I'd like to have the 87,296th conversation about Five Nights at Freddy's

[Strain42]

Okay, so lemme preface this topic by saying I'm gonna go into what could probably be considered spoiler territory. I know it's not really a story driven game, but I wanted to cover my bases anyways. Okay, moving on.

I hate horror games, but I am positively enthralled by Five Nights at Freddy's. I feel like everything it set out to do, it did right. Genuine unease, actually scary, and a well done blend of story and gameplay.

But there's one thing it does that I actually felt kinda hurt it. The story concept.

If you just play Five Nights at Freddy's, the premise is simple. You're a security guard at a Chuck E. Cheese type restaurant where the animatronic characters get to walk around at night so their servos don't lock up. The problem is if they see you, a programming error would make them see you as a metal skeleton so they'd try to shove you into an empty suit, causing your death.

That's MORE than terrifying enough for me, and it actually made it feel more original. There are so many horror games already that deal with zombies, ghosts, or other supernatural entities. The fact that these were just faulty animatronics made me love it even more as...well...malfunctioning robots are scary as fuck.

But if you look further into the game you can learn more details about it. Such as the place you work is closing down at the end of the year because a while back some guy in a Freddy suit brought five kids backstage and killed them. The guy was arrested but the kids were never found, so the belief is they were stuffed into the suits (people complained about the characters horrible odor and blood coming from their eyes)

This changes the game. Now instead of malfunctioning animatronics, you've got haunted machines out for revenge. And I personally think that makes it a bit weaker. It makes it closer to other horror games. I'm actually LESS scared of these characters when I'm presented with the "Oh yeah, they're haunted by the dead kids stuffed inside of them."

I was more enthralled by the atmosphere to imagine that Freddy's is still this vibrant happy successful place during the daytime that does delight and amuse kids of all ages, and its only at night that it becomes this twisted world where the machines go wonky. The fact that it's now just another more run down place with a twisted past makes it less interesting to me.

One of my friends said "It's just the icing on the cake" but I don't feel like that's the case here. I feel like it makes it an entirely different cake. Not a BAD different cake, mind you, just not the cake we originally had.

That's my take on it anyway. Sorry for the long post, I just don't have many people I could talk to about this sort of thing. So what do you all think? Do you prefer how the extra story changes the base of the game or did you prefer the initial impressions?

I'd love to hear thoughts from both sides

CAPCHA: "Is it hot in here?" ...for a topic about a game where people get stuffed into animatronic animal costumes, that seems uncomfortable...

 

[Elfgore]

I'd actually say it makes the story more believable. It makes no logical sense to knowingly allow machines with faulty hardware, walk around at night and murder your night guard. No sense at all. Uncontrollable ghost children makes more sense(somehow), as what you're doing is a necessary risk to safeguard the rest of the town from them. It somehow just makes the scenario more believable.

 

[Therumancer]

Okay, so lemme preface this topic by saying I'm gonna go into what could probably be considered spoiler territory. I know it's not really a story driven game, but I wanted to cover my bases anyways. Okay, moving on.

I hate horror games, but I am positively enthralled by Five Nights at Freddy's. I feel like everything it set out to do, it did right. Genuine unease, actually scary, and a well done blend of story and gameplay.

But there's one thing it does that I actually felt kinda hurt it. The story concept.

If you just play Five Nights at Freddy's, the premise is simple. You're a security guard at a Chuck E. Cheese type restaurant where the animatronic characters get to walk around at night so their servos don't lock up. The problem is if they see you, a programming error would make them see you as a metal skeleton so they'd try to shove you into an empty suit, causing your death.

That's MORE than terrifying enough for me, and it actually made it feel more original. There are so many horror games already that deal with zombies, ghosts, or other supernatural entities. The fact that these were just faulty animatronics made me love it even more as...well...malfunctioning robots are scary as fuck.

But if you look further into the game you can learn more details about it. Such as the place you work is closing down at the end of the year because a while back some guy in a Freddy suit brought five kids backstage and killed them. The guy was arrested but the kids were never found, so the belief is they were stuffed into the suits (people complained about the characters horrible odor and blood coming from their eyes)

This changes the game. Now instead of malfunctioning animatronics, you've got haunted machines out for revenge. And I personally think that makes it a bit weaker. It makes it closer to other horror games. I'm actually LESS scared of these characters when I'm presented with the "Oh yeah, they're haunted by the dead kids stuffed inside of them."

I was more enthralled by the atmosphere to imagine that Freddy's is still this vibrant happy successful place during the daytime that does delight and amuse kids of all ages, and its only at night that it becomes this twisted world where the machines go wonky. The fact that it's now just another more run down place with a twisted past makes it less interesting to me.

One of my friends said "It's just the icing on the cake" but I don't feel like that's the case here. I feel like it makes it an entirely different cake. Not a BAD different cake, mind you, just not the cake we originally had.

That's my take on it anyway. Sorry for the long post, I just don't have many people I could talk to about this sort of thing. So what do you all think? Do you prefer how the extra story changes the base of the game or did you prefer the initial impressions?

I'd love to hear thoughts from both sides

CAPCHA: "Is it hot in here?" ...for a topic about a game where people get stuffed into animatronic animal costumes, that seems uncomfortable...

To me the malfunctioning animatronics idea seemed weaker given that I think something like that would be detected and/or fixed, and it seems like quite the stretch that they would be programmed to that extent to begin with. Part of the appeal of this game is that it's using a familiar but not overused backdrop, that is animatronic children's resteraunts, which used to be a fad, but are becoming increasingly rarer. It's the kind of thing where today a lot of the older audience for video games can look at the setting and go "you know, I love those as kids, but now when I look at them they freak me out".

That said the basic technology is very limited, if these things were super-advanced android like in say "West World" normally able to get up and run around like that, chances are they wouldn't be at a pizza place, never mind an older one, and that puts it firmly into the area of science fiction. Basically if you see the full fledged robots running around it becomes more predictable that something is going to go wrong with the programming. In this case part of the idea is that the Animatronics are behaving in a way that they certainly shouldn't be able to, and that means your going to need a supernatural explanation.

My problem with "Five Nights At Freddy's" is that your character doesn't seem to get involved in any kind of common sense reactions to the entire thing, I mean I don't think you'd stick around past night one (or even part of it) if this kind of thing was going on. Not to mention I think even if you weren't sure of the threat (since nothing got into the room if you survived) that you'd at least take precautions, but that goes beyond the purview of a limited scale game like this.

That said it all depends on your tastes, some people prefer "techno horror" or works about regular old seriel killers and psychopaths because it's "more realistic" some people prefer supernatural stuff (ghosts, demons, etc...) me, I like horror in general, as long as it's done well and makes a degree of sense when it's over... the big cop out in my mind is when there is no answer because the writer couldn't come up with one (and argues that this somehow makes it better, I disagree).

 

[omega 616]

I watched the first night on a stream and I found it sooo funny! Maybe 'cos I was removed from the atmosphere and the people streaming were talking but the faces of the animals like they just told a bad joke and where waiting for you to laugh.

They didn't seem scary, just goofy.

Like I said, it probably has to do with being removed from the atmosphere but I can't imagine being scared by this game

 

[Strain42]

I actually really love listening to the Phone Guy. His dialogue is so much fun and really well voiced. I actually wish he'd talked longer on some of those nights lol

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

I'd say this actually makes it slightly scarier. The game establishes a "normalcy" of mindless killing machines coming out at night but it slowly starts to unwind and show there's more to it. There's a rather demonic element behind it all.

It explains the actions and rationale behind these machines. There's a reason why decades-old animatronics can function perfectly to achieve their goals. They aren't trying stuff you into suits because of programming, but because they might want to.

What I did found contrived, however, was the reasoning behind why the main character couldn't wear a bear outfit. The robots already see him as an endoskeleton so he would fit right in.

 

[Strain42]

What I did found contrived, however, was the reasoning behind why the main character couldn't wear a bear outfit. The robots already see him as an endoskeleton so he would fit right in.

While I'm not sure if this reason works or not, I thought this was kinda explained on the third night where phone guy basically says if they think you're a suit they might just try to stuff a skeleton inside of you, essentially causing the same problem of discomfort and...death.

I'm not really sure though.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

What I did found contrived, however, was the reasoning behind why the main character couldn't wear a bear outfit. The robots already see him as an endoskeleton so he would fit right in.

While I'm not sure if this reason works or not, I thought this was kinda explained on the third night where phone guy basically says if they think you're a suit they might just try to stuff a skeleton inside of you, essentially causing the same problem of discomfort and...death.

I'm not really sure though.

That was it and I still don't think it makes much sense. They would most likely, going on prior knowledge, see you as a metal endoskeleton in a suit and not in need of any "fixing", as their programming would have it.

Then again, this probably adds to my previous point of them being sentient and demonic.

 

[briankoontz]

Animatronics are creepy - it's a lot like the Pinocchio story (animatronics were used a lot by Disney) where the puppet wants to become human - animatronics are robots that want to be human.

This is an analogy for Disney's goal itself - to create reality from animation. Thus Mickey Mouse became "more real" than an actual mouse, or as Disney might say, more real than an actual human.

There's an underlying theme of horrific abuse OF the animatronics in Five Nights at Freddy's - as if they are just there to amuse children but are really alive, stuck inside a robotic frame but with a human's feeling and goals.

This contrasts with the main conflict of the game - avoiding having a robot inserted into a human frame.

In Five Nights at Freddy's, the horrific things done to animatronics have left them only one option - to murder the security guard to temporarily relieve the anguish of their lives.

There's a parallel between animatronics and clowns. The one is a robot that is constructed to seem as if it wants to be human, the other a human who renders himself an object of amusement - in both cases there's the feeling of a terrible underlying tragedy that has made these things what they are.

It's this tragedy that makes animatronics creepy and creates the terror in the game. It's an original and brilliant concept.

captcha aptly says: People Fit Perfectly

 

[Megawat22]

What I did found contrived, however, was the reasoning behind why the main character couldn't wear a bear outfit. The robots already see him as an endoskeleton so he would fit right in.

I'd read on the Steam forums a theory that the animatronics are possessed by the spirits of the children who were murdered in the pizzeria. The guards are hired to entertain/ distract the machines so that they don't run rampant since you can't really lock them up, what with all the ghosts inside them.
I feel the possession theory also explains why they'd stuff you in a suit, cause that's the last thing that happened to the kids so they imitate it.

 

[Harpalyce]

I actually had a great deal of fun digging into the things I could find. It becomes really interesting when you see the detail put into things. And I'm not just talking about the backstory of the killer and the dead kids. Or people's headcanons that Mike Schmidt is disabled (therefore unable to get up to answer the phone, in a wheelchair etc) and/or the victim of the Bite of '87.

A theory I haven't seen anywhere else comes from http://flyingcuttlefish.tumblr.com/post/95795699716/five-nights-at-freddys-headcannon-that-takes-up-too - basically that there is another "naked" animatronic running around, one that was responsible for the biting incident and used to be Foxy's partner on the Pirate Cove stage, which is why they're all out roaming for a naked animatronic (which they mistake you for) and why, epecially, Foxy fuckin' books it (he's really eager to get his revenge for getting his stage shut down).

The idea of the animatronics themselves being tortured also really comes out when you examine the fifth night's phonecall. It seems to reference - okay, actually, hold on. I'm going to just copy-paste what I wrote in tumblr. I realize this is a cheaty mccheaterson moment but it's a big ol hunk of text, so let me pop it into spoiler tags.

Spoiler: FNAF minutiae: analyzing Freddy's song + the 5th night phonecall

Here's some facts and interesting tidbits on two topics that y'all may want to incorporate into your various theories! They were new to me, they might be new to you too.

I'm gonna try to recreate the formatting but please note I was writing in bullet points instead of full glorious essay here:

Freddy's song

in the 'windup' that takes about 50 seconds after you run out of power, Freddy comes and stares at you with glowing eyes before wrecking your shit

during this time, he 'sings', or rather plays a version of a song
this song is an aria from the opera Carmen. specifically, it's Escamillo's aria.

This is when the character gets up to toast the Toreadors - the bullfighters.
the entire song is a balance between "wow your job is shitty and dangerous", but then switches at the end to encouragement to the Toreadors to keep on doing it for love and the sheer romance of it all.

we can take it apart more in-depth too -

Sirs, sirs, for along with the soldiers
Yes, the Toreros, can understand;
For pleasures, for pleasures
They have combats!

In other words, if Freddy's using this song to call you a Toreador, the song starts off by saying you're doing this for the pleasure of combat. It's something only soldiers and Toreros know. (could Mike Schmidt be a veteran? this can tie in with the theory that he's in a wheelchair or injured/immobile, which is why he doesn't grab the phone and instead lets it go to answering machine, and why he's got a tablet for accessibility reasons instead of a bunch of tvs on the desk.)

The arena is full,
it is the feast day!
The arena is full, from top to bottom;
The spectators, losing their heads,
The spectators began a big fracas!

that sounds like a day at Freddy's, right? an "arena" of little kids losing their shit on a "feast day"? except it's not a day at Freddy's. it's a NIGHT. who's the crowd? who's the spectators? Mike, after all, is the literal 'spectator', but...

All of a sudden, it is silent
Ah, what is happening?
More cries! It is the moment!
More cries! It is the moment!

that sounds oddly familiar, doesn't it?


He comes and strikes again!
Shaking his banderillos,
Full of fury, he runs!
The arena is full of blood!
They save themselves, they pass the gates
It is your turn now. Let's go!

in the song, the bull rushes towards the crowd. they save themselves, go out the gates, but the Toreador remains. just like how you're remaining there at night when everyone else has left. you get to remain there? in the arena full of blood.

Toreador, on guard! Toreador, Toreador!
And dream away, yes, dream in combat,
That a black eye is watching you,
And that love awaits you

the last bit of the song is this repeated again and again. unfortunately, that black eye watching you isn't, as it is in the song, a pretty girl. the night watchman gets to "dream in combat" about how "that love awaits you"? Are instead those black eyes Freddy?s? After all, it?s his 'love' that awaits you?

speaking of love, and joy and all that?

The phone call on night 5


So the phone call on night 5 is mostly horribly scary gibberish at first glance, but some people have been running it through various filters to clear it up with great success. here's what people are firm about hearing:

"Would have escaped before you ? easily possible to employ ? ? ? right, you will be maimed by ? my funeral they all will know the joy of crea-"

Most people finish this with ?the joy of creation?

However, if you finish it a slightly different way, you find a possible source for that phrase - http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/chap8.php - the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda

so if the quote is ?the joy of creative service?, we end up in chapter 8. what's this chapter about? Well, science, among other things. Here's where creative service is mentioned?

"The scientist seldom knows contemporaneous reward; it is enough to possess the joy of creative service."

in other words, it is a joy to help the progression of science, and that is a scientist's reward instead of money. no wonder Freddy's is nearly bankrupt and can only pay you 4 bucks an hour, right?

but let's look at the rest of the chapter. Specifically, the guy is talking with scientists at Bose about their experiments? experiments about the life-force of metal.

"The life-force in metals responds adversely or beneficially to stimuli." is a partial quote from the scientist that the Yogi is talking to. Check out how he describes this experiment?

"Deeply engrossed, I watched the graph which recorded the characteristic waves of atomic structure. When the professor applied chloroform to the tin, the vibratory writings stopped. They recommenced as the metal slowly regained its normal state. My companion dispensed a poisonous chemical. Simultaneous with the quivering end of the tin, the needle dramatically wrote on the chart a death-notice."

And how does the scientist describe this, and the overall nature of the life-force in metal?

"metals, such as the steel used in scissors and machinery, are subject to fatigue, and regain efficiency by periodic rest. The life-pulse in metals is seriously harmed or even extinguished through the application of electric currents or heavy pressure."

So we have a reference to a chapter about how METAL IS ALIVE, when it?s a game clearly about the animatronic skeletons, made of METAL, being ALIVE and out to kill you?

And there's a mention of metal being killed - harmed by electric currents, WHICH THE ANIMATRONIC SKELETONS RUN ON?. (after all, their eyes glow, their bodies are full of motors and servos, etc)
and being SUBJECT TO FATIGUE?

which surely Freddy and the others are. they're working all day? and then all night they're coming at you.

Is this repayment for their metal's life-force being tortured by electricity? Is this a case of a metal's life being driven mad by constant use??

I mean you can definitely take and run with these further... for instance, we still have this idea of "joy of creative service" floating around, and the idea that the toreador (the player/Mike Schmidt) has a great black-eyed love that awaits him... which could very much be interpreited as Freddy telling you in a roundabout way that you're going to be stuffed into a suit to entertain the kiddies and you're gonna fucking like it or else. (After all, you can squint and turn your head and say that since the human eyes dribbling out don't really count, it is instead the 'black eyes' of those recesses being left open that await you with their, uh, love.)

So yeah, this game is definitely multi-layered and definitely worth some analysis. It's pretty awesome.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

The creator (Scott somethingorother) said there's a hidden story beneath the game that really observant people can find. Don't know if he was talking about the newspaper clippings that are staring you in the face in three of the ten screens you can see in the game, probably not, but there's another story.

I for one like the ambiguity and the simple untouched idea of your character being killed by being bound in a filled costume. I hate those stupid loudass jumpscares that plague every death. I'd prefer that old freeware Slender game where you still see the face of your killer, but the sound isn't 'WEAHAGHAHAHNNNH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' every single death, just static and the screen flickering off (which the game already does).

 

[Weaver]

I haven't played the game, only watched LPs of it; but the game was really, really obviously designed first then had a story shoehorned into it.

Why is there even a power meter? Why is the building not on the electrical grid? How does it at all make sense that it required power to keep a door closed? Gravity could keep a door closed. If turning a light on drains so much power why doesn't the security guard turn off that goddamn oscillating fan? If the animatronics need electricity to run where is their power coming from when all the power is off?

Why is the guy who had the job before you calling you instead of your boss? How does that make any sense? Have you ever left a job then had your boss call you and say "Hey, can you train the new guy for no pay?" you'd tell them to pay you or shove it.

Why would you even stay the night with killer animatronic robots? I'd nope the fuck out of there. My life isn't worth some dead end part time job. How does a programming error make any sense to explain their wandering? Yes, it's actually ghosts; but there's no way anyone would buy some programmatic error to explain that.

Animatronics barely even have programming; they're largely mechanical. Further, in real life, they're basically welded to the stage and don't actually have any legs. How would them wandering around and fucking killing people at night just be "okay" and "part of the job"? Animatronics don't get up and wander around. That's not something that ever happens. They don't need to keep their joints moving at night and everyone knows it. This game severely lacks verisimilitude and it just puts it into the realm of one of the most unbelievable, laughable, cheesy, lampshading plot lines I've ever seen in a video game.

Like if the Freddies place knew that was happening I don't think the solution is to hire some chump to look at them at night. It's to contact the fucking Alan Turing Institute about sentient AI's that have magically developed out of pistons and a super simple PCB.

I'm not saying the game is mechanically bad, but the story is utter nonsense.

 

[Racecarlock]

I saw night one on a let's play along with a challenge. This night guard is the stupidest idiot in the universe. I would have quit after the first night, but assuming I couldn't, I would buy so many guns and flashlights I would be covered in them. Hell, maybe at least a taser? Something that disrupts animatronics? Maybe a water gun to short them out?

The game is kind of scary if you're a jump scares kind of person, but it's not good for seriously psychological stuff. The kind you'd get from a game where you explore a land of souls or something. It is the best jump scare game though. So there's that.

 

[Aerosteam]

What I want to know is why you're willing to stay four more nights when you clearly see the robots try to kill you in night 1. :|

I'm also confused on why closing the doors and leaving them like that drains electricity...

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

I'd actually say it makes the story more believable. It makes no logical sense to knowingly allow machines with faulty hardware, walk around at night and murder your night guard.

The whole thing makes perfect sense if we simply assume cave johnson is running the place to test human resourcefulness under conditions of extreme terror. Thats my explanation and im sticking to it.

 

[veloper]

Maybe Mike Schmidt, the guard is both suicidal and a really big fan of Freddy Fazbear and his friends. He's just not quite sure yet, which animatronic he would prefer to kill him and he's got all week to make up his mind.

 

[EHKOS]

I think the imagery, the one you come up with in your head, makes a bit tragic, but also incredibly morbid. Because you have to remember, the corpses were forced by mechanics to move and dance and sing so innocently. Rotting bodies with smiling masks, limbs detaching after a while by a sudden mechanical jerk.

Although, morbid or macabre, the jump scare element gets old fast. The first few times scared the shit out of me, and I've only watched the game through Youtube (not even fullscreen). It feels like there should be another part of the process. maybe getting dragged to the costume room or something.