Acts of remembrance are diverse – funerary traditions, personalised keepsakes, sentimental epitaphs – but these acts have never been strictly contained to our world.
The internet is a unique way us human beings can come together, no matter the distance, be it through forums, social media, or even video games.
Millions worldwide log into massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) for reasons that extend beyond a cursory moment of enjoyment. They’re realms brimming with bustling communities, tight-knit guilds, and playful rivalries. The foundations of these alternate worlds might be fictional, but the experiences shared are very much real. For some, MMOs are a second home.
Their communal power cannot be underestimated. For years people have come together in all manners of MMO titles to remember friends, loved ones and idols, be it through gatherings of players equipped with matching items, the placement of an NPC bearing a cherished player’s name, or visiting a person’s favourite idling spot.
Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy XIV, a fantasy MMO by Square Enix released in 2013, is no stranger to vigils. When the author of Dragon Ball died in March 2024, players gathered across servers in the city of Uldah, home of the Pulgilist’s Guild. Avatars were dressed as well known characters from the series, such as Goku, and fires were lit using items such as the summonable minion called “wanderer’s campfire.”
Kentaro Miura, the author of Berserk, was similarly commemorated after his death in May 2021. Many arrived as the Dark Knight class, a homage to the series’ genre – a brutal dark fantasy – and its main character, the ‘Black Swordsman’ Guts. Using the Bard class’ skill Performance, players also filled the area with his theme song.
Memorial services have also been held for individual players, each one personalised. People might gather in the player’s favourite city, or the location of their favourite dungeon, trial, raid or quest. During the COVID-19 pandemic, on the North American server Zalera, player Ferne Le’roy was memorialised with a walk from Uldah to the Guardian Tree, one of the game’s landmarks, after sadly passing away from the disease.
Eve Online
Eve Online is a sci-fi spaceship MMO developed by Fenris Creations, released in 2003, visited by thousands of active players to this day.
One of the game’s players, Sean Smith, who was known better by the pseudonym ‘Vile Rat’ online, tragically lost his life after an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. He was a member of the in-game player alliance Goonswarm, serving as their chief diplomat and a spy for their intelligence agency.
Even though the game is player-versus-player (PvP), conflict was temporarily cast aside to remember him. The last words written by Vile Rat have been saved, logged by in-game chat. On the night of September 11, 2012 he typed: “assuming we don’t die tonight. We saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures.”
Players gathered and used cynosural fields – items typically used as beacons – to spell out ‘RIP Vile Rat’ in space.
This method hasn’t only been used during remembrance of Vile Rat, and has instead become somewhat of a tradition. Players have lit cynosural fields on multiple other occasions, and have even created unique poems to use before lighting them.
“Eyes forward, capsuleer, the cyno is not yet lit.
Dranchela
Consider your modules, your rigs, and ammo before you undock,
for the cyno is not yet lit.
Break free of the station and witness the universe before you,
for the cyno is not yet lit.
Set your ship to fly through the vastness while you wait,
for the cyno is not yet lit.
Pay attention, capsuleer, for those who have gone before you
call for you to join them.
The cyno is now lit.”
Other tributes include one for a player by the name of Hateless, who passed away in 2023 due to an unfortunate traffic accident. He was well-known in the Eve Online community, and created videos on his Youtube channel HateLesS_Gaming to help others understand the game.
A PvP ceasefire was declared in the MJ-5F9 solar system so anyone could pay respects, and fireworks were lit by players within the Geras solar system. Those taking part in both vigils were cognisant people who were normally enemies might attend, and acted to mitigate violence as much as possible.
Another example is the player Innominate’s tribute after he passed away from cancer in 2024. He was a prominent player representative, elected six times for the game’s player advocacy group Council of Stellar Management.
Player alliance Goonswarm also named their main headquarters “Innominate Palace” after him, which was given a ‘viking funeral’ in 2025 – friends and foes alike were invited to “help blow it up.” The safety of enemies was afforded by a brief peacetime, so long as they travelled in one of the game’s specific ships, a rifter.
A charity stream run by Rampage Inc in Innominate’s name raised over 8 thousand dollars for the Cancer Research Institute, and continued the effort a year after on “Innominate Day,” the day of his passing.
While dedicated to no specific player, Eve Online developers also implemented an in-game cemetery players can visit to ‘anchor a can in remembrance, [place] inside it a few keepsake items (and sometimes a corpse) to remember them by, and [set] a short message on the anchored can’. The location was initially used as a burial site by players, but this update officialised it as a permanent fixture.
World of Warcraft
While Eve Online players have managed to establish an unspoken armistice on multiple occasions, World of Warcraft (WOW), the 2004 fantasy MMO by Blizzard, has a particularly infamous incident where the regrettably violent inverse happened.
According to a paper by Martin Gibbs, Michael Arnold and Bjørn Nansen, players remembering another player by the name of Fayejin on one of World of Warcraft’s PVP servers, Illidan, were killed by members of the guilds Serenity Now and Gnomeland Security in 2006.
“On Tuesday of February 28th Illidan lost not only a good mage, but a good person. For those who knew her, Fayejin was one of the nicest people you could ever meet. On Tuesday she suffered from a stroke and passed away later that night.
An announcement by Fayejin’s WoW Guild
I’m making this post basically to inform everyone that might have knew [sic] her. Also tomorrow, at 5:30 server time March, 4th we will have an in game memorial for her so that her friends can pay their respects. We will be having it at the Frostfire Hot Springs in Winterspring, because she loved to fish in the game (she liked the sound of the water, it was calming for her and she loved snow).
If you would like to come show your respects please do. Thanks everyone.”
The incident kindled arguments not only within the WoW community, but beyond it. While people online condemned the actions of both guilds over online forums, some others argued in the guild’s favour.
In contrast to this controversy, there are a myriad of respectful tributes thanks to World of Warcraft which far outshine it. One of the MMO’s most prominent information websites Wowhead contains a guide detailing all of the in-game tributes implemented by Blizzard’s very own developers.
People memorialised by in-game non-player characters (NPCs) include dedicated players such Amara Strande, Ezra Phoenix Chatterton and Brad Bridenbecker. There are also NPCs referencing popular figures such as Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee, and Magic: The Gathering artist Christopher Rush, and actor Robin Williams, who appears as a genie which shouts ‘PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS!’.
World of Warcraft isn’t the only game to memorialise people with NPCs – other MMOs such as Neverwinter Online, Guild Wars 2 and City of Heroes have done similarly. In the game New World, the developer’s wife Laura Marie Charron is remembered by a permanent shrine with a written tribute. It also grants the player a statue called ‘Mother’s Love’ which is able to be placed in their house.
“A new NPC tribute to the departed player WiCKiD has made his home in the Well of Dragons quest hub, providing guidance to those seeking helpful tanking tips. Speaking to WiCKiD will also award a title.”
— NEVERWINTER ONLINE PATCH NOTES, AUGUST 8 2022
Players of World of Warcraft also held a memorial for the player Reckful who died in 2020, a much-beloved player and streamer, who was eventually implemented as an NPC. Players gathered at Stormwind Cathedral to remember him, including some who wouldn’t typically be allowed in the area due to the server’s PvP.
Other cherished players have been remembered similarly.
While these online worlds are only viewable through our monitors, the relationships connecting players are incredibly real, often enduring for many years. This article only scratches the surface of all MMORPG tributes over time.
Numerous other games have their own player-made traditions, funerals, tributes and celebrations for those who have passed, and are set to continue doing so for as long as their servers are up.