Everyday, the coronavirus outbreak is claiming lives. To date, over 140,000 people have died as a result from being infected by it. This includes people from all walks of life, one of them being a Final Fantasy XIV gamer. To mourn the player’s death, players in Final Fantasy XIV have held a funeral procession in the game to honor that person.
Players gathered in the Zalera server to mourn the human player of a character named Ferne Le’roy, who recently passed away after being infected by the coronavirus. The players initially held a discussion on Reddit and ultimately decided to host the procession in the game where they were joined by other players from other servers, where it looked like hundreds were in attendance, all dressed in black garb as appropriate for a funeral.
The funeral procession took place in the Central Shroud area which involved 33 minutes of in-game walking, where it ended under the boughs of the Everscade, a holy site in the woods. This is actually not the first time that players have been honored in such a manner inside of video games.
Years ago, players in World of Warcraft also held a funeral for a player who had also passed away (not from the coronavirus). Developers have also held tributes in-game to fallen players, like in World of Warcraft where there was a questline designed to honor a player who had passed away from cancer.