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<blockquote data-quote="nakia" data-source="post: 1872003" data-attributes="member: 25747">Sure.&nbsp; What you are talking about, I think, is what philosophers call the type/token distinction.&nbsp; Assuming I don't mess this up, a &quot;type&quot; is a larger concept (a general cateogry), under which fall various instances of that concept (specific instances) -- the &quot;tokens.&quot;&nbsp; So &quot;D&amp;D&quot; is a token of the type &quot;role playing game.&quot; For more about all this see: <a href="http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html" target="_blank">http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html</a>Now, what you're after is whether or not &quot;D&amp;D&quot; can be a type as well as a token.&nbsp; It seems it can be, with various instances (say &quot;3.5ed D&amp;D&quot;) standing as tokens of the &quot;D&amp;D&quot; type.&nbsp; Other tokens of the &quot;D&amp;D&quot; type would be &quot;Red Box D&amp;D&quot; or &quot;OD&amp;D&quot;.So the question then becomes what makes a token an instance of a type?&nbsp; Typically, the answer is convention.&nbsp; If a set of users of the words in question use the same words the same way most of the time, then those words have &quot;meaning.&quot;&nbsp; It's a functional defintion that changes over time.Now we're not talking about the &quot;essence&quot; of D&amp;D anymore.&nbsp; We're talking about how the term &quot;D&amp;D&quot; is used and what it means.&nbsp; I think this is a more productive way of talking about it.&nbsp; What &quot;D&amp;D&quot; is is a term used to cover various sorts of behaviors with certain artifacts that changes over time.&nbsp; Now it can be used to refer to red box games, or 3.5 games, or whatever.&nbsp; Joshua makes the point that in 10 years, we may use &quot;D&amp;D&quot; to refer to something different (a game without dice, maybe).&nbsp; The point is that other people who are engaged in the activity know how to respond when you say &quot;I play D&amp;D.&quot;To the layperson (non RPGer), &quot;D&amp;D&quot; may refer to ALL role playing games, like how one can use &quot;coke&quot; to refer to all sodas if one is in Atlanta.&nbsp; The types &quot;D&amp;D&quot; and &quot;role playing games&quot; are equivalent.&nbsp;&nbsp; But we know it only refers to a certain roleplaying game, because we have different sorts of conventions for using the term.Man, I am a philosophy geek as well as a gamer geek.&nbsp; Help me, please. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!&nbsp; &nbsp; :eek:"&nbsp; data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="nakia, post: 1872003, member: 25747"] Sure. What you are talking about, I think, is what philosophers call the type/token distinction. Assuming I don't mess this up, a "type" is a larger concept (a general cateogry), under which fall various instances of that concept (specific instances) -- the "tokens." So "D&D" is a token of the type "role playing game." For more about all this see: [url]http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html[/url] Now, what you're after is whether or not "D&D" can be a type as well as a token. It seems it can be, with various instances (say "3.5ed D&D") standing as tokens of the "D&D" type. Other tokens of the "D&D" type would be "Red Box D&D" or "OD&D". So the question then becomes what makes a token an instance of a type? Typically, the answer is convention. If a set of users of the words in question use the same words the same way most of the time, then those words have "meaning." It's a functional defintion that changes over time. Now we're not talking about the "essence" of D&D anymore. We're talking about how the term "D&D" is used and what it means. I think this is a more productive way of talking about it. What "D&D" is is a term used to cover various sorts of behaviors with certain artifacts that changes over time. Now it can be used to refer to red box games, or 3.5 games, or whatever. Joshua makes the point that in 10 years, we may use "D&D" to refer to something different (a game without dice, maybe). The point is that other people who are engaged in the activity know how to respond when you say "I play D&D." To the layperson (non RPGer), "D&D" may refer to ALL role playing games, like how one can use "coke" to refer to all sodas if one is in Atlanta. The types "D&D" and "role playing games" are equivalent. But we know it only refers to a certain roleplaying game, because we have different sorts of conventions for using the term. Man, I am a philosophy geek as well as a gamer geek. Help me, please. :eek: [/QUOTE]

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