And the truth is I never met the cat. *Edit* He passed away Saturday night and I just got the word today.
We became friends online through a MMORPG and kept in touch throughout the past year and a half. He was one of those types of people that you really like because their personality is so in-tuned with yours, and you could have a conversation that had you both tearing up in laughter even though all you were doing is reading and typing back.
I remember one conversation we had about our various physical injuries. He was nursing a broken foot, and I'd been laid up with a busted MCL. We were cracking each other up calling ourselves Gimp and Handi. He commented that after all the surgery we would endure we could relate to one another as the "6 and a half million dollar men".
I never had the pleasure of sitting down and having a beer with the guy, or toking a bowl as we made crass jokes about the opposite sex but I feel as though he was a really good bud. I miss the dude and wish I'd had a true chance to say howdy.
Is it possible that online pals can mean so much to us? And has anyone else out there lost someone in this manner? Seriously, I'm all fucked in the head about this loss. After drinking heavily and toasting him at Bud Murphy's Bar & Grill, I've decided to come here and see what fellow gamers/online participants have to say on this...
Edited, Mon Jan 17 20:22:37 2005 by DarkRein
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I lost a really good friend today.Follow
That's really touching.
Uhmm, did he pass away or leave game? I dont understand
Careful out there.
link=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6083442
link=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6083442
Sorry. I'm all messed up. He passed away Saturday night sometime. It really sucks. ...I got nothing to add...thought I did but...
How did you know he died? Did his friend/companion go onto his email or chatroom to tell of his pontential victims that he died?
Death often reminds us of our own mortality. Therefore it would make the most sense to take this event and turn it into motivation to make the most out of your own life.
I was playing FFXI a few months ago, and I partied with a person who was really nice. Added her to my friends list, and a few weeks later, I got a message from her friend that said she had died in a car accident that weekend.
It sucks to lose someone, but I always use this quote to cheer me up:
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
It sucks to lose someone, but I always use this quote to cheer me up:
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
↓His opinion is ****.↓
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kept in touch throughout the past year and a half
hell, I hardly even talk to family members that much. I'd be choked up myself.
but remember, it's only a game.
10 posts
I have 3 people that I keep in constant contact with online - two of which I have had the pleasure to meet in rl and have a beer with. My family knows that if anything should happen to me, that they are to be emailed and notified. It's because we care about each other and what happens in our lives. Many times the friendships that can develop online can go even deeper then the ones in rl. Yes, there are people out there that prey on others, for whatever sick reasons; but many more times when you are 'with someone for hours on end, day after day, 6 months, a year, even 4 years on the one, you get to know the person inside and out it seems. I can greatly appreciate the pain you are in and I am sorry for your loss. I am thankful that the family or whoever sought you out to notify you. It can be even worse never knowing.
I'm scared I'm walking into a "Ha! Got you!" thread. On the off chance it isn't though, I am sorry to hear your loss. There are people I have gotten to know online through gaming that I would really be hurt if something happened to them. Even though we may play different games now, we still keep in touch often.
I dont think it matters whether you have met the person or not. If you have spen time with someone, be it on the phone, through the internet, etc, they are still people, and we get to know them. If you're really truely lucky, the masks are off and you dont judge a person by their looks, or what they have. You judge them by who they are, and I consider that more of a friendship at times, then the petty face to face "friends" we sometimes come across. It's rare to find someone you truely like as a person online, but it happens, and when they are not a part of your life anymore, it hurts just as much. You got to know the "real" person behind the character, and I would say that is true friendship.
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Is it possible that online pals can mean so much to us?
I dont think it matters whether you have met the person or not. If you have spen time with someone, be it on the phone, through the internet, etc, they are still people, and we get to know them. If you're really truely lucky, the masks are off and you dont judge a person by their looks, or what they have. You judge them by who they are, and I consider that more of a friendship at times, then the petty face to face "friends" we sometimes come across. It's rare to find someone you truely like as a person online, but it happens, and when they are not a part of your life anymore, it hurts just as much. You got to know the "real" person behind the character, and I would say that is true friendship.
The relationship meant something to you, and that is the only thing that matters.
Some people can treat "on-line" friends as if they were nothing more then the words that appear on screen, and others are able to move beyond that point, which sounds like what you were able to do.
I'm sorry about your loss.
Some people can treat "on-line" friends as if they were nothing more then the words that appear on screen, and others are able to move beyond that point, which sounds like what you were able to do.
I'm sorry about your loss.
I'm sorry baby, I wish there was something magical to say that would make you feel better.
We meet people through out our lives in one form or another that touch us. It is normal in this day and age to have attachments to people that you haven't physically met. The current level of technology makes that no longer necessary to form a friendship. I would be upset if I lost anyone in my LS, and sad if anyone from the boards here passed. We may only know each other in the bounds of a game, online pen pal, or forum regulars but we develop feelings for the relationship as we know it!
I think anytime someone connected to you passes away it is normal to wonder about your own mortality, and have some loss. If not I would wonder about your perception of death, your ability to acknowledge your emmotions, and reality.
I give anesthesia to patients everyday after just a nominal contact, but I still feel a sense of loss when I hear that a patient has died. Death affects us all.
We meet people through out our lives in one form or another that touch us. It is normal in this day and age to have attachments to people that you haven't physically met. The current level of technology makes that no longer necessary to form a friendship. I would be upset if I lost anyone in my LS, and sad if anyone from the boards here passed. We may only know each other in the bounds of a game, online pen pal, or forum regulars but we develop feelings for the relationship as we know it!
I think anytime someone connected to you passes away it is normal to wonder about your own mortality, and have some loss. If not I would wonder about your perception of death, your ability to acknowledge your emmotions, and reality.
I give anesthesia to patients everyday after just a nominal contact, but I still feel a sense of loss when I hear that a patient has died. Death affects us all.
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your perception of death, your ability to acknowledge your emotions, and reality.
wise wise wise
this is a slice of the meaning of life.
Redyne wrote:
Death affects us all.
Except me, of course. Before I die, I'm transferring my brain into the internet and becoming God.
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Is it possible that online pals can mean so much to us?
I have my own story concerning this question. *Prepares to get rated down into oblivion for the sheer cheeziness of the following post*
About five years ago, back when I still had AOL (ugh), I got a random IM from someone in a chatroom I was in at the time. Essentially, they liked my name (I don't even remember what it was) and just messaged me to tell me. So we talked a bit and hit it off. It turns out that she was the same age as me, lived about six hours away, and had an extremely quirky personality that I became almost immediately attached to. We talked for years afterwards, about anything and everything.
Somewhere along the line one of us admitted to feeling something beyond friendship for the other. We both felt that way, and we talked about meeting. Unfortunately my parents had a "guilty-until-proven-innocent" attitude concerning people online (they would not let me maintain contact with someone beyond IM's/e-mail on the grounds that said person could be a stalker/pedo/whatever.) So, as soon as I moved out of their house, we made plans to meet. I took a Greyhound bus up to her place and spent the weekend there. It was one of the most stressful times of my life; heck, *I* didn't know if she was who she claimed to be. But she was.
After that, being that I have very little experience with relationships, I broke off contact with her out of fear around December 2003. I just didn't know where it was going, and needed time to collect my thoughts. Late last year we began talking again, and now we're planning to meet again. I realized over the time that we were apart that she gave me strength and hope with her unique outlook on life, and that I really couldn't imagine my future without her. She has had *such* a positive impact on my life that I can't even describe it.
So, if you're looking for the answer to your question, I'm a living example of how much people we meet online can influence our lives. I know that many people like to marginalize online contacts as somehow being less than real, as though not seeing someone face-to-face or not even hearing their voice somehow makes online "friends" illusory and even expendable. I can tell you that that is not true. The people are real, the words are real, and the emotions are real. The fact that our contact with them takes place over a computer and not face-to-vace, or even voice-to-voice, does nothing to marginalize that.
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