Found - Mario Contasino

[fitbabits]

Those with an interest in political history may recognize the name Mario Contasino. He was the New York taxi driver who ran over Winston Churchill while the soon-to-be UK Prime Minister was on a visit to the Big Apple... His contribution to world events leading up to World War II is something of legend, at least as far as marketing Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is concerned.

Anyway, Codemasters (the publishers of the aforementioned title), is reporting (http://codemastersquest.wordpress.com/) that they've managed to track down the infamous Mario Contasino:

You may remember that our campaign to recognise Mario’s contribution to history was picked up by The Genealogue blog, which threw the challenge down to its readers to help locate Mario or his descendants. You may remember, too, that those users quickly managed to uncover a number of promising leads and avenues of inquiry that might help.

Now, it appears that those readers have gone one step further: it looks like they’ve found him. You can read how they did so here. You may remember that a user named Doogles McQuig sent an email the Westchester Library, to see if they might hold any records that would help locate Mario Contasino. It turns out they do. Looking up Mario’s address at the time (which we know was 300 Yonkers Avenue thanks to a contemporary report in the New York Times) the librarians were able to find a listing for a Nicholas V. Castasano, and an Edward F. Castasano.
So there you go! Marketing genius, or just a little bonkers? You decide.

[Mdot23]

I think it's a cool marketing tool, but it's going to go way over the heads of many people who don't do much researching on the matter.

[fitbabits]

Jeepers, people... This thread is full of W-I-N and you're ignoring it.

[Zacharai]

Jeepers, people... This thread is full of W-I-N and you're ignoring it.
Your definition of "win" may be a little different than others...

[Telefrog]

There's a whole WWII alternate history book in which different authors contributed stories based on the premise of Churchill dying in this accident. As with any multiple author compendium, some of the stories were good, some were bad, and most were mediocre. Of course, the story by Harry Turtledove was one of the best in the bunch.

[Kryopsis]

So there you go! Marketing genius, or just a little bonkers? You decide.
Judging by the demo, the game is going to need a lot of this marketing genius.

[LongStepMantis]

I've read their site, I've read the wikipedia entry on Mario...and I'm still trying to figure out how his running over someone famous with a car contributes anything to history, besides being an amusing anecdote.

If anyone could give me better information, I'd be glad to hear it. Why is he important?
I get that he could have made a big impact, if he had killed Churchill. But he didn't, so what's the deal? I'm genuinely asking for clarification.

[Cool AN]

LongStepMantis: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is based on the premise that Churchill did die that day, that way, Europe was lost and America never entered the war.

Anyway, I probably would be more excited about this (I am a big history buff), if it wasn't because the demo was total shit and I don't expect the real game to be much better.

[LongStepMantis]

LongStepMantis: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is based on the premise that Churchill did die that day, that way, Europe was lost and America never entered the war.

Anyway, I probably would be more excited about this (I am a big history buff), if it wasn't because the demo was total shit and I don't expect the real game to be much better.

Ok, that makes a lot more sense in being related to this.
Thanks for the heads up.

I could've probably figured that out if i read more about the game itself, but I'm not really interested in it, so I didn't. ;)

[Shifter]

Judging by the demo, the game is going to need a lot of this marketing genius.

Haha QFT. This game needs a lot of help, and another 6 months of polish.

[Isamura]

I hope I don't make any sort of impact on history, so later, people of the future don't research me and find out just how big of a tool i really am.

[Xerxes]

Codemasters?!

/exits thread

[Hellbug]

I hope I don't make any sort of impact on history, so later, people of the future don't research me and find out just how big of a tool i really am.

Most people realise you are a tool without cracking any books open. :p

Does anyone really give a crap about this guy? It may be interesting to wonder "What if Churchill died before the war?" but I'd be pretty upset if I were his son or grandson and people asked me if I knew that my dad or grandad was a bad driver.

[fitbabits]

Codemasters?!

/exits thread

DiRT!

/lamets Xerxes silliness.

[Xerxes]

DiRT!

/lamets Xerxes silliness.

Oh know you didn't?! Jericho.

They have a few good games out and stuff to look forward but have they ever gave you a reason to trust them every time?

[fitbabits]

Oh know you didn't?! Jericho.

Oh yes I did. Operation Flashpoint. Overlord. TOCA series.

[Xerxes]

Oh yes I did. Operation Flashpoint. Overlord. TOCA series.

END GAME: Dirty Dancing the Game. :p

[Shifter]

Wow. Checkmate.

[Xerxes]

Wow. Checkmate.

He didn't want to accept defeat and I didn't want to throw it in his face. Codemasters has probably one or two good teams. Just more team get that giant Codemasters sticker on the box and takes away from the brand as a whole. You can't stand behind that label every time.