[Scummvm-devel] ScummVM name

[James 'Ender' Brown]

> Against:
> 
> 1) We'd lose the "brand name" recognition that ScummVM enjoys; a lot of 
> promotion would be necessary to change the name in many people's minds.
> 2) A fair bit of work would be involved in changing documentation, code 
> and graphics to reflect the new name.
> 3) The scummvm project on SF.net would need to be renamed.
> 4) New domains would need to be registered.
> 5) Choosing a new name which doesn't suck and doesn't conflict with 
> another product is difficult.


As far as Against goes, I don't really see 2, 3 or 4 being all that much
trouble. However, changing our name and losing our brand will confuse
users, which is and has been my major objection.

> For:
> 
> 1) The current name no longer reflects the goals or abilities of the 
> project, which is potentially confusing to users.
> 2) The current name isn't particularly clever or interesting.
> 3) SCUMM is a trademark.
> 4) A name change is exciting and the announcements may attract increased 
> attention, especially from people previously unaware that ScummVM is now 
> about much more than LucasArts games.

1) It doesn't reflect the FULL capabilities of ScummVM, I agree. But I
don't see it being confusing to users. Although it must be said that on
more than one occassion I've noticed magazines refer to non-SCUMM titles
supported by ScummVM as 'SCUMM games', the majority of users really have
no idea what that means so are not confused by it :)

2) ... Can't really say anything about that, but at least its pretty
straightforward.

3) LucasArts have always (TM)'ed SCUMM, but LucasArts never registered
it as a trademark. Doesn't really matter anyway.

4) I'm pretty sure everyone aware of ScummVM is aware of what else it
can do. What it CAN'T do, thats what we need to educate people on, going
by game requests in the forum.

Anyway, I really don't see any point to a name change (as usual), except
to annoy and confuse the users. And why that may be fun sometimes,
Meh :)

 - Ender
-- 
James 'Ender' Brown <ender at scummvm.org>