[Jump]

As an old gamer community this issue is not new to us. We have seen many old friends pass on. We know of these because someone in the community had RL contact or their loved ones had access to the community. Still, what of those many more that have simply disappeared? We hope they are simply lost in WoW but how would we ever know.

Interesting article on the topic as well as a new cottage industry that is popping up. Is it worth $20 a year to let unmet friends know you have left the game for good? It's definately a sign of how gaming has changed the social fabric of our society. I suspect that we are not far from seeing "virtual funerals". I believe we have had a few ourselves over the years in game.

David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has had plenty of time to think about the issue.

"I work in the world's largest medical center, and what you see here every day is people showing up in ambulances who didn't expect that just five minutes earlier," he said. "If you suddenly die or go into a coma, there can be a lot of things that are only in your head in terms of where things are stored, where your passwords are."

He set up a site called Deathswitch, where people can set up e-mails that will be sent out automatically if they don't check in at intervals they specify, like once a week. For $20 per year, members can create up to 30 e-mails with attachments like video files.

It's not really a profit-making venture, and Eagleman isn't sure about how many members it has — "probably close to a thousand." Nor does he know what's in the e-mails that have been created. Until they're sent out, they're encrypted so that only their creators can read them.

Yahoo! News - Deaths of gamers leave their online lives in limbo by AP

[GrimGriz]

Awesome...now I just need people to like me enough to want an e-mail when I die...

[Wild_Bill]

I worry about what would happen if I lost Internet service; or my computer crashed, etc. Particularily with the economy, there could be a break in employement where someone might have to sacrifice their Internet or gaming and forget to tell their friends/acquaintances. I hate to think that people I care about might get a "end of life" message because of some innocent screwup or breakdown in service.

Perhaps something could be arranged where if I didn't log in during a set time period, weeks or months, the site would contact a third party to verify my expiration before sending out the "end of life" message.

And Grim, I would care.

[Jump]

Yeah, it definately has holes in it. It could potentially cause more problems that it fixes.

[Bojay]

Psst,

We in the WWII FIghter Sim world have been doing missing man formations for years.

Our Air Group has been together for over 15 years, and have lost two pilots.

Both were honored in an on-line memorial with fly by, with the video posted on the Groups website.

[Jump]

Yeah we did all that in Jumpgate as well. I meant you will someday be able to attend an actual funeral virtually. You know it's coming.

[Tobyus]

There's a business idea.

Darn, www.wishicouldbethere.com is already taken.

[Ambrosius]

Originally Posted by Jump

Yeah we did all that in Jumpgate as well. I meant you will someday be able to attend an actual funeral virtually. You know it's coming.

We just has a memorial on Saturday for an EU player named the1stand (aka "Stanni") who passed about a month ago.

[Tim]

Maybe these guys could call work for me, tell them I'm dead for the day.

[Bojay]

Originally Posted by Tim

Maybe these guys could call work for me, tell them I'm dead for the day.

I think it took Jesus three days to recover, so take a long weekend too

[Wild_Bill]

I was thinking more along the line of "Tim's got an optical-rectal problem sir. It seems he just can't see his ass coming in to work today".