 Hello people of the internet, my name is Johnny and welcome back to yet another reaction video to Game Theory. I think we all knew that this video was gonna happen eventually, I feel like we all knew it was going to be inevitable. Uh, seems like MatPat is gonna be talking about all the recent drama and uh, I'm assuming Scott retiring as well. And let me just make this clear, I've moved on from the drama, I know there are some people who like how can you move on from something like that. But like, it's died down a whole lot, you know, and I really don't want to bring it up again with this video. It's something that I feel like I've said many times in the past that I don't want politics on my channel. I already made a whole video dedicated to, you know, the political drama and that is the only comment section that I want politics talk to be in, you know. I hate it, I've debated several times just turning off comments on that video in particular. So yeah, I asked kindly that you keep all the political talk out of this comment section. Anyways, the titles we need to talk about FNAF and then the thumbnail is FNAF for sale, which is kinda scary. It's 25 minutes, so let's just hop into it. So, thank you guys so much for checking out another Reaction to Game Theory. If you're brand new, make sure you subscribe, hit the like button, let's hop into it. Let's talk about FNAF for, again, 25 minutes. Here we go. This is gonna be a hard one. Today we're gonna talk about FNAF. Like we have so many other times before on the channel. So many. How many times have we talked about FNAF on this channel? Let's see. Oh gosh. Probably too many. Probably way too many, way too many. 20s? 30s? No shot, it's 40s. No way. Dude, give it a rest. 33. Oh jeez. For some reason I thought it was more, wait. Uh, oh. Happy 50th, happy 50th. Oh god. We've technically done 49 episodes on FNAF. And let me just say this is not the big 50th episode that I really anticipated. Yay. For those of you who don't know, FNAF has been in the news a lot lately. And not for any good reasons, like the release of a new game or... Yay. ...then finally deciding to make the obvious call and cast me as Phone Guy in the upcoming movie. Obviously. Jason, where is it? After that, my audition reel, Blumhouse, I would also be willing to accept the role of Purple Guy. Phone Guy, Matpat! Scott Cawthon. No, the reason it's been trending on Twitter and blowing up all over the blogosphere have centered around the creator Scott Cawthon and his recent decision to retire from the series. You heard that right, friend. Scott, my long time nemesis is stepping down. Only one will remain standing. That one is me. Interesting take. You're retiring with plenty of money, so who's the real winner here? It's Scott Cawthon. As he himself said in his final post, and I quote, I've had a blessed fulfilling, it took me a minute to find it, I'm sorry, I've had a blessed fulfilling and rich career. I've tried to make some good games, let the debate ensue, and I've witnessed the creation of possibly the most creative and talented fan base on the planet. But here, on the 7th anniversary of the first games trailer, I realize I missed a lot of things that I got to focus on before FNAF became such a success. I miss making games for my kids, I miss doing it just for fun, and I miss making RPGs even though I stink at it. All this is to say that I'm retiring. No. He then goes on to thank everyone for their kindness, say that he's excited to spend time with his family and assure everyone that FNAF is going to continue under the guidance of someone of his choosing. Scott, to consider this channel my application for the role, I'm not telling you. All kind of joking, but also kind of not joking aside, this alone would be a huge deal, right? One of the most successful indie developers of all time, stepping down from his still mega popular series after seven years, with a book series still being released until the end of the year, a new game on the verge of being released, and a movie that's still in the works. The verge of being released. He takes his victory lap around the internet as everyone celebrates his work, and he fades away to go spend time with his family doing whatever it is that indie devs do with their piles of cash, buy a cereal wall, a candy room, bacon every day for breakfast. That's what Notch did with his money. I think that, but I just imagine that bacon is something that rich people have for breakfast every day because it's like the best food ever. But that's not the complete picture of what's going on here, because it's actually the circumstances around his retirement that caused the hashtags to trend. You see, in the days leading up to his announcement, word had gotten out that Scott had contributed sizable amounts of money to various political campaigns in the years between 2016 and 2020. I really hope this doesn't fuel it up again. Using the website OpenSecrets.com, an independent nonprofit that tracks U.S. political donations, users learned that Scott had contributed around $42,000 to various political campaigns. Now that, on its own, might not have been all that newsworthy. I thought we weren't supposed to share these images anymore. I thought maybe people shouldn't take notice was who he had contributed funding to, Republican candidates like Ben Carson, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, controversial political figures whose voting histories had been anti-civil rights over the years, especially as it relates to the LGBTQ communities, which, you know, a large portion of the FNAF fanbase is. And I've seen a lot of people online responding with a, so what's the big deal to all of this news? But you have to stop and actually think for a minute about the position of a lot of the LGBT fans. Sorry if I'm not talking a whole lot as I usually do in these reactions. This revelation understandably hurt a lot of members of the FNAF fan community, considering that Scott's franchise has been this welcoming and inclusive space for them. One where a lot of people have found the ability to express their unique identities, to know that their support of these games and their games creator, especially the financial support that comes with that, their dollars had wound up funding campaigns for people who are looking to withhold or remove their rights, to fund the elections of people who had forward legislation that treats them as less than human. Yeah, that's going to feel really horrible. It's going to feel like a betrayal. It's going to feel like you had funded your own worst enemy. At first people thought that Scott's account must have gotten hacked, right? There was no way that he could have done this, or at the very least that maybe he donated to a blanket Republican fund where his dollars had gotten funneled into individual campaigns without his knowledge, but no, after a few days, Scott took to Reddit and affirmed that these were indeed his choices, which then just proceeded to blow the internet up even more. A few days later, he retired and that was that, a confusing and awkward end to the career of someone who had legitimately changed the face of horror and indie gaming forever. Now, a lot of you, a lot of you have been asking me for my response to the whole thing. Does the channel stop covering FNAF? Do I still support Scott? How do I feel about all this? How should you feel about all this? And honestly, there is a lot. My pet should not tell you how to feel about any of this, by the way, guys. One of the reasons it's taken so many times because I've had to sort it all out in my own head. That makes sense. I didn't really know how to feel. We've been teaching my son Oliver, who just turned three recently, about how sometimes you can feel multiple emotions at once and how that's confusing and how it's hard sometimes. And that lesson at three is still just as hard when you're 33. So I had to take time to do my own soul searching and do my own research, quite honestly. One of the great things about the internet is that it moves so fast, right? You need something and boom, it is right there available at your fingertips. But one of the awful things about the internet is that, boom, it moves so fast. There is no time to think. Everything requires an immediate response, a hot take. Your knee-jerk reaction is in line. Personally, I felt very pressured to talk about it as fast as possible. New game releases are old by the end of the week. New video? Well, got to be the first to like and comment without actually watching what it's about. There's no time for thoughts, for research, for introspection if you're going to be part of a conversation. Or no time to look back and actually analyze the data. I mean, heck, by the time that you bother to finish reading Scott's response to all this drama, he had already posted his retirement. Yeah. So, since this is going to be a long and tricky episode to say the least, let me start off by making it crystal clear that I am pro LGBTQ rights. And you don't have to take my word for that. I was in theater for years before I started doing YouTube and it is difficult to be a narrow-minded bigot in that industry. If you know, you know. I'm a member of the LA LGBT Center and I attend their events because I support their mission. And most importantly, I've done the best I can to keep a sensitive ear open to LGBT audience members. And also to my team members when they tell me that something isn't okay or no longer okay or they explain an LGBT perspective that I don't know or understand because I don't live that. I don't have that experience in my life. So, I'll never be able to know everything or be able to truly speak on behalf of people in that community but the best I can do is to try and remain an ally who's always ready to be supportive and as sensitive as I can be. Anyway, I don't say- I'm glad that you're super- Make excuses or- Passion about. Try to defend myself by wrapping up in a rainbow flag. Actually, coming off of Pride Month, it actually bothers me how so many companies just use identity politics to be trendier, try to sell more emerging. That's not guilty of that. Feels more like clout chasing to me rather than, you know, actual stances on things. Now, I believe- At least when I did it, I donated all my stuff to the- The rainbow for 30 days, but rather it's giving people of all types- Which is still going on, by the way, link down below. 25 days of the year, regardless of how they identify or who they love. And I'm proud to say that the team consists of people all across the spectrum and I'm proud that they're here because they're talented and they deserve the chance to show off their unique creativity, which is why before I get to addressing the actual hardest subject of all this, Scott himself, I think it's important to say this right up front or I guess as up front as I can in this long of a video, I will still be covering and supporting FNAF as a franchise. Just like game theory has become so much more than just me sitting in my closet- It's cute. ...nerding out every week and is now a collaboration of creative people coming from all different walks of life. Five Nights at Freddy's is much more than just a single guy living in Texas. I know it's easy to point at his little anim-dude avatar and assign everything in the franchise to him. Heck, I've made a running gag out of our little rivalry over the years. But in reality, Scott's just a figurehead, a visual shorthand to represent everyone who is now instrumental in the running of this franchise. All the authors and illustrators of the books, other game developers, merch companies, the Fazbear spin-off universe of families, each employing dozens of people who use the franchise as their launchpad for their livelihoods or as their own personal creative outlet. By not supporting the franchise as a whole, I'm not supporting those creators. And even more importantly, it's also that I wouldn't be supporting the community itself. The people who still do find this franchise as a safe haven, a source of entertainment, a source for their unique creative expression. Scott said it in his retirement announcement. I read it earlier. I've witnessed the creation of possibly the most creative and talented fanbase on the planet. And he's not kidding. There are so few fandoms like the FNAF fandom. I mean, what other franchise has so many darned fan games dedicated to it? And to me, these fans are the lifeblood of the community now. This entire franchise now, not just Scott himself. And let me make it clear, just because I choose to support the series doesn't mean that I think anyone is wrong to not support it. That's definitely not the case. Wherever you choose to draw the line on this issue is completely valid. I'm just taking you through my thought process and all the variables that I went through as I came to terms with this whole issue. But aren't tied by supporting the series, contributing to Scott's income, and thereby what he chooses to do with that, you might ask. And yeah, you probably are, sadly. And that's just a choice that everyone's gonna have to make based on their own personal criteria. To me, the good of supporting the community around the franchise and the jobs that it creates is worth whatever minor impact that Scott may be able to enact in the political sphere, which is an issue we'll be getting to in a second. Because here's the thing, friends, this sort of dilemma applies to pretty much any major company that you talk about. There are good people and bad people pretty much everywhere. And not even that extreme, they're just people that you agree with and people that you disagree with everywhere. For one example that I think we could all relate to, just look at Walt Disney. There's great evidence to show that was probably prejudiced against other races, women, other religions. As one biographer states, quote, Disney willingly, even enthusiastically, embraced anti-Semites and cast his fate with them. So, do you stop watching Disney movies as a result of that money going directly into his pockets? Or, I guess at this point, the cryogenic pod that the Walt Popsicle waits in waiting to be reincarnated one day. The Walt Popsicle. Or, more recent and much more extreme example, billionaire J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter universe, who has just other sorts of problematic viewpoints that she chooses to share on Twitter. Do you stop supporting the Harry Potter franchise to prevent adding to her immense wealth? You can, and it is absolutely a valid option. Hitting people in their pocketbook is always the best place to get them to notice. But where things get complicated is when you start looking to their influence outside of just their IP. J.K. Rowling, for instance, is rumored to earn a cut of every ticket sold to Universal Studios. Does it? That mean you then boycott that entire place? Even if that isn't true, it's still a licensing deal that she profits from. And by going, you contribute to her ongoing success. It is like this impossible dilemma. I think the TV show The Good Place actually sum this issue up best. These days, just buying a tomato at a grocery store means that you are unwittingly supporting toxic pesticides, exploiting labor, contributing to global warming. Humans think that they're making one choice, but they're actually making dozens of choices they don't even know they're making. In my mind, it ultimately amounts to a personal choice where you have to weigh the good of a decision against the bad. As YouTube video essayist Lindsay Ellis said in her examination of whether you can support Harry Potter without supporting J.K. Rowling. Because of her wealth and influence, she's going to be believed more than the lived experience of trans people. And while you can absolutely control the way you read or engage with a text, you cannot control the way an author uses their money and influence. And if LGBT rights are something very important to you and you think Scott is dangerous to those, then him stepping down from the franchise and removing himself from social media dismantles a lot of the things that could make him dangerous. Sorry, that transition was really funny. You can always weigh that into your consideration of how you're going to view the overall franchise. Again, where you choose to draw that line is absolutely your choice and your choice alone. I'm just taking you through my week of soul searching and all the factors. So that's why I'm choosing to support the franchise moving forward, but it leads perhaps to the biggest question of them all, which is Scott himself, how to feel about him, you know? Again, because the internet moves so fast and because everyone just hates to read, I never really saw people looking at what he actually said in his response to all this drama. Instead, just jump into the conclusion of, well, he admitted that he donated to these people so he needs to be canceled now. If anybody would be mad at that to look supporting some of these individuals into the final details. And totally you're right to make that call, but to me, I wanted to know more, right? Because I don't have a feeling that maybe this is tied to the state of American politics. And this is stepping way outside of my comfort zone here on Game Theory, but personally, I just hate American politics. It's always been a frustrating process to me because it forces you into one of two buckets. Are you red or are you blue? Are you elephant or are you donkey? Are you Republican or are you Democrat? It is a binary choice between two parties, two people that are for these really important jobs, and that's about it. There are no other options. Or there are other options in the form of independent candidates and third parties, but because the system is set up the way it is, they don't really stand that much of a chance. And so everyone is always telling you that if you vote for them, you're throwing away your votes. So long story short, most elections just wind up being a compromise. You have to pick and choose whatever your most important issues are for that election cycle, and because no one candidate truly embodies them all, you have to vote for the lesser of two evils, in a sense. There is never this one perfect candidate that truly represents me as the voter. And I hate that. And I wouldn't be surprised if maybe Scott felt like he was in a similar position, so I wanted to look closer at his response. And admittedly, it's a long one, but I think it's important to not overly edit Scott's words in this case, but don't worry, we'll break it down as we go through it. I've debated greatly how best to address this, including not addressing it at all. But with so many people from the LGBT community in the fan base that I love, that's not an option. I'd like to think that the last seven years would have given me the benefit of that out in regards to how I try to treat people. But there I was, trending on Twitter for being a homophobe, getting doxxed with people threatening to come to my house. All this because I exercised my right and my duty as an American citizen to vote for and support the candidates who I felt could best run the country, for everyone. And that's something that I won't apologize for. Okay, let's break there for a minute. First, as someone who has- I really do like how Matt has taken this very slow and explaining it in great detail. Just because I do a dumb show online where I call Sonic slow. It's really nice. Personal attacks and threats are not okay. Never, period, end of story. Agree or disagree with him for who he chooses to support fine. Pull your support of him, of his franchise, of his games, absolutely. But harassing and threatening someone's life and his family, simply because they supported someone you disagree with, makes you know better than the people that you're fighting. True. That's just the way I feel. And when it comes to giving Scott the benefit of the doubt, like he asks for in this response, honestly, he has that from me. It's easy to overlook, but Scott, over the years, has donated over 1.2 million dollars of his own money to charities. Scott called it himself! Including $50,000 to this project. An organization that is focused on helping LGBTQ youth. Does that necessarily negate the $42,000 that he made in political donations? Again, that is a personal choice for you to make the call on, but I think it at least merits hearing the guy out. Anyway, the quote continues. For those of you who took the time to look, you saw that the candidates I supported included men, women, white people, black people, Republicans, and Democrats. I supported Kimberly Classic in Baltimore because I believed that she really cared for the African-American community there and wanted to pull them out of poverty. I believe she could have really made a difference in a time when so many black communities were struggling. She lost, unfortunately. I supported Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat even though I disagreed with her on several issues because I felt she would have been a good and fair president. And yes, I supported President Trump because I felt he was the best man to fuel a strong economy and stand up to America's enemies abroad, of which there are many. Even if there were candidates who had better things to say to the LGBT community directly and bigger promises to make, I believe that their stances on other issues would have ended up doing much greater harm to those communities. This video is so well made so far. All of this explanation, I fear, is wasted. As people don't want to discuss with one another anymore, they want endless apologies and submission. I'm glad Matt took the time to make this video. Okay, so now this gets to the heart of the problem that we've had with Scott. Who chose to support through his donation dollars? And the list is quite long if you look at opensecrets.com. 16 candidates specifically singled out for donation dollars with one Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, like he called out in a statement. Who, in his response, he not only chooses to support, but actually calls out as his first choice of candidate for president. I think this actually merits looking into. It's a bit weird. I'm about to roll into kind of like a mini game theory on political donations, which I don't really know. But hey, if we're doing it, let's do it right. So here we go. So looking at the timeline of his 2019 and 2020 donations, Tulsi is in fact the first to receive any money from Scott, followed by his donation to Trump two months later. Now, this timing also happens to coincide with Tulsi starting to lag in the polls. What this tells me implicitly is that when his first choice, Tulsi, was no longer a viable presidential candidate, he instead pivoted and donated to the candidate that he most believed in, who also had the best shot of winning Donald Trump. But what was the policy that Scott appears to have cared about the most? Well, if you look into all of the candidates that he chooses to support, there's one and only one commonality across all of them. Tough foreign policy. Keeping the military strong, keeping trade strong, and standing against foreign powers like North Korea. This also coincides with his statements about defending against enemies abroad, recovering the economy, and how other issues would do more harm to the country than good. Apparently to Scott, nothing worse can happen to your civil rights than getting dunked on by an overseas nuke. Now, I've seen people say that everyone on Scott's donation list also had a history of opposing same-sex and transgender rights. I chose to look into this, and across the board, that's largely true, except for Tulsi, who, well, she was inconsistent about it at best. It's true, she had a history of being anti-LGBT, but since joining Congress in 2013, she supported efforts to promote LGBT equality, including cosponsoring pro-LGBT legislation like the Equality Act, which, if you don't know, is a bill to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to promote and protect LGBT individuals. And then, again, at the top of 2019, she went on Twitter to defend trans-Americans in the military, so big ups to her on all of that. Big W. However, things get more complicated because in 2020, her reputation was again put into question when she introduced a bill that many saw as anti-transgender, something that was leveled hard against Scott's choice to support her. But it's worth noting that this was after Scott chose to donate to her campaign. The TLDR of all of that voting nonsense is this. When Scott chose to support her campaign, publicly facing, she was pro-trans rights. That's it. That's the best I can put it. Outside of that, the only commonality that I could see across pretty much every candidate that Scott chose to support was keeping the military strong. Now, to be sure, not everyone places the same emphasis on that issue or considers America at high risk. People on the other side of this issue may believe that the bigger threat is personal rights of people who are already in the country. Again, I am not here to decide that issue or pass judgment on anyone's priorities. I do not want to do that. But it is my theory, my political theory that Scott, like so many other Americans, may have found himself caught in a situation where no one candidate truly reflected the complete slate of policies that he supported. And when his first choice of candidate bowed out of the race, one who was publicly pro LGBTQ rights at the time, he moved on to the next best option in his mind considering the issue that he thought was most important, in this case foreign policy. Therefore, him supported Trump. And let me be clear, I'm not trying to explain away his actions or anything like that. Not at all. Am I surprised that he donated to these people? Yeah. But is it enough for me to throw away all the goodwill that I've seen and put into this franchise in his community over the years? No, it's not. Like I said, a donation is a donation and to many that is more than enough to condemn him. But I just thought it was interesting and my research That is interesting. deserved to be called out when talking about this really complicated topic. I think the challenge here is that life isn't black and white, red or blue, and that the internet, a lot of times struggles with nuance. It's a wacky filter. Struggles with those gray areas. I gotta be honest, I'm sad that this is how everything wound up. Seeing scottgames.com go dark after years of me Don't do that to me. Checking it for updates or digging into the source code for hidden clues, it was a sobering moment. It was a sad moment knowing that it was dead now as a fan of this franchise and as someone who respects all the work that scott's done. But I think the solace that I have and what I would encourage anyone out there who is struggling with this to look at is the net good that this series has provided. Regardless of scott's political affiliation, his true beliefs, whatever they may be, this series has been a source of security and identity for so many people over the last seven years and it will continue to be that moving forward for even more. Life just isn't a game of absolutes. Life is all about trying to do the greatest good with the hand that you've been dealt and the good that is spawned out of Freddy and his friends for creators, for fans, for gaming as a whole, it's incalculable. My last few theories have had this recurring theme of It's a new era of snap! The old story is gay! We're on to the next iteration of this franchise, blah blah blah blah. And I gotta be honest, now that rings true more than ever. But I assure you, I'll be here with you for the ride. But hey, that's not a theory, honestly. That's a fact. I'm gonna be here with you for the ride. But this is a game theory. Thank you for watching and thank you for staying open-minded. See you in the next one. See ya, buddy. Wow. Wow. That was... That was nice. Whether or not you think Matt's trying to find an out for Scott or anything because of the timeline, I guess, man, Matt, he's got something for timelines, doesn't he? I'm glad that he took the time and researched and put together a well-put-together video. I guess, again, that is on brand with Matt Pad and game theory, but this was a nice video. It was long, but I feel like it was better long. You know, Matt did a great job at explaining things and, again, looking deeper into the meaning and the timeline of different things, which was nice. I'm glad. Again, he took the time and he made a well-researched, well-thought-out and well-explained video. I'm also glad to know that he's, you know, continuing to cover FNAF. Not that, you know, my opinions, like you still have to cover FNAF as the definitive one. I'm just happy to see that, you know, he'll still be around, he'll still be talking about FNAF because I feel like, you know, if Matt Pad left, again, I'm not trying to force him to stay or anything. It just, it really would not be FNAF anymore. Matt has had a huge impact on FNAF and arguably has been one of the most important people in the community nowadays and one of the most important people to boost up the franchise all those years ago. And again, it's really nice how I put this video together. It's really nice how it turned out. So that's gonna be it. Again, a fantastic video. A really, really, really well-made video. Matt, again, thank you so much for putting so much time and effort and research and explanation into this video. It's really, really helpful. So that's gonna be it. Thanks guys for watching and I'll see you all on the flip side, hopefully with a more cheerful video coming soon. Bye.