FYI for new game hunters:

So Origins starts today and while I am sure there is a lot of fun there, it looks to me that publishers just treat it as a way to preview games that come out at Gen Con.

With that in mind, BGG is going to have all day coverage highlighting lots of new games, most of which will probably debut at Gen Con. So if you are looking for info on games coming out at Gen Con pay attention to BGG's twitch channel. https://www.twitch.tv/boardgamegeektv starting today around 11:30.

I'll second this. I've been watching BGG's Origins Game List for stuff to add to my list of stuff to check out at Gen Con as well.

Nah... Origins is what Gen Con was 20 years ago....FUN and more intimate. It's about PLAYING games and a few new releases. 

Be on the lookout for

Shipshape
Bosk
Pipeline
Space Explorer
Abomination

Gen Con 20 years ago was still not too terribly like Origins today, other than both being gaming conventions obviously.  It had a much more varied pool of activities and had been significantly larger (though checking I see the 1998/1999 numbers specifically were actually fairly similar to modern Origins; fair enough).

Also, wow, how hard are you working to avoid having fun at Gen Con, Hahnarama?  Intimate, sure, I will grant you that.  And my new catchphrase is "if you want to spend all your time gaming at Gen Con, go to Origins," so we agree in that sense.  Plus Columbus is definitely a better convention city than Milwaukee, so there are certainly good things about it.  But man, the ONLY thing to do at Origins is play games, as opposed to Gen-Con where gaming is like the 28th most fun thing going on at any given moment.