The Yamaku Library - The fan fiction archive -23/09/14

[Guest Poster]

If it's your story and you'd rather not have people read it at this point, why not request Comrade to take it off the list until the story is updated? It makes more sense than adding an entry with a "do not read"-note at the bottom.

[Snicket]

I know this may be a bit off topic, but happened to the other Fan fiction writers? I mean yeah, they left odiously. But was it in droves or did they just kinda trickle in to obscurity.

But back on topic. All but a few of my FF's and my CYOA threads are all pretty much random. They all occur at different times and with different love interests. I figured you guys already knew that, but I felt like pointing it out anyway.

[Mirage_GSM]

Well, of the "old guys" I don't see anyone except for you and Oddball posting anymore.
I never really noticed a drop in fresh content though (even if the last week has been a bit slow). Threre are still as many new fics coming out as a year ago.
Some people go, some people come...

[Silentcook]

odiously(x2)

...I don't know what auto-completion software you have on, but you need to turn it off. Like, now.

[Oddball]

As for Shizune having a brother - Hideaki's existance was announced well before the full release. Most people also correctly asssumed that he was Shizune's brother - (though personally, I suspected that part to be trolling by the devs until the end)

I'm not entirely sure that the finished version of Hideaki that was included in the game wasn't just trolling by the devs.

[Blasphemy]

I agree. Closure is a very rare type of story. It was written when only Act 1 was available and begins several years after graduation. There are at most a handful such stories on the forums.
I tried to make the information form so it fits as many stories as possible, but of course there will always be problems. I slightly reworded the entry. Is it clearer now?

Code: Select all

[b][url=http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=4955]Closure[/url][/b] by [b]WetCrate[/b] (completed, 29.429 words)
[b]PoV: [/b]Hisao/Misha; [b]Pairings: [/b]Hisao X Misha; [b]Begins: [/b]several years after Act 1 Shizune end
[b]Remarks: [/b]

Definitely clearer although people still won't know about the fact that it was written with ONLY act 1 knowledge by the author. If you wanted to add that information that probably becomes a rather long description and kinda destroys the point of having a format in the first place I suppose. Then again, as you say there's only a handful of exceptions so maybe it's worth providing a longer "Begins:" descriptions, especially if it more than extremely unlikely that such cases will come up again.

Actually with "Closure" I wasn't even quite sure about all the circumstances after I figured out it must've been from the Beta period, as I just didn't know which kind of information outside of act 1 was known to the KS following or even specifically to this author, who for all I know may have had some additional insight from wherever the fuck I know? Taking my previous example about Misha's sexual orientation I still couldn't be 100% sure that her loving Shizune/girls wasn't known to the fanbase. This does not matter much anymore after some point in the story, where you can be certain that she's at least bi, but you get my point.

In the end though, did it really affect my enjoyment/reading experience with "Closure" much? In the grand scheme of things, not really. Perhaps my perception of Misha's action would've been slightly different but really at a negligible level. The importance of knowing the exact "environment" of said FanFic will differ from person to person obviously but it may not be worth making much fuss about. Perhaps it'd be best if it was a note on the story itself.

[Helbereth]

As for Shizune having a brother - Hideaki's existance was announced well before the full release. Most people also correctly asssumed that he was Shizune's brother - (though personally, I suspected that part to be trolling by the devs until the end)

That only applies to people who paid attention to KS prior to its release. I admit I saw the completed Act 1 soon after its release, but I only rifled through it once, and basically forgot about the VN's existence until I saw someone mention it had been released in June--almost 6 months after its January debut. The beta, to me, isn't a factor, and neither is any of the information the devs released over the 5-year process of building the VN. When I say 'I had no idea Shizune had a brother' it's because there's no hint of his existence until he pops out of the ether when you arrive at her house.

[Mirage_GSM]

Actually with "Closure" I wasn't even quite sure about all the circumstances after I figured out it must've been from the Beta period, as I just didn't know which kind of information outside of act 1 was known to the KS following or even specifically to this author, who for all I know may have had some additional insight from wherever the fuck I know?

It's both irrelevant and impossible to know what information was available to the author of any given story at that time.
Impossible, because information regarding some details (e.g. Hideaki) were released via the blog over a long stretch of time, and then discussed on the forums. Noone knows whether an author had read a specific blog post at the time he wrote the story (which might not be the same time he posted it.) I'd probably be hard pressed to say that about my own stories with any degree of certainty.
I assume most people who activly wrote fanfictions at that time also followed the blog and the forum to a certain degree, but I can't say for certain.
Irrelevant, because even if the author knew something, he might still choose to disregard it for his purposes (just like Kosher disregarded the sexual orientation of all the females in his stories.
TL:DR - I don't think whether a story was written before or after the full release is all that relevant for the enjoyment of the story.

after I figured out it must've been from the Beta period

There is no "Beta-period". After the Act 1 demo was released there were no further releases except for new translations and then the Full Release. The Beta was never publicly released at all, and content-wise there are hardly any differences from the final version.

[dewelar]

TL:DR - I don't think whether a story was written before or after the full release is all that relevant for the enjoyment of the story.

Of course not. I can't speak for Blasphemy, but my original thought was that it would be a flag, basically with the message of "don't be surprised if this story features more OOC behavior / canon-defying plot points than stuff that came out later." If the PTB don't think it's important, I can live with that .

[Blasphemy]

@Mirage_GSM

Yeah I'm aware that it's rather impossible to acquire that exact knowledge about the authors KS knowledge and/or intentions to in- or exclude certain parts of the canon. As I said in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter to me, still I wanted to mention what went through my mind when reading Closure.

Also yes, I understand that there was no real beta-period rather an almost final act 1. I called it beta-period to make clear I meant the time before release pretty much but yeh, shouldn't have called it that anyways.

Of course not. I can't speak for Blasphemy, but my original thought was that it would be a flag, basically with the message of "don't be surprised if this story features more OOC behavior / canon-defying plot points than stuff that came out later.

That's a good way to put it. Just a note to read the story without being confused by potentially OOC behavior etc.

[Comrade]

one look at the post date of a fic should be enough to determine whether or not the fic is pre realese or not.

[Snicket]

Well, of the "old guys" I don't see anyone except for you and Oddball posting anymore.
I never really noticed a drop in fresh content though (even if the last week has been a bit slow). There are still as many new fics coming out as a year ago.
Some people go, some people come...

Oddball is still around? Wait are they the guy/girl who started writing a Miki path a while back and then just stopped? Or an I thinking of someone else? I actually only came back, because someone sent me a PM. Begging me to write more fan fiction.

odiously(x2)

...I don't know what auto-completion software you have on, but you need to turn it off. Like, now.

Weird, I'm usually pretty good at catching something like that. *shrugs* I guess you miss one, every once and a while.

[Oddball]

I've written some stuff with Miki, but never a route. You might be thinking of somebody else.

[demonix]

I've written some stuff with Miki, but never a route. You might be thinking of somebody else.

It's meadows that started that Miki route and never finished it (that story is currently sitting on page 3).

[Numb]

Out of curiosity (considering I am approaching the end of Act One of Blossom), does the word count remain pending until completion or is it updated at each "transition"? I'm still not entirely sure how this system works, so please forgive my idiocy if this is obvious