Kotaku has pointed out a brilliant marketing bit, discussed on the site MCV: Brits are going to get a 14-day trial of World of Warcraft this weekend along with their copy of The Times.

Tidy piece of marketing, this, and I doubt it’ll be the last time we see something like it. Announced in today’s print edition alongside this feature on the game, there’ll also be an 8-page beginners guide included, presumably because most readers won’t have the foggiest what all the fuss is about.

Who wants to bet five bucks we’ll see this in the NYT sometime soon?

Additional: Grimwell has a few words on the wisdom of this plan (he thinks it’s a good idea), and links to a Times article introducing the game from a newbie’s perspective. In a nutshell, the article is completely awesome:

If I had to marry one of the cast of The Lord of the Rings, it would be Sam Gamgee — the completely prosaic, normal, nonmagic one, who comes across like the owner of a garage in Cricklewood having a particularly bad day, what with this vexatious epic quest and all.

and

A visible copy of World of Warcraft makes me want to shout: “I don’t seek to nullify my rampant sexual dysfunctions by pretending to be a Paladin called Thrusthammer Orcbash! IT’S FOR WORK!”

Completely awesome. Go read.

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