Fallen Players immortalized

[Sigma5]

Tiered graveyard per server simple, medium, mausoleum. and dead people should not get to keep their house. That's whack just like the house hoarders but a separate issue.

[Deveryn]

Grief, mourning and remembrance should be left up to each individual. With all the myriad ways and places to remember folks, it really shouldn't fall to game developers to create such a space.

It's almost guaranteed that any kind of public space would eventually be disrespected somehow. People already dance around the stages for The Rising event, which is supposed to be a somber occasion.

[MrSenriren]

This is a good idea

[Misplaced_Marbles]

Tiered graveyard per server simple, medium, mausoleum.

Hey, as long as I can desecrate the mausoleum in true WoL fashion of looking for treasure, go for it. Get some guardian monsters there to discourage that and we're golden.

Oh, you don't want fighting in your game? Hmph.

[Packetdancer]

Memorializing players who we've lost is something that almost every game community tackles in one way or another. Here in FFXIV we've had memorial walks for some well-loved players, and so on. Most games never really have a formal way to memorialize them, partly because the logistics can be complicated at best. Make an in-game monument memorializing fallen players, which people can get names added to? Now you need someone to review all those submissions and add them. Make it automated? Now you have people who are going to abuse the system to scrawl immature graffiti onto the in-game memorial. (C'mon, we all know it would happen.)

There are exceptions, mind you. EVE Online in particular had some of the most touching (and also weirdest) ways to memorialize people, from cyno vigils (in some ways, the most poetic and haunting player memorial tradition I've encountered in any game, given that you basically come together to light a memorial candle to the fallen so bright that it is, for a brief time, a new star -- or a lighthouse to guide them safely to shore on their final journey) to the player-created and run Molea Cemetery, which the devs turned into an official thing about two years ago. But many of those are facilitated by being in games like EVE where players can influence the game-world, such as building structures or putting down objects or whatnot. Witness that the cemetery consists of cargo pods jettisoned to orbit around a monument, with each pod having its name changed to a short eulogy remembering the fallen.

(Mind you, they can also face unique threats due to the nature of those worlds as well -- witness how many times various troublemakers tried to nuke the Molea Cemetery.)

Given the nature of FFXIV as a game (and the realities of the engine), what would almost make more sense is a picture frame where you can just tell it to display the portrait of a given character in the fashion of their Lodestone image -- whether or not the character is currently active. It doesn't have to be specific to a memorial, so you don't need any sort of review process or way to "prove" the character belongs to a deceased player; people could just as easily use it to put a portrait of themselves up in their house or have a portrait hall of the FC officers in an FC house or whatever. And you could limit the number of these dynamic portraits you could put up in one estate, so no one drags a housing server to a crashing halt by trying to put several hundred of them up in one spot, all pulling player portraits dynamically from the Lodestone. But even those limitations would still allow people to make little memorial spots within their house or FC house. Obviously, it leaves out folks who don't have housing, which is not ideal; we already have enough systems gated on home ownership (plant crossbreeding, FC workshops, etc.), and it irks me a bit to even suggest adding one more.

But otherwise, any real options for in-game memorials will often rely on the creativity of the players themselves... as with EVE's cyno vigils. (Or as with folks I've seen who create a person's character as a retainer and put the retainer in the FC house yard or whatever, so that the person is symbolically still around and remembered.)

[Serenitey]

We had one our raiders pass away to cancer....and I can't think of the character they spent so much time with just....vanishing...

I would love this. A friend of mine did and it would be nice if they would add a graveyard and maybe only certified accounts with a players death can register a tombstone in it? Something like that.

[Sqwall]

(Mind you, they can also face unique threats due to the nature of those worlds as well -- witness how many times various troublemakers tried to nuke the Molea Cemetery.)

Given the nature of FFXIV as a game (and the realities of the engine), what would almost make more sense is a picture frame where you can just tell it to display the portrait of a given character in the fashion of their Lodestone image -- whether or not the character is currently active. It doesn't have to be specific to a memorial, so you don't need any sort of review process or way to "prove" the character belongs to a deceased player; people could just as easily use it to put a portrait of themselves up in their house or have a portrait hall of the FC officers in an FC house or whatever. And you could limit the number of these dynamic portraits you could put up in one estate, so no one drags a housing server to a crashing halt by trying to put several hundred of them up in one spot, all pulling player portraits dynamically from the Lodestone. But even those limitations would still allow people to make little memorial spots within their house or FC house. Obviously, it leaves out folks who don't have housing, which is not ideal; we already have enough systems gated on home ownership (plant crossbreeding, FC workshops, etc.), and it irks me a bit to even suggest adding one more.

But otherwise, any real options for in-game memorials will often rely on the creativity of the players themselves... as with EVE's cyno vigils. (Or as with folks I've seen who create a person's character as a retainer and put the retainer in the FC house yard or whatever, so that the person is symbolically still around and remembered.)

(Trimmed down your quote.)

Love the direction here. I can't think a more touching way to build a community and a strong bond then coming together to remember those that we have lost. I had a player I ran with for nearly 6 years on FFXI pass away, and back then it was during a time in my life when I was very much alone. I saw them as a close friend and companion that I could get into crazy adventures with. I didn't think for a second what would it feel like to lose that connection and how much it would impact me.

I was lost....

Logging in just hurt. Knowing that I couldn't talk to him and ask him "What should we do today?". It was like I lost a friend that you only saw during the summer when you were growing up. You never forget them.

It reminds me of Haurchefant's grave....if I had just a place or something I could turn to pay respects and have it remind me to carry on...and find that next adventure. I would have a much deeper connection to the game.

I think a picture of the last lodestone image is perfect for this instance! Even if it was just a simple bitmap at 50k...it's a start.

[Voidedge_Ragna]

And how is SE meant to track this, for them all they see is "subscription ends" they see no "why". Do you want them to look at death certificate's? Or what ever proof can be given.

If no proof is required players will make an alt, end its subscription and demand a grave/monument etc. We life in a world in which players abuse all things to get benefits or superficial benefits sadly.

I'm not sure this would translate well into the game even though the idea would be nice and those players that were lost would love it and deserve it, but would you chase down their families for a death certificate? And if no proof is required players will abuse it.

[Sqwall]

And how is SE meant to track this, for them all they see is "subscription ends" they see no "why". Do you want them to look at death certificate's? Or what ever proof can be given.

If no proof is required players will make an alt, end its subscription and demand a grave/monument etc. We life in a world in which players abuse all things to get benefits or superficial benefits sadly.

I'm not sure this would translate well into the game even though the idea would be nice and those players that were lost would love it and deserve it, but would you chase down their families for a death certificate? And if no proof is required players will abuse it.

I agree about the abuse of this. That's why I didn't have a good solution. Good idea...difficult execution.

[Havenchild]

Honestly, they don't need to interpret this for anyone and just allow stylized character creation screenshots to be portraits in a housing item.

That doesn't hurt anyone and fulfills the potential purpose here.

Btw this is a great idea. We have a FC leader that randomly vanished on us one day without a word. Still in the FC obv but was a good friend to all of us. We woud love to have a furnishing we could frame of his character.