Comments on: World-building or Worldbuilding, how do you spell it?

By: Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith — Sat, 19 Jul 2014 15:51:32 +0000

In reply to Realmwright. Too true Realm. It just makes life easier :)

By: Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith — Sat, 19 Jul 2014 15:14:24 +0000

“hacking the term up” – yep, I think that’s exactly why I don’t like using the hyphened term. It doesn’t sound crazy at all, I feel exactly the same.

By: Jaime Buckley

Jaime Buckley — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 16:50:03 +0000

In reply to Nathan Smith. I know why it bothered me, Nathan. "World-Building" made me feel like I was hacking the term up. Like I was stealing something...and no one was going to agree with me for some reason. It felt like I was forcing it, rather than having a conversation. Probably sounds crazy, but that version made me uncomfortable. There's another penny for ya. Lol.

By: Realmwright

Realmwright — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 02:52:17 +0000

I wholeheartedly agree that it is, and should remain, worldbuilding.

Without the word itself I would have no idea how to sum up what it is people like us do.
Before I became familiar with the lingo, it would take a long time to explain this absurdly involved hobby to folks not in the know.

Times and vocab have changed somewhat. Now when people ask what I do in my free time, I can sum up the answer in a single (unhyphenated) word…and then it’s on to the long and absurdly involved explanation of what that means 🙂 Generally I refer them to LOTR and GoT and say “that in a nutshell is worldbuilding.”

By: Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 18:57:32 +0000

In reply to Jaime Buckley. Cheers Jamie, For some reason I never liked spelling it world-building, it never felt right though I couldn't give you a good reason why. I'm also glad we had to create our own term as shared vocabulary is what establishes community and improves information exchange. Thanks for leaving your 2 cents :)

By: Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 18:48:09 +0000

In reply to Zandland. That's a fair point you make Zandland. Most of the time it should simply be a verb.

By: Zandland

Zandland — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 15:26:47 +0000

I think it should be written “worldbuilding”, without capitilations or spaces. Just treat it as a verb.

By: Jaime Buckley

Jaime Buckley — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 15:17:33 +0000

Good article and I completely agree that “Worldbuilding” is the right term to use…and for the same reason of searching. It’s also good to note that most of the best books on the subject have also gone to this specific spelling. Game creation manuals, writing guides, even my own ‘Advanced WORLDBUILDING’ guide…with very few exceptions, use worldbuilding as a single word.

The next closest variation is “World-Building” before the words are completely separated (world building).

It’s almost comical in my mind, how we had to create our own term so people knew what we were talking about…but I’m glad it happened =)

Just my 2 cents.

-Jaime Buckley