This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise, which has spawned several iterations, loads of merchandise, a movie, novels, and an absurdly large fanbase prone to dissecting each game's moving parts and narrative elements. Frankly, the series, founded on the premise of a haunted Chuck E. Cheese-esque establishment, has more than run its course and should come to a definitive end.

Upon its inception, Five Nights at Freddy's was a unique idea. The concept of a haunted Chuck E. Cheese isn't entirely original, given the inherently creepy nature of regular animatronics. But having the player take on the role of a security guard and ensuring their survival against demented animatronics was fresh. If the player wasn't attentive enough or lacked the necessary reactive abilities, then it was game over; Freddy Fazbear would stuff the player in a suit, leading to a swift and painful death.

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The popularity of Five Nights at Freddy's exploded following its release. The game had quickly reached meme status as a result of the game's appeal to a broad spectrum of gamers. The horror genre already has a loyal fanbase, and the game's one-man handiwork quickly launched it ahead of competing indie titles. The game proceeded to spawn three sequels over the following year and a slew of fan theories with them, including many developed ones from The Game Theorists, a YouTube channel focused on the backstories of popular games.

The massive dissection of Five Nights at Freddy's from fans isn't founded on baseless claims. The series has developed a deep and sophisticated lore at this point; more than many game developers could hope to achieve with their titles. With a backstory that involves everything from the restless spirits of children to a twisted engineer prone to making animatronics aggressive toward people, the lore is highly involved and convoluted. But does it need to be?

The answer is: no, it doesn't. For a relatively simple concept, the lore involved is very excessive. Put simply, the believability can't keep up with added lore. This isn't to say that a story that depends on demented animatronics can be expected to be realistic. Rather, it is to say that all of the lore almost removes players from the experience entirely due to the wacky nature of the miriad plot twists.

Frankly speaking, the lore's expansion been unsustainable and the fact that players are almost expected to keep up with every tiny detail is a bizarre notion when the fact of the matter is that players have long lost interest in the winding paths taken by the Five Nights at Freddy's narrative. There are so many points to keep track of within the lore, which is so convoluted as it is, that many players don't find it worth doing so. The franchise and its narrative have lost the interest of all but the most dedicated fans, when it once kept them engaged because of how complicated it was despite its seeming simplicity.

The Five Nights at Freddy's series has dwindled quite a bit over the past few years. After starting off strong with a unique concept, it now shambles along as a franchise with unnecessary lore. Freddy and friends need to either return to their simple roots or have a (perhaps temporary) demise.

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