I have to say, to anyone who may have thought I was "attempting" to take away from a memory a an individual, I was not. I was meerly pointing out there are other individuals who meant alot to other people involved with the game.
It seems to me the AH community has forgotten some of the formidable persons lost in the past 5 years I personally have been here (some even in the past 12 months).
a memorial plaque in the "o'club" in game is perfect, and a just remembrance to those lost. It is impersonal, and can be possibly kept up to date with names formally submitted in some way. As mentioned by others a "map" made for the remembrance of a player was "player" made, and thus should be IMHO. things of that nature can not be the responsibility of the game creators, as then they are deciding who is "worthy" and not.
that is NOT something I believe Dale, Doug, Roy and the others need to have on their shoulders.
to be honest though, how do you "officially" get a name on the plaque?
do you have to have "made a contribution" to the game / community? what if you were a 2-weeker, who passed before you could officially join, and a member of your family came to HTC Inc. and asked about memorializing them? the pressure that puts on the HTC staff is not acceptable. what do they do, ask for an official death certificate?
you see this is not an easy question to answer. the staff of HTC being "impartial" to this is almost absolute in my opinion. it is not about fame, sorrow, popularity, disdain, remorse, greatfulness, respect, hatred, or any other emotionally suggested thought.
they MUST be impartial (probably legally) for the sheer fact they are a business. that may sound cold and callous, but it is not. It is simplely being impartial to the whole situation for their sake.
requesting something from them is not wrong, and is probably encouraged in the fact the even take player suggestions seriously on most every aspect of the game. they have proven that they do.
this circumstance falls into a category that is out of the normal realm.
the original reason I posted in the topic was to attempt to show (in a completely impartial view) how do you choose to respect a certain player, and choose to not respect another? is it a popularity contest? number of posts wins? we ALL know only about 25% of the member base even reads the board, let alone posts on it. is it how "influential" the member was? that is totally impartial, as some of the founding members of squads that are still here over 15 years have passed, I'd say that is quite "influential" to the game and the way the community relates / plays together.
I guess to sum it up, if you as individuals or a community want to do something to remember a fellow person who has passed, please do so, it has been shown to be encouraged by the whole community, and I personally would love to be a part of any such remembrance...
to throw such a thing on HTC INC.'s shoulders though I feel is not a proper thing. they simplly do what they do, and run an online game which we all feel attached to in one way or another, some more than others.
If you feel in some way I have attempted to "disrespect" 68KO I apologize, as that is not my intention here. I am merely attempting to point out the difficulties in what many of you are asking, from my own point of view. I have only been in the flight sim community for 5 years, and many have been around a LONG time before me, so I may be totally off-base, I only felt the need to show the "flip side" of the matter. this is in NO way attempting to be callous about the loss of a member of the community, I personally regret, and mourn 68KO's loss, and my deepest and most heartfelt sympathies go out to all of his friends and family, as I stated in the original post documenting the loss.
<> all I think all I can say has been said here.
