https://youtu.be/zCUaFX-m55s?t=3s

I would also like to thank Roop, my friends, and alcohol for giving me the courage to make this statement.

XD

You good sir deserve a cookie.

Why thank ya X3

. . . . . . And the jump-scare is the thing that's designed to startle you.

I'm prepared to argue that FNAF is a scary game. . . But I will say this: It's not because of those jump-scares.

See my response to the guy below you to see if it clarifies anything.

Actually, for me, it wasn't the "dread or stress" either.

For me, the horror comes from fridge logic. Scott never gives you the true story right upfront. Instead, he dropped hints here and there (most of which you probably won't notice because, if you stop and look at them for too long, you gonna' get killed) and trusted his audience to be smart enough to put them together himself.

The official story is, of course, that the characters have a glitch that causes them to mistake humans for de-costumed endoskeletons and will try to forcibly stuff them inside another character. But there's one article posted to a pegboard about five children that went missing and were presumed murdered by a Fazbear's employee, another article about the restaurant incurring various health code violations, all of which stem from the animatronics supposedly oozing some kind of puss-like substance and reeking of death. You put those together (for yourself -- there wasn't a cutscene spelling this out for you) and you realize the true story: The killer stuffed their bodies inside the animatronics, and now they're possessed and out for revenge.

Which, incidentally, also ties into my biggest pet peeve about FNAF: Scott did a fantastic job setting up a horror game, but then did the absolute most useless thing with it.

If FNAF had played more like Silent Hill, Outlast, Penumbra, or SCP - Containment Breach, and, in addition to just surviving the night, it had some optional objectives of trying to uncover the truth and try to bring about some kind of resolution, nobody would be debating whether or not FNAF is scary and/or a great horror game.

But what happened instead? *sigh* Meh. . . I already did plenty of ranting on the topic here.

It's more the sense of dread and stress that the game is supposed to build up. Depending on the player they may get paranoid while playing and when the cheap scare comes the buildup to it is what makes them freak out badly. Though eventually you get desensitized to it and if anything the silence followed by the jarring loud noise gets ya.

I just don't see any "dread and stress" with it though. To me, it seems comparable to hynosis. If you don't want to be scared, it doesn't scare you, and it only can scare you if you want to be scared. I'm not normally scared by horror games, but I can see where the fear and suspense can be in most of them. With this game, I can see the appeal as far as being a fun game to play. I like the set up as far as having to use good timing, ration supplies and last a certain time period, etc. But if I lost in the game it would be like a "well, shit. I lost" more than anything. I don't see any need to be scared about it.

Hmm...I think it varies from person to person. Even if I go in, deciding not to be scared, and approach with a calm mind, I will still end up feeling quite a bit of fear. Being startled, for me, anyway, is a fairly big event. I think my fear of sudden jumps and appearances goes back to school. I would have some of the...more determined bullies attempting to jump me after school had ended and the truancy officer on the grounds went home for the day. So, I began to feel uneasy and edgy in locations with few to no people. Quiet areas and areas with lots of things to hide behind. The 'jump scare' calls me back to that, and it's more then being startled for me because of that experience that had been ground into my head for the entirety of middle school. Games that have creepy atmospheres, and feature realistic locations (bedrooms, security stations, hospitals, etc...) get to me a lot because of the past. It kind of sets me up. Even though I'm expecting it, I still freak pretty bad, and it lasts longer then that heightened awareness that people get from the fight-or-flight reaction. So...really, while it doesn't scare you, and might not scare a lot of people, it'll still legitimately frighten some, due to circumstances, pasts, and how one's brain is wired, since people are quite different from one another.