Cheap marketing idea!

Hey all (especially Zwillinger, who will hopefully see this and pass it along!),

So if you're a geek goddess fan like I am and like Felicia Day's new YouTube Geek and Sundry channel, you've probably watched the show TableTop, with Wil Wheaton. Every two weeks, they put out a 30-minute show in which Wil and three other players sit down and play a traditional (but not too mainstream) board game, such as Settlers of Catan, Tsuro, Ticket to Ride, etc. The guests each week range in fame from totally unknown (last week they had Amy Dallen, who owns a comic book store) to relatively well known in geek circles, but not mega-famous actors and personalities (Grant Imahara, Colin Ferguson, Ando from Heroes, etc.).

The show reminded me a lot of the kind of games and the fun we had on the Friday game night at the Player Summit. From there, I made the leap of, "Hey! You know who would probably make a good guest on TableTop? One of the designers or maybe a lead artist at Paragon Studios!" While most viewers of TableTop probably don't know specifically who Matt Miller, for example, of Paragon Studios is, I'm sure that most of them have at least heard of City of Heroes. I think that the producers of TableTop would be game (no pun intended) to having someone in that kind of position on the show, especially since the folks at Paragon Studios seem to be pretty big fans of tabletop games and are generally affable people. I mean, it is a show about gaming, and wouldn't it make sense that having a game designer of a moderately popular and well-known computer game on the show would be a cool idea?

To be honest, I have no idea how that would happen. I suspect that Wil and crew probably really would like cool ideas for guests, but short of just posting comments on their YouTube videos or something, I have no idea how to get in touch with them. Even if I did, I'm just some random Internet schmo--I don't want to come off as some annoying fanboy trying to mercilessly promote this target of affection. I'm not saying whoever is on the show should try to turn it into a commercial or anything, I really think they'd be an interesting and entertaining guest, and that it would probably get some viewers to check into the game just by having "So-en-so, who does such-and-such on the superhero MMORPG City of Heroes" in the show intro. Maybe the crowd here or the marketing folks at Paragon Studio would have a good idea of how to let it be known that they'd like to do a show.

So, what do you think? Good idea? If so, how could we, as fans of the game, help to make this happen?

We should keep it player-side, because we already know how Paragon Studios Marketing will respond, and because we have a better handle on the game than most folks.

Seeing as how FD is extremely active on Twitter, and responds to fan questions and suggestions all the time, perhaps a good fan community representative could contact her?

What about that guy who is, like, the public face of the wiki? That website and its crew have changed the game for most folks--he'd be great.

Well, I still think of myself as just some random Internet schmo who has no connections other than being a fan of both the game and the show. I'll certainly try to do my part, though!

Hmm... I wonder where they film the show? I've been assuming somewhere around LA, but I'm not sure, really.

Maybe I will just have to tell Felicia Day next Saturday. She will be at Origins game fair in Columbus, Ohio, I plan on going but wasn't going to stand in line for autographs.

It is a really cool ideal though.

PStudios Marketing does nothing outside of promo emails that only go to players.

I think only one person could properly represent CoH to Will Wheaton

I don't think tying in with a show whose punchlines and plotlines revolve around the Hollywood stereotype that smart people exist to be laughed at is a shining example of good marketing.

If they want to have an actor from BBT on TableTop, that's their prerogative, but that's not the point of this effort. If they have an actor from BBT, I fail to see how that would be helpful to City of Heroes. After all, if that guy were on TableTop, I seriously doubt he would actually wear that shirt. It's not like Colin Ferguson wore his sheriff's costume from Eureka on TableTop. I doubt the actor would mention City of Heroes at all. Even if by some really wild coincidence he did, it wouldn't necessarily reflect positively on the game.

The point of this post is to help City of Heroes get some good (cheap!) marketing. Having someone like Matt Miller or Melissa Bianco or David Nakayama or someone else like that on the show would accomplish that goal. Some random actor from BBT could never represent City of Heroes to TableTop's audience as well as someone who actually makes the game can.

And I think that it has a realistic chance of happening. TableTop is a show about gaming, these people work in the gaming industry, therefore they would very likely be interesting and entertaining guests that would appeal to viewers who are by definition interested in watching a show about gaming. (Next show's guests will include Steve Jackson, the designer of Munchkin.)

It would be win/win/win/win. TableTop gets an interesting guest (and probably draws in a lot of City of Heroes players as viewers), Paragon Studios gets the game mentioned in front of an audience interested in gaming, we get a neat show and probably some new players, and Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada gets... Well, okay, maybe it's only win/win/win. Sorry, Stephen.