Second Life Funeral

[DavidBlaine]

Hello,

I am writing a paper for my university about death in second life. I am looking at the process of mourning the death of a person who has a died a real death within second life. I am interested in the process, funeral homes as well as peoples oppinions about the matter. 

 

Is there anyone on here who would be willing to point me in a direction in terms of information on the subject, or has personal experiences they would like to share? If you don't feel comfortable posting it on here, please email me at nickmelon@gmail.com 

[Kylie Jaxxon]

Wow...intreresting idea!  I don't believe I have seen or heard anything about funerals in SL. 

 

[Cinnamon Lohner]

I would recommend you start with Linden Memorial Park

--Cinn

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:How_do_I_request_a_memorial_event_in_Linden_Memorial_Park%3F

The Linden Memorial Park is designed to be a permanent place for inworld memorials to disasters outside of Second Life that affect our Residents. If you would like to hold a memorial event, we have four Regions available (Highgate/Monument/Derran Moor/Winterspire) within the Linden Memorial Park.

[Void Singer]

there were a couple of semi-well known people that had honorary threads posted in the jive forums general discussion, but I'm not aware of any memorial type services having been done inworld. You might dig through the archives to follow up on those as there may have been (I didn't know either except by reputation, so I didn't follow closely)

ETA:
there IS of course a rather large memorial to former LL employee and some others whose avatars where retired.

[DavidBlaine]

Thank you all for your responses. Does anyone have any information on how I could contact the Groundskeeper of the memorial site?

[Void Singer]

I don't have a link to the land (should be findable by using search), but if you go there you should be able to pull the responsible persons name from the parcel information. if it's group owned, check the group profile for the owner.

wish I could be more direct but my home region is currently acting wacky and I can't stay logged in on any viewer =/

[Griffin Ceawlin]

I've seen announcements inworld of a number of memorial services held for deceased residents, though I've never attended one myself, and occasionally see a blog posting announcing one. There was at least one virtual cemetery inworld, though the sim it used be on, Memoris, no longer shows on the world map (see http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/03/30/second-life-sketches-the-island-of-lost-souls/).

[Ishtara Rothschild]

I think most people die a real death outside of Second Life. I'd hate to think that it was possible to die within SL.

Btw, this reminds me of my time in Star Wars Galaxies, where an entire SWG forum community was planning an RL get together to mourn the supposed death of a fellow player.

I was shunned by everyone because I dared to point out that something was very odd about the story of a dead girl's brother, who had not only found her game and forum login credentials that she kept lying around but also the names of all her friends, and decided to inform everybody of her death. After confirming her RL gender, which had apparently been questioned by some.

Of course the supposedly deceased person came back on a new alt and befriended her old friends all over again, and of course she gave herself away at some point. I remember that I very much enjoyed posting "I told you so". One of the many incidents in my long MMO career that taught me to never trust RL related information, especially when it's a matter of life ("my pet bunny needs a surgery and I don't have the money") and death ("you've all been mean to me and now I died in a car crash, mourn for me suckers").

[Canoro Philipp]

excuse me if its a little Off Topic, but your name remind me of this

"you wanna see some magic?"

[DavidBlaine]

Thank you guys for all your help I really appreciate it. Haha I love those david blaine parody videos.

[Josh Susanto]

I know someone whose RL death has been imminent for a while due to spinal cancer, and yet he continues to spend a great deal of time in SL.

Shall I tell him you're interested in following the process?

It seems like a sick, morbid thing to do, I know. But some intellectual people are surprisingly open-minded about such things. In fact, I suspect he'd be happy to help make internet history by having his RL death closely followed in SL as a cybersocial experiment.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

@Ishtara:

Yes, I've also heard/read stories of residents who supposedly died IRL coming back to (Second) Life. In those cases, their "deaths" followed on the heels of some drama/scandal. I have no reason to believe that the RL deaths that I heard/read memorial announcements for were faked, though.

[Angelique LaFollette]

Unfortunately, Funerals in SL are all too common.

At last count, I've attended ceremonies for five dearly missed friends (And i wrote the services for two more in "The Sims Online").

There is nothing unusual about the sense of grief and loss at the RL death of an on-line friend, and when a member of a tight-knit community passes, it's natural for that community to gather and honour thier friend. I have visited other communities where the death of a member is treated with little interest or regard, but then these other communities weren't very focused on close relationships.

I've never seen a Funeral home in SL, and Frankly the Idea that people might enjoy Roleplaying such a thing seems morbid to me. so far, the funerals i have attended have been family, and community organized, and i think honestly that's the best way.

 

Angel.

[Alaysia Carami]

I was reading these post and just checking things out when I came across your post. There are many funeral homes in Second Life  but they are not advertised per say since they mainly exsist in RP sims.

I am a current owner of Mikael & Macon Funeral home in a RP sim called Avon.

We handle services which surpisingly keep us on our toes.

Some folks have RL friendships, sadly either they hear of a loss or they no longer sign on anymore and friends ususally come to us for closure. Recently, I had an man who claimed his friend has been offline for 2 full years and was not sure if the person made an alt or not. Reguardless , I feel he was looking for closure.

Our services offer many options. He offer Memorial Urns , Prayer Cards with the picture of the person RL or SL .The services we offer are the services that are offered in RL. We have casket lowering devices , funeral processions , coffins , urns  ect.

We post obituarys to the loved ones groups and coordinate service hours around their schedule.

We feel confident in a RP sim since many like to have a Funeral for pets , made up people ect. We keep the RP and RL option always open and our staff goes through RL training on how to deal with greivence .

What ever situation , I think anyone who socialzes had feelings. Some cannot rest without a closure process.

Our Funeral Home is very professional . Its not Dark, it actually feels like a RL funeral home.

So far we booked over 73 funerals since 2013 and it just keeps growing.

Some people see death as a new chapter in the virtual world. For some its justice  and for others is just a curiosity. We are open for business to offer those services to anyone who needs them.

[VanillaSunsets]

When I was a lot more active in-world ( before I became a creator), I have attended some memorials and I lost some friends over time. Memorials are more common then funerals in my experience. Fact that there is no body may be a reason. Afterall, when dead IRL, you cannot log in to have your avatar put to virtual rest. 

The friends lost were mostly due to cancer, sadly. One of these friends I met when he was already diagnosed, I never knew him in a healthy state. It was well known that he was going to die and he was extremely open about that fact. 

Now another aspect of this discussion is the question: Is the person that died really dead? Most of the time it is hard to get any info regarding this unless you are, or know someone, that is close or at least well informed about the RL od the deceased. Most of the time you don't know that much about ppl that you socialize with, sometimes you think you know much about them... You know what they want you to know. 

Also some ppl are just really into RP and fake their own dead, some get into trouble and some just want to start over. And some are just very... sick in the head. In SL there never is "What you see is what you get". 

 

[Andrewv1234]

Thanks for this post.

[CheriColette]

Does your paper,

On 30/04/2011 at 4:16 AM, DavidBlaine said:

about death in second life

also include wills? We invest a lot in our SL Avi's and own land and a lot run a business. I know there is provision for everything to be left to a beneficiary and LL  gives them access to a deceased account. 

Here, I found this for you, 

Linden Lab Official:Death and other worries outside Second Life

[Bree Giffen]

The biggest one I remember was Ginny of Dazzle and Last Call.

[Marianne McCann]

On 4/29/2011 at 11:16 AM, DavidBlaine said:

Hello,

I am writing a paper for my university about death in second life. I am looking at the process of mourning the death of a person who has a died a real death within second life. I am interested in the process, funeral homes as well as peoples oppinions about the matter. 

 

Is there anyone on here who would be willing to point me in a direction in terms of information on the subject, or has personal experiences they would like to share? If you don't feel comfortable posting it on here, please email me at nickmelon@gmail.com 

I'd be willing, though I am in the midst of travel and won't be back to really delve into it til Monday. I think I can help. I was a part of the memorial park (you'll see some of my prims in Varna) and have helped my virtual community during the loss of more than a couple residents (and very much dealt with the grieving process myself). You can catch me inworld at Marianne McCann, too.

[Rhonda Huntress]

Speaking of the dead, did anyone notice the OP date?

[Marianne McCann]

47 minutes ago, Rhonda Huntress said:

Speaking of the dead, did anyone notice the OP date?

 

[Treasure Ballinger]

OMGosh.  Thanks for pointing out the date,  Rhonda.  I was just about to respond about the SL memorial service for my dear RL/SL friend, who died in RL last September.  We did a big service, via Virtual Ability, and it's not our first.   Thanks for the heads up about the necro-post, doubt if this poster is even reading.  

Edited March 22, 2017 by Treasure Ballinger

[CheriColette]

5 hours ago, Rhonda Huntress said:

Speaking of the dead, did anyone notice the OP date?

Noooo I didnt. You are some detective Rhonda  

[Bobbie Faulds]

I'll still post...I'm an admin in an RP sim in SL. We've had players that have passed and we try to remember them. We name shops on the sim after them or we name streets, etc. Most recently we had 2 players pass that had been with the sim almost from the very beginning. We had a wake for them where I gave a short speech remembering what they'd done for the sim, some of the more memorable RP's they'd participated in, etc. i also had, prior to the meeting, gotten pictures from everyone of the players and set them in in a rotating slide show. We all remembered their kindnesses and their foibles. We celebrated their lives and shared what they'd meant to us.

[CheriColette]

I was surfing in youtube and came across this video. I dont know this person but its a moving service...

We Remember Shady Fox