i do have serious problems with the narrative[s] (warfare, i would argue) around this current / latest 'golden age' of fnaf
we can square this away most basically by asking, why is it golden age to get even more wed to Zionist company (Jazwares)? <1> <2> etc.
if this is what 'success' and 'winning' look like, why is this what we want? if information (marketing) comes at the cost of unquestioned support for and promotion of company that literally backs (in funds and narrative) the evil IOF ('IDF' as its chosen name) then what is even the point of this?
in my mind, all the people who are celebrating this 'century of winning' (as i heard JonnyBlox refer to it as) need to explain themselves or just accept that they are being complicit (being made to be or choosing to be i can't say) in genoc*de
it would maybe be one thing if people didn't know, but i believe the boycott Jazwares campaign -- for all the impotence it had -- did succeed in making this information known in general ways such that i believe it's not possible to be in these content creation positions and be genuinely unaware of the harm you are perpetuating
this is the plain simple truth: shitty and questionably sourced plastic products have for a long time been part of FNAF's lifeblood (what has sustained it and allowed it to amass this supposed 2 billion dollars that also gets uncritically passed around; the source of which seems to be exactly ad exec Russell Binder) but there has been a real shift in the passing of baton from Funko to Jazwares. of course i don't doubt that Funko was evil company in many ways (certainly it was key player in making non-recyclable plastics no one wanted or asked for to go and poison the planet [i honestly need better sources for this, but this is where i'm at in my understanding right now]) but there is an important difference between being evil vis-a-vis the nature of being a company and being a company that directly ties itself via sympathy to Zionist entity (as if this were a legitimate thing ever in the world).
and if for some reason genoc*de ties were not enough for people it is also that the meritocratic smoke that's being ushered in to fill the room and make it look lived in is but another poison that will only choke everyone out and run foreheads into pavement and vom*t from heads. that is, concurrent with this 'century of winning' is the recentralization of fnaf image culture. long time fan artist Snartles has now been inducted into major role of revamping series' images- the reactivation of ScottGames (marketing) Twitter account was kicked off by day after day of posting the new covers Snartles has drawn for the Pizzaplex books. and the art is well made, i don't contest this. i personally like the new cover for Somnophobia as it recalls for me the subway gem alert meme template which i have a certain fondness for. but we need to ask, what are these covers promoting exactly? answer: the Schoolastic-collab Five Nights at Freddy's: Tales from the Pizzaplex series. answer: more toxic shit.
by which i mean not only that the quality is low (this as a byproduct of ghost writers; i would be very curious about the labor conditions of production) but also that the content is harmful. while i'm probably too keen on giving grace to Scott Cawthon (the established Donald Trump campaign supporter -- queue Marcy the Baptist "I don't know who Adam Friedland is"), i believe it's uncontested that he is a Christian patriarch raised in ongoing settler-colony that is so-called Amerikkka. the production process for these books (this as at least according to Scott via second Dawko interview) was that he writes up 10-ish page treatment, sends it to Schoolastic-appointed ghost writers and they buff it out from there to get it to required length. how could the propagandized imaginary of this man not slip in in the process? a question that's most immediately answered by the discourse which finally concretized earlier this year with the critical response to the short story B7 as trafficking in plain and simple anti-trans rhetoric (among many other things). unchecked horror bound up in the corporate model capitalizes on the fears most expedient to narrative warfare of capital(ism) <1> <2>. why do you know what you know and like what you like? why do you fear what you fear? why do you want fear? <now, discourses of FNAF and scariness are longstanding and i can't get into all of that here, now- i wrote about it from a different approach last year, but this can be a point for future discussion>
that is, just as fans were finally catching wind of the narrative warfare embedded in this toxic trash, it gets a new coat of paint and there's concurrently an ask to take this in stride. yeah, that sucks that FNAF has been instrumentalized as another organ for anti-trans total war that Amerikkkan/White empire is so currently engaged in, but look at how pretty the poison pill is now!
i don't contest any of the outcry or critique around Pinky Pills (the illustrator for the original/previous covers which Snartles' are set to replce)- neither the quality of her art nor her actions as a person- but at least with that it was clear what we were getting (toxic trash). Snartles' involvement is a means of stymying the justified rage that the unorganized masses have finally been able to piece together.
but this is just it- the masses are unorganized and this new 'century of winning' serves to only confuse this fact (and what it means) even further. JonnyBlox's recap video cites the meritocratic claim that Snartles was a long time fan artist and has now been inducted into playing a major role in the series' (rebranding). this is the same poison narrative that Binder (the source of this 2 billion dollar claim) and MatPat (the former host of venture capital-owned Game Theory / Theorist Media; current political campaigner) have been giving for some time- that FNAF is special because it is a space where fans can (and do) succeed. i would like to see some real evidence for these claims because as i'm hearing them, this is total horse shit. so there's one exceptional case of an artist having the right style to be brought in for a rebrand. but how many FNAF fan artists are there exactly? and out of that number how many of them have been afforded this path? my guess - which i would welcome being challenged on* - is that this is a one-off thing that does not map onto the larger patterns of what all there is. and what are we meant to take from this? that fan games are doing something other than adding to the value of this media franchise? the numbers go up, but for whom? and so what? i contend, these people do not have your interest in mind.
for all the problems and obscurantism that JonnyBlox's recap video provides, it does get to one accurate critique of the limits of this new era. that is, this era is a designed construction; this is not actually for the fans; it can not answer to the demands of the people. of course JonnyBlox's framing is, 'ok lol, and? u thought u could ever get that?' but i think this is important to recognize and hold on-- even for the seeming minor things of inter-imperial rivalries (which is unfortunately where the demands of the people are directed -- again, this as according to JonnyBlox); i.e., the mystery collaboration between FNAF and [fans speculate, Fortnite] or what the details are behind this cryptic "B" teaser are - [fans speculate this will be teaser for recently teased Security Breach 2]. and this, to be clear, is stuff that doesn't really matter. but if new era can't even account for this, how could it possibly respond to the more real demands about such things as labor, media morality, vampiric extraction, etc. etc.?
i'll end by saying this, i believe the Fanverse Initiative <1> <2> <3> is something that should be studied more. this should be a clear indicator that there is ~something~ to the disaggregated form of fan games and this sort of thing. they have value and potential and thus FNAF IP developed outlet to (try to) capture this. what are the real aims of this initiative? who does it benefit? can we compare this to the incentive structure of, for example, grant funding? for the people getting this money, are they able to work on their own terms or what are these stipulations? what are the knock-on effects of this incentive structure? my guess would be that this sets a standard that then warps future development, but i would be interested to know more.
to be clear, i don't think boycotting fnaf will be able to stop the bombs dropping on Gaza, but this is not what the point of it should be (in at least a pragmatic, immediate sense). calls for boycott should be means of political education and of raising awareness about how our world works, who profits off it, and what that all has to do with each and every one of you and me. there needs to be more organization here. the function of Fandom is necessarily neoliberal and atomizing but i believe it does have other contradictions and tendencies that can be exploited and leaned into as well. for the moment i will say only that i believe some positive developments in method may have emerged from this space (in the FNAF context). but i challenge you to challenge me on this. prove me wrong or prove me right*- it's up to you (and me and-) to make the world a better place. (not on your own, though! and this is the important part). how can you get together and do something? how can we build from here? doing nothing is not long term viable and never was. the goal of 'century of winning' is to keep people doing nothing- to keep people confused about how the world works or what the point of anything even is. but we don't have to take this. we don't have to believe the narratives the official (marketing) twitter account is putting out. the internet has serious limits and digital 'community' is not something that really exists. real progress requires commitment and accountability. corporations can't give that to you. privately owned means of production can't give that to you. you have to go out and take it and make it where you live and with the people that you know (that you really know; not parasocially know-- this is another obscurantist mode of Fandom).
this is a call to action and a statement about the way things are. the outcome is not predetermined. this is why the narrative warfare is necessary. people's minds don't stay brainwashed, it's a constant process. what can you do to fight? what does FNAF-minded organizing look like?
questions for tomorrow and the day after, but also for today.
i call it essays, but this will basically be a blog (or something approximating)
plan is to post text posts of various things i've been thinking about.
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