Old School RuneScape players turn out in masses to offer a father comfort and condolences

The sheer leap in technological advancements in our lifetime has been mind-blowing. We went from Commodore 64s to VR glasses in what feels like a heartbeat, but more importantly, the internet. It can be a dark mess, but it also brought hundreds of strangers together to offer a grieving father a modicum of solace. 

Earlier this week, a user by the handle of Gr3g1n4t0r posted a story on Reddit. His son, Ezekiel aka Zeke, was prematurely born a year ago and sadly passed within four months. Gr3g1n4t0r stated their intention to make a pilgrimage to a store in Old School Runescape run by a merchant named Zeke to honour his son. The journey was scheduled to happen a mere hour and 40 minutes from the time of posting.

I am sure we can all guess what happened.

A deluge of random gamers from across the globe all logged on to pay homage to a child they never knew, to help a man they would probably never meet again. Players swamped the shop, put up hearts, planted flowers, and probably gave this shopkeep the payday of a lifetime.

One of the mods, Mod Sarnie, showed up to offer Jagex’s own words of comfort. Even those who could not join were flooding Reddit with condolences. It might not seem like a huge undertaking, but Gr3g1n4t0r was certainly touched by the global tribute.

It is the latest in a long line of examples of gamers all banding together for another member of this incredible worldwide community that anyone can join and reach out to at any time, for any reason. And complete strangers will respond with comfort, advice, or just to offer someone a sense of belonging. 

It is remarkably easy to just relentlessly focus on bad news over good; there is always so much more of the former. Sometimes you just need to take a breath and remember we are just a simple click or tap away from one of the greatest communities in the world.

We gamers are an alright folk, really.