Origins 2006 was another great time for all the Spewgilist.com staff. With interviews and demos and playtests and previews and tournaments all going on we had a blast, talked with a lot of people, played more games than we could shake two sticks at and generally made the best use of our time.

But we did not do it alone. The staff and volunteers of Origins were amazing, once again. They worked with us to coordinate space, arrange playtesting areas, and directed us to folks we had missed. Without them we would have been OK. With their help it was great. A huge thanks to the all the volunteers.

We've cleaned up the day-by-day coverage, inevitable typos and the like creeped into the stream as we took a few minutes here and there from our interviews and reviews to update the general coverage.

To all of the companies and individuals we interviewed, I want to extend out thanks for taking the time to talk with us and share your efforts. We hope our coverage was something you found useful. To those people and companies we did not get a chance to talk with, drop us a line. We'll be glad to take a look at your products and efforts. Just drop us a line and we'll work it out.

And now, I return you to our updated and corrected coverage of Origins 2006.

We'll be adding information daily during our Origins 2006 coverage. It's not quite live but at least it's the same quality you've come to expect from Spewgilist.com.

Check back often as we post information on who we've talked to, what games we've played, and the number of times that Pugilist said something stupid.

Thursday at Origins 2006

We arrived at the Columbus Convention Center around 8:00 AM. The press hour started at 9:00 AM and we wanted to finalize our seating arrangements for Origins. We prefer to be in the Open Gaming Area, grabbing a couple of tables near the Game Library. This gives us access to people as they wander in and makes us easy to find when game companies come over to demo their games.

The team at the front table, running the Open Gaming Area, set us up with a couple of tables, we set out our signs, equipment, etc, and got ready for the Thursday Press Hour.

Thursday was a blur of games and interviews and reviews and working to get things up on the site. We alternated between in-booth interviews and scheduling interviews, depending on the availability of the people involved. One of the things of which we are keenly aware at Spewgilist.com is that vendors and exhibitors are attending Origins to make money, make contacts, and further the visibility and success of their companies. We're there to report, not stand in the way.


Friday Update

Another full day and this one with two of our team going into tournaments. I will leave the tournaments updates for them and will just concentrate on the interviews and clarifications.

We interviewed another four (4) companies today, got three more in the can, got a clarification on the rules of Mudslinger from the designers, and scheduled some game demos for later in the evening after the exhibit hall is closed. All in all, a productive day, inter-spaced with so em casual games, some random adulation thrown my way by total strangers, and really, who better deserves it than I? Of course, I am short on sleep so it may have been a semi-lucid hallucination. I'll have to ask Halle Berry next time she drops by.

Saturday and Sunday are open by design. Those are the days we plan to just find a game and play it, run down the companies we may have missed, and generally relax and enjoy the show.

Saturday Update

We've met with more people and companies than we can count and had some great interviews and demoed a lot of games. While we've not yet played a bad game, the two we ran through with Cheese Weasel Logistics, LLC, stood out on Friday. Aside from putting out great game components, check out their site for those, we played Death by Dice and Pitfighter. Two games that are about as far apart in style and intent as are Nazis and Trout.

No, that didn't make any sense to me either, but I'm an old man, it's late, and Halle Berry never came back to talk with more OR tuck me in so I am struggling through some major disappointment here, bear with me. Regardless, the games are both fun and great to play and not at all similar in mechanics or strategy. I guess that's the real message.

Origins 2006 continues to be a great convention and the staff and volunteers holding it together could not be nicer or more accommodating to us. The question you have to ask is "Who is Jonathan and when did he spank you?" Wait. No. That's not right. The question you have to REALLY ask yourself is "Why aren't I at Origins?"

It's a matter of record that my reporting is griping and so descriptive that you feel as if you are actually attending, I know, but I have to admit, not even I can do justice to the live experience of attending Origins.

There was no press hour on Saturday so we arrived at the convention around 9:30, got set up, and looked over the interviews we had done and the interviews we had committed to on Saturday. We recapped with a few folks, asked them to take a look at the reviews we had done and posted, and bounced around to the convention hall and open gaming area, talking, playing games, having a good time, and avoiding acting our age.

We succeeded.

We hit the game library throughout the day and picked out an old favorite Tsuro, and grabbed anything else that looked interesting. Many times it was a matter of asking the game librarians what they recommended and giving it a shot. Always a good result.

During the evening the folks with Asmodee continued the tradition of spending an evening with us. We ran through the four player game of Dungeon Twister, got them to play Mudslinger, which I did not win due to some very underhanded play and cajoling that resembled the afore mentioned Nazis and fish, and then finished with Apples to Apples from Out of the Box.

We finally got back to the hotel at 2:30 AM and have to be back by 9:00 AM for an interview. The crew has continued to have time issues and we really need to watch them more closely when it comes to scheduling.

Sunday will be the, sniff, final day. Other than the "OH MY GOD WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!" 9:00AM interview, we have an open day that, if it follows suits, will get swamped, but in a good way.

Sunday Update

As predicted, Sunday ended with a swarm of people coming by to demo their games and talk with us. We gave away almost two full bins of prizes on Sunday after first going to the volunteers who had done so much for us and making sure they had their pick.

People had a difficult time believing we were serious in giving away so much. We actually had to almost shanghai people as they walked by and force prizes on them. And then they told their friends and BAM! that was the end of that. Prizes flew out of the bins. We even took a group of prizes and donated them to the prize box of an upcoming convention.

We made great contacts, had great interviews, and generally had a great time. We were able to pump out interviews and reviews and had some positive and immediate effect for some small and mid-sized companies.