D&D 5E (2014) D&D Next name?

[jonesy]

Mazes and Monsters the Tom Hanks edition

Mazes and Monsters: Retro Clone

 

[Evenglare]

I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but it's really annoying hearing them say iteration. It's like they are purposefully going out of their way to say iteration instead of edition. Has anyone else noticed this? I don't have anything against the word iteration but what specifically makes me angry is the avoidance of the word "edition".
/rant

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I vote for either "D&D: Revolutions" or "D&D: Reloaded".

No, seriously, D&D 5E is the right answer.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Stick with numbers. Nothing bugs me as much as when they change the numbering system. When WotC got hold of Star Wars, it had to be 3rd ed, because West End Games had already made 1st & 2nd ed. Then, to get away from that, WotC made Star Wars Saga edition, as some sort of attempt to get away from pointing to the WEG game editions.

Software companies do this all the time too, for reasons that baffle me (so it must be some idiotic marketing thing). Macromedia went from releasing Dreamweaver 4 and Flash 5 to Macromedia Suite MX. Um. OK. Then it was MX 2? Then Adobe bought Macromedia, and renamed all of their products Creative Suite. Then CS 2. Now I think they are on CS 5 or 6. Why? What is wrong with Photoshop 14? Is it that hard? Someone in class a couple years ago said she'd bought photoshop 4, and both the instructor and I gaped at her. She meant CS4. Yeah, slight difference there. Like about 10 years of software development.
Remember when we had Windows 3.11, then Win 95, then Windows 2000 and Windows ME, then Windows XP followed by Windows Vista? Did that make any sense at all? NO. Now we have Windows 7 and Windows 8. Where did these names/numbers come from?

So, if WotC has any brains left at all, it will be AD&D 5th edition. Stick with the sane and stable naming convention. Be logical. For once.

 

[jadrax]

I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but it's really annoying hearing them say iteration. It's like they are purposefully going out of their way to say iteration instead of edition. Has anyone else noticed this? I don't have anything against the word iteration but what specifically makes me angry is the avoidance of the word "edition".
/rant

Maybe they actually looked up what an 'edition' actually means.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Maybe they actually looked up what an 'edition' actually means.

Now what on earth makes you think they would do something like that?

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

Software companies do this all the time too, for reasons that baffle me (so it must be some idiotic marketing thing). Macromedia went from releasing Dreamweaver 4 and Flash 5 to Macromedia Suite MX. Um. OK. Then it was MX 2? Then Adobe bought Macromedia, and renamed all of their products Creative Suite. Then CS 2. Now I think they are on CS 5 or 6. Why? What is wrong with Photoshop 14? Is it that hard? Someone in class a couple years ago said she'd bought photoshop 4, and both the instructor and I gaped at her. She meant CS4. Yeah, slight difference there. Like about 10 years of software development.
Remember when we had Windows 3.11, then Win 95, then Windows 2000 and Windows ME, then Windows XP followed by Windows Vista? Did that make any sense at all? NO. Now we have Windows 7 and Windows 8. Where did these names/numbers come from?

So, if WotC has any brains left at all, it will be AD&D 5th edition. Stick with the sane and stable naming convention. Be logical. For once.

Rebranding the version numbers when you group a number of individual products into a suite makes sense, both from an internal perspective and a consumer one, so long as the entire suite is iterated upon simultaneously.

It would be like if WotC decided to bundle D&D, Alternity, D20 Modern, and Gama World into a product suite. It would be easier to refer to these if they all had a common version.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Yes, if you bundle things together.
If, however, it is only a rebrand for the sake of changing an image or perception, then it is a marketing ploy. I hate marketing ploys.

 

[Evenglare]

Maybe they actually looked up what an 'edition' actually means.

Edition:
Definition:issue of publication
Synonyms: copy, impression, imprint, number, printing, program, publication, reissue, release, reprint, reprinting, version, volume

Iteration:
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: redundancy
Synonyms: emphasis, monotony, repetition

Edition clearly refers to VERSION as a synonym in this case. I actually am surprised I had to specifically say this. I figured most everyone understood what edition meant when referring to D&D. But then again Iteration may be more apt since they are clearly trying to repeat what they have done with past editions. Still irritates me not that they are using the word iteration, but the fact they are specifically side stepping the word "Edition" whenever possible.

 

[jadrax]

Edition clearly refers to VERSION as a synonym in this case.

Which is of course the root cause of the problem, because lets face it - the various official 'editions' of D&D are not versions of one another in any true sense of the word. Games like Labyrinth Lord is a version of OD&D, while 3.5 is simply not.

Now, you could successfully argue that they are all versions of D&D, but that's pretty loose language that certainly would not extend to them being different editions of the same work, as while a thesaurus may list them as synonymous, editions actually has a much tighter meaning in real life.

I figured most everyone understood what edition meant when referring to D&D.

The problem is, while everyone may 'understand' what it means when referring to D&D, it's still incorrect terminology by the standards of almost every other publication* in existence.


*the exception of course being newspapers/news broadcasts, which use the term differently and interestingly more in keeping with the rpg usage.