Care in the Community

PCZone offers a feature looking at the community growing potential of MMOs.

“There was one in Guild Wars,” begins Weekes. “The community had become aware that a player had passed away in a car crash. This guy was one of the more creative players too, always posting up Guild Wars-related art on the forum. The community kept his art alive.”

“I’ve seen a few occasions where players will gather just to talk about a person who’s died,” adds Koonen, “or just to sit peacefully and mourn, before moving on.”

“It wasn’t a funeral,” adds Kerstein, “but among the Guild Wars alpha testers – the guys who test the game in the background – there was one girl who was really sick and had to have a couple of operations. When she finally recovered, she came back and said that the support her fellow players gave her, people she’d probably never even met in real life, helped her to pull through. So we see stuff like that as well, it’s just amazing.”