why aren't the authors of VNs giving proper credit?

[ubergeneral]

something I noticed is that authors of books are given lots of credit... too much IMO. I go to a book store and a novel will have Steven King on the cover with the name of the actual book below. It's like who wrote the book is more importent than the actual book itself.

VN's on the other hand seem to go the other way. F/SN doesn't should have on the box "written by Kinoko Nasu" It stead it has the name of the studio on it. While that is importent, the author should get credit since a VN is both a video game and and book, IMO

What's your take on this? We can agree that the people that write VN are great writers and like those that write books, they should have their name on the box or "cover" like any other author.

What is your opinion about this? Should the KS team put their names out there? Or do you want to be forgotten in the long run?

[Guest]

Gee, I wonder why thete is such a thing called a CREDITS page at the end of everything...

[SirMax]

A book is almost completely done by one or maybe two people. A VN is not done by one person most of the time. Have you seen the credits on a VN? Could you easily fit all those names prominently on box art?

[Esa94]

A book is almost completely done by one or maybe two people. A VN is not done by one person most of the time. Have you seen the credits on a VN? Could you easily fit all those names prominently on box art?

This pretty much. It's probably rare that a single person even writes the story for a VN. KS is relatively small and you still couldn't fit all the authors on the box.

Or well, you could if you wanted a load of text instead of boxart. On the hypothetical box.

[Roy-Kr]

I believe it is common procedure for Doujin circles to have their circle name on the cover rather than their personal names, one-man circle or not.
If their real name is mentioned, it is always on the credit page at the end.

In Type-Moon's case; Nasu and Takeuchi IS Type-Moon, and everybody knows it, so having Nasu's name on the cover in big letters wouldn't serve any other purpose than making him look less humble.

Generally I'd agree that having "written by" in bigger writing than the actual book title would be stupid. I've never actually seen such a book though.

What is your opinion about this? Should the KS team put their names out there? Or do you want to be forgotten in the long run?

Whichever choice suits them. I'd imagine there are both pros and cons to having your name slapped on a work like KS.

As for being forgotten; whether they put their real name or internet name on the credits won't make much difference other than where you'll be recognized.

[Mirage_GSM]

Generally I'd agree that having "written by" in bigger writing than the actual book title would be stupid. I've never actually seen such a book though.

Just go to amazon and search for "John Grisham" or "Tom Clancy". You should find plenty of examples.

[ContinualNaba]

From an outsider's point of view, I'm not sure I'd want my name prominently featured on generic cartoon porn novels.

Just something to mull over.

[Palas]

From an outsider's point of view, I'm not sure I'd want my name prominently featured on generic cartoon porn novels.

Just something to mull over.

There's Lolita Pille, whose novels are pretty much generic Gossip Girl novels with porn. She seems quite proud of it.

My point of view is a little different: While litterature is a very saturated market, VNs aren't just as much. Remember - why would you buy a book? A priori, they're all the same. Every provided synopsis doesn't help much either because you would have to look closely at every single book until you find something interesting enough. So, what is more likely to catch the viewers' attention? The author's name if he's well-known.

That doesn't happen with VNs. What catches the attention, besides the description, is the art and the general aspect of the game. Besides, reading a book may take days. VNs are not rarely finished in one sit.

VN Sociology: Serious business.

[Bringerof_D]

Agree with Palas, A title on a book does little to tell you if it'll be good or if it'll even be interesting. same with the synopsis. Though they can tell you if it's absolutely horrendous. (trust me if it starts with "...is just an ordinary teenage ____ struggling to _____ until one day..." it won't be good.) Since people are stupid, they always tend to think, "Well the last book i read by this person was good, this one must be good too!" thus publishers decided to put the author's names in big print.

from having read books before and seen many shows, trilogies, series, and etc. That is usually not the case sadly.

[Csihar]

There's Lolita Pille, whose novels are pretty much generic Gossip Girl novels with porn. She seems quite proud of it.

Yeah, but she's French, so it's okay.

[HeMeido]

FSN was produced by Type-Moon, so why wouldn't it have Type-Moon's name on it?

[Guest Poster]

There are several instances of author/director names being put prominently on covers or billboards of books and movies. Names like Stephen King, Robert Ludlum and Querin Tarantino come to mind. But the only reason this is done is because it's part of the marketting. The promotion team feels putting the name prominently on the cover will draw more attention. Proper credit has nothing to do with this.

I'm not sure if this is ever done in Japan. (with its culture emphasizing humility and all)

[UrbanBas]

It may also have something to do with the fact that if you did use the name of the author of a VN there is a chance it wouldn't sell well because you don't have a major name backing you up. Even on books the publisher of the book is still clearly seen somewhere on the book. You also have to problem of being new to it and not having a name for yourself yet. With the name of the company you get around that because then previous games by them will draw attention to your game. Either that or you can use youtube. It's how I found out about KS.

[Rohalmen509]

Since the topic of this is about "Credits", I want to ask the devs if they actually plan on putting their actual names on the final release? Or are you going to leave it as your aliases?

You guys should put your actual names because KS is now socially acceptable

[Silentcook]

Since the topic of this is about "Credits", I want to ask the devs if they actually plan on putting their actual names on the final release?

I can't speak for the whole team, but some of us are downright secretive about their personal info, and most of us use aliases even when dealing with each other.