Letting go of lost loved ones is never easy. They linger in our hearts and minds. One Skyrim player has taken to loading up his deceased brother’s Skyrim file, reliving the last moments he spent in the game. That inspired a modder to make his brother’s character immortal.
The mod is titled Bear: In Memory of Taylor, and it adds a shrine to Taylor (that Taylor’s character will occasionally visit) at his last in-game stop. It’s a touching tribute born of a community’s kindness, which culminated in a powerfully understated work from modder Sjogga.
It all started with a Reddit thread, in which Taylor’s brother, who goes by the handle lastrogu3, claimed that Taylor died in a tragic drowning accident in 2013, leaving behind a wife and an extended family who cared deeply about him. To keep Taylor’s memory alive, lastrogu3 said he frequently takes in his brother’s final view of Skyrim‘s world. As he put it:
“The only time I ever play a game on a console anymore is to use his Xbox to sign into his account, boot up Skyrim, and just sit there looking at the last thing he saw in the game. I never move his character, save, or do anything since it wouldn’t be his character anymore. He is frozen in time just like my young brother was.”
It’s the little things, especially, that speak volumes about a person, and lastrogu3 thinks the way his brother played Skyrim is a perfect example of that. He continued:
“Taylor always had his sidekick with him. He never moved on in the game without him, if anything ever happened to his follower(s) he would always load back from a save point to make sure they made it. This is kind of like how Taylor was in real life. He always made sure to include you in what he was doing with a ‘No friend left behind’ attitude towards life.”
That in mind, Sjogga made sure to include Taylor’s character’s sidekick in the mod too. Both will visit the shrine from time-to-time when they’re not chilling in Sovngarde, Skyrim‘s cold-as-steel Nordic warrior afterlife.
It really is an incredibly nice thing, an example of the way games can help us both connect with other people (even those we’ve lost) and do each other profound kindnesses, just because. It also ventures into the odd territory of an increasingly common conundrum: what happens when our virtual lives outlive us? Who inherits them? What do they become? In this case, Taylor’s brother accepted that responsibility with love, respect, and reverence. But what about accounts, characters, and legacies in online games? Or online services? Will game makers be willing to pass them on to family members? Can they? Should they?
These are not easy questions to answer, but for now let’s put them aside. A moment of silence for Taylor, who seems like he was a pretty awesome guy. May your adventures always be grand, wherever they take you.
Comments
4 responses to “Skyrim Modders Help Man Who Says He’s Mourning His Brother”
“He is frozen in time just like my young brother was.”
Oh god. This is beautiful and sad and lovely all at once.
I can’t even imagine how I would handle either of my brothers passing before me. That’s my right as eldest/most reckless, not having to deal with grief.
One thing’s for sure… there really needs to be a system for the passing down of accounts.
We, as a society, may not have a template of memes for what to actually do with those accounts once we have them, but… there are memories tied up in those things. Hopes. Fantasies. Goals. All unfulfilled, never to be achieved.
I thought about including a “Next of Kin” textbox in an account registration form once. Essentially, my theory was, upon registration the user would put their own details in and add an email address of a friend or relative. When registered, two emails were sent out. One for the account owner and all that jargon, the other to the next of kin.
NoK email would essentially be “you’ve been nominated by [x] to take control of their account should they pass away. Please verify if you’d like to do this [link yes] [link no].” If they replied “No”, the users account would get a warning: “Your nominated Next of Kin has not agreed to handle your accounts affairs should you pass away. Please nominate another. This message will disappear upon compliance.”
But then I ran into a slew of technical issues. Starting with: “How do I, as a developer, know when an account user has actually died?”
I think that’s the big hurdle. It’d be a MASSIVE exploit for griefers to take control of accounts without death certificates, even if you are limiting the griefer-pool to people who have been nominated as and accepted the role of next of kin.