takasi
First Post
kenmarable said:How does that term help the open gaming community? Really, I am interested to hear how it does help. It's a marketing term, nothing more, nothing less.
It's not just marketing. If I tell people I'm going to run an adventure path, they know I mean I'm running a series of modules from first to an end point. It's not an open ended campaign. There will be an overarching plot, developed by a third party, and it will not be something the DM has developed on his own. It will guide the entire course of the campaign.
kenmarable said:First off, is it the publishers or the consumers? Two very different groups that could fall under the "open gaming community" label.
It should be a term that both publishers and consumers can use to communicate with each effectively when identifying a product type.
kenmarable said:As for publishers, is EN Publishing losing sales because people are saying "You know, those books sound interesting, but I really wish it were an adventure path." I don't see using the generic term as having any significant impact on publishers.
You might be.
kenmarable said:Paizo has some brand identity there, and it helps them to trademark it and build that brand identity.
I disagree. It's not brand identity. Pathfinder Chronicles is a brand. GameMastery is a brand. Adventure path is not a brand, it's a term used to describe a series of modules that encapsulates a campaign.
kenmarable said:Allowing other companies to use that term dilutes Paizo's brand, but doesn't really lift the other companies up at all. I would see that as a net loss. There is far more value produced if the term is a trademark that Paizo can build upon than if it is a generic term that any company can use. There are many, many generic terms that can be used for this same purpose.
Adventure path IS a generic term. It's been used before. It's not like Kleenex, where they're taking an original name (like Pathfinder Chronicles or GameMastery) and establishing a brand. They're taking a term that describes a small but growing type of product, an arc of all-inclusive modules for a campaign, and removing its use by the industry.
kenmarable said:As for consumers, a registered trademark in no way takes it away from us. It doesn't restrict our use anymore than asking someone to give me a Kleenex. To think that we as consumers are somehow harmed by this is pretty silly in my opinion.
It hampers our ability to find these products easily.
kenmarable said:Where is the confusion in the community?
Name recognition is important in finding available products to compare. Having a set of key words like "adventure path" attached to a type of product makes it easier for the community trying to buy, sell and compare these products.
kenmarable said:Why take the term away from Paizo in the first place?
It's neither a product type nor a term they established independently.
kenmarable said:How does this support the open gaming community if they give the term to other publishers?
Again, it's a shared label for a product type shared by the community, not a product line produced by an individual publisher.
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