Scott Cawthon, the creator of Five Nights at Freddy’s, knows perfectly well how his series has been received by the public. There are plenty of fans who adore the games, sure. But there’s also a growing backlash spearheaded by people who think Cawthon is just pumping out games to cash in on his success.
Some context: in a year, Cawthon has released a total of four Five Nights at Freddy’s games. This, some cynics argue, is absurd — especially when you consider the quality of the games. Where some fans are obsessed with Five Nights at Freddy’s, others think they are simplistic games that don’t deserve the hype or recognition. I don’t necessarily agree with these criticisms, but they do exist.
Yesterday, Scott Cawthon actually acknowledged the backlash in a heartfelt post on the Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 Steam forums. He writes:
Hi guys. First of all, I wanted to thank the community in general for the huge outpouring of support through emails and in the forums. I know a lot of you are concerned about me or think that I’m stressed out. It’s true that I’m stressed a little; but it’s OK because the result was good. I’ve worked very hard this year, almost non-stop, to produce good games for this series. Even though there may be some debate as to how “good” the games are, I did my best to provide some good scares and a good story. All I can do is judge from the Steam reviews that I’ve been mostly successful; so I’m very happy about that.
It’s true that there has been a lot of hate toward me lately; on the forums, on youtube, etc. And I’ll be honest, it’s difficult. It’s difficult when people seem to dislike you only because you’ve found success with something. I think some people have this idea that I spend my days swimming in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck, cranking out games with no effort, then laughing all the way to the bank. The reality is quite different, and I think that people who hate on me for being successful are misguided.
Did you know that last year I was working at Dollar General? I worked as a cashier. I had three bosses who were all still in high school. Before that I worked at Target in the backroom freezer, unloading frozen foods. I haven’t had a successful life; and now that God has blessed me with some success, I’m doing my best to be responsible with that success. I don’t party on weekends, I don’t get drunk or sip martinis. I spend my evenings playing Megaman 3, buster only, with my kids. And I try to good with what’s been given to me.
I guess the reason I’m telling you all of this is to make sure you know that I’m human. I have a lot of flaws, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. My games aren’t perfect, and they never will be. But something more important that I want to convey to all of you, is that you should never listen to people who criticise success simply because it’s success. Being good at something is something to strive for, not something to demonize. Criticisms of my games are fine, and a lot of times the criticism is valid. But there are a lot of people out there who will hate anything that becomes popular, just because it’s popular, and hate anyone who becomes successful, just because they are successful. “Haters gonna hate.” — as they say, but I want you to know that focusing on someone else’s failure or success is the wrong way to live. People who make videos bashing other people are like people who run into a public square and scream into a pillow. They will get attention, but they won’t change anything. If you strive to be like them, then you’ll spend your life screaming into a pillow as well, and your life won’t mean anything.
The best emails I get are from people who have chosen to pursue game development because of the games that I’ve made, or people who have decided to do computer science, or learn programming. Who will be the next game designer? Who will make the next game for Markiplier to play? Make sure that it’s you! People who hate success will never be successful. Focus on your success, and your story. People always ask me what college I recommend, or what programs I recommend. My answer is to just go forward, practice. Just GET to college, study hard, be awesome at what you do. Make sure that you are next year’s big success story. Don’t fall into the pit of people who have given up on making something of themselves, and make sure you make EVERYTHING out of yourself.
I’m getting too old for this. And when I retire someday, I’m going to want to sit down at a computer and play YOUR games, read YOUR stories, and watch YOUR videos. Don’t fall in with the people who have already given up on themselves. You are tomorrow’s next big thing. 🙂
What a class act. It would have been easy to ignore all the haters, and to just keep doing what he’s doing. But judging from Cawthon’s online presence, he does read a lot of what people say about his games — and it weighs on him. Of course it does. He’s a human being, and it’s pretty easy to lose sight of that when you imagine the boatloads of cash that their success must bring.
Here’s hoping some people do take his words to heart and make stuff. Who knows? Maybe they will be the next Scott Cawthon.
Comments
30 responses to “Five Nights At Freddy’s Creator Responds To Haters In The Best Way”
TL:DR – It’s God’s fault I’ve put out so many games.
Here’s the point of the email: >>_
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Here’s how far it flew over your head when you missed it >>-
(Ratio 1pixel to 1standard kilometre)
As I said in my post. I didn’t read his reply just going off what he’s said in the past, he always brings up god and how he’s been blessed and doing gods work by making horror games, I don’t understand that when he started out making christian games and made no money so switched to the horror genre but keeps saying he’s doing gods work….
Your issues here are obviously misdirected. You’re a prime example of exactly what Cawthorne is talking about. Well done.
That always gives me the shits when Yanks attribute everything to god like that. You also raise a good point: If he’s doing ‘god’s work’, then that would suggest god’s the kind of prick who likes scaring the crap out of people for shits and giggles…
That’s an unsettling notion. heh.
or he could be saying that he believes he is doing God’s work by encouraging others to not let haters get them down and hence why he said that nothing brings him more satisfaction then the emails of people saying they are going on to study such and such due to inspiration by the games he has made.
If you’ve read any of the first testament, then that would be an understandable conclusion.
Can we not ‘anti-religion’ this thread and stick to the point? I mean, the point of all this is people actually hating on him for stupid reasons…
Then the most stupid reason of all gets dragged out…
That actually came across as far more critical than I meant it to. I just figure credit where credit’s due. Here’s this guy who was in game development and like many, not making much headway, produces 5 Nights– a simple concept but wonderfully executed that becomes an immense success; he deserves the credit for that. I know he’s just being modest, but own it dude, it’s all you and it’s amazing!
Plus I was pissed when Hakeem Olajuwon credited god, and not MY support that secured their 1995 NBA Finals Championship sweep over Orlando, so it’s a touchy subject for me. I got robbed.
Put it in perspective though, he has accepted the credit, but he has a faith, he’s harming noone (scaring the shit out of some maybe lol) and merely says he thanks his god for something.
Not every religious person = idiot or violent same as not every atheist = enlightened and wizened but you’ve always seemed on point and smart on here, it’s not like you really need to be told that. I’m not trying to be condescending, it’s just one of those touchy subjects I guess. Cawthorne’s being humble and not allowing his ego to be stroked, in this day and age of people seeking their popular 5 minutes on social media, that’s a rare thing truly.
Naww… you’re right. It’s more of a pet peeve that’s more my issue than theirs. Nothing for anyone to lose sleep over. I wouldn’t get pissy at someone for doing something like that in my presence just because I wouldn’t do it myself.
You and your damned reasoned discourse and sound conclusions! :p
Yep but God isn’t to thank there. I’m fucking awesome.
And very rarely humble. 😛
There’s a lot of social pressure there to thank god when talking about your success publicly. It’s not strictly religious though. It’s more that everyone who is even the least bit humble thanks god, so by comparison everyone who doesn’t thank god must be totally full of themselves.
But you’re happy to criticise it?
Funny enough the reason why he made this series is because of the hate he got from Jim Stirling reviewing his early games.
Confirmed. Jim Stirling is God.
Thank him…… for him?
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcvRx0Sx1Hc
I’m an atheist, and I say good on him. That wasn’t the point of his reply in the first place. I completely agree that people have this fucked up way of wanting to rip apart the little guy who happens to make it.
There’s been this horrible movement as of late demonizing indies. Indies. Yeah, you think outside the box a little and do something left-of-center. Of course, they must be hipsters.
HATE it.
Well, hating on the AAA devs is pretty mainstream these days. Hating on Indies is ‘edgy’ and ‘underground’. :p
Yep! Nail, meet Head 🙂
Congrats to him for making something successful of himself…
I think the franchise sucks but I don’t post uneventful rants on youtube about it…
I played it, thought well that sucked – and moved on…
The exact thing someone should do. Try it, construct an opinion and then move on. These youtube rants are just moronic.
But the laws of teh interwebz dictates arguments must BE MADE IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE MY OPINION IS THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS AND YOUR ALL NAZIS FOR CRITICISING MY CRITICISN
I don’t know. I just can’t get behind the idea that these people should be dismissed as haters. I mean sure he’s earned his success and he seems like a great guy so I’m happy for him, but a lot of the critism is totally valid. I’m no stranger to people finding a reason to dislike me because of my success, but the fact that there may be an element of jealousy in play doesn’t mean they’re wrong if they call me a jerk. If I were to sit here and say they’re just goblins who couldn’t possibly ever have a point I’d never become a better person.
I also find it a bit funny that YouTubers responding to Five Nights at Freddy’s is essentially what made the franchise successful to begin with. I’d imagine there’s a huge amount of crossover between people who expressed their opinion in a positive way when the original was released and people who are now expressing their opinion in a negative way. I’m not saying people shouldn’t try to be nicer just that it’s funny the way passionate responses have been at both ends of the franchise from the same group with very different impacts.
pretty sure if they were titled Five nights at Freddy’s : episode 1-4 there wouldn’t have been this backlash.
Bah, then he’d be bagged for milking it with DLC. Overkill took heat when they released Payday 2 relatively shortly after Payday 1. From the beginning they said they’d support 2 for at least 2-3 years, but now they take shit from haters on the internet for trying ‘con people out of their money’ for ‘overpriced’ DLC ($5 weapon/heist/character packs, as opposed to CoD’s still $15, shitty mappacks) because they thought people wanted them to support the game for longer.
People on the web will always find something to bitch about.
Wow, I find Payday 2 honestly to be one of the best supported, best value games out there for some reason. Nothing seems drastically overprice and nothings ‘essential’ to buy. I havent bought much dlc outside steam sales, but damn it if there’s not a metric shit tonne of stuff to do in even the vanilla game!
I do believe criticisms aimed at the game, no matter how harsh they are, if civil, are fine (If they are expressed properly and not in a 50 word expletive laden rant like most reddit/gaming forum comments).
However, I think this has been the general feeling I’ve been getting with gaming “press” (by press I mean every bit of coverage ranging from traditional articles to youtube videos to reddit AMAs) is that we focus much too heavily on increasing the volume of the negative voices over the positive voices (regardless of whether they are a minority or a majority).
Instead of saying “Game X has done concept Y extremely well, where some other games have fallen short”, we’re fixated on just saying “Game A, B, C ,D ,E etc are not good enough, therefore games these days are just crappy.”
I’m also quite concerned about the issue now that everyone with a youtube/twitch account can criticise/praise a game. But everytime these people get questioned about it in greater detail the response is always the same “I’m not a traditional journalist. This is not a review”. It feels like we’re using the evolution in the medium to shy away from our responsibility to present information in balanced manner, positively or negatively.
So many people miss the point. He acknowledges criticisms of his game may be valid but people are being dicks about it, he isn’t dismissing anyone. The argument against basically boils down to “but I really think his game is shit.”
Not the point.