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