• deathmetal27@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          It’s basically shortened from Land’s Raider and Land’s Speeder.

          Although IMO the real reason is to make the names more copyrightable. GW has been making attempts to copyright the names of things in their universe. They attempted to copyright “space marine” (IIRC) and failed. Since “Land Raider” is a generic name that anyone could use, by saying that it’s named after this character in their universe they can perhaps claim copyright. But this is just my naive opinion, I am not a copyright lawyer.

          • sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz
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            2 days ago

            Okay THAT’S pretty insidious. I didn’t know they were doing actual copyright trolling. No, your opinion is pretty accurate. That’s what that strategy is called

            • deathmetal27@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              That’s why these days they’ve been trying to push more specialised names for units.

              Marines became Intercessors, Eldar (actually from LOTR) became Aeldari, Imperial Guard became Astra Militarum, etc.