How about "workia" as a new term to replace "franchise" and "IP" in discussions of fictional works?
About two years ago (has it really been so long?!), @doublepepperoni@hexbear.net made a thread asking for terms to replace "franchise" or "IP" as names for "long-running fictional universes", so that we don't have to talk like marketing ghouls or copyright lawyers. The suggestions were "universe", "mythos", "by the same people as…", "canon", "corpus", "series", "texts", "artistic works", "trademarked brand", "beloved setting", and my own initial suggestion of "cycle". And these are all decent suggestions that would work in many cases, but in other cases they might not be applicable, might not roll off the tongue, or might even be ambiguous.
So I eventually had a thought: if the discrete components of a "franchise" or "IP" are creative works, then how about just taking work and adding a suffix for "a collection of" to it? Ain't no rule that says we have to stick with pre-existing words! Hence, workia as a shorter way of saying "a collection of creative works". I think it's a plus that this term emphasizes the work that went into each workia, and I think it's probably easy to infer the meaning of in context, while still being more of a tabula rasa in terms of "vibes" than canon or corpus or cycle.
Capital-W "Workia" is also, incidentally, the name of some tech startup, and I think it would be funny if we made them lose their trademark.
-ia as a suffix for collectives normally forms plural nouns, but I think workia should be treated as singular. Plural can be either workias or workiae if you feel fancy. Whether workia includes fanfiction or other "unlicensed" content depends on context, but I'd recommend the inclusive definition.
Example sentences (find-and-replacing posts and comments from /c/movies):
LMAO getting handed a billion dollar workia and not even bothering to make a plan
lol the mouse is gonna consume every single workia it can possibly buy
My favorite apolitical workia
Just a heads up the new entry in the Predator workia "Prey" is on hulu and it's actually pretty good
It was a four billion dollar workia, and I don't understand why they wouldn't do that
It just feels like they're smoothing out the edges to make atla an extended universe to fit into Paramount's collection of workias
You know what workia has really worked out well in a serialized format? Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them!
The Harry Potter workia was backed by billions of dollars dedicated to making me identify with it and make it part of my personality-brand
ATLA and HP both had poop culture impacts too, but with Barbie it's a lot easier to see the cognitive disconnect that happens when they pump money into extended universes or spinoff workiae
Andor is set above the rest of the workia because the show's writers fundamentally understand fascism
Erika3sis in chat
How about "workia" as a new term to replace "franchise" and "IP" in discussions of fictional works?
About two years ago (has it really been so long?!), @doublepepperoni@hexbear.net made a thread asking for terms to replace "franchise" or "IP" as names for "long-running fictional universes", so that we don't have to talk like marketing ghouls or copyright lawyers. The suggestions were "universe", "mythos", "by the same people as…", "canon", "corpus", "series", "texts", "artistic works", "trademarked brand", "beloved setting", and my own initial suggestion of "cycle". And these are all decent suggestions that would work in many cases, but in other cases they might not be applicable, might not roll off the tongue, or might even be ambiguous.
So I eventually had a thought: if the discrete components of a "franchise" or "IP" are creative works, then how about just taking work and adding a suffix for "a collection of" to it? Ain't no rule that says we have to stick with pre-existing words! Hence, workia as a shorter way of saying "a collection of creative works". I think it's a plus that this term emphasizes the work that went into each workia, and I think it's probably easy to infer the meaning of in context, while still being more of a tabula rasa in terms of "vibes" than canon or corpus or cycle.
Capital-W "Workia" is also, incidentally, the name of some tech startup, and I think it would be funny if we made them lose their trademark.
-ia as a suffix for collectives normally forms plural nouns, but I think workia should be treated as singular. Plural can be either workias or workiae if you feel fancy. Whether workia includes fanfiction or other "unlicensed" content depends on context, but I'd recommend the inclusive definition.
Example sentences (find-and-replacing posts and comments from /c/movies):