Five Nights At Freddy’s: Sister Location has a large community of fans still trying to dissect its theories, but, for all the love, there are many haters trying to drag the franchise down. Developer Scott Cawthon recently responded to critics by admitting that some of his fanbase is “toxic,” but he sees that as typical for anything people are passionate about.
In a Steam Community post titled Criticizing The Fanbase, Cawthon aired his concerns about banning those who bring hate to the official forums. “People sometimes complain when I ban someone for criticizing the fanbase,” he said. “I'll be honest, I do get triggered when people start griping about the ‘toxic fanbase,’ because I think it's an unfair generalization.”
Rather than targeting Five Nights At Freddy’s as a whole, he’s shifted the blame to how certain people handle things with any degree of popularity. “The truth is that every fanbase has its ‘toxic’ side, and that's because every fanbase has a huge variety of ages, a huge variety of opinions and a huge variety of maturities… That's not a fault of the fanbase, it's a fault of people, and we're all guilty,” Cawthon concluded.
So how does he want Five Nights At Freddy’s lovers and haters to reach an agreement? From his perspective, it makes sense to just silently acknowledge the bad homages that are out there. “We have all seen the bad fanart, the bad fan fiction and the rest of the dark underbelly of the FNaF fandom that we wish we could forget before we close our eyes at night,” he admitted. However, above it all, he doesn’t want those misguided few to bring down the many who contribute awesome art, fiction and charity events to those that want them. In other words, the more devious side of Five Nights At Freddy’s exists, but it’s best to ignore it.
Scott’s forums have recently become more active since the release of Five Nights At Freddy’s: Sister Location last month. While a Custom Night update and mobile releases wait in the wings, much of the game’s intrigue has turned to conversation as opposed to gameplay. Diehard fans continue to debate about story secrets, and some wish to spoil that fun.
There’s nothing terribly revolutionary about Cawthon’s take on the situation, but it’s something that all gamers might want to remember beyond Five Nights At Freddy’s. Equally cult-like titles like No Man’s Sky have suffered from similar shaming of fans. In fact, at one point, that title’s official reddit was closed to curb the toxicity. It’s easy to make generalizations based on the hobbies of others, and sometimes a loud minority can create a negative mindset for everyone. Why can’t people just like what they like? Cawthon certainly wants that to happen.
Five Nights At Freddy’s: Sister Location is available now on PC.
Do you agree with Scott’s assessment of Five Nights At Freddy’s fans? Is any of the negativity warranted? Tell us in the comments section!
