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Death in a Digital Age

Posted by Amber Ahlborn



No, not the type of death where you can hit start to continue, I mean real death. Some day you will die. Some day I will die. As they say, the one sure thing about life is that it will come to an end. But what the heck does this have to do with video games?

A couple days ago I read this interesting article. It touches on the reality of a digital age where a person's circle of friends and acquaintances extends far beyond the physical neighborhood. The people we buddy up with can be, not simply across the world, but individuals we've never met or even seen. Despite this separation, relationships are formed. So who tells your long time gaming buddies and social network that you've been missing your meet ups, not because you got bored, but because you're dead?

It's a topic I've thought about before, though in a more peripheral sense. I've been sick a few times and though my life wasn't in any danger I sure felt like I was dying. I'd think: if something did happen to me, who'd tell my Mario Kart crew? I imagined a sad little pile of message board IMs piling up in my in-box. As morbid as the topic is, it's rather nice to know there are actually sites like Deathswitch or Slightly Morbid set up to alert people that someone they knew online has passed away.



Related Links:

A Few Thoughts on Graphics

Death of the Rental Store

The Death of Death


+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT

Comments

Roto13 said:

Sometimes I wonder if some of the people I haven't chatted with in years are actually dead. It weirds me out a bit.

March 17, 2009 10:25 PM

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About Amber Ahlborn

Artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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