A Popgoes Apology

Hello all.

I’ve been wondering what to do about this for a while. I resolved that I needed to make it public, but not sure how I should have done it.

An Apology

I have to apologise to Popgoes over this whole situation.

I had heard and seen he had reneged on some plot points in the Popgoes plot, and I got drawn into several individual conversations that made the differences seem a lot larger than they were.

I am sorry if you felt hurt, that was not my intention. My sole motive was to pre-warn users of the lore we were following, and to keep the page up at the time, under the impression that you had made the lore unintelligible post-launch. While things turned frosty between us, and to this day is severely poisoned, know that I never did any of this to attack you personally. I don’t do that rivalry nonsense.

The lore is still not good after the changes. Blackrabbit killing Fritz instead of Simon makes no sense visually, having to get rid of strings due to him being a “witness”, Blackrabbit leaving the restaurant to become a haunted cloud of dust, those plot points are not good, and nor are the others I have heard from previous iterations, or the lore planned for Popgoes 2.

But, I do apologise. I had jumped the gun, and I would like you to know I didn’t do so to attack you at all, but to try to find some sort of reason to keep the page up, as I simply couldn’t keep it up with the changes I was told about, of which were greatly exaggerated.

An Explanation

Before the Announcement

Way back in the beginning, I had met Popgoes in Ratchat. It is an alternate skype chat to Freddit chat. The two chats are rivals, or factions in a sense. Some users span both chats, but there is still bad blood between the two. Ratchat is basically the conglomeration of banned/disgruntled Freddit Skype chat users, and their fans.

I was banned from the Freddit chat during the first Popgoes incident. After which, I wrote an article on FNaFLore, exposing the Freddit Skype chat administrators, clearing Popgoes’ name and further exposing their disgusting plans for PopgoesPizza.com.

After we all stood down and took down our respective articles and blackmail threats, things seemed to go well for some time.

I was then active in a second Popgoes situation, this time with the mod team. I had said I would expose their false banning of Popgoes. During this time, the MemeMachine hacking incident happened. I helped the mods to shut down the subreddit, and from there, me and Invaderzz had civil discussions, leading to Popgoes being unbanned, and the article being archived.

From there, Phisnom got furious at Basetown, and resolved to make him step down. After a few attempts in private, the community weighed in. We had no idea why it happened, but it seemed that the stars were somehow aligned. After an article on Basetown, he stepped down. This is where the story really starts.

During the investigation and quote gathering of Basetown, I learned I was to be a moderator of /r/FazCo. it was exciting, and though I was certain the subreddit would flop, I must admit, I got a bit giddy from it. So much so, that I told someone I was working with, Wholigan, the mod lineup.

Apparently, for reasons that have still not been made clear to me, Wholigan was not to be trusted. So, Popgoes removed me from the lineup and kicked me from Ratchat. This is where things really started to break down, and would only continue to break down.

After some thinking, I decided to withdraw from all skype chats, and create the FNaFLore Skype chat, free from “all the faction bullshit” of the other chats. I asked Popgoes not to re-add me.

Things seemed to at least be amicable between me and Popgoes from there. I kept posting teasers, and then release happened. Then, I started to disagree with how he spoiled his own lore.

Things got frostier the more I brought up the point. Then things got a bit snarky between us. After saying he was leaking the lore, he claimed I hadn’t played the game or bothered to investigate the lore as I got some points wrong, and didn’t know others. This was true, and I fired back, saying I was too busy dissecting Emil’s lore, which had been a fun challenge due to it’s obscurity.

Then, Phisnom pointed out he had changed the lore. There was a disagreement over Purple Guy, in which Popgoes saw him as an alchemist, while Phisnom saw him differently. As there were more apparent discrepancies in the lore (later determined to be overblown), I decided to invoke Death of the Author to follow Phisnom’s original rewrite of the lore, rather than Popgoes’ post-launch rewrite.

Shortly after, due to the rising snark exchange, I was blocked from /r/popgoes. I can clearly say his blocking me on the Popgoes reddit was not the reason for my decisions, of which I have proof via the FNaFLore Skype chat. But I can’t deny it may have played a part in the swiftness of the announcement that followed.

The Announcement

I determined that, if I were to invoke this trope in relation to the lore, I’d have to do it pre-launch. Get all the drama out of the way, and be done with it. so, I wrote up This post.

The reaction was very mixed, and led to me retracting that I’d 100% follow this, and gave the community the option to either have the site go up as per Phisnom’s launch-day lore, or not go up at all over the perceived changes post-launch.

The reaction was fairly stunning, by all account. Split right down the middle. For a long time, it was in the “delete” favour, but since has “”swung”” back to “Put up the modified version”.

I’m still not sure how to read this. Perhaps some just want to see any content. Perhaps like with the Skype community, it’s a drawing of faction lines. I would love to know the motives of some of these people. It would be interesting to pinpoint them.

But, it was clear that this was far too divisive, so I opted to cancel the Popgoes page. To this, I made another post.

After the Announcement

After the announcements, there was a lot of back and forth, which I eventually just stopped responding to. I found it harder and harder to argue, and I began to reflect as to why. Over the next day, it had dawned on me that I had simply jumped in on what I thought was a big issue, but was actually just amplified by the feelings and thoughts of those around me, which in turn had made the issue a lot bigger in my own mind. my initial reaction was, I can’t really speak out about this. let it die down. People will forget about it. But, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to tackle this head on. This is my mistake and responsibility, and I got caught up in it all.

For the past 10 days, I’ve mostly been thinking and unwinding, as well as busying myself with my actual web design job in real life. I stopped working on Candy’s, and instead unwound with some games, just trying to collect my thoughts.

During that time, I’ve been writing this up, subheading by subheading. It’s taken a while, and it’s taken a lot to push through with this. Still, it’s something I had to do.

Regarding Other Fangames/FNaF

I feel I need to keep this section separate. I want fangame creators, as well as Scott himself if he knows of this situation, to know that this does not affect them in any way, shape or form.

I had invoked The Death of The Author as there was a clear choice presented to me, from two people, both with reasonable rights to the lore. I had simply decided to follow Phisnom’s, as it made the most sense, and still does. He practically rewrote the lore to it’s current form.

There was a question to be had. Who do I listen to? The developer who had worked on the project from the start who’s lore was completely reworked, or the programmer who came in and reworked the story to a massive degree? Who has the greater claim, when the current story is so much different to the previous story?

In any other case, where there is no conflict or potential choice of lore whatsoever, I would never decide to invoke this trope. I would either try to roll with it, or drop it completely. This single situation is unique, in that the lore was rewritten for launch, then undoubtedly tweaked post-launch.

FNaFLore does not claim it will rewrite other fangame/FNaF lore for it’s own viewpoint, which has been something others have mistaken our actions for. At the time, we were choosing a lore interpretation from the two developers, as the main lore seemed to have gone off the rails post-launch. The previous “Death of the Author” trope was being used at the time for this new rewritten lore, favouring the lore in place at launch, being held up by the programmer who had a massive hand in changing the older lore – of which would not be featured if left unchanged.

2015 Popgoes lore would have excluded it from FNaFLore completely, as we wish to only feature coherent and well-written lore. We’re a lore site, we want to promote good and interesting lore. This is why, while I’d love to feature some of them, fangames like The Return to Freddy’s and Five Nights at Treasure Island will likely never be featured. If the Popgoes lore had not been changed by Phisnom, it would have become one of the games added to that list.

Regarding the Current Fandoors

The Popgoes fandoor will be replaced. I’m currently looking for a replacement. This has also affected Candy’s door. I’m terribly sorry, but this has fatigued me a lot. I get really invested in clean and clear plans, and this whole situation throwing it off course has drained my motivation greatly.

I’m delaying it by a fortnight. I do so predicting a potential backlash to this article from people in favour of Popgoes or against the decision of this site. Though I am trying to ensure this causes no drama, no doubt, drama will happen somehow. Like life, drama just finds a way. I can only hope to cull as much of it as I can, to ensure that this does not blow up any further.

Regarding the Popgoes Fandoor

I still want to do the Popgoes subsite. As I’ve said, I’ve got so much material to use. I have renders for the characters, I have all of the phone calls thanks to the diligent decompile team, the site is already laid out and I have scraped a fair few beta materials. But, the Popgoes situation is poisonous and drama-inducing to FNaFLore right now. For me personally, it’s ruined the charm of the game itself, as well as that amazing Fansong by GoMotion and Shadrow (I highly recommend it!). Not only that, but it has divided the community, which I’ll comment on later. I’m a guy who will cop to his mistakes, and I feel everything needs to settle before I even touch it again, if I ever do finish that subsite.

If I ever do complete this subsite though, it will be treated differently to the others.

Firstly, beside adding the image to the Fangame door section, I won’t advertise it whatsoever. I believe Popgoes doesn’t want it up at all, so I will meet him halfway and make sure it has no buzz at all, so to not promote the site. That said, I still hold my right to cover any game I wish under fair use. If he wants, I’ll redirect all those pages to the homepage so Reddit cannot directly link to them. Much like this opinion blog.

Secondly, it will not be out soon. If I do it, we’re talking a timeframe from a few months, to a year or more. This situation has poisoned anything that’d be behind that door, so I need to keep it down until I can not only approach it more objectively (even if the lore is mostly explained), but also so the community can settle down, and all the bad blood at least has a chance to drain.

Regarding Those Who Are Sick of This Shit

I don’t know what more I can do for you all.

To those claiming I’m doing this for the site traffic, I have posted this on my site with a Reddit redirect. It can’t be linked to from Reddit generate traffic.

To those claiming I’m doing this for the drama, I honestly have more important things to do. But morally, I have to post this. I could be making the new section, finishing the Candy subsite, finishing the various maps I’ve left unfinished etc, but this needs addressing.

To those claiming this will mean this apology will be ignored, I have put it on my site in post form, which is more permanent than a piddly Reddit thread. This means that it’ll get more publicity than any Reddit thread’s lifelong view count. I’m not shying away from this. I did this for Basetown, and because it wasn’t a Reddit thread and did not sink, it helped to solve that situation in a day. Here, it will stay up for the duration of this site’s lifespan.

Final Thoughts

Believe it or not, I’m no Youtuber or video game developer. I’m still barely used to my words having any weight. I’ve never been in a position where my words are overblown, where my opinion holds more weight in a community than the next person. It’s been an odd ride to be on, and I’m still learning to be more careful in this role.

To release this itself, it’s going to be interesting, as well as somewhat nerve-wracking. I like being totally open, so I won’t mince words. I’ve had a lot of good talks with Popgoes, but he has a reputation – particularly with those he dislikes or disagrees with. Hell, the moderation of the subreddit were hesitant to unban him due to supposed fears over him. I have no idea how this could go, but frankly, I feel that I had to say this ethically, and to be honest, there’s hardly anything that could be said of me badly, that I’ve not already said myself. Still, puts you on edge.

I’ve written this up, and it needs to go out. It has to. I’m owning up to this mistake, and though I’m sure I’ll make more (though will try to avoid them), I’ll always own up to and apologise for them.

Kizzycocoa – Owner and designer of FNaFLore.com