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What’s the appeal to fnaf exactly?
ok I wanna start this off by saying that I hope this thread doesn’t spiral into a chaos of war and arguments…I’m just very curious and I wanna understand a few things myself and with that out of the way.
I’m not a fnaf fan but I’ve played the games before and I always considered the fnaf franchise as an extreme sea of mediocrity but I genuinely wanna understand
What do many people find appealing in this franchise? The gameplay? Well it’s tense at some moments but it’s just boring and slow paced at times.
the lore? I’m sorry but aside from that the lore is considered a heavy puzzle all I gather is still kind of a mediocre form of plot/lore. Characters? Like okay I get that some characters from the franchise are considered popular or iconic but to the point of everyone constantly demanding this? Like I’ve seen this franchise in the most demanded DLC and I just wanna understand simply
What’s the appeal to fnaf?
Answers
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For my kids it seems to be the lore. My eldest (10) seems to enjoy the books just as much (or even more) than the games. She and I watched a streamer playing the PTB the other day and she gave me the entire lore rundown while we watched. I think kids also find the quirky and fun looking characters appealing too. I saw the same thing with my youngest and Poppy Playtime.
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We could ask this question about any content in the game. Everyone just has their own preferences. Not much use in trying to analyze it any deeper than that.
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I'll help you out here. I also came into fnaf not "getting it".
The gameplay in itself is not great. However, once you start getting into the lore of the original game that started it all...and its real world allusions and inspirations from real life events, the game just became just flat out fascinating. It started with an incredibly intriguing story element which secured its fan base and then just kept going with sequels. While the sequels effectively abandoned the real life inspiration, they started filling the game world with little mysteries to uncover that aren't obvious to answer. Effectively. It's popular not because of the gameplay, but because of the lore and mystery behind the games that the community would all come together to try to solve. Its more like a detective game than a survivor game.
This video alone probably is responsible for almost all of the fan base in the original game. Its not long and I recommend giving it a watch. Just a warning, it does go over actual real life disturbing events.
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I’ve seen the lore….
And ik who matpat is with or without fnaf
And I did watch a few lore videos trying to understand this franchise before so dw
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if the first game released in cereal boxes in the 90s i think us oldies would be nostalgic for it
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I wouldn't really recommend the modern lore as a whole because it is just...well frankly, out of hand, ha. I just mean the original game. Thats where the hook came. Give the video a look - this was Matt's very first look at the game where he was also initially puzzled why it was popular. Essentially, it correlates to an actual real life killing spree that happened at a real life pizza place. After the first game, that whole aspect was entirely dropped, but it was enough to get people hooked and stick with the franchise well after that.
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Personally, The very first FNAF did something that not many horror games at the time did. It sort've made an entirely new genre of horror. Typically horror games involved movement, hiding, stealth, or survival. FNAF was different because you were stuck in one spot. This was not common at all in horror games at the time. It was a new experience, one that relied on resource management, and made you feel very vulnerable. Tie that in with a Chucky E Cheese kind of nostaliga, those uncomfortable mascots that always seemed a little creepy, and along with digital horror, seeing movement and things through secuirty cameras, and it was super unique. There was nothing really like it at the time. And after it blew up, the games got bigger, the time-line and lore got wackier, and then it just kind of exploded.
But at the end of the day it's simply different strokes for different folks. I get why people don't like fnaf, as it can be repetitive with the same tropes and the reason why Afton is evil is just kind of…because he's evil lol. But I don't think this is new in horror. Michael Myers chases the same person for like 8 movies, both laurie and him "die" several times, and at the end of the day he is evil because evil.
In any case, horror is subjective. Some people are terrified of spiders and others keep them as pets. Don't worry if you simply don't vibe with fnaf, there is no "true" horror.12 -
To me the appeal is only if you were there for the start of it. The game was really something special at the beginning as this was in the golden age of lets players, plenty of teasers for each upcoming game with plenty of fans theorizing and trying to piece the puzzle together with what little we had. Think of it as trying to get into a new show but you were already told everything about it and had plenty of spoilers.
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I think one angle is a certain level of investment? People talk about the lore all the time, but the lore wasn't complicated at all until the fourth game. However, while 1 through 3 are easy to understand, there's a lot of weird things in those games, things that probably don't have any explanation, and were just added randomly based on vibes. (eg. "IT'S ME", Shadow Bonnie/Freddy, or Golden Freddy) Trying to make all of it fit required a lot of mental energy and community collaboration to actually find all of these rare things and then start trying to interpret them.
It's kind of like how games with a serious learning curve/initial friction can accumulate a very dedicated fanbase, because you've gotten through that initial hurdle, a level of survivorship bias kicks in with the community of other people who have done the same.
FNAF does that with story and atmosphere; Most people play one of the games for a few minutes, get their spooks and go, but for the people who didn't leave immediately and wanted to follow all the loose threads, there was enough to find to keep them engaged until the sequel suddenly came out in a few months to give them more, and then another sequel, and then another…
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The series is pretty much one massive, ever expanding creepy pasta. People love that stuff.
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Jumpscares are so boring and lame. No idea how this became a chapter in the first place.
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Don't think it's the game itself. It's built around the personalities that stream it and the lore.
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I was going to follow up on this, but I don't think I need to. This basically covers the majority of it short and sweet.
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Im not a FNAF fan but excited for the new content!'
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I think the art direction for FNAF is interesting. I like the mix between the canny and the uncanny, the humaniod and mechanical, it just kind of works. Keep in mind that I have never really played a single one of the game but videos of the series and promotional art has always caught my eye.
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I do really like the new map. I'm going to play against bots and explore it with spring trap!
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watching Hens play it was a ton of fun
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Lore, cool designs, unique form of horror .
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Hey don't you dare imply Chex Quest is carried by nostalgia alone :)
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FNAF created an entire genre of horror - mascot horror, a type of horror built for kids just getting into horror as teens and preteens. FNAF also is notable because it's taking the concept of something deeply nostalgic especially for Millennials, Gen X, and some of Gen Z - that being Chuck E. Cheese type animatronics - and making it horror. Let's face it, those old animatronics were always slightly creepy, and that's the horror FNAF plays off of. How many of us as kids thought maybe someone was alive in there, or they had an eerie life? I thought that they put bad kids' brains in the robots as a 6 year old, my mind ran wild. FNAF isn't too far a stretch from that idea, that an animatronic is somehow both real and not.
I'm not surprised FNAF got as big as it did. It's the first thing in a while to make an iconic terror for a new generation, the way characters like Michael Myers and Freddy Kruger were for 80's kids and the way someone like Ghostface is for 90's kids. It belongs in DBD for that reason alone.3 -
The novelty of the gameplay and concept, coupled with the jumpscare focus served to bring streamers in on day one. FNAF made for a great "reaction" game, and the younger generations don't actually play videogames, they just watch streamers play games all day and form parasocial relationships with them. Combine that with the lack of story and vague lore being made up on the spot which will require video guides to understand and you have a swarm of "fans", most of which haven't even played the games but they have watched dozens of hours of video essays on them.
If you look at Steamcharts data for FNAF games you'll see that the player numbers have never actually been very high, the Silent Hill 2 remake vastly outperformed even the highest charting FNAF game, and Silent Hill 2's remake has sold maybe 2 million copies with most of them on PS5. In short, the games themselves are irrelevant. It's a cultural phenomenon that stretches past the games themselves because the franchise is hooked into the way that Zoomers consume and discuss culture. If you're just looking at the games you'd never be able to understand why it is popular. It's mostly fan content keeping it popular.
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imagine an AVGN review on fnaf if it was like that 😭
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FNAF released when I was a teen and I thought it was stupid back then. I cringed hard at the forced youtube videos of people older than me. This sort of argument is so shallow. You can be from the time something was released and still not be a drone.
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