From now on, “Xandering “ means taking credit for someone’s work who you didn’t respect.
Look at this AI art I did!
Dude, midjourney totally Xandered that from real artists.
Okay, I've just stumbled into this whole thing and here's how I understand it:
- Jennell Jacquays was responsible for popularising non-linear dungeon design. Mad props to her for that!
- Justin Alexander came up with his own categorisation system, techniques, terminology and tips for developing non-linear dungeons in a series of blog posts in 2010. Since this is his personal approach/system for it he could reasonably have called it 'Xandering' at the time. Instead he chose to call it 'Jacquaying' (including that unfortunate typo - it should be 'Jacquaysing') in honour of Jennell Jacquays since she inspired it.
- Time passes, 'Jacquay(s)ing' becomes a common use term in the community. It is especially appreciated by the trans community since it is named in respect for the accomplishments of a transwoman.
- Come 2023, Justin is publishing a book including this system he developed. His publisher expressed legal concerns about naming at after someone else who could potentially object to it, or otherwise lay claim to the name. Justin goes 'okay'. He updates the blog posts and the book to use the term 'Xandering' instead, while still heavily crediting Jenell as the inspiration for his specific approach.
Now, IMO this is a bad idea. It's his system, but its naming showed respect for Jennell and the community has been using it for over a decade. Yanking it back now comes across as very rude and hurtful to people who care about and respect Jennell. Personally I think it was a bad idea. That ship had well and truly sailed.
What it
isn't, as far as I can see, is 'taking credit for someone's work who you didn't respect'. Firstly, 'xandering' refers specifically to Justin's theory and method for developing non-linear dungeons. One of his reasons for wanting to change the name was that people kept thinking that his system was created by Jenelle. Secondly, the blog series on xandering, and I assume the book, repeatedly credit Jennell for developing some of the first non-linear dungeons and popularising that style of dungeon. He isn't trying to take credit for anything she did, only for his own content.
Happy to hear arguments to the contrary, but right now I don't see Justin taking credit for anything other than his own work, and he's been very clear about Jennell's influence on it.
IMO you could reasonably use both terms - jacquaysing is the act of making a dungeon non-linear, xandering is Justin's particular approach to jacquaysing.