Dealing with real-life tragedy in an online world
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Jan 15th 2008 at 11:30AM
Recently, the guild All Good Things on Kargath lost one of their longtime players. Feelan, one of their guild's holy priests, passed away from cancer in early December -- shortly after he was finally able to meet his online friends. Now the guildmates are wondering what they can do to remember their friend in-game. Kesryth suggests that Blizzard add Feelan's character to one of the floating islands in Nagrand, where he can stand and watch the sunset in his favorite zone.
As unlikely as that sounds, Blizzard has done almost exactly the same thing before. The NPC Caylee Dak, on the Aldor Rise, memorializes a member of the guild "Boulderfist Heroes" who died of cancer. Caylee wears the exact same gear that she had when Dak (the player behind the avatar) passed away. Her faithful pet stands by her side. Caylee is even the ending point of a quest for Alliance players to deliver her a poem about death.
Players have made their own memorials to lost friends. An Alliance guild walked a dead guildmate's character (played by his wife) to one of the towers in Hillsbrad, where he enjoyed to PvP. A score of Chinese gamers held a hilltop service for a girl who died from ... uh, apparently playing too much WoW. Blizzard memorialized one of its own at the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior in the Barrens. And, of course, there's the infamous funeral-crashing of Serenity Now on Illidan.
It's tough to figure out how to deal with death on the internet. On one hand, people can form deep attachments in community games such as WoW. But on the other hand, there's a strong contingent of idiots on the forums posting stuff like "lol wut did he drop?" whenever someone on a server dies. What do you think is the appropriate way to handle the death of a fellow player?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Guilds, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
BadKarma Mar 25th 2008 10:56PM
Death itself is awful, and in life it plays a big part, just as moving school, leaving a job, or any other event that can be credit as a big change. Whilst we do mourn and will reminisce, it shows the resilence of human nature that we can laugh at it, (refering to the 'what did he drop' comment), I personally always feel no matter what beliefs we hold, we know in our hearts whether we acknowledge it or not, death is not the end of us and where happy for people to past over, as we return to our nature form, which is the very thing that creates life in the first place.
Acasha Apr 3rd 2008 2:43PM
I feel It is NOT unreasonable, overwhelming, NOR morbid, to hope for "1" single Memorial placed somewhere in game to the fallen chars. It would take extremely little coding. And mean the world to so many.
Paul Jan 15th 2008 11:43AM
IMO It should be a subtle gesture trying to publish things on the foruma s you pointed out is not going to work because of the plethora of idiots that inhabit the WoW forums. I think an in game small service may be appropiate if you were close to the person especially if you knew them in real life or met before. As for a permanent in game thing, I understand the desire for such a thing but keep in mind that 9 million people play WoW. With 9 million people a lot can happen and we will lose people that we may be close to in the game. But to do somethign special every time something tragic happens would be a lot on blizzard. Although maybe a memorial zone that people can go to and see a character representation of the fallen...or maybe Blizzard can possible consider making an in game monument to all the fallen...even possibly put their names on it if you right click it you can read it.
Greg Jan 15th 2008 2:55PM
I think blizzard could easily build a way for players to be memorialized in game and make money at the same time. There are, after all, countless cemeteries in Azeroth. Why couldn't Blizzard offer a service where a toon could be "buried" in a cemetery. Clicking on a grave marker could pop up a list of characters buried in that grave. Selecting one of the names could display a floating ghostly figure of the toon (pet optional) wearing the equipment in which he was buried. A dialog could display selected information like date of death, level, class, guild, rank. The service could require a death certificate to eliminate shenanigans. The toon's name could be reserved so it couldn't be reused. It could even be made part of the in-game event of Lunar New Year when fallen heroes are honored.
Sean Riley Jan 15th 2008 4:45PM
Greg's suggestion seems... surprisingly plausible to me. The real problems would all be social/misuse issues, not technical ones. It would be simple to automate.
It's... really a great suggestion. Full marks.
Aticus Jan 15th 2008 5:12PM
I think that is a great idea. I'm not sure about Orgimmar but there are numerous rooms in the Stormwind Keep that are empty. You can make one of those rooms a memorial room where you can read books with a character picture (such as the character select screen) and a brief message. Real name (if wanted), character name, DoB/DoD, and how he or she died. I'll comment more on my blog tonight.
-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com
Taeo Jan 15th 2008 6:12PM
I'll second that. I think that is a wonderful idea Greg. It's very unobtrusive to other players but still serves as a very sentimental memorial.
As someone who has lost two guild mates in three years I would fully support a feature like this.
My guild honored our fallen friends by holding an in game memorial service. We created a package to their families with messages from many members of the guild and several screen shots taken from the game. We delivered one package in person. The family was understandably confused at first but when they understood everyone cried. This shot still pulls on the old heartstrings.
http://www.momentummediaservices.com/taeo/vigilkat.jpg
http://www.momentummediaservices.com/taeo/vigilmarch.jpg
Thijz Jan 16th 2008 1:55PM
Kudo's for Greg's idea! 'Nuff said.
Chroptus Jan 15th 2008 11:45AM
There isnt much that can be done. Only if some of the players knew him in real life, probably show his family how the members feel. Otherwise there are those ingame funerals.
And to comment "lol wut did he drop?". Personally i think people should think more before they post in such threads, or just be quiet. Its the most stupid thing people ever can do, even tho its just a game.
JPN Jan 15th 2008 11:57AM
I would say there are much more stupid things people could do. You know, like kill each other. In real life.
George M. Jan 15th 2008 11:56AM
Given the shear volume of quests, NPC's and plot points in the WoW, memorializing our dead and fallen in the Virtual World is a great way to generate authentic charater names.
Dotixi Jan 15th 2008 11:58AM
I don't want to be a jerk about people dying who play WoW, but not every person needs to be memorized by an in game NPC or shrine.
IDK...
Sedair Jan 15th 2008 12:00PM
Does anyone reading this know if this person also had a mage named Loradan? We lost a guild member around the same time and from cancer was wondering if it was the same person.
Jeccius Jan 15th 2008 12:10PM
A few months ago a group of guys from a local computer shop suffered a similar thing; they ran a horde guild on Bloodmaw which I had a few quick instances with and one of their main players whom we all got on with died from a sudden embolism aged 31.
All they do now is carry on expanding the guild to remember his name; it did knock the wind out of them for a long while though.
Unfortunately I've played a few online games in the past and have run into the opposite of this article. One Counterstrike clan's founder decided after alot of hassle to abandon the clan (basically they had a guts-full of him and booted him) and a few weeks later on the forum someone claiming to be his neighbour signed up onto their forum and left a message saying he'd died in a car crash. Alot of the clan members were impressionable teenagers and were basically crying for this guy, until one of the forum admins discovered that the poster's ip address was the same, and it was him taking the piss. Slight outrage occured.
I take it we don't realise how close we get as an online community until reality kicks us in the nether region with a serious incident, and I guess after something like this we tend to appreciate the other gamers when we log back in again.
theremover Jan 15th 2008 12:11PM
In my opinion, not everything from real life should be brought into the game. Most of us play this thing to have fun and get away from real life for a couple hours a day. People who die should be honored by their friends and things like they always have been. I certainly don't want to be questing and suddenly find some memorial to some stranger that was recently added.
It's also one of those open up the flood gates kind of actions they could take. I mean surely among the millions of subscribers, more than one death MAY occur each year... it just doesn't seem like a wise thing to get into.
theremover Jan 15th 2008 12:11PM
In my opinion, not everything from real life should be brought into the game. Most of us play this thing to have fun and get away from real life for a couple hours a day. People who die should be honored by their friends and things like they always have been. I certainly don't want to be questing and suddenly find some memorial to some stranger that was recently added.
It's also one of those open up the flood gates kind of actions they could take. I mean surely among the millions of subscribers, more than one death MAY occur each year... it just doesn't seem like a wise thing to get into.
digitalxdragon Jan 15th 2008 2:10PM
Reading this couldn't help but remind me of the tragic events of a real in game funeral on the Illidan realm that was ruined by the guild Serenity Now...
Rocklifter Jan 15th 2008 1:58PM
It's too much to imagine Blizzard coding in memorials to fallen comrades for each server, too many people, too much coding, overall. However, I can imagine it'd be possible to implement some sort of memorial tablet, owned by a guild, and store-able in the guild bank, to memorialize the fallen within a guild. Guilds are communities, and though fluid in nature, many are long-lived and composed of people who truly care about one another. It's be nice to be able to show some respect in-guild for those who have passed away.
I used to be an immortal on a MUD and we had to deal with this issue a couple of times. MUDs are much more open in their coding, fewer people playing certainly than in WoW. This made it easy to work with the tribe of the fallen person to design an in-game memorial. We had a fountain for one member who dies, and a food item for another. There were discussions at the implementor level about dead people taking over the MUD eventually, but of course, these events were few and far between. I know that memorializing these people in-game was helpful to those of us still playing. It helps to remember that no matter how dweeby, there's a real person typing behind that toon.
MechChef Jan 15th 2008 2:39PM
I'm reminded of the incidents on PVP servers where a funeral/wedding is crashed by a rampaging mob.
darian Jan 15th 2008 2:29PM
Personally, were I to die tomorrow and reports of my untimely demise were received by my guildies, I'd be disappointed if they held an in-game funeral.
Don't get me wrong, the gesture is noble, but it would be missing the point of who I was, and what I stood for.
By their nature funerals are a break from the norm. People take off from their jobs, their routines, their notions that life is predictable and come together to remember someone important to them. Logging on to WoW like you do every day and completing the "Memorialize Guild Member" quest is almost insulting. If you really want to make me smile from on high, or from down below, you're going to have to step out of your comfort zone.
If there was an in-game funeral for me, I'd honestly hope a guild like Serenity Now would come along and crash it.