Herobrine

Story: So Herobrine is a mythical being in the world of Minecraft. So, basically in the early development stages of Minecraft, Notch, who was the creator of Minecraft, would put in the developer logs, like removed Herobrine. And the story that was eventually developed around that very innocuous term, was that um Notch had a brother who died at some point in development who played the game, and his brothers soul became trapped in the game, and essentially began haunting players by attacking them.and the avatar of the character, herobrine, was like the default character, Steve, but without pupils in his eyes just like white in his eyes. And he was basically invincible, and could set you on fire, and just do very awful things to you. And multiple times during the beta development cycle, notch would put in removed Herobrine, and for the young kids who played the game who knew that story, we were always like: [in a quiet yell] ‘Oh my god! Hes back! He came back. Like what the fuck.’ and we would always be really freaked out, because the devoloper was confirming that herobrine was a real thing, and it wasnt just a bunch of kids, it was also like the developer of the game that was talking about it.

Context: I was told this story by the informant in person, and recorded them so that I could better transcribe later on.

Thoughts: The informant said that they loved telling this story, as it helped them to remember some great times with their friends playing Minecraft. They think the story stuck in their head so much because it is the only ghost story that they ever genuinely believed in.

Analysis: I remember the Herobrine legend – me and my friends also were also terrified of a potential encounter with him. I know this folklore was more widespread, but it was crazy meeting someone who grew up on the opposite side of the country talk about it, especially with the developer log detail which I had never heard before.