Going to complain for a while. Had an urge to.
The trope of "children's media and playthings is actually scary" is so fucking tiresome. You could trace it back to the 1988 movie Child's Play at a bare minimum, probably even further, less popular examples, but there's been a really absurd resurgence in the past decade that seems to have found its roots in this series. Five Nights at Freddy's is completely inescapable to this day and so are its cheap imitations. Shit like Bendy and Poppy Playtime rose from the anals of utter filthy incompetence to get a quick buck. Some random made Baldi's Basics as a pisstake on the phenomenon, then it got equally popular somehow. It's spreading back around into unimpressive movies, shows and pitches. The Banana Splits movie is dogshit, that Barney movie will be dogshit, and I said Learning with Pibby will be dogshit but I also got violently assaulted by my friend circle for it. There's so many analog horror and fake lost media series on the internet that my friends are hooting and hollering for, yet when I try a couple I just squirm and die. I don't get it, it all blends into an amalgamation of the same basic, trite concept. I guess this is where the cynical asshole in me truly shines. I don't have a real preference in how I prefer my horror media, but I can tell you it's none of this.
I decided to rack my brain a little and see if i could recall whether Five Nights at Freddy's, the patient zero of this whole thing, was of any interest to me back when it was new. I think I only played these first two games, and didn't like either. I more vividly remember this one, though. The atmosphere it provides never really got to me, I just found myself frustrated with all the mechanics and how unforgiving it is as a whole, namely the narrow ass reaction time. The music box is the worst, most of your time spent is winding up the damn thing. It's tedious as hell, but at the same time you can't get too focused on it or one of the double digit amount of fuckikng animatronics will get the drop on you somehow. Don't you think there's a bit many?? It certainly succeeds in being stressful as all get out, but in my case it really isn't at all in an enjoyable way that makes me want to give it more shots. I ditched at I think night 4 or 5 and uninstalled after some weeks of not touching it.
Yet its impact remains completely bonkers. Did Scott Cawthon just get lucky? Who knows. Maybe he did, if you look at his prior works such as "Fart Hotel". Maybe it had to do with Markiplier's claims of them being the "scariest games in years", he's had a pretty massive influence since the cretaceous era. Did other game studios really just try to top it in scariness by doing...more of the same? And still earn success? Did they perhaps get lucky rather than Scott? Or was it both? Who knows.
No sir, I do not like this genre of stuff. When I think about it, and see all my friends infodumping to each other about it, I look at myself and feel like a hating little bastard. Hell, I kind of envy people who find so much interest in it! More power to you! That said, I don't have a strong urge to LIKE stuff like this, or Pibby, or whatever the hell, but it makes me wonder if something in my head isn't clicking like everyone else's. Missing the hype train is always an ass feeling for me. Sometimes as a kid I would refuse to step on, to be "different", and other times like this I really have tried and I don't understand.
I guess this isn't much of a review, is it? I kinda just felt like ranting for a while, uninterrupted, about a thing I don't understand so well. Yet I feel somewhat hollow after writing it all down. Maybe I should like grab a meal or something, go back to shitty old games on my shitty computer. That aligns with my interests a lot better.
The trope of "children's media and playthings is actually scary" is so fucking tiresome. You could trace it back to the 1988 movie Child's Play at a bare minimum, probably even further, less popular examples, but there's been a really absurd resurgence in the past decade that seems to have found its roots in this series. Five Nights at Freddy's is completely inescapable to this day and so are its cheap imitations. Shit like Bendy and Poppy Playtime rose from the anals of utter filthy incompetence to get a quick buck. Some random made Baldi's Basics as a pisstake on the phenomenon, then it got equally popular somehow. It's spreading back around into unimpressive movies, shows and pitches. The Banana Splits movie is dogshit, that Barney movie will be dogshit, and I said Learning with Pibby will be dogshit but I also got violently assaulted by my friend circle for it. There's so many analog horror and fake lost media series on the internet that my friends are hooting and hollering for, yet when I try a couple I just squirm and die. I don't get it, it all blends into an amalgamation of the same basic, trite concept. I guess this is where the cynical asshole in me truly shines. I don't have a real preference in how I prefer my horror media, but I can tell you it's none of this.
I decided to rack my brain a little and see if i could recall whether Five Nights at Freddy's, the patient zero of this whole thing, was of any interest to me back when it was new. I think I only played these first two games, and didn't like either. I more vividly remember this one, though. The atmosphere it provides never really got to me, I just found myself frustrated with all the mechanics and how unforgiving it is as a whole, namely the narrow ass reaction time. The music box is the worst, most of your time spent is winding up the damn thing. It's tedious as hell, but at the same time you can't get too focused on it or one of the double digit amount of fuckikng animatronics will get the drop on you somehow. Don't you think there's a bit many?? It certainly succeeds in being stressful as all get out, but in my case it really isn't at all in an enjoyable way that makes me want to give it more shots. I ditched at I think night 4 or 5 and uninstalled after some weeks of not touching it.
Yet its impact remains completely bonkers. Did Scott Cawthon just get lucky? Who knows. Maybe he did, if you look at his prior works such as "Fart Hotel". Maybe it had to do with Markiplier's claims of them being the "scariest games in years", he's had a pretty massive influence since the cretaceous era. Did other game studios really just try to top it in scariness by doing...more of the same? And still earn success? Did they perhaps get lucky rather than Scott? Or was it both? Who knows.
No sir, I do not like this genre of stuff. When I think about it, and see all my friends infodumping to each other about it, I look at myself and feel like a hating little bastard. Hell, I kind of envy people who find so much interest in it! More power to you! That said, I don't have a strong urge to LIKE stuff like this, or Pibby, or whatever the hell, but it makes me wonder if something in my head isn't clicking like everyone else's. Missing the hype train is always an ass feeling for me. Sometimes as a kid I would refuse to step on, to be "different", and other times like this I really have tried and I don't understand.
I guess this isn't much of a review, is it? I kinda just felt like ranting for a while, uninterrupted, about a thing I don't understand so well. Yet I feel somewhat hollow after writing it all down. Maybe I should like grab a meal or something, go back to shitty old games on my shitty computer. That aligns with my interests a lot better.
5 Comments
This is seriously some of the coolest shit. It's so terrifying. What makes it all the more unsettling is it's characters you know too.
pibby aint comin out as a real show afaik it was just a one off proof of concept thing
This is seriously some of the coolest shit. It's so terrifying. What makes it all the more unsettling is it's characters you know too.
I feel like new horror and internet horror is just the same as any genre medium and can be done good or bad, as any wave of any new phenomenon for better or worse will have its cheap imitators. Everyone knows Uncharted right? Ever heard of Unearthed? It was an awful ripoff, in short. Things aren't so different in the grand scheme of things in myopin.
Honestly, you could trace internet horror back to when the internet existed; to some of the most influential indie games of all time such as Yume Nikki, and other semi-popular games like SCP and Slender. Sure, "childhood ruined" trope horror has been around a long time, and has never been as saturated until today, and it is certainly FNAF's fault to bringing it to the mainstream, but if you look into the videos out there explaining the programming and mechanics and art design of the first game, it really was like nothing else of its time in the gaming space.
I also really love the lore, despite its flaws and its disheveled ideas. I love its tragic and sinister energy, and all of it is very akin to scifi, body horror, and timid battles between spiritual forces. That's one of the main reasons that has kept me a longtime fan outside of nostalgia; Scott's clear storytelling influences despite the missteps. Hell, he sampled an obscure alien horror film for the FNAF1 jumpscare scream. I'm fully aware Scott isn't a masterful storyteller or anything, and he's admitted to making things up as he goes in interview. But in my opinion, that's part of the charm. He's not trying to be the best ever, he's moreso just simply a fan who makes his art because he wants to; persistent to craft his series in his own vision.
I never got into FNAF for let's player reactions or game theories, and if I was into some of those things, all of that faded overtime. What stayed was the unsettling melancholy of retro dreams with the underbelly of child murder and unholy possession. Even as a huge fan of Scott's work, I have to say that new indies such as Poppy and Baldi feel like the lame copycats in this predicament, though not all of them are terrible.
Again, its all just opinion. We shouldn't be expected to like everything.
Honestly, you could trace internet horror back to when the internet existed; to some of the most influential indie games of all time such as Yume Nikki, and other semi-popular games like SCP and Slender. Sure, "childhood ruined" trope horror has been around a long time, and has never been as saturated until today, and it is certainly FNAF's fault to bringing it to the mainstream, but if you look into the videos out there explaining the programming and mechanics and art design of the first game, it really was like nothing else of its time in the gaming space.
I also really love the lore, despite its flaws and its disheveled ideas. I love its tragic and sinister energy, and all of it is very akin to scifi, body horror, and timid battles between spiritual forces. That's one of the main reasons that has kept me a longtime fan outside of nostalgia; Scott's clear storytelling influences despite the missteps. Hell, he sampled an obscure alien horror film for the FNAF1 jumpscare scream. I'm fully aware Scott isn't a masterful storyteller or anything, and he's admitted to making things up as he goes in interview. But in my opinion, that's part of the charm. He's not trying to be the best ever, he's moreso just simply a fan who makes his art because he wants to; persistent to craft his series in his own vision.
I never got into FNAF for let's player reactions or game theories, and if I was into some of those things, all of that faded overtime. What stayed was the unsettling melancholy of retro dreams with the underbelly of child murder and unholy possession. Even as a huge fan of Scott's work, I have to say that new indies such as Poppy and Baldi feel like the lame copycats in this predicament, though not all of them are terrible.
Again, its all just opinion. We shouldn't be expected to like everything.
kleptomato
1 year ago