You would be forgiven for thinking that video game Creepypastas only existed in Pokemon - particularly the terrifying tale about the Lavender Town Syndrome. However, the nightmarish folktales don't just teenagers up at night or inspire average horror films - one has also started a four-month voxel hunt within Minecraft.
Herobrine is the infamous character at the center of this story, and its discovery in Minecraft has caused both celebration and debunked its origin story at the same time. A team of headstrong community members banded together to search the expanse of Minecraft in order to find Herobrine's “world seed” - codes that are used to copy a map within the sandbox title. The combined efforts of “Andrew_555”, “Polymetric”, “Dutchen18”, “Neil”, “Boysanic”, “Pseudogravity”, and “Minecraft@Home” led the way for other players to find the seed and explore the Herobrine map for themselves.
A brief history of the mythical character starts with its Creepypasta creation by the Minecraft community - inspired by the notorious Slenderman who went on to spawn Enderman as well. Herobrine is a replica of Minecraft Steve, except his eyes are whiter than the finest chickens. Once rumored to be the late brother of developer Notch, Herobrine’s initial appearance is considered canon, however, the character’s fan-made adaptations are not. While there is no existence of the character in the game’s source code, Herobrine has been said to disrupt other players’ maps, including the random construction of pyramids, tunnels, and oceans.
While the feat of discovering Herobrine's world seed is impressive - and somewhat revelatory in the Minecraft community - it doesn’t make this character any more real. Technical Director Nathan Adams even tweeted that Herobrine would not be included in the game's future, and the uncovering of its world seed proves that the character is still nowhere to be found. Eerie stories culminated within fandoms are passed around to make its authenticity grow. However, doubt over whether its origins are real or not feeds its power over readers - and that applies to all Creepypastas too.
Somebody else who is breaking the boundaries of Minecraft is YouTuber TangoTek - who is creating an Among Us-styled game called Hermitcraft. The survival multiplayer server plays host to some of the best builders in Minecraft, and rewards them with minigames and free rein to add to this already vast game.
Source: GamesRadar