FNAF Week: An Intro

Among the games I’ve owned for a couple years, there’s the FNAF series. Titles 1 through 4 were obtained in a bundle, after which I think I was given 5 (AKA Sister Location) for free. Then, the sixth installment was free for everyone. There have been more games since, but I’ll focus on the ones I own.

That's not even the entire group.

For a while, I’ve respected Scott Cawthon for learning from his mistakes and using his flaws as an advantage, specifically making games in which the CGI models looked off-putting on purpose. I don’t know if he, or anyone else, expected such an idea to develop into a massive multimedia franchise (as it also includes novels and, as far as I can tell, a movie is still in development). He was struggling as an indie developer to leave a lasting impression, and one day, he did… even if some could argue that he’s now milking his one success for all its worth, as the series has expanded into VR, AR, and still more on the way.

That said, this year, Scott Cawthon has stepped down as creator of the franchise. It seems to be still up and running, but without him at the helm. The reason? Political and personal opinions Cawthon has that don’t mesh well with a large portion of the audience he had accumulated over the years, and for which he received backlash. I personally strongly disagree with Cawthon’s political opinions, but he is allowed to have them and I won’t yell at him for having them. And let's leave it at that, the posts about it are still out there if you want to look them up. Besides, I am not here to talk about this controversy.

Admittedly, I’ve wanted to be done with FNAF for a while now, and it kind of shows; it’s a franchise where the lore interests me more than the gameplay. In general, FNAF is more interesting when you watch someone else play, especially a streamer who actually has fun reactions to what’s going on. In my case, I couldn’t get rid of the games one at a time, precisely because they were purchased in a bundle; either way, I did possess them, therefore I did want to cover them on the blog. And, well, this year, I have a reason to do that. After which I’ll probably take them out of the collection since they’re not games I feel I’ll want to return to.

On the menu soon: FNAF 2, Sister Location, and Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator. After which I can close the book on the series.