WAY OT: Internet deaths.

[bounty]

Went to a favorite message board today (completely unrelated to gaming IE myrmecology) only to find that one of the premier members had passed on. A truely brilliant mind of a very complex subject, someone that I looked up to. I had a very strange feeling even after haven't met him at all. But just knowing his presence and posts on the board had been silenced really weirded me out.

It reminded me too, of one of my favorite Quake(nqctf) server admins passing on (very tragic, car accident going home afterschool on prom day, and a week before graduating).

I guess you could say the event is definitely a little depressing. I wouldn't necissarily call it sad, but the amount of time I have thought about this makes it worth questioning.

I have had a few less memorable figures pass on that I knew soley through the internet. I guess part of the reason i dwell on it for a while is there are so many questions that come up as to what kind of person he/she was, since the only thing you knew of him is what he/she typed. And the guy had been struggling for his life for the past 6 months and I basically had no clue. Here I am eating my sandwich, thinking class is really gonna suck today and here he might have been hanging on to every breath.

I don't know why I typed this here, perhaps just wanted to see if any of you had similar experiences and perhaps similar feelings on this issue, or to find out if i'm just a carebear :)

Share your stories.

[Ren]

:(

[NeoChick]

I must say that when I first started reading this I wasnt quite sure what it was about but then reading the whole thread it is a very interesting comment you are making, perhaps not quite clear in the heading

Yes.......I sometimes wonder what the people I have much to do with on the net are really like, and I also think it is nice to have this little community on the forum where people do not have to be afraid to tell us if they have a problem and people help each other

It is kind of like an interent family

and yes, I would feel bad too if somebody I knew via the net died or had any kind of misfortune, even though I have never met the person in real life

[Psyco Groupie]

back when counter strike had less than 100 000 players two people who I knew took their own lives, it was pretty damn weird for me - i felt so much loss to people who i'd only met a few times :(

lifes a bitch

[Kimiko]

Back in 2000, I was in a gaming clan where the division leader, who was a good friend of mine, even though we had never met IRL, passed away during her sleep. First I heard of it was when another member had a message posted on massassi.net (the Jedi Knight gaming site)

Its a hard thing to go through - I felt some detachment toward her as I had never met her IRL, but it was still difficult.

[CarniFlex]

Ive been to a few memory channels on quakenet in the memory of playerX etc, not necessarily because I knew them very well more like showing a kind of respect of his character. If they had passed on in a nearby city i probably would have come over for the funeral to just be there. As a show of respect for that guy. People are never what they seem to be on the internet, its a very narrow view you get on someone. I try to not speculate to much about people, cause im usually very wrong. Everyone seems to have a family at least that misses em if they do die. And its so little effort to send them your condolence's or just sign a forum or be in a channel an hour in their memory.

btw youre not alone having feelings, and no youre not a carebear. Your human.

[juvestar15]

Played a FPS for about 6 months, knew this guy from the start. I didn't always speak to him on icq but in game i used to talk alot. When i went to my first LAN for that game he was there. I couldn't believe how nice this guy was. He came up to me and some friends, introduced hismelf, made us feel welcome. I was shocked at the kindness of this, i don't think i've met someone like him before.

The next LAN came along and he died in a car accident on the way home. :(

Always the good ones that go. :( :(