Honoring a player who has passed away

Community General Discussion
1

I wrote a ticket in-game, and they directed me to post here, in the general discussion. I’m going to copy and paste what I wrote to them.

"I know this is a long shot. My friends and I have been playing since the game has been out together. While many of us came and went, our guild leader, Waraharic, stuck around. We all always returned for him. Many of us looked at him as a father-figure, I know I did for certain. He made me a better person. Others expressed similarly when we attended his funeral. He was only 57.

It was the first time many of us ever met. I had never met any of them before outside of the game. We cried together, we hugged, we held hands.

From all that we saw of his life, his family, he was as perfect as we imagined him to be. His son played with us well, all these years, having just turned 30 in December. We still imagine him as a young kid.

I’m crying again, as I write this. He was a wonderful man, an excellent father, and of course, our guild leader. Please, it would mean so much, if something could be done to honor him. Anything at all. I didn’t get permission to share his obituary from the family yet, I just wanted to know if anything was even possible first.

Thank you, whomever is reading this, for your time. I miss him so much."

I’ve been fretting posting, as I wanted to say things just right, to be convincing as possible, but no matter what I think of, I come up short. Other members of his family are also in guild and play with us. We all felt like a family. We, as a guild, were their second family.

The GM suggested we try to come up with a feasible idea of what we would desire to be the means to honor him.

One of us suggested a statue of his character, with his hammer held up. As much as we would love this, we understand this is also the most unlikely.

Other things were, for his character to be fighting leper gnomes at Gnomeregan , an inside joke, renaming one of the Argent Sentry guards his character name, at Light’s Hope Chapel, or even better have him praying in the pews, or if he could be an npc, fishing in AV.

I loved all of the ideas put forward, but I would settle for even just a tombstone anywhere at all. If his character was in an inn somewhere like in Stormwind, drinking an IPA like he enjoyed in real life, I’d visit it every day and talk to him. I can’t write any more, I’m crying too heavily.

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2

Sorry for your loss.

Bad news time: none of this is going to happen. Generally speaking, Blizzard doesn’t do anything for random players in the game but moreover, recently, they have been purging a ton of references to real people in the game entirely.

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It’s hard for all the friends and family behind.

Although they wouldn’t likely do an honour done by Blizzard, I’m sure all the fun times would be held in your hearts.

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I also ask that something, even be it so small be done in game to honor a fallen brother. I know Blizz is removing references to other people but that is a clean up of internal struggles.
We lost a brother that represented himself properly and encouraged others to do better. This is not someone who has just came and in short time was lost. He and his family have been long term players and have welcomed guildies into their extended family. I was blessed to have known him, albeit in game. I am hurt and at a loss. Thank You for your time.

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That is very sad to hear! I never knew him all that well but I had grouped with Waraharic even going back to Vanilla WoW PVP. He was a good guy! So sad :frowning:

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I doubt they’re going to get rid of the Make A Wish kid’s tauren in mulgore.

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Unfortunately with the move by blizzard to remove any and all player and employee references I don’t think they will do something like this anymore.

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With the risk of something being dug up on social media and cancelling people out of the blue… Blizz is probably get going to play it safe and not do anything referencing people.

My Condolences for your loss.

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I understand that you’re hurting, but fact is that most people who have lost someone close could do a write up like this if they felt it important. That’s not to say your loss doesn’t matter; rather, it’s a statement about sheer quantity.

At the end of the day, World of Warcraft is a video game, not a memorial. For that reason alone, I don’t want to see requests like this honored. If something or someone is important to the people making the game, I have no qualms with these kinds of inclusions making the cut, but that’s a personal matter for the people personally involved in development.

Granting these requests from players would either result in Blizzard picking and choosing, which is bad for what I assume are obvious reasons, or the game becoming a digital graveyard, which is something it has no need to be.

I wish you and yours well. I hope you can grieve as needed and remember your friend fondly. I just can’t get behind this request as part of that – although the act of writing it is totally fine. If it helped you process things in any way, great!

… and, of course, this is my own opinion. I don’t speak for anyone else.

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I have a feeling I’m going to start something by saying this…

…but Player Housing done properly could allow anyone and everyone to create their own in-game memorials in some permanent form that others could observe and honor in memory.

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I’m sorry that you lost your friend.

But the reality is, they cannot fill the game with memorials to players who have passed.

One suggestion I have seen in the (many) posts with requests like these, is for a memorial in SW Cath graveyard (and some similar place hordeside) where a guild or player can put up a custom message that shows to them (in the case of player) or anyone in the guild who looks (in the case of a guild posted one)

But, individual memorials for players simply isn’t feasible. Why is your friend more deserving of a memorial than the friends I have lost over the years? If they do something like this for one, they’d need to do it for all, and, well, we’d be tripping over memorials to people which only mean something to those they left behind.

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Best Solution: Organize an in-game memorial service. Invite everyone and keep Warmode off. Every last one of us true WoW fans will die playing this game. We can’t all get an in-game tribute, but we can all be remembered by those whose lives we have touched.

Get together and talk about him. Share stories. Figure out ways you can honor him.

This is a project for the community, not the devs. That’s why they sent you here.

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This cannot be understated. Don’t need another Serenity Now event.

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Honor them on Twitter.

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It is hard when someone you love dies , i had a brother (not blood) who helped me a great deal and he always use to say this that “its alright to miss good time of a friend but no matter what u r doing or wherever u r never miss bad time of a friend .”

He was talking about when someone is alive as good time and when they die a bad time . He once flunked a sureshot job interview to go to a friends funeral .

What i m trying to say here is that you dont need a memorial or a monument or even where he/she is cremated (in india we cremate and there are “shamshaans” which are crematerioes and they are open not inside like funeral homes crematories ) to remember someone or give an offering etc . The persons who impact us in life will forever be with us till we die and we become the cycle of someones elses life .

From what i read above this guy was a good leader and furthermore a good friend ,we need those kind of people in world as thats what life all is about .

Blizz is not gonna do anything at all its a waste of time to even ask so i would suggest giving him a good farewell which you already did in real life and continuing it ingame by giving him a good sendoff again and then keep remembering him .

I am truly sorry for you loss

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My condolences to you, your friend, and his family.
You are an amazing friend to him.
This is the MOST human post I’ve ever seen in this forum in over 12 years. It’s good to know there are still real decent humans out there who care about each other.
I hope Blizzard will honor your friend. I think they should.
Where ever he is, as he’s reading what you wrote to him, I’m sure he’s smiling.

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I remember watching the Serenity video. They were scum.

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I’m sorry for your loss. A lot of people don’t truly appreciate the bonds that can be formed over the course of the years playing this game and I know this must be very hard.

I like the idea of making one of the already existing tombstones his, though I would be highly surprised if Blizzard did anything as it would set a precedent where they’re going to get a lot more requests to honor fallen loved ones from others who will rightfully expect their request to be implemented if this one was.

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be nice if we had a honor the deceased in the game for those friends/family who have passed. Some kind of Wall of Remembrance. this would be great place to put in some kind of sandbox RP instance area of the game. Among many other things, a testament to the players.

Not sure how this would be verified or implemented unless it were by the players themselves in this sand box. It would need to follow certain rules like no vulgar names or bad references to anything. And a short epitaph possibly humorous

Here lies Saangreal
Tireless WQ warrior; may she rest in one piece

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Sorry for your loss :frowning:

I personally think that sounds like an awesome idea :+1: There’s probably some corporate nonsense PR optics concerns that would stop it from happening but I think a player cemetery would be a great low investment addition :heart: Or even something as simple as a book of fallen heroes with the character name of real life deceased players.

Guild/Player housing feature :+1:

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