[An interesting example of ‘telepresence after death’ (Lombard & Selverian) from Polygon]
Son races deceased father’s ghost in Xbox racer, makes internet cry
By Danielle Riendeau on Jul 23, 2014
This is the most heart-warming video game ghost story I’ve ever heard. According to a post on Motoramic, a YouTube commenter that goes by 00WARTHERAPY00 shared a supernaturally touching story about racing their father’s ghost in Xbox racer RalliSport Challenge, 10 years after he had passed.
On a spooky note — The Besties actually conceived of this very scenario years before this happened — check out their total pre-cog moment starting at 33:45.
Note: spelling and punctuation have been preserved from the post:
Well, when i was 4, my dad bought a trusty XBox. you know, the first, ruggedy, blocky one from 2001. we had tons and tons and tons of fun playing all kinds of games together – until he died, when i was just 6.
i couldnt touch that console for 10 years.
but once i did, i noticed something.
we used to play a racing game, Rally Sports Challenge. actually pretty awesome for the time it came.
and once i started meddling around… i found a GHOST.
literaly.
you know, when a time race happens, that the fastest lap so far gets recorded as a ghost driver? yep, you guessed it – his ghost still rolls around the track today.
and so i played and played, and played, untill i was almost able to beat the ghost. until one day i got ahead of it, i surpassed it, and…
i stopped right in front of the finish line, just to ensure i wouldnt delete it.
Bliss.
Judging from subsequent comments, 00WARTHERAPY00 wasn’t necessarily looking for attention with their comment, they just wanted to share the story.
The NeoGAF thread I spied this on was ripe with crying gifs and personal stories from other gamers. It’s a nice reminder, especially given the toxicity of some aspects of game culture, of the humanity behind games and their place as a hobby we can share with one another.
[A TIME story on the same topic concludes with this: “I couldn’t locate that comment in the YouTube story, but I was able to track it back to an Imgur capture someone posted to a Reddit thread (a month old — this story isn’t breaking, and the PBS YouTube video ran back in May), which itself contains several moving stories by various users of their interactions with lost loved ones through left-behind, gaming-related experiences.”]
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