I just read this very interesting article over at the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s about when people die (in real life) and the loose ends and online contacts they leave behind. Say you are a valuable member of a guild in World of Warcraft then you unexpectedly pass away (I’m really sorry to hear you are dead by the way, but my target audience is the undead so don’t freak), what about your fellow guild members who would have no idea? For all they know you deleted your account, rolled on a new server or are just on vacation. Some of these people you know only online may be very important to you. What then?
When you pass on, you may be the only one who knows about these important contacts and online friendships. Because lets face it, people don’t want to hear about when you teamed up with your buddy DarthlordzTerry and raided an enemy city. Are we going to have to reconsider our wills also? “All my phat lewt and gold shall be donated to the guild bank and my account details and characters shall be given to DarthlordzTerry. Pwn on my friend… Pwn on.”
This will probably make you squirt some tears, but check it out. A youtube video of how someone close lived on through Animal Crossing.
Some websites have been set up to guard your information and online notifications in case of death. Which basically pass on death notices and send out emails after you have left this realm (never to re-roll… well if you believe in reincarnation maybe). And what about our Facebook and Myspace accounts? Should they be deleted? Or left intact as a reminder and legacy of you? Should the status update be changed to “Simon is DEAD! lol!” Maybe facebook needs a system to turn your account into a kinda… Grave site, where people can leave comments on your wall the same way they might leave flowers. This is all very morbid isn’t it, but it’s something we need to actually think about! Are we going to have our Facebook accounts forever? What we need is a way to archive our Facebook accounts so that our kids can look back on us when we were 18 and see our silly wall posts and stupid pictures.
So who online will you need to contact? Have you ever had a guild leader or online friend pass away? Discuss it in the new Beard Stroking section of the forum.
If I passed on I would want someone to create a post on this site, maybe even make a comical video about it on my webcam for my youtube channel. I would want a special message written in my facebook, preferably written by me to go out to all my friends. Maybe a huge batch of unsent emails instructed to be sent out monthly to everyone from me, just things that were on my mind or ramblings or whatever. I basically want to haunt the internet forever. (I’m not dying by the way, this isn’t a cry for help. haha)
I have lost friends I game with… It really sucks when you hear from a mate and ask “oh I haven’t seen such and such lately” only to hear they have died recently. I have thought about maybe having a online thing to leave to let my online pals know what has happened… but yeah… it is a sad thought.
1 | TheMeadow March 15th, 2009 at 12:34 pmCould we do a “Weekend at Bernie’s” style site after you’re gone Simon?
2 | Murcho March 15th, 2009 at 1:43 pmOf course!!! I wouldn’t want it any other way.
3 | Simon March 15th, 2009 at 2:10 pminteresting thoughts.. especially the deletion @ facebook & myspace.
4 | rotting. May 23rd, 2009 at 3:09 pmHello. Very interesting Blog. Not really what i have searched over Google, but thanks for the information.
5 | Giuditta January 24th, 2010 at 9:49 pm