IGN.com remembers Robin Williams

[SpookyDread]

The online community mourns one of its own - Salon.com article

I post there. At one time they were one of the most active forums on the internet along with other gaming forums like game faqs .

On the IGN Entertainment forums, in a raucous under-the-radar section of the site known colloquially as The Vesti, there’s a thread that was started on the morning of Friday, Aug. 8, by a user called DigInTheCrates. It’s titled, “Are people bracing themselves for the fact that Robin Williams will die soon?”

The heading is creepy, but the contents are sincere. DigInTheCrates, along with being an avid gamer, is a Williams superfan who had recently begun to fret about the state of Williams’ health. When another IGN user asked, “Are you going to kill him or something?” DigInTheCrates responded, “He’s old and his health is poor which is why I made this thread. no I don’t plan to kill him you sick weirdos, why would I kill someone I love.”

In retrospect, this bizarre thread looks like an eerie harbinger or an act of the Illuminati, but it’s not surprising that gamers were discussing Williams three and a half days before his death. The online gaming community adores Robin Williams. And not just because he’s funny and geeky-sharp — as are many of these forums’ users, who’ve mastered the rhetorical space between trolling and really good sarcasm. But also because he was, like them, a video game obsessive for whom virtual fantasy was a welcome retreat from the world.

[ramonoski]

A byproduct of this ordeal that might be closer to TLO sensitivities* is that it has sparked some very public (though mostly one-sided) discussions on suicide. For instance, a Guardian article about why suicide isn't a selfish act: Robin Williams's death: a reminder that suicide and depression are not selfish | Dean Burnett | Science | theguardian.com But for each article like that there's a couple thousand other voices clamoring in the opposite direction. To quote Ligotti: "Why can't they accept there are reasons why / suicide is quite simply another way to die?"


*I'm a videogame fan myself, and am aware of Robin Williams and his daughter's involvement in the gaming scene, which was real nice. And yes, much like literature or movies videogames can offer some comfort and escape from reality, however briefly.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[SpookyDread]

I should link this too, there was a discussion on r/occult about what happened on IGN and a number of other people were reporting similar experiences both about Robin Williams, who hasn't been all that relevant for a long time and that is what is really odd about it, and about other celebrities like Michael Jackson . I remember when feeling that too and Peter Steele from Type O Negative as well. What's important I think about memorializing celebrity deaths like Williams is that they're not your average celebrities. It's a memorializing of celebrities who have probably had mystical experiences themselves.

the reddit post on r/occult