Deaths of gamers leave their online lives in limbo

[oberliner]

NEW YORK - When Jerald Spangenberg collapsed and died in the middle of a quest in an online game, his daughter embarked on a quest of her own: to let her father's gaming friends know that he hadn't just decided to desert them.

It wasn't easy, because she didn't have her father's "World of Warcraft" password and the game's publisher couldn't help her. Eventually, Melissa Allen Spangenberg reached her father's friends by asking around online for the "guild" he belonged to.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090314/ap_on_hi_te/tec_death_online


Odd story.

[Posteritatis]

1. Not odd at all

The guildmates were likely his friends as well. I don't see it as any different than sending word back home if someone moves to another town and gets hit by a bus a few months later or something.

[Realityhack]

2. I agree.

Online friendships are still friendships.

[oberliner]

8. Interesting, not odd

My apologies for using that term - it's not what I meant.

[JanMichael]

3. There was a prolific, well liked DUer 8 years ago...OlaftheWhite

who wrote that he had to have some type of brain surgery...a tumor maybe...can't remember. He just never posted again-- and no relatives signed on to let us know.

Very sad; I assume he passed away.

[uppityperson]

4. I've told MrUP to tell you all in case. Friendships online happen

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Online friendships do happen, and they matter a lot...

It's always smart to have someone who can put the word out if you're ill or worse...

I've got that set up, and so do several of my friends.

You just never know, dammit.

[Autumn Colors]

6. Online friendships sometimes become "in real life" ones

This isn't odd AT ALL. For about 4 years now, I've been frequenting the message boards section of a website based around a "machinima" series. Machinima is when people make films using video games and then adding voice-overs to them. Anyhow, the majority of the population of that site are video-gamers, but the message boards section has threads for all subjects ... movies, music, politics, cars, sports, etc. I was dragged to that site by a friend from another message board who wanted me to watch this machinima series ... I ended up staying for the message board community.

Long story short .... I became friends with a number of people on there, many of whom also associate with each other through gaming sites like World of Warcraft or X-Box Live .... I was also in the tail-end of my marriage. When I got divorced, one of those online friends became an online boyfriend and a year after that, he moved from the S.F. Bay area to Connecticut and we've been living together for about a year and a half.

I really hate it when people denigrate online friendships as not being anything "real".

We have had serious events in that online community and have had site members' relatives come onto the member's account to let us know about an accident or a death.

So no ... that story isn't odd at all.

[oberliner]

7. I meant interesting, not odd

No offense intended.

Thank you for your insights.

[Motown_Johnny]

9. i had a friend from a MMORPG die a few years ago, but his wife also played

so everyone found out rather quickly

there are ways to do it.


VN Boards is a gaming message board, she could have posted there and I have no doubt it would have been able to find it's way to her father's friends. There is also a strong possibility that if she just went through the bookmarks in his browser there would be some message board he frequented.

MMORPG gamers can become very close and we tend to watch out for each other.

The only odd part of the story is that the poor girl/woman didn't know where to turn for help.