Looking over the event floor plan, I can't help but notice that a lot of big names are absent. No Wizards booth, no WizKids booth, no Upper Deck booth. Wizards (a no-show for several years now) and Upper Deck are running events, but with no booth space for demos and purchases, they're dead to me. I really wanted to stop by the Upper Deck booth for a Marvel Ultimate Battles demo and a laugh. The lack of WizKids hurts; I like picking up the convention-exclusive Pirates packs.

Should we be worried about the future of Origins when it can't attract boothspace from some of the industry's biggest companies? I suppose there's something to be said for allowing smaller companies a chance to stand out, but if you're not getting the big boys, that means they no longer have faith in the show... so what's that tell the fans?

Anyway, here's some of the games I want to check out at Origins 2008:

I'd like to demo Tomb, although I'm not sure they can do much to sell me on it. I'm interested because it's described as having a quick setup but comes with hundreds of cards and pieces. Nice. I always feel like I can use more board games, even though I rarely get the chance to run a huge Lord of the Rings-style board game these days.

I'm fascinated by Humans!!!, as an add-on to already well-mined Zombies!!! game family. The website says Humans!!! won't be around until August, so it seems unlikely that it will be on sale this week, but maybe in demo. I love modular systems, and this could be the final element that makes Zombies!!! work for me... most of the time, I find it too repetitive and the old editions I have are filled with card-interpretation problems.

Yetisburg wins purely on concept. Yetis in the Civil War! I hope this one is as good as it sounds. I can't wait until the conflicts of modern times are steeped in antiquity enough that game designers of the future can bust on them. Gettysburg ought to be a standing lesson that no tragic event in history is immune to being de-emotionalized. All you numbnuts with Never Forget 9/11 bumper stickers please take note.

Two years ago I picked up Monsters Menace America, a board game featuring giant sci-fi beasts rampaging across the US... and that concept returns in Monsterpocalypse, a collectible miniatures game. MMA has a really unfair endgame, which is why I don't pull it out that often. Maybe Monsterpocalypse will do better, although I can't say I'm impressed with the maps shown on the website. The figures look nice, but demo figures always look nice.

Fantasy Flight will be there, no doubt pitching a lot of Kingdom Hearts. Pokemon has had a big showing for the last few years, so I look forward to posing by more giant inflatable pokemon.

The coolest news about this year's trip is that the whole family is going, so Clark gets his first taste of the convention scene. And smell, I'm sure.

Not sure if I'll participate in any events this year. I always consider doing a Pokemon sealed-deck but never do. Doomtown is completely absent these days, so there's not even that tourney anymore.

There's some kind of weird DS thing going on, where you show up with your DS specifically to play DS games that are based on tabletop games, like Chess, Sudoku, Marvel Vs., Yu-Gi-Oh and the Fullmetal Alchemist TCG. WTF? How about some actual, popular DS games, you mo-rons. I'll never understand why events like this don't court the video game world... it's largely the same audience (except for the old-timer historical wargamers, but they're always over in their own wing anyway) and the video games offer so much more splash. With WizKids etc all bailing out, maybe Origins should look in that direction to fill the gap. This year's WizardWorld had onstage Rock Band competitions and there was always a crowd. Adapt or die, Origins. I'm sure the wargamers were all pissy when WOTC and Magic first stole the thunder, there's no shame in doing it again.

We drive out to Columbus this Wednesday. I fully expect to post some recaps from the hotel.