rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad

The name change (RE: The Evil Dead)

2 messages from 2 participants · 20 July 2001 – 21 July 2001
original thread on Google Groups

LSJ

berni...@aol.com (BernieTime) wrote: >As I stated, it was most likely a change based on Marketing reasons. >Unless you have some memo that states otherwise.. Ken McGlothlen. WotC Cofounder and Director, Special Projects [r.g.t-c.jyhad 17-MAY-95]: --- begin quote--- The bottom line, though, wasn't money. The *main* reason wasn't because people weren't recognizing "Jyhad" as a vampiric reference, though that was an interesting corollary. But that didn't motivate the change, and I can tell you that had that been the primary reason for the change, we wouldn't have made the change, because (in spite of what some of you may believe), we *do* have an extremely high ethical stance, and we *do* care about what y'all think. But, as our president, Peter Adkison, said about Jyhad, "I just can't look my Israeli distributor in the eye." We've gotten a lot of complaints about the name from people who look at it and think it says "jihad." And if that happens in the US, imagine countries where the primary language isn't English, but they know what "jihad" sounds like, and if the game is pronounced the same. . . . While it would be really convenient if the entire planet had the same culture, it doesn't. And WotC is an international country, with international concerns. We have to be responsible with those relationships, and occasionally (as in this case), that responsibility is difficult to resolve. It was in this case, but while the heat isn't very comfortable, we feel we made the ethical decision in this case, in spite of the fact that we knew that some of you really liked the name "Jyhad" and would have preferred it to stick around. --- end quote --- -- LSJ (vte...@white-wolf.com) V:TES Net.Rep for White Wolf, Inc. Links to revised rulebook, rulings, errata, and tournament rules: http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Get your FREE web-based e-mail and newsgroup access at: http://MailAndNews.com

Jason Bell

"LSJ" <vte...@MailAndNews.com> wrote > While it would be really convenient if the entire planet had the same > culture, > it doesn't. And WotC is an international country, with international > concerns. > We have to be responsible with those relationships, and occasionally (as in > this case), that responsibility is difficult to resolve. It was in this > case, > but while the heat isn't very comfortable, we feel we made the ethical > decision > in this case, in spite of the fact that we knew that some of you really > liked > the name "Jyhad" and would have preferred it to stick around. > --- end quote --- As long as the backs were being changed, I would have preferred a no-name back, preserving the 3 snakes with no text at all. Deckmaster and WoTC (WW now I guess) could have been printed along with the Illus. and copyright stuff on the face. Sherman, set the way-back machine to 1994... - Jason Bell