Books and Gaming: FNaF

What Are We Really Talking About?
It's really pretty simple, I love video games, and I really enjoy the written word. I find myself listening to books more often than reading them of late, mainly because that's just easier. I can listen while I work out, while I jog, while I play games, while I hunt Pokémon and while I drive. So why not listen to books instead of read them? But, we're not technically just talking about my method of reading.

What I'm talking about, is game-books. Books based on the content of games, and there are tons. Seriously, for every epic RPG, massive scale gaming universe, and terribly convoluted plot, there's a book, licensed or fan written, that attempts to explain something or extrapolate some new story. You can see this in basically everything, JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts; science fiction shooters like Halo and Mass Effect; high adventures like The Legend of Zelda and Infinity Blade; strategy games such as Command & Conquer and StarCraft; stealth games like Assassin's Creed and Metal Gear Solid; and yes, even indie games like Five Nights at Freddy's, a.k.a. FNaF.

Which is actually what has brought this to the forefront of my mind. I adore the FNaF games, I'm not particularly good at them by any means. I haven't even fully beat the second one, and refuse to play the third and fourth ones until I do (doesn't help that I've had to restart because I swapped form mobile to PC and wanted to beat the first game anew). FNaF has this weird rich lore to it, mostly crafted through the fanbase's relentless insistence that there is one. I mean, I'm sure Scott Cawthon wanted there to be some internal story to the original FNaF, who doesn't want their game to have a plot? But, the series has exploded, spanning across four core games, a spinoff rpg, a fifth sequel game (and possible series), an upcoming movie, several fan made games, and yes, a book.

Don't misunderstand, I haven't read the book (past the first page), but it has drawn me to the point that I now own it, and have begun to read it. Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes is a book that promises to expand on the lore of the series, while establishing it's own sort of existential lore. Let's face it, FNaF already has so much crap going on that writing a book on it would be hard without breaking a few twigs. So no, I don't have an opinion on it, but I will.

It's the oddest thing, there are games with far more developed plots out there (such as Metal Gear Solid) that I love to play and study, but I don't find myself reaching out for their books. Something about FNaF just draws me to it, makes me want to know more. Maybe it's because the game was made by an independent man just pursuing his dream. Perhaps this is all the result of a lot of internet hype around a simplistic, if entertaining, game. Who knows.

As a side note (which I seem to have more and more often): Just a few days ago I found myself in our managing editor's office, explaining the mechanics of Pokémon Go to him, and I thought to myself, "This is the job I truly want, to explain video games to people." Wouldn't that be fantastic? Best. Job. Ever.