Don't click away! This isn't about YouTubers, theories or rants! This is about marketing!
"Are you ready for Freddy?"
In case you've been living on the far side of Mars for the last year or so, Five Nights at Freddy's happened. Then Five Nights at Freddy's 2 happened, then Five Nights at Freddy's 3 happened, and the 4th 'Final Chapter' arrived on Steam merely a few days ago at the time of writing.
The story is that you're a night guard at family pizza chain known as 'Freddy Fazbear's Pizza'. During the day, it's a place of crappy overpriced Pizza and animatronic animals for entertainment, the titular Freddy Fazbear (above), Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken and the currently out of order Foxy the Pirate Fox. But you're the night guard, and if these joyful animatronic characters see you in the night shift, they think you're an endoskeleton (also pictured above), and will stuff you into a suit. It wouldn't be so bad if the suits themselves weren't full of components, wires and cross-bars, so you'll die if you let them get you.
Gameplay is relatively simple, you sit there, check your cameras and hall lights, then if one of them is at the door, close it and hope to whatever your chosen deity is (such as God, Allah, Gabe Newell, Cthulhu or Jim Sterling) that they go away. Unsurprisingly, there's 5 nights in each game, and if they catch you, thou shalt suffer death by Jumpscare! Each sequel spins it's own twist on the formula, but they're all largely the same.
Since release in 2014, Scott Cawthon has made two more sequels and has a a final chapter in the works, all within the space of about a year. Reception was mixed, as the atmosphere was excellent, akin to a nightmare as you have no power against the animatronics, but the gameplay was lacking as it was basically just click the thing, get jumpscared, rinse and repeat.
As a series, it's recieved a lot of flak by a lot of people, which I understand. Various YouTube screamers like PewDiePie, Markiplier and the like have screamed at it for hours, lacking gameplay and poor graphics, so it's already got some negativity. Throw in some obsessive fans, furry porn, Garry's Mod workshop spam, page-long theories about Murdered Kids/Purple Guy/Phone guy/biting heads, etc, and there you have it: a pot of liquid hate against Freddy Fazbear and Co.
Now, I was originally in the Anti-Zone for FNaF, but my opinion has since changed over the last year or so. Once I got listening about theories, rumors and such, I was rather enthralled by the little fucked up world Scott Cawthon had created, about murdered children, possessed animatronic characters and all that. I wouldn't consider myself a devoted fan, but certainly an interested one.
But, that's not why we're here. We're here to talk about MARKETING. And in my mind:
Scott Cawthon=Marketing Genius
Allow me to explain. As for backstory, Scott is a member of Hope Animation, a small team of Christian game developers from Texas who make kid-friendly, Christian games. However, all his games had been failures, and his last attempt 'Chipper and Sons Lumber Co.' was especially criticized for having 'creepy characters' that were rather, animatronic, in their manner. Rather than packing in the towel for good, Scott gave it one last chance. And thus, Five Nights at Freddy's was released unto Steam Greenlight, where it was upvoted very quickly, and soon onto the store, and pretty much everyone and their cat had heard about it in a very short space of time. And the rest is history. Or the past, the whole FNaF timeline is a bi-OFF TOPIC, sorry.
Scott saw something that was popular, the Amnesia's of the world and other 'YouTube fodder' games, and had a go himself. And whadda you know? Something based on something popular WAS popular, who'da thunk it? Between releases, Scott's very good at keeping people salivating for the next one, teasing images and trailers every once in a while, where people like '8Bit-Gaming' on YouTube do their analysis and things on it, and bam, instant hype, yours today only £4.99!
So yes, I believe that hate for FNaF is fair, but remember, Scott Cawthon is a clever man, and probably can't hear you over all the happy children thanks to money he's given to charity.
Look it up, mate. I'll still be here. You will always come back. We have a place for you.
*fnar fnar much reference*
