{"id":5848,"date":"2017-04-10T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/?p=5848"},"modified":"2019-08-31T14:48:08","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T18:48:08","slug":"sad-when-a-game-outlives-a-player-memorials-and-monuments-in-mmo-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/?p=5848","title":{"rendered":"‘Sad When a Game Outlives a Player’: Memorials and Monuments in MMO Gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDeath is difficult under any circumstance. The death of a friend you only knew via the internet is something that this generation is just learning how to deal with.\u201d \u2014 Matthew Miller, mmorpg.com<\/a>, 6\/25\/2013<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Games, gaming, and digital worlds affect lived realities. People meet through games. Long-lasting friendships develop. Often, these friendships grow without ever meeting in the physical world or hearing one another’s voice. This phenomenon, unheard of decades ago, is remarkably common today, and these digital relationships then have a great effect on gamers, online gamers especially so. Research suggests that individuals often identify closely with their digital identities, be it an avatar or a player character, but what happens then when something from the physical world \u201cupsets\u201d this digital identity, such as someone quitting the game, a conflict between friends, or even an unexpected death? What happens to someone\u2019s digital presence after their death? And how do other players, companies, and communities react to such tragedy?<\/p>\n

This essay explores these questions through Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) video games. In this genre of games, individuals take control of a player-created character (PC) and enter a persistent world populated by game developers with thousands of buildings, homes, non-player characters (NPCs), and monsters to fight. The environments within these worlds are diverse, from the varied high fantasy biomes in EverQuest<\/em>, to the Star Wars universe in The Old Republic<\/em>, or the Golden Age superhero-themed urban sprawl of City of Heroes<\/em>. While every MMO world is controlled in some part by the players, power ultimately lies with the company and developers who create, own, and manage the persistent game world.<\/p>\n

Monuments and memorials in physical space serve many purposes, including to mourn the randomness of death, for minority groups to make public statements, to recognize a community\u2019s deeply held values, and\/or to canonize fallen heroes. In her work on monuments in Lowell, Massachusetts<\/a>, public historian Martha Norkunas (2002) reminds us that monuments, specifically those emerging from a vernacular or local origin, represent public expressions of identity. Monuments can be constructed by any group who controls physical space and the meanings of these monuments shift over time, often diverging somewhat from the creators\u2019 original intent. Either way, monuments are one of the primary locators of public memory. In contrast, Marc Aug\u00e9\u2019s concept of \u201cnon-places\u201d, such as freeways or chain restaurants, are bereft of public memory and, in a way, a product of postmodernism that sharply contrasts with the embedded cultural meaning of monuments (pp. 45-47).<\/p>\n

Writing in Game Studies <\/em>about \u201cvirtual-world geography,\u201d Eric Hayot and Edward Wesp<\/a> (2009) considered this question of the \u201cnon-place\u201d as applied to the MMO game EverQuest<\/em>, ultimately concluding that while the gaming world shares much in common with non-places, it is still a \u201cplace\u201d because of the place-based culture produced by players. To them, the MMO world \u201cexpresses rather than evades\u201d the physical world in which we all live. This is clearly visible as players and companies affect the digital world to account for the physical, although few writers explore the role of monuments and commemoration in digital space (excepting Trevor Owens\u2019 exploration of the phenomenon in single-player games<\/a>). An exploration of this phenomenon could help further our understanding of the digital-physical divide and the formation of digital identity.<\/p>\n

\"Gary<\/a>
Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A defining example of (unintentional) digital commemoration in an MMO came after the death of Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons and Dragons<\/em>, in 2008. Gygax was a beloved figure by gamers and nerds worldwide, many of whom viewed him as a patron saint, so to speak, of the entire genre of fantasy-themed gaming. Gygax also played a role in the development of MMO game Dungeons and Dragons Online<\/em>\u00a0(DDO)<\/em>, primarily in an advisory capacity, but some special quests\u00a0were narrated\u00a0by Gygax<\/a> personally.\u00a0Two years after his death, rumors spread that Gygax\u2019s narrations were scheduled to be removed from the game as part of a general update. DDO<\/em> players took to the game\u2019s message boards and chat rooms to protest. One online comment<\/a>\u00a0read \u201cI cannot bear this change. You can remove the dice descriptions, you can nerf everything, you can change all the UI you want, but you cannot remove Gary Gygax\u2019s voice.\u201d The entire saga turned out to be a misunderstanding and Gygax\u2019s voiceovers still exist to this day, but the outrage proved that DDO <\/em>players cared deeply about Gygax’s continued DDO <\/em>presence well after his passing.<\/p>\n

Spontaneous Memorials<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Other examples of commemoration exist throughout virtually every MMO world. Most common amongst these are memorials for \u201clesser-known\u201d individuals who were simply part of the gaming community proper. A tragic circumstance or familial request leads to a massive outpouring of community support, and often the final result is a lasting memorial. As a quick aside, this is not meant to be an exhaustive list. Instead, this is an effort to document a few prime examples and to explore the meaning, purpose, and characteristics of such memorials.<\/p>\n

\"Sean<\/a>
Sean Smith, aka Vile Rat in Eve Online<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In-game community-run funerals for real-life people are relatively common in MMOs. A recent example is when\u00a0Final Fantasy XIV\u00a0<\/em>gathered in-game<\/a>\u00a0to quietly pay their respects to a fellow player whose health was failing. Another example \u2014 and likely the most well-known \u2014 is from\u00a0EVE\u00a0Online<\/em>\u00a0and the death of well-known player\u00a0Vile Rat (Sean Smith in \u201creal life\u201d)<\/a>. Smith was an employee of the US Foreign Service and one of four Americans who died in the infamous 2012 Benghazi attack on the US Consulate. Since,\u00a0EVE Online\u00a0<\/em>players have\u00a0renamed<\/a>\u00a0dozens of locales and held\u00a0memorials<\/a>\u00a0in Vile Rat\/Sean Smith\u2019s honor. Smith\u2019s\u00a0former in-game colleagues actually crossed into the \u201creal world\u201d to memorialize, holding a benefit for Smith\u2019s\u00a0family and ultimately raising\u00a0$127,000<\/a>\u00a0toward his children\u2019s\u00a0college fund.<\/p>\n

\"post-9562-13809743817-300x297\"<\/a>
Invitation for 2013 in-game memorial service for Goodman (Frank Campbell)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One memorial is unique in its spontaneous organization and long-term resilience \u2014 the Goodman Memorial on the Atlantic shard of\u00a0Ultima Online\u00a0(UO)<\/em>. Goodman, real name Frank Campbell, managed a\u00a0rune library<\/a>\u00a0in game that required a lot of upkeep, including regular building maintenance, \u201crent\u201d payment, and community relations, much like a \u201creal world\u201d library. Goodman\/Campbell tragically died on August 30, 2005.<\/p>\n

Goodman\u2019s\u00a0UO\u00a0<\/em>friends then embarked upon a digital historic preservation project. They\u00a0took over maintenance of the rune library and converted the roof into a memorial rose garden.\u00a0In the garden, players leave objects and sign books with their memories of Goodman\/Campbell\u2019s life. In addition, every year on August 30 (or thereabout), players meet on a nearby beach for an in-game memorial service to remember Goodman and others who have passed. The 2010 service is on\u00a0Youtube<\/a>. Over the 18 years of\u00a0UO\u2019s\u00a0existence<\/em>, many other players have passed away of course, so the community and company recognized this by maintaining an entire subforum<\/a>\u00a0dedicated to player memorials on the largest\u00a0UO\u00a0<\/em>community forum site Stratics.<\/p>\n

\"EQ2<\/a>
EQ2 players gather at Ribbitribbit’s home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another spontaneous example comes from\u00a0EverQuest II<\/em>\u00a0(EQ2)<\/em>\u00a0and the story of Ribbitribbit, a character played by a six year-old boy. The boy\u2019s mother posted on the\u00a0EQ2\u00a0<\/em>forums asking that the community help Ribbitribbit decorate his house. Her reasoning was that Ribbitribbit enjoyed the home decoration part of EQ2 <\/em>the most and, tragically, he honestly did not have much longer to live.<\/p>\n

Individuals from across multiple\u00a0EQ2\u00a0<\/em>servers gathered \u2014 about 360 in total \u2014 to decorate Ribbitribbit\u2019s home. Some EQ2<\/em> developers joined in the cause, but this effort was entirely player and community driven. For some more details on the efforts of this group (named the Lillipad Jungle and later the Fairy Godfroggers), there\u2019s a great\u00a0write up on Engadget<\/em><\/a>. Ribbitribbit\u2019s family also posted\u00a0a series of videos<\/a>\u00a0documenting the boy\u2019s reactions to his newly decorated home. Since these events in 2012, people gathered annually on Ribbitribbit Day (March 9) to,\u00a0as an organizer put it<\/a>, \u201ccelebrate not only Ribbitribbitt, but all the friends we have lost along our adventures. And we want to celebrate the friendships we have made that are still going strong. Myrose, Ribbitribbitt\u2019s mother, and I would like to invite you to this celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Company Memorials<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

In many ways, digital memorials provide companies new ways of remembrance and community engagement. Probably the most famous examples is the story of Ezra Chatterton and the top-selling MMO of all time, Blizzard\u2019s\u00a0World of Warcraft<\/em>\u00a0(WoW)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ezra was a boy from California who had brain cancer. In 2007, the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted Ezra\u2019s wish to visit the Blizzard offices where Ezra worked with developers to create a new in-game material, including an NPC named Ahab Wheathoof and a new\u00a0quest \u201cKyle\u2019s Gone Missing!\u201d Ezra\u00a0passed away in October 2008.\u00a0There were two responses to Ezra\u2019s passing: one from the community and another from Blizzard. In the days after the news became public, thousands of players completed \u201cKyle\u2019s Gone Missing!\u201d as a tribute to Ezra\u2019s memory, which was even more impressive considering the quest in question was in a relatively untraveled section of the world. Next, Blizzard followed with their own tribute the following year, permanently\u00a0changing\u00a0the name of an in-game NPC from Elder Proudhorn\u00a0to Elder Ezra Wheathoof.<\/p>\n

\"WoW<\/a>
WoW players gathered at the spirit of Koiter at the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This continued a long-standing Blizzard memorialization tradition, as Blizzard has a unique connection to\u00a0such tragedy and memorials.\u00a0One of their own, Blizzard employee Michael Koiter, died during the game\u2019s development. A location in game, The Shrine of the Fallen Warrior, is a monument to Koiter, and it has occasionally been a location of other spontaneous memorials. A few years before Ezra\u2019s story, developers named\u00a0an NPC (Caylee Dak) after a player (Dak Krause) who died of leukemia.\u00a0There are far, far more than these\u00a0memorials in the\u00a0WoW\u00a0<\/em>universe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Wynthyst<\/a>
Wynthyst Memorial, EbonHawke Cemetery, Guild Wars 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other\u00a0game developers have also built monuments to fallen players, most notably ArenaNet in their game\u00a0Guild Wars 2<\/em>. In 2014, an active community member passed away, prompting ArenaNet to create a new grave in an in-game cemetery. Further, the online wiki she helped curate became\u00a0a place of spontaneous remembrance<\/a> for other Guild Wars 2 <\/em>players. ArenaNet memorialized another player in 2015 when they added a second in-game memorial, this time\u00a0creating a new NPC<\/a>\u00a0in honor of a female player who tragically died during childbirth.<\/p>\n

Numerous companies also memorialized the aforementioned Gary Gygax in a multitude of ways beyond the preservation of his\u00a0D&D Online\u00a0<\/em>voice.\u00a0EQ2\u00a0<\/em>introduced a placeable item, the\u00a0Stone of Gygax<\/a>, which looks suspiciously like a twenty-sided die so common in D&D<\/em>;\u00a0UO\u00a0<\/em>created and named a new room within a pre-existing dungeon after Gygax; and\u00a0D&D Online\u00a0<\/em>also created a digital shrine within a pre-existing \u201ctomb.\u201d Many other games, including\u00a0WoW<\/em>, explicitly mentioned Gygax in their official notes and mourned his passing.<\/p>\n

Documenting Commemoration<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Three more digital commemorations include the following:\u00a0the Freeman Memorial<\/a> (a room dedicated to the memory of an SOE employee) in Star Wars Galaxies<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>the tutorial NPC\u00a0Coyote<\/a> (named after a person who suddenly passed and went by the forum name of Kiyotee) in City of Heroes<\/em>; and\u00a0Warhammer Online\u00a0<\/em>players organized in-game memorials<\/a>\u00a0after well-known player Sugbis died while actually playing the game.<\/p>\n

These three examples have one thing in common: none of these online worlds exist any longer. Star Wars Galaxies\u00a0<\/em>shut down\u00a0forever on December 15, 2011;\u00a0City of Heroes\u00a0<\/em>on November 30, 2012; and\u00a0Warhammer Online\u00a0<\/em>on December 18, 2013.\u00a0A memorial in physical space is generally assumed to exist in perpetuity, but digital memorials are ephemeral by the very nature of online video games. All that\u2019s left of each memorial is a wiki page, player memories, and a few\u00a0videos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A vigil for Leonard Nimoy held in the game Star Trek Online shortly after his death in February 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unlike the \u201creal world,\u201d it is impossible for individuals to control the digital space of MMOs. They can\u00a0petition game companies to create memorials<\/a>,\u00a0beg for an\u00a0extension\u00a0the life of the game servers, or attempt to create semi-legal player-run servers. Ultimately though, companies exclusively control the digital world (as is becoming woefully clear with the ongoing saga of Asheron\u2019s Call<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

The closure of these digital worlds is a form of trauma. The memorials discussed here only exacerbate these moments\u00a0as the digital-physical split further magnifies trauma as grief becomes more difficult with no “how-to” guides to build post-death community healing. Normally, if someone experiences loss in the “real world,” then most often family and friends will band together in the mourning process. In contrast, once a digital world closes then most outlets for healing are closed off excepting message boards and chat rooms, most of which offer a poor substitute. When a company closes a digital world it rips away the digital places of memory, memorial, and commemoration. These communities persist somehow as evidenced by several years-old threads on sites such as Something Awful.<\/p>\n

Recently on this site, Angela Cox outlined<\/a> a series of problems facing public historians and preservationists interested in online gaming history. Gaming is, in many ways, an ephemeral experience. No two sessions are the game and human interactions can be incredibly complex, so much so they appear opaque to a non-gamer. Cox rightfully points to ethnography as a solution and also suggests a few digital humanities techniques to study ephemeral games. Collected discussions and surveys offer some window into the ephemeral world of MMO culture, most notable being Nick Yee’s now-defunct, yet still incredible, Daedalus Project<\/a>. As a bit of shameless self-promotion, my own project Public History Norrath<\/a> is still collecting place-based oral histories from MMO players. This year marked a new achievement as students from Lamar University are currently gathering oral histories for the first time.<\/p>\n

Ideally, MMO gaming companies would release any and all data upon the game’s closing, if not sooner, or recruit public historians to do this contract history work. The holy grail of research would be full game logs \u2013 chat, logins, logouts, friend lists, and guild rosters \u2013 just imagine the potential for text and data mining eighteen years of EverQuest <\/em>data. This would be a remarkable historical boon and would greatly benefit companies. Imagine the public history and ethnography, certainly, but also imagine the audience and marketing research from an enterprising group of scholars. For companies looking on the horizon for their next online project (like Daybreak Games or Turbine, Inc.), there is a wealth of public historians and other researchers willing to engage this research if only the primary sources came available.<\/p>\n

\n

Josh Howard is currently Assistant Professor of Public History at Lamar University. He is based out of Appalachian Virginia as part of public history consulting group <\/em>Passel<\/em>. Contact him at jhowardhistory at gmail dot com or on <\/em>Twitter<\/em> about this article or anything related to MMOs, Appalachia, sportsball, or anything really.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDeath is difficult under any circumstance. The death of a friend you only knew via the internet is something that this generation is just learning how to deal with.\u201d \u2014 Matthew Miller, mmorpg.com, 6\/25\/2013 Games, gaming, and digital worlds affect lived realities. People meet through games. Long-lasting friendships develop. Often,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":5861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[116,478,169,480,479,173,72,86,84,105],"coauthors":[444],"class_list":["entry","author-howard","post-5848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-avatar-identity","tag-digital-memory","tag-dungeons-and-dragons","tag-fantasy-rpgs","tag-gary-gygax","tag-identity","tag-memorial","tag-memory","tag-mmo","tag-mmorpg"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/17gg2vp72v1zypng.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5848"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6552,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5848\/revisions\/6552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5848"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=5848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}