Dire Bare
Legend
D&D is the best example of "editions" being almost entirely new games, rather than incremental changes.I totally get it with regards to D&D ... it's just that these days, people seem to be arguing all of the time of something can or should be considered a new edition or not, whether something is falsely advertised as either a new edition or a remaster. It's not just D&D. And with most other RPGs, all these terms are so subjective that it seems to be there's a lot of discussion about the expections people are having tied to these terms, which in many cases just serves to make things more nebulous, with stuff like a 2.5 edtion of Earthdawn ...
To me, it would just seam easier if advertising called a new edition a new edition and then pointed out whether there are just minor changes or whether it's a complete overhaul or even a new ruleset.
Anyway, that ship has probably sailed, and watch me complaining about people arguing about the term "edition" while I'm doing just that
But it's not the only example in the TTRPG space. And D&D is the grand-daddy of TTRPGs, and casts a long shadow.
I'm not discounting what you are saying, but . . . what other games are going through arguments over the word "edition" other than D&D? I'm aware Pathfinder/Starfinder games like to put out revisions given names like "unchained", "remastered" and "enhanced" . . . is that what you are referring to? I don't play Pathfinder or Starfinder, but I found those version titles irritating.