Real Death in Online Game Forum Communities

[prfsnl_gmr]

The way these programs work is that they send you an email once every month or so, and you click on a link to confirm that you're still alive. If you fail to click on that link, an email goes out to your contact list.

That's one of the most ridiculous "programs" I've heard of.

"For a fee we want all of your email contact data, annoy you once a month, and may perhaps send an email blast to everyone you know falsely stating you died".

Who would want that, and who would want to break the news with an email?

Fw: Your friend Chuck is dead, do not reply.

I agree. This sounds like a ridiculous service, and I wish that I had invented it.

In any event, when I die, I expect each of you to send one game to me so that I can be buried with it like an Egyptian pharoah (and gaze upon - but not play - my marvelous video game collection from the afterlife).

If one of you dies, I will go to a street corner in a shady part of town and "pour out some games for ya." By that, I mean that I will fill a small brown paper bag with Gameboy games, place one into a Gameboy, and say "This is for me." I will then pour the remaining games on the pavement, and say "...and this is for my dead homies" (before scrambling to place all of the precious, precious cartridges back into the bag and driving away as fast as I can).

[Stark]

I read that article as well and was curious as to how I would handle that. I'm sure my wife wouldn't bother with informing anyone online, unless I explicitly told her to do so.

EDIT: After clicking on the Passing the Retro on thread and seeing how much older my daughter looks now, I think it is time to give her a Gameboy and take another pic!

[J T]

Fw: Your friend Chuck is dead, do not reply.

Two weeks later:

"Subject: Please rate your experience with DeathInformant.com"

[Michi]

Damn it. I don't want to think about death now. It's depressing.

And I don't know what I'd do if I suddenly kicked the bucket. I guess I'd have to write up a word document, title it "WILL" and hope at some point someone got on my computer and read any instructions I leave them.

"....Oh, and could someone please log on to racketboy.com and inform them that they won't be receiving any more of Michi's bizarre movie write-ups? Thanks so much."

[elmagicochrisg]

Your friend Chuck is dead, do not reply.

Even better: "You think this is a PM from your friend?"

"NOPE, Chuck Testa..."

[cookie monster]

I am pretty sure foxhound will tell you guys if i drop dead after he carries out my last wishes on my disposal which will entail throwing me in a ditch in the woods.
Yes i am eco freindly . My games will go to him as restitustion for putting up with me. I think if one of us should pass away it would be nice to do a memorial thread for them or a memorial benefit auction for there family.

[Key-Glyph]

In any event, when I die, I expect each of you to send one game to me so that I can be buried with it like an Egyptian pharoah (and gaze upon - but not play - my marvelous video game collection from the afterlife).

On a serious note, I have thought of this. One of my best friends is someone I met on a forum ages ago, and even back then when we were kids we made sure that our parents knew to sign onto AOL and relay the news in the event of a tragedy.

I haven't thought much about what would happen if I died. I know that my husband would want to tie up loose ends for me, but... how emotionally ready would he be for such a thing? I'd like to think we'd all forgive the spouses/partners/family members of our online friends if they couldn't bear to announce the news, even if our friend's disappearance would then remain a mystery to us forever. I work at a library, and when a co-worker's husband died, it took her months and months before she was ready to delete his library record and remove him from the database. That kind of finality is unbelievably hard.

I have a policy of trying to tell everyone I love and appreciate them when it comes to me. This makes me an annoying mushy-gushy type at times, but it is so much more important to me to have said these things and made people a little queasy at the time than to have held back from embarrassment and wind up inevitably wondering, did they know?

One of my co-workers died in a horrible car accident last January. She had no kids, no spouse, no relatives in the area, no will. For days we scrambled to come to grips with the loss, and realized how much like a family our workplace felt. We were asking and worrying about her apartment, and who was going to manage her beloved possessions with respect, and what was anyone to do about a service, and had anyone claimed her body yet, and what would she have wanted from us? And did she know how much we cared about her?

I'd written her a note the year before, telling her how much I enjoyed her as a person. So at least I found comfort in that -- that she knew we were friends.

[shmuk]

I agree. This sounds like a ridiculous service, and I wish that I had invented it.

In any event, when I die, I expect each of you to send one game to me so that I can be buried with it like an Egyptian pharoah (and gaze upon - but not play - my marvelous video game collection from the afterlife).

Yeah I always wondered what to do with my collection when I die... Burying them seems like such a waste, so I'd give them to a friend who can appreciate them.