When I read this, it somehow touched me. Of course, we don’t need Christie Golden or other writers to cause that thing deep within us to be touched. You know … emotions. Everyone wraps up with the artificial facade that is an online character or avatar, separting their true selves from their online alter ego to the point we classify our breathing and human things as IRL (In Real Life).
In terms of RPG or book stories, you would feel touched if you read something along a Tauren Shaman who embarks in a quest to deliver his father’s staff to the other side of the world, through perilous lands to bring it before the elders of his tribe to be placed on a sacred shrine in order to honor her father’s memory. If Christie Golden wrote such a story you would shed a tear most likely.
In real life, a man age 57—Jerald Spangenberg—was a World of Warcraft player, and had many friends in his guild. However, one day he no longer came back online. He was absent for three weeks. He collapsed and died of an abdominal aneurysm while still playing World of Warcraft. His daughter Melissa Allen Spangenberg—for a reason that befuddles me felt the need to tell his guild that he had passed away.
She tried to contact a Blizzard Entertainment representative to find out her father’s account password to notify his guild, with no luck. This rises the question, whether Blizzard should consider an evaluation of their terms of service where parents or family members could have access to the accounts when the original subscriber passes away. At least by presenting a certificate of death via fax. Or an option link in the terms of service that allows subscribers to set permission to a person (providing a name and address) to access your account in the event you died for as long as that person submits a certificate of death.
Regardless, Melissa didn’t rest until she could notify her father’s online friends of his death. She created a World of Warcraft account. Searched restlessly on his server to find out if anyone knew what guild he belonged to. And finally, she contacted the guild leader Chuck Pagoria from Morgantown, Kentucky to honor what could have been her father’s wish to let his friends know.
A waste of time, or a noble act? Read the full story at Tech.Yahoo.
