Tombstones, Uncanny Monuments and Epic Quests: Memorials in World of Warcraft

Abstract

Many people are increasingly carrying out more of their social life through online media such as online games. It is unsurprising to find these media are becoming vehicles for expressing grief and for memorializing the dead. In this paper we document a series of memorials found in the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft and outline the repertoire of game elements the game developers have used to build these memorials within the game world. We argue these memorials draw on a range of material and semiotic resources. They use a variety of game elements to produce memorials that resemble and allude to traditional and contemporary forms of memorialization. We also consider how ga..