customers. These people and the companies running the tournaments paid WotC/Andon to participate in/run tournaments, they paid just as money as WotC's customers did but they got vastly inferior treatment. WotC didn't have to trash these tournaments, they had plenty of room for their scheduled events, they simply choose to do it. They demonstrated a complete disregard for players of products that they don't publish and for other companies in doing so.

Daedalus will be attending Origins next year and we will work with WotC/Andon to rectify these problems. We suggest that WotC/Andon do the following for Origins 97.

• Stick to the schedule: Companies and attendees are paying good money to attend Origins in order to participate in or run events. Let the published schedule stand. Even if bumping events for games that WotC doesn't publish in favour of improptu tournaments for WotC products seems convenient at the time in the long run it just damages WotC's/Andon's credibility and casts questions about their integrity. Doing the right thing means sticking to your word, not whatever is expedient from one moment to the next.
• Designate an area for CCGs other than thoe published by WotC. Set aside a seperate room for such tournaments, demos and events. You can do it by game or by company. Daedalus combined with another company or two can occupy a fair sized room with events all weekend. Arcane Circle (a group of tournament organizers) has already expressed an interest in running such a room on behalf of a number of companies that they represent, let them. This will alleviate some of your staffing and organizational headaches and give tournament organizers better control over their events. Also holding all these events in a single location will make it so much more convienent for the people running and/or participating in those events.

Despite these suggestions I can't say with confidence that this won't happen again next year. My reccomendation to anyone who wants to attend a convention to play a game or games that WotC doesn't publish next year is to avoid Origins. As it stands Gencon is a much better choice. TSR runs Gencon and they clearly give themselves premier treatment but they don't resort to bumping events run by other companies in favour of improptu events for their own products.

Otherwise you risk the chance of having the rug pulled out from under you when it comes to participating in scheduled events. Right now it appears that Origins occupies an awkward middle ground status between a company-sponsored but industry wide convention such as the TSR run Gencon and a company-sponsored and exclusionary convention such as Games Workshop's Game Day. WotC has paid lip service to Origins being the former but its actions suggest that its moving towards the later.

Jose Garcia
President, Daedalus Entertainment, Inc.

Last modified: August 1, 1996;