You know, I’d never really thought of this:
When Jerald Spangenberg collapsed and died in the middle of a quest in an online game, his daughter embarked on a quest of her own: to let her father’s gaming friends know that he hadn’t just decided to desert them.
It wasn’t easy, because she didn’t have her father’s “World of Warcraft” password and the game’s publisher couldn’t help her. Eventually, Melissa Allen Spangenberg reached her father’s friends by asking around online for the “guild” he belonged to.
One of them, Chuck Pagoria in Morgantown, Ky., heard about Spangenberg’s death three weeks later. Pagoria had put his absence down to an argument among the gamers that night.
“I figured he probably just needed some time to cool off,” Pagoria said. “I was kind of extremely shocked and blown away when I heard the reason that he hadn’t been back. Nobody had any way of finding this out.”
With online social networks becoming ever more important in our lives, they’re also becoming an important element in our deaths. Spangenberg, who died suddenly from an abdominal aneurysm at 57, was unprepared, but others are leaving detailed instructions. There’s even a tiny industry that has sprung up to help people wrap up their online contacts after their deaths.
So, um . . . which of you wants my Facebook Friends and Twitter Followers when I croak?
i love protien wisdo…
damn fine tits for an emt…
u kinda look like that red head in “24”…
stat
cold blue
Does anyone know if pdbuttons had any friends? Seems unlikely.
pillows are for huggin
dreams are Not 4 sopranos
white light…lou reed song…
white heat….
a big dig tunnell shout ya out
can someone give me carl sagan billions
chris celios
don’t be mean
ok
be mean
It’s no problem, Dan, I’ll do it. If you die, just write a quick note on my wall and I’ll spread the news.
2 dogs
u cut me down
i apologize
kinda
Are you on Twitter, jailbones?
I think buttons has quite a few friends, wherever he may be.
As Penn Gillette says, the most important thing is not to die with a ton of pron on your computer…
Ive attended an in-game funeral. I assume it was pretty depressing- it was about as awful as every other funeral, except I was wearing my pjs rather than a suit, which was alot more comfortable. I did wear my black pjs however. And at a particularly emotional point in the eulugy, I pulled half a zone full of level monsters into the funeral crowd. Hilarity ensued.
Yes, I’m a nerd.
It might have been worse. Could have been interrupted by flying griefer penises.
not to die with a ton of pron on your computer
That’s what porn buddies are for.
u ready freddy
hoo hoo
i got one friend
his name is phil
i.m in the painters union [local 1138]
i work on 30’40 stirie skyskaoers
sao- they send me to a job/ i know i’m gonna be there
4 a year/ easy
i meet the head painter
and i tell him i had a dream
that i saw two dogs fuckin
when he was born…
[joke]
so… all during the job
peeps would come up 2 me and say
“have u seen 2 dogs’
or
Where is 2 dogs?”
and all the while i’ll be
“i gave him that name!”fast forward 7 years/ i’m walking down the street
beep beep
theres 2 dogs inna car grinnin’
“let’s have a beer”
so we have drinks
and he looks me in the eye nd says…
“do you know my real name?”
i reply..
“u’ll always be two dogs fuckin’ to me”
u got a buttons story?
his name was phil/ btw
Fortunately wow has a no-penis shaped weapons in the game provision.
sorry 4 spell
This Two Dogs, he is rude I think. To no effect, but rude.
i had a russian box turtle
i was drinking
it was may
i fucked up
he’s long gone
that’s indescribably sad
There used to be a freeware program called Dead Man’s Switch for this. Dunno if it’s still updated
oh. Yup – for up to Win2K anyway.
i know!
i loved that lil turts
i hadn’t even given him a name…
oh/ demon alchohol[sp]
sad memories i can’t recall…
Net version. Hope they don’t get haxored!
>>sad memories i can’t recall…
LOL
I’ve looked at turtles from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
turtle illusions I recall
I really dont know turtles at all
If I disappear, just assume that I hate you.
Oookay, this post did it. I am backing away from the computer and finding a life. This time for real.
Thanks, Scared Straight. That probably justifies everything stupid I’ve ever done online.
You saved my life Dan. I’ll stalk, er, praise you daily. :)
Thanks, SS. I think.
Well, it is the internet we do everything obsessively here.
That’s true. I wonder what percentage of bloggers (much less twitterers) are stone OCD.
that was beautiful urthshu. Thank you.
Who said anything about croaking, Dan? We’re making a brain-tape of you and posting it on the web just like they did in Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive!
Oh, I’m not that morbid, I hope, Chris. It’s just that if one of these days a troll says something stupid enough to give me an embolism, I would like to be covered.
Just a guess, but I bet at least 75%. The percentage of folk who comment is probably just as high, maybe higher. The folk who game, higher than that. It is a community of the obsessive, by the obsessive for the obsessive. ‘Course the upside is, it keeps most of us out of the normal people’s hair. It’s sort of like we have found a fairly safe, if overly emotional, little world for the people that just can’t let any thing go, or admit they are ever wrong, or that they need to calm down. Sort of the way Lilly Tomlin wanted to pair off all the street people in New York who talked to themselves. The internet creates normalcy out of the bizarre.
white wine
pink gin
i’ll drink anything
I’ve had a guild member die. It wasn’t while on-line but it was hard for us. At the same time, we all knew he was very ill. It was to the point that playing on-line was one of the few things he was physically capable of and I think that it was probably a very good thing and I’m glad that he got to spend that time while he was so ill, slaying dragons.
Some of you may have heard of “The Hostages” out there in interwebtubeland. We actually ran into this problem, where one of our friends was ill, and we just couldn’t find him. We found him eventually. On the day of his funeral.
The percentage of folk who comment is probably just as high, maybe higher.
Us and ours?
Highest !
I meant me and mine.
…
Spliff !
Can someone for the love of God set up a blog for pdbuttons and hand over the keys?
Or am I the only one who’s gotten an RSI from scroll-wheeling past all the pseudorandom poetry?
If so, sorry.
Here’s helpful information that’ll allow you to delete most online accounts. Some, like Facebook and AOL, are notoriously difficult to get rid of.
Can it be automated? There you go; a ready-made startup for someone who’s unemployed.
huh. But I kind of liked it.
I don’t mind pd at all. It’s that bastard Red you have to watch. He’s a like a ninja.
Mr. Slart. What if buttons heard you say that? How do you think it would make him feel?
For real it’s not as random as it looks I don’t think.
Knees he?
So, no.
Shins he!
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