Dungeons & Dragons Does Not Exist: Meditations on Brand Dilution

[TerraDave]

If you said that the meaning of "pet" and "dog" were co-equal; that there is no dilution of meaning by broadening the definition, then you would be denying reality.



If you said that the meaning of "pet" and "German shepherd" were co-equal; that there is no dilution of meaning by broadening the definition, then you would be denying reality.

Your strawmen rely upon the idea that it cannot be both clear what "pet" means, while that meaning is less dilute than what "German shepherd" means.

The meaning of a broader category is always more dilute than that of a narrower category, or of a specific. "Fish" is a clear term, but tells you less than "trout", just as "trout" tells you less than "rainbow trout", and "rainbow trout" tells you less than "this rainbow trout frying in the pan".

"Pet" gives you a clear idea; it fails to give you a specific idea. Thus, Kleenex is diluted because it is now often used to refer to any facial tissue. That doesn't mean people mistake facial tissues for tractors.

Dilution of meaning means that the meaning is less specific; it doesn't mean it is unclear.



RC

RC, are you inventing your own philosophy of language?

Pet is clear, and its meaning is clear. Its a strong, usefull word. Or take "crash", so many ways to crash, but it means something, thats for sure.

On the othe hand, "RC's german sheppard Billy" doesn't mean that much to me. That dog could still be big, small, young, old, mangy, groomed, purebread weird or mixed bread weird, have to use one of those little dog wheel chairs...And without more info its meaning basically becomes "pet dog of guy that post on ENWorld".

 

[Raven Crowking]

Pet is clear, and its meaning is clear. Its a strong, usefull word. Or take "crash", so many ways to crash, but it means something, thats for sure.

Your first strawman (again) relies upon the idea that it cannot be both clear what "pet" means, while that meaning is less dilute than what "German shepherd" means.

Likewise, "crash" is clear, but more dilute (less specific in meaning) than "car crash", which in turn is more dilute (less specific in meaning) than "The five-car pile-up on Interstate 90 at 2 am this morning".

On the othe hand, "RC's german sheppard Billy" doesn't mean that much to me. That dog could still be big, small, young, old, mangy, groomed, purebread weird or mixed bread weird, have to use one of those little dog wheel chairs...And without more info its meaning basically becomes "pet dog of guy that post on ENWorld".

Your second strawman relies upon the idea that how specific a term is depends upon the listener's comprehension of it.

I.e., a term in French is somehow not specific if you do not understand French, or the taxonomical term "Carcharodon carcharias" is less specific than "shark" because you don't know that Carcharodon carcharias refers to a great white shark.

Both of these arguments are clearly fallacious, and I would hope that this should be obvious.


RC

 

[TerraDave]

D&D started as a single product, one game. It became a brand, and in doing so caused its own dilution.

That is the distinction. one always was intended to stand for many different products, while the other was originally one product.

Maybe this is the problem. The three little books were so open to interpretation that it was barely one product. And the "dillution" followed right away. By 1979 you had, in strategic review, Dragon, the supplements, many, many variants. And back then a variant was a variant, people didn't hold back. AD&D was designed to pull this all back together, but coexisted with B/X and OD&D (they were all in print at the same time for a while), and all those house ruled games, prompting some grumpy EGG editorials. Then AD&D also started to drift, from crunchy Oriental Adventures, to high powered Unearthed Arcana to the launch of story driven games with Dragonlance. At this point, there were many, many products with the D&D brand. And this was all like 25 years ago.

 

[Wicht]

RC, are you inventing your own philosophy of language?

Pet is clear, and its meaning is clear.

Urm, you realize that RC said dilution does not make a words meaning unclear. It just means that it has a broader meaning. You are arguing against something he did not say.

And your assertion that "pet" means more to you than "german shepherd," is a little silly. A pet can be a rock, a fish, a child, a cat, a dog, a hamster, a snake, a skunk, a scorpion, or a tarantula. A german shepherd on the other hand is a breed of large dogs which originated in germany in 1899. Bred as a working dog, they are noted for intelligence, loyalty and obedience. They generally have a distinctive coloration (tan/black or red/black), stand a little over 2 feet in height and have a squarish snout with a black nose. Their ears are pointed and they have long necks.

"Pet" most certainly has a very clear meaning. But "german shepherd" conjurs up a specific image which pet does not and its foolish to argue otherwise.

 

[TerraDave]

Your first strawman (again) relies upon the idea that it cannot be both clear what "pet" means, while that meaning is less dilute than what "German shepherd" means.

Likewise, "crash" is clear, but more dilute (less specific in meaning) than "car crash", which in turn is more dilute (less specific in meaning) than "The five-car pile-up on Interstate 90 at 2 am this morning".



Your second strawman relies upon the idea that how specific a term is depends upon the listener's comprehension of it.

I.e., a term in French is somehow not specific if you do not understand French, or the taxonomical term "Carcharodon carcharias" is less specific than "shark" because you don't know that Carcharodon carcharias refers to a great white shark.

Both of these arguments are clearly fallacious, and I would hope that this should be obvious.


RC

The problem is that you are saying broad=diluted. But I think you are just making that up. Diluted means watered down, cut, changed...let try to think of a diluted word or phrase...awesome. This is a dilluted word.

Also you are saying specific=meaningfull, again, not really. I know what a german sheppard is, but the use of that term is highly conditional. If I was a dog breeder I would need to know that, but also a lot more. If cared what a dog looked like, then yes, its usefull. But in many cases, pretty much dog. And my point above was that "specifics" can still be less meaningfull then a simple clear word. To write a long verbose description (as this paragraph is starting to degenrate into) when a simple clear word can be used is bad communication. Its means less, not more.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Maybe this is the problem. The three little books were so open to interpretation that it was barely one product. And the "dillution" followed right away. By 1979 you had, in strategic review, Dragon, the supplements, many, many variants. And back then a variant was a variant, people didn't hold back. AD&D was designed to pull this all back together, but coexisted with B/X and OD&D (they were all in print at the same time for a while), and all those house ruled games, prompting some grumpy EGG editorials. Then AD&D also started to drift, from crunchy Oriental Adventures, to high powered Unearthed Arcana to the launch of story driven games with Dragonlance. At this point, there were many, many products with the D&D brand. And this was all like 25 years ago.

I would agree with this.

As I said upthread, "You can prevent dilution of a term's meaning only by preventing new meaningings from being added. You can decrease dilution only by reducing the number of meanings being used."

When Gygax propsed AD&D, it was for the specific purpose of decreasing dilution, by changing the term (D&D to AD&D) and attempting to reduce the degree of variance from its core meaning.

It didn't work, of course. Terms dilute over time, simply because different people use them to mean different things. (Shrug) Like I said, dilution is a reality. Whether or not that's good or bad is a whole 'nother question.

(And if the term didn't dilute, D&D would mean Gary's home game [or maybe Dave's], and none of us would be playing.)


RC