Just a reminder, the Origins Game Fair starts on Wednesday, this week, in Columbus, Ohio! As is my wont, I am posting this thread to see who else might be going!
Liz and I will be there doing our typical LARPing thing.
In a Portal 2 themed LARP, I get to LARP as Gordon Freeman from Half Life.
Yes that means my character is silent the whole time.
Liz is Caroline in that one (i.e. the woman whose personality was transferred into GlaDOS).
Is this a single company affair, or more of a “mini E3”?
What games are expected to be shown? Links or more info please!
It’s just a shame ADB (the Star Fleet Battles people) has pulled out of Origins for the foreseeable future. I’m a little surprised nobody is running any SFB/Federation Commander events in its place.
At least the Smithees are still there (and I don’t mind having them on Friday night instead of Saturday, especially as I have to get up early on Sunday morning to catch a plane). Chupa!
Errrr. No, it’s nothing like a “mini E3”; The games in question are not electronic. 
In fact, Origins predates E3 by 20 years.
It’s not really gaming in the video sense, though some video gaming does happen. (
And there’s one company that brings in Battletech pods.)
It’s more devoted to tabletop RPG’s, board games, collectible card games, Live Action RPG’s, and the like.
There are also a few artists and comic writers that show up.
The two largest conventions along these lines are GenCon and PAX (and maybe PAX East at this point as well).
Though the PAX cons are split between the video gaming side and the more traditional gaming side due to the Penny Arcade guys being actively involved with both aspects of gaming.
Essen is arguably larger than GenCon (though it focuses way more on company boots and not so much open gaming)
Brian
I won’t be there–I wish I was, because a bunch of friends are going to be there, but I’m doing Gen Con and Comic Con this year so I can’t afford the time off (or the plane tickets!) for another faraway con.
I’ve been there before, though, several years ago. It’s a nice con, not as big as Gen Con but more “intimate” in the sense that you can actually find time to get together with friends and just hang out. With Gen Con it’s harder because there are so many people.
Ah ok. I just installed a computer game that uses a service called Origin, and assumed this was related to it.
Still sounds cool, wish I could go. 
Not to mention that Columbus is a great town. It’s both cheaper and far more interesting than Indianapolis where GenCon is held.
Also, the powers that be at GenCon signed a 20 year contract to host at Indanapolis which at the time they were the only game in town for that weekend (pun intended).
However, the convention of bikers moved in later, thereby making it fairly difficult to find downtown housing. And GenCon can’t do anything about it due to not having any conditional riders that enabled them to renegotiate the contract should Indianapolis decide to schedule another major event the same time.
At least that’s how I understand the situation. Whatever lawyers they hired to draw up that contract were, to put it plainly, morons. That’s assuming that the organizers of GenCon were smart enough to actually hire any.
This year housing near the convention center was booked within 30 minutes of housing registration going live. That’s just ridiculous. Especially since it’s largely luck of the draw as to whether or not you can even communicate with the housing server.
GenCon has two things over Origins. It’s closer to Chicago (about half the distance and granted there are many for whom Origins is closer), and it has a really impressive event registration setup. (Really, Origins event registration is horrid!)
But when it comes to value of housing, availability of housing, customer service, location, price, intimacy, and a bunch of intangibles, Origins is better.
Cabra!
I never miss the Smithees.
These days, I usually go up on Wednesday, arriving in the afternoon, and return Sunday - they’ve expanded Origins’ schedule so much that I’d feel like I was missing out if I did less. It’s a decent little drive for me, but doable. A friend of mine flies in and splits the cost of the hotel room.
I’ve missed exactly one Origins since 1998 - the summer of 2000, I had a summer job, and could not attend.
This year, I’m trying out several miniatures wargames, a couple of board games, and my usual smattering of RPG events. I didn’t get some of my first-choice stuff - the Origins folks opened event registration this year without an email warning to the people who’d bought badges, as they’d done in the past, so I hadn’t decided on my schedule yet and wasn’t poised and ready right at noon when event registration went live.
I’ve also made my schedule a little more loose than in past years - I tend to book myself too tightly, leaving too little time for browsing the exhibit hall… or eating meals.
I’m bringing along my Tenth Doctor costume, and will be wearing it Thursday, or Friday, or both.