For many, Twitter serves as the web's hottest way to spread the word, but for some it extends a platform for fun and sometimes mischievous roleplaying. I tend to reserve my follows for real-life folk, but on the occasion that my favorite and most beloved riddle-solving academic, Professor Layton of Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the DS, joined Twitter, I followed without a second of hesitation.
@TopHatProfessor brought the voice of Layton to life on the web, serving up daily riddles to his followers and rewarding the first to answer with a satisfactory @reply of "CORRECT!" As time went on, other players from the Curious Village began to appear on Twitter, and it was the general understanding that Nintedno had developed a clever marketing campaign to rustle folks up for the next Layton game, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.
But (!), thanks to some investigative work of Kyle Orland at Crispy Gamer, it turns out that the entire Layton ensemble was something that curiously came together with the start of one college student/game journalist, Roger DiLuigi (@RogerBase):
"I figured that if Nintendo wasn't going to make the U.S. release of the second game known, I was going to take matters into my own hands."
Never once supported by Nintendo, DiLuigi crafted TopHatProfessor into such a convincing character that three other writers joined in on the fun and created @ApprenticeLuke, @DonofScience, other familiar faces from the game. While DiLuigi has since revealed the man behind the Professor, the characters continue to engage in what seems like a fan-fueled dinner-theater atmosphere. A truly neat story, check out the article to get the details!
awww, I was really hoping it was Nintendo. But I agree with DiLugi. I wouldn't have know a sequel was coming if I didn't find the twitter account.
Posted by: Amy | July 29, 2009 at 07:31 PM
I was really hoping that it was actually Professor Layton. He can solve my puzzles anytime.
Posted by: .tiff | July 30, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Someone mentioned on Twitter whether this dude did something that is ethical as a journalist. He was, essentially, promoting a Nintendo product via this fake Twitter account. So can he truly be considered a journalist, given the fact that he's doing unsolicited guerrilla marketing for Ninty?
Posted by: Account Deleted | August 01, 2009 at 12:32 AM
I suppose the question for me in this case is where a strong passion or love for a game crosses over to "promotion" when it comes from a game journalist. It's one thing if Roger is advertising/soliciting the Twitter account via his site, but given the performative nature of the conversations (particularly between the other characters who appeared on Twitter) it seemed more like an endeavor motivated by a true fan of a game as opposed to a larger marketing ploy.
Posted by: .tiff | August 03, 2009 at 11:06 AM
Not endorsed by Nintendo. Great game anyway.
Posted by: Sudoku | December 30, 2009 at 07:23 AM