M'athchomaroon! My name is David J. Peterson, and I'm the creator of the Dothraki language for HBO's Game of Thrones - AMA [x-post from r/Fantasy]

Link to AMA here - please post questions there

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edit: AMA's in r/Fantasy are posted the morning of the AMA with the participant returning 'live' at a set time. This gives redditors a better shot at learning about the AMA and posting a question.

AMA's in r/Fantasy are posted the morning of the AMA with the participant returning 'live' at a set time. This gives redditors a better shot at learning about the AMA and posting a question.

Good system, that. Probably not feasible all the time, but a great idea.

Understood. It has worked very well with international redditors who are not on the typical North American time zones and those who like to do research before posting a question. The participants like it as well.

Is it just a coincidence that you're posting this AMA at the time of greatest marketing for the second season, or is this part of a social-network marketing plan?

No marketing push on this one - he was contacted by the r/Fantasy mods and is acting on his own behalf.

Feel free to check out the other AMA's on r/Fantasy. All AMA's there are done this way to give redditors time to look into the subject and post a question.

EDIT: Apparently I'm wrong entirely, he was contacted by the /r/fantasy mods and agreed. Still, my point stands.

Don't be so cynical. Yes this is marketing, but this is new marketing, and it's better than the old method if done the right way.

Think of it this way, the people who will be most engaged will be the fans of the show, or people interested or curious about the show. What better method to build interest (and thus, revenue) for the show than reaching out and interacting with the fans directly. Now don't get me wrong, it's our way or the highway... Woody Harrelson proved that. But if a truly symbiotic relationship is achieved, there is no reason brands (and the advertisers who support them) and fans/new markets can't be achieved.

A few examples. Look at the success Old Spice has achieved by allowing Tim and Eric to have creative control over their advertising. They then bombarded the internet for 3 days, having the original actor, and the creators answer questions, interact and discuss with people. This was insanely successful for the product, and they've had a sustained, dedicated fan base ever since. And they did this by treating us like people, not sheep

Look at the rise of Aziz Ansari, Louis CK, Kristen Bell, or Kate Upton. They have allowed... no that's not the right word. They have opened the doors to their life through social media (and whether you like it or not /r/IAmA is a new form a social media) and have allowed us to get to know them, what they're REALLY like. Get to interact with them in a personal, relate-able way. And they get to promote their new movie or product or whatever. And we don't feel duped, had, and bamboozled.

The days of celebrities with giant larger than life images is gone. Now they understand we are expected to relate to them, they we don't think they're shit doesn't stink. That's what went wrong for Woody. He thought his shit didn't stink, and that he didn't have to answer questions he didn't want to, and that's why the community lashed out at him. Because he acted like he didn't have to play by our rules, the NEW rules.

You may hate that marketing and advertising is everywhere, but it is a fact and your hatred of it will not change that. I for one, embrace this new way, it's a huge improvement over the old way.

TL;DR Even though this probably is a marketing move, it's one that is played by our rules, and not the MSM, and we should be grateful for that and relish in this opportunity to ask a linguistic expert anything we wanted, something that would require a great amount of luck to do even 10 years ago

EDIT: Apparently I'm wrong entirely, he was contacted by the /r/fantasy mods and agreed. Still, my point stands.

Good points, but this particular AMA is not a marketing move. They would have gotten a bigger name to come in if that was the case.

David was approached by a redditor friend and r/Fantasy member three weeks ago on r/Fantasy's behalf. He is acting on his own per our request and under a confidentiality agreement where he can't answer everything. Really a nice guy.

I guess you could say that the idea came up b/c of all the Game of Thrones marketing going on right now made us think of finding someone like David to chat with us redditors. There's the tie-in to today's online and social marketing.

Yea, I addressed this in my edit. Sorry for being late to the party. Anyways as someone who appreciates ASOIAF and GoT more because of the rich backstories, histories, myths, and religions (seriously if you're a fan of historical fiction at ALL you will love this series) I am pumped for this Iama.

You are dead-on with the understanding of how marketing is gyrating through the transition to online networks. It's a brave new world.

The r/linguistics and r/conlang groups are tearing up the AMA as well. (TIL...conlang and that we had r/conlang.)

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it's on there and on r/conlangs too. These subreddits are tearing up the AMA.

This is being posted 12 hours ahead of time? Do you expect it to still be front page?

I don't know, I kind of get it. Some AMA's seem a disaster where people show up and then just disappear, in a way why not collate a bunch of questions than go through them? Not defending it entirely, but seeing where the idea could come from!

All AMA's on r/Fantasy are done this way. It has worked well to get redditors who interested a shot at posting a good question.

See, I didn't know that, and that puts into perspective anyone whinging. It seems like a fair system!

It's worked very well so far - we get good questions, thorough answers and happy redditors.