Why are we all talking like corporate copyright lawyers or marketing ghouls, using these explicitly commercial terms 
I'm disappointed by the ease at which "IP" rolls off my tongue. I mean, most of the fiction and entertainment we surround ourselves with are more soulless corporate slop than art, but still
i like referring to the more repugnant slop as "IP" because it adds a little fart into the room where people believe any of it is being squeezed out for artistic merit.
if it's something i like, i say "universe", "mythos" or "by the same people as [x]"
It fits nicely when talking about shared fiction, but video games can instead use non-narrative elements like gameplay mechanics as the shared element that gets built on
if there's no shared fictional world then I think "franchise" really is the best word for it
Thanks I hate it. Franchise is capitalist jargon in this context: the commercial licensing sense is from 1966.
loosely connected video game installments with shared gameplay elements but no broader shared fictional universe were invented way after that. they are also a product of capitalism, and the model was assuredly influenced by the franchise concept
is there a pre-capitalist literary device that corresponds? I can't think of one
I just wish there was a word that didn't also make me think of fast food chains
“IP” only rolls off my tongue satirically. Corpo speak fuck off. Michael Wisecrack Burns: How Corporate Jargon Took Over Our Lives
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
"Cycle", perhaps, but people would assume you were talking about, like, the Epic Cycle, Carolingian Cycle, Manas, et cetera. So it might feel a bit odd to refer to the complete body of comics, TV series, movies, songs, and fan content as the "Sailor Moon Cycle" like it's a millennium-old epic poem passed down by oral storytellers for generations.
Don't people say "universe"? DC universe, Marvel universe, etcetera
All Final Fantasy games share certain elements but they don't generally take place in the same universe outside of rare cross-over games. I feel like the word universe also places too much emphasis on fictional continuity, whereas the words IP or franchise can encompass anything made under that umbrella even they are entirely separate narratively
I also thought about the word "series" but that's also kind of limited in its scope. I wouldn't call all the Resident Evil games a single series of games, for example. There are the main numbered titles but you also have a bazillion spinoffs with different game mechanics as well as remakes of existing titles and they all influence each other
True yeah people go a bit nuts like trying to explain how Bloodborne and Elden Ring share a universe because of the arcane stat and some art assets and
actually fromsoft might do it
please from soft
do something
anything
Show
People use series and sub-series or side-series for stuff like that. I think it works.
I think the term is Expanded Universe, Star Wars has got it too.
Things can identifiably belong to the same
propertybut not share any narrative elementsidk I feel like "canon" does not have to imply any narrative continuity? like "canon of [author]" does not imply any relatedness of the author's works beyond the authorship itself
Good point- I've seen the word used in its popular culture sense so much I forgot its original meaning.
However, most franchises consist of works by multiple often work-for-hire authors
Reminder that intellectual property is a bullshit term used by corpos to control media production and peoples attitudes toward copyright.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html
Continuing to use it makes you a lib. You can use terms like "series" "text" "artistic works" "trademarked brand" etc.
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