Minecraft Cultural Impact

Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit played a significant role in popularising Minecraft.[226]  Research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos.[227]  In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs.[228]  Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over 4 million Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded.[229]  Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a gaming video company that owns a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube.[228] The Yogscast is a British organisation that regularly produces Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at MineCon 2011 had the highest attendance.[228] [230]  Other well known YouTube personnel include Jordan Maron, who has created many Minecraft parodies, including "Minecraft Style", a parody of the internationally successful single "Gangnam Style" by South Korean rapper PSY.[231]  Herobrine is a major community icon of Minecraft, who first appeared as a single image on 4chan's /v/ board. According to rumours, Herobrine appears in players' worlds and builds strange constructions.[232]  However, Mojang has confirmed that Herobrine has never existed in Minecraft, and there are no plans to add Herobrine.[233]

Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as RuneScape,[citation needed]  Torchlight II, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, and FTL: Faster Than Light.[234] [235]  It was also referenced by electronic music artist deadmau5 in his performances.[236]  A simulation of the game was featured in Lady Gaga's "G.U.Y." music video.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-240" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px;font-weight:normal;">[237]  The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn", the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-241" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px;font-weight:normal;">[238]  "Luca$", the seventeenth episode of the 25th season of the animated sitcom The Simpsons was inspired by Minecraft; Persson responded by tweeting "I'm not sure how I feel about it."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-242" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px;font-weight:normal;">[239]