Gaming.SE has had several recent promotion events for various games. Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, and Diablo 3. These have been rather successful. It gets site membership up, while also drawing attention to those games.
The mission statement of Stack Exchange is to make the Internet a better place. And the success of these promotion events makes it conceivable for us to help make the Internet even better.
Everyone has their favorite games. Everyone has their beloved games, whether classic or otherwise. Many of these games are well-known. But some of them aren't.
You know the ones. The classics that slip through the cracks. The ones that the gaming public passed by, but those who've played it know of its greatness. The cult classic: a great game that is only known to a few.
It's safe to say that Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, and Diablo 3 aren't these.
Now that Gaming.SE has grown to the degree it has, it has the opportunity through promotions to not merely ride the coattails of popular games, but to influence popularity. To take a cult classic and introduce it to the gaming public at large.
It's very important to note this: this must be community driven! What we absolutely do not want is to become part of the marketing machine for publishers eager to promote their games.
Of course, to do this we need promotion events that work for already existing games.
My questions are these:
Is this a good idea? Do we want to try to use the site to cast a spotlight on overlooked gems?
What would be a good way to decide what games are worthy of this effort? Note that if there isn't a good way, then this isn't a good idea.
Will this effectively help draw attention to less well-known games?