Take for instance a conversation I had recently with a young teenager about the modern computer game of Minecraft.
Now, bearing in mind I've never played a single computer or video game in my life, trying to understand the minutiae of Minecraft is no small challenge, especially when its being explained without the use of a computer.
I've discovered many things about this game, which one day will be a vintage memory for today's grown generation and a must-have on Ebay in 2038!
For me one of the most peculiar facets of the game is the concept of ... wait for it .... Creepypasta.
Creepypasta, as far as I understand it, is a collective noun describing various nefarious beings that can appear from time to time. In other words, bad dudes who you don't wanna mess with on account of their scariness.
Minecraft creepypasta appears to focus on three main characters [apologies for any mistakes here]:
Herobrine: an almost god-like figure
Error 303: an elusive ghost-like creature
The Null: a dark being living in the shadows
The most interesting element of Creepypasta for me however is the seepage of urban legends into it. In particular, according to my source, Slenderman is a Creepypasta.
Slenderman is one of those urban youth crazes like Killer Clowns which bob up from the hormonal teenage tumult from time to time. Getting fat on success, Slenderman has even got his own movie this year.
If I was to suggest a new Creepypasta then it would be the Judderman, a spiky goblin who appeared in a Metz, a cold beer [?] TV advert years ago. He flickered behind the nordic forest's trees making him even more sinister. A creepy jagged woodland sprite!
Which urban legend would you put forward to the Creepypasta recruitment committee?
I think youtube has a way of creating this phenomenon,my personal favourite thing to view on the tube is ufo videos now I would say 60% of these are fake, such as the sounds of horns/trumpets in remote areas suggesting that they're extraterrestrial, but looking at the comments people believe in this stuff then they share that with friends and it becomes the stuff of local legend or creepy pasta! -Mark J Southcoast Base
ReplyDeleteUfology eh Mark. When visiting Crosby beach near Liverpool a few years ago resulted in hundreds of people seeing a group of very strange lights in the sky. Bill B was with me and the Missus too. I'm still not sure what it was! Its a fascinating idea that there are UFO's zooming round the heavans and I suppose them appearing on youtube is just an extension of mags like the Fortean Times and even sci-fi novels, pulps and films eh?
DeleteNogbad the Bad?
ReplyDeleteThat would be creepy gnogcci Andy! Ha ha is he the baddestest of all? Badder than gargemel?
ReplyDeleteCreepypasta, as far as I'm aware, are just short scary stories that are generally presented with a 'true story' veneer.
ReplyDeletefew have leaked over to other media... one of my favorites, about guys exploring a cave, was recently made into a movie.
Happily, in all the hours I've spent playing Minecraft I've never run into those fellows... the Creepers and Endermen are plenty crepy enough.
So does that make the Blair Witch project movie creepypasta KnobGobbler? What's the name of the film about the cave?
DeleteThe movie is 'Living Dark: The Story of Ted the Caver'. I thought it was newer but it's from 2013. It's based on the 'Ted the Caver' creepypasta.
DeleteThanks KnobG. Will check it out.
DeleteIts testament to the degree with which young people are divorced from reality now, that they will buy into a cgi youtube video that some keyboard warrior has created out of boredom and insist that it is real. Slenderman and Creepypasta memes have been floating around for some time now, but like everything else deemed 'popular' they are being commodified into saleable products. Its essentially a video version of the old urban myths we told each other around campfires and at late night parties about the hitchhiker at the edge of the road.. Total bunk, like 95% of the rubbish that occurs on youtube, but some instances have a habit of gaining momentum and becoming a definite 'thing'. Hence the Slenderman movie. As far as games, you really should dip a toe into the video games field Woodsy, theres bound to be something there to interest you!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting Bill. You have woven two tricky modern concepts into the same respose: creepypasta and memes, the latter I still fail to grasp exactly what it is. For some reason I think its a visual pun that's circulating online. the rise of these things will no doubt form the basis of PhD's and add new topical yoof words to the Oxford Dictionary. I may sound cynical but I'm not. I'm just struggling to understand a totally virtual world in which millions of kids exist now. I suppose for my own generation, the bay boomers, we were lost in other media like books, comics and LP's. It amazes me that Stan Lee for instance lived long enough to see youth culture shft from comics to an online life. Still, his creations managed to remain relevant to the last, especially with young people whi still like his superheroes.
DeleteI'm off to an Italian rsetaurant tonight for a bowl of streaky pasta. Does that count as gaming?