Criticism vs Hate in the FNAF Fandom. Read.

Sorta a hot take, but I believe that the hate caused by FNAF Security Beach, due to the game being glitchy/buggy, boring, not frightening, etc, has now caused the FNAF community to view ALL 'criticism' as 'hate' so, nowadays, FNAF fans can't criticise a single aspect about the franchise without being told that they 'have no joy' or 'dont like fun'. So what ends up happening is the community is always left with being at 2 extremes for any possible scenario, and you can't do anything without being hated or even sent threats.

Praise something that most of the community hates? You'll get called a 'pick me' or told that you're rage baiting.

Critique something everyone loves? You'll be laughed at, told you 'hate fun' and overall disrespected.

Which just means that you can't really state an opinion that doesn't "follow the herd" because if you do, you'll be seen as 'wrong'. even though you physically can not be 'wrong' with an opinion.

The FNAF fandom needs improvement, and I think one quick way to start that course of improvement is to finally learn the different between criticism and hate, so I'll do my best to explain it in very simple terms.

Criticism - What is it? Criticism is pointing out a flaw in something & providing a potential way for that flaw to be resolved

e.g: "Security Breach wasn't scary" can be the flaw, and "They needed scarier characters and more time to work on the game" is the potential resolution. This is good feedback, it tells SWS and Scott what you believe was wrong & offering a solution/idea for a solution.

That is constructive criticism, it points out an error/flaw and gives a solution.

Hate - What is it? Hate is just being overall disrespectful and rude about something & not providing any other reasoning for why something is supposedly bad or wrong.

e.g: "Security Breach sucks, it's the worst fucking game in the franchise."

There is nothing of use here, you are just stating something disrespectful, You're also being rude by using swears to amplify your point, which only makes you look as if you're speaking out of anger rather than critique.

You are stating a flaw (saying the game sucks) but you're not actually talking about how to IMPROVE that. You're not telling Steel Wool or Scott what they could've done better, what you're saying is useless and means literally nothing.

It's the same thing when you're talking about the FNAF movie, or the other games, or the books, or even anything unrelated to FNAF, if your ONLY talking point is "this thing sucks." then you're hating, not criticising. Honestly really tired of people using the terms as if they're interchangeable, I've personally had people say I 'cant accept criticism' because I blocked a guy in the fnaf fandom who told me to die & sent me gory photos lol. Also had another group of people tell me I cant handle 'criticism' because I blocked a dude who did nothing but join my twitch streams to spam 'dead channel' in my chat.

I really hope this helps people learn the difference, and that as a fandom, we can grow and communicate with eachother better!

Edit: I've also noticed a lot of subtle/unintentional xenophobia thanks to the poor communication skills a lot of people have. I see a lot of people whom don't have English as a first language get TORN apart by the community on Twitter, Discord, etc, because they used the wrong word to describe something, or they just were unaware of new lore because they live in a country that doesn't have access to the books. etc.

Edit 2: I'M NOT USING THIS POST TO SAY WHETHER SECURITY BREACH IS 'GOOD' OR 'BAD' I was merely just using it as a point of comparison!