I was writing over in the M.T. Black '5E Revival' thread and came to a realization there that I think directly relates to the discussion here. Which is that it doesn't matter if we call the new revision 'D&D 2024' or '5E24' so that we can distinguish WotC Dungeons & Dragons products from the greater landscape of products that use the D&D 5E game engine. Because unfortunately... the people who want us to change our terminology are hoping us to do so in order to use the term '5E' as the generic branding of all games that use that engine. They wish to be able to talk about 5E product and not have all of us immediately connect the product or the conversation to D&D and Wizards of the Coast.
But as I said in the other thread... I think that is virtually impossible. And it is not worth wasting time trying to get it done.
The term '5E' was specifically created and used by people to talk about the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. That's precisely why the term exists. If you say '5E', most people will assume you mean 'D&D 5E'. That's just how it is. It is in no way a generic brand identifier for games that use the 5E game engine.
Now many years ago, there WAS a generic brand identifier created in the 3E era for specifically this kind of purpose-- the 'd20' branding. If you used 'd20' in your marketing or your conversations about gaming, it was generally assumed you might not be talking about Dungeons & Dragons. But if you used '3E'? Then you most likely were. And that's why everything was clearer-- '3E' was shorthand for D&D-related games and products... 'd20' for games that used the 3E SRD game engine but were quite possibly unrelated to D&D.
So I think this is what the greater 5E gaming populace actually needs-- a term that is not 'D&D' nor '5E' that can imply it uses the SRD of fifth edition, but is not meant to be connected to WotC or the D&D brand. Once you have that term in place, then that greater populace can talk about and within that sphere and be more confident that rando D&D and WotC stans will not jump into the conversation and use D&D as their reference point back to argue whatever it is the convo might be about.
But as I said in the other thread... I think that is virtually impossible. And it is not worth wasting time trying to get it done.
The term '5E' was specifically created and used by people to talk about the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. That's precisely why the term exists. If you say '5E', most people will assume you mean 'D&D 5E'. That's just how it is. It is in no way a generic brand identifier for games that use the 5E game engine.
Now many years ago, there WAS a generic brand identifier created in the 3E era for specifically this kind of purpose-- the 'd20' branding. If you used 'd20' in your marketing or your conversations about gaming, it was generally assumed you might not be talking about Dungeons & Dragons. But if you used '3E'? Then you most likely were. And that's why everything was clearer-- '3E' was shorthand for D&D-related games and products... 'd20' for games that used the 3E SRD game engine but were quite possibly unrelated to D&D.
So I think this is what the greater 5E gaming populace actually needs-- a term that is not 'D&D' nor '5E' that can imply it uses the SRD of fifth edition, but is not meant to be connected to WotC or the D&D brand. Once you have that term in place, then that greater populace can talk about and within that sphere and be more confident that rando D&D and WotC stans will not jump into the conversation and use D&D as their reference point back to argue whatever it is the convo might be about.