In The Lord of the Rings Online, there was a large memorial service last weekend in honor of the deceased player Ron and his character Tinki. The player was well-known for his great helpfulness, and many players dyed their clothes bright yellow in his memory.
If you encountered larger groups of players dressed in bright yellow this weekend in The Lord of the Rings Online, it had a sad background. Yellow was the favorite color of the recently deceased player Ron, whose character, the hobbit Tinki, always wore yellow clothes along with a top hat.
Ron was an extremely active member of the guild “Lonely Mountain Band” and had a reputation across the server for being an extremely helpful and friendly player. Therefore, the guild decided to invite all players to a large memorial service in the game under the hashtag #YellowforTinki (post in the LotRO forum). All participants were to dye their clothes yellow and share stories about Tinki to music and buff food.
A participant summarized the events as follows: “There was a reason why Tinki was so well-known in the community, even among those who did not know him personally. His reputation was that he was always extremely helpful to anyone in need. So much so that he even stood out in a community that is famous for such kindness.”
Mein-MMO says: You often hear about trolls, flamers, and haters in online role-playing games and other MMOs, but such actions repeatedly and clearly demonstrate that online guilds in MMORPGs are not just faceless and soulless communities, but in many cases hardly differ from a real circle of friends or club. What do you think of such actions? Touching signs of sympathy, or do you find such memorial services in games rather undignified?
