This is a serious topic, i thought about putting it in gaming but the circustances seemed more serious than that. If your a WoW (World of Warcraft) player or just up to date you might have heard about the latest 'incident'. There was a popular gamer who died in the real world and they decided they'ld log onto her account and place her character by a lake, that way everyone would be able to see her one last time and pay their respect etc. In basic it was an online funeral service. Now the problem was this is an online RPG, so during the 'service' where everyone paid their respects and saw him they were of course vunerable to the laws of online gaming, 25-30 people being present. An opposing guild decided they would join the service and they rocked up and killed the dead girls character and then proceeded to kill every other person in the area who was attending. A video is shown of the proceeding at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7667194685876573666&q=serenity+now
Now the question is the reality check. Personally i think it's bad this girl has died and it's really cruel that they would charge her memorial, but an online memorial is the only way some of the people could do it as the people there probably only knew her online. However at the same time this is a game and the other guild had every right to storm a group of unsuspecting players, and it would have been in fact quite beneficial and clever in the gaming sense.
So again the question is the reality check for online gaming. I think it's quite stupid to have an online funeral, most people go to these online RPGs to escape reality, real funerals are for reality, funerals and death are the type of reality you might go online to escape (as you'll come back to life). If there were funerals for online then it would suggest you would hold one when a gamer left the game as well, as the online sense is identical. How big is the separation between the online and offline world, and how big SHOULD it be?
EDIT: I've looked into this one a little bit and apparently the person who died had put some flames at the other guild, flames that had made them all very angry and this is one of the things which caused them to be so relentless. Also i should point out the funeral service was held on an open arena on the server, making it possible for the other guild to storm them. Anyone have more details or something more specific?
EDIT: Well apparently she loved PvP arenas, she loved fishing and lakes and snow so it this was why they decided to have the memorial in the place they did. (keeping in mind the online rules of the place say they can't complain for being stormed)
This is something i picked up from the people responsible (serenity now):
As much as I hated what you did to the funeral, I just wanted to ask questions without starting a huge flame war.
1. Why did you do it?
All they were trying to do was have a final farewell to their friend. I agree, they should have done it in non-contested area, but still.
and I know you say "Send her parents a card, play your game."
Well, she may have known them, but her parents probably didn't. What would they think if they got a card from a stranger?
2. How come you don't feel bad for their loss of a friend?
I guess that those are the only two questions I had.
-Fusk
Reply by serenity now:
1. I did it to piss off those people that brought RL drama into a public video game. I did it because i think the idea of holding a memorial inside a video game is ridiculous and uncalled for, and frankly i think it's embarassing and even dissrespectful to the deceased.
the area that they held it in doesn't matter, it was just a mistake. the whole concept of acting out a funeral with your warrior cows or undead sorcerers is laughable to me, and i enjoyed crashing the event.
sending a card from strangers is wierd? how about sending them a video of you as computer game characters bowing and kneeling infront of your daughter's troll?
2.
People die every day. I lost 2 family members last year, and i don't log on to a video game to expect complete
strangers from all over the world to respect my loss. Most of them probably didnt know her outside the game.
That said i do feel sorry for her loss, i just don't feel a need to respect a bunch of dorks acting out a funeral in a video game. For me it wasnt about her, it was about the people in the game.