In Destiny , a group of players fulfilled their dying friend’s last wish: to see the Lighthouse once.
Mike Mariana has played Destiny since the beta and along the way made good friends with Tim and Elliot. But as it goes: over time, every game gets boring, and the players drifted apart, losing touch – only Mike remained and continued to play Destiny.
When Tim checked in again one day, he met Mike, who had meanwhile been diagnosed with colon cancer. Mike said that Destiny was the only game he could still play. He felt unwell with all others.
In the meantime, Mike had spent 2800 hours in Destiny, played all three classes, but one goal remained elusive: the Lighthouse on Mercury. Only those who remain undefeated in the Trials of Osiris can reach this mythical place. The Trials of Osiris are Destiny’s elite PvP, where Guardians compete against each other every weekend under set rules. Only a fraction of all Guardians manage to complete the Trials flawlessly and reach Mercury.
And lately, this has become increasingly difficult.
Mike simply wasn’t good enough, like many others, to achieve that.
His friends, Tim and Elliot, tried everything to fulfill this wish for Mike, but it just wasn’t enough: They failed time and again, unable to reach Mercury.
Adding to this was the fact that cancer was taking its toll on Mike. It became increasingly difficult for him to play his beloved Destiny.
Since they couldn’t manage it themselves, Tim and Elliot sought help from a well-known streamer. They knew that Benjamin Lupo, known as DrLupo, could take players to Mercury and did so regularly on the streaming service Twitch. They asked him for help.
Lupo made sure there was some truth to the story, grabbed Mike, and brought him to Mercury during a 24-hour charity stream for the “Make a Wish” foundation. “Make a Wish” fulfills a last wish for terminally ill children.
During the stream, Mike spoke about his battle with cancer. Just before he made it to Mercury, Mike said on the stream that he had just learned that the cancer had spread to his brain and liver. Recently, he had been able to play little Destiny as he was recovering from surgery. But now he was just happy to be able to play with his friends again.
For Mike, cancer was just another hurdle to overcome, his friends recounted. But he couldn’t win this battle. Mike made it to Mercury in early 2017, when DrLupo did the live stream. As reported by the US site Kotaku, Mike passed away in the last week.
Mike’s family has set up a mourning fund. After DrLupo made contact and shared the link in the Destiny community, the goal of $5000 was quickly reached and far exceeded since then.
Mike’s friends are not surprised by how generous the community is: While most communities in other games often focus on negative things, the Destiny community is generous and friendly.
Here is the link to the mourning fund of Mike’s family on Youcaring.
The impact of Destiny on some players is also reflected in this story:
