Five Nights at Freddy's: Introducing a New Generation to Horror Games
By: Nik S
Five Nights at Freddy's, or as it's often called on the internet FNaF, was an absolute phenomenon back in 2014. It seemed to come out of nowhere and every elementary and middle schooler was drooling just to watch their favorite YouTuber play this game. Then, much like the way of Call of Duty, there seemed to be a sequel that came out almost every other month. There are currently six main series game and two "spin-offs" that hold canonical material. This game got so huge in the past four years that there have been a few books, t-shirts, toys, and fan games based on the core mechanics. Though the older generation of gamers got annoyed very quickly as the games seemed to be rather redundant, upcoming and younger generations got their spooks and thrills on from a mock version of the Chuck E Cheese mascot band.
While I'm a big horror fan, if this entire month has been any indication, the younger kids in my family (nephews, nieces, cousins, etc.) couldn't relate to some of my tastes. Sure, some of them were allowed to watch some horror movies, but when it came to games they were just into things like Call of Duty, Gears of War, and all the other shooters under the rainbow. When FNaF came out, it was suddenly a different story. They wanted to talk on and on about the theories in the game, what spooky secrets lied in the game they just couldn't find. What's even better is they even asked for recommendations on horror games, though I had to think of more tame ones for their age it was nice to have something that we could relate on.
That's the great thing about this game, it's not meant for the twenty-somethings but rather the new generation of game players. Sure, Let's Players made it popular for all the kids to watch but it still sparked an interest in them. They wanted to be scared, and it was actually fun to do so. The hype may have been overrated, sure, but I think the payoff was worth it. If you think about it, it gave game developers ideas to springboard off of what was popular in horror: jumpscares (to a limit), cryptic messages, and ambiance. There was then a sudden surge of indie horrors trying to tackle the same formula, or even alter it. While there were a bunch of hit and miss games, others actually hold up well. This got the younger gamers interested and to branch out more to try out different horror games. Sadly, the horror hype has died down a little bit but the game has left its mark and there must be plenty of up-and-coming developers who are willing to take on the mantle of creating horror games.
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