Quote Originally Posted by Sqwall View Post
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.
I feel you on this. While I've been lucky enough not to lose any of my FFXIV friends, one of my dearest MMO friends passed away back during the WildStar closed beta -- fairly close to the end, too. In earlier phases, we'd gotten into all kinds of mischief together -- much of which he'd immortalized in art. But now in the final beta phase, he'd been falling behind on the beta while most of our group was pushing on (since the later levels really needed some testing love), and was feeling left-out and sad. So I'd left one character -- my primary character, even -- sitting in an early hub, waiting for Bryan to get better and log in.

When I finally logged in that character for the first time after he passed away, I realized I was standing on top of a building. See, the last time I'd been on with that character, I'd taught Bryan a way to glitch-jump up on top of the town hall right at the end of the night, and we'd both logged out there. And for whatever reason, that just suddenly hit me hard and I burst into tears.

(I mean, it didn't help that I was also the one his brother found and contacted to let us know that our friend's "I think I've come down with the flu, I feel lousy, I'm gonna take a few days and rest up" had turned from flu into severe pneumonia, then a hospitalization, then death. So I also had to be the one to tell all of Bryan's other friends what had happened...)

At launch, though, a bunch of us glitched our way up on top of that building and had a little remembrance right where his character had last logged off; we'd all planned to have a big get-together once the game was actually out, and by doing that, it was a little bit like we could still include him.

Having some way to remember a friend can really help, sometimes.