Vile Rat: Spontaneous Shrines in EVE Online Martin R. Gibbs Interaction Design Lab Computing and Information Systems The University of Melbourne martin.gibbs@unimelb.edu.au Marcus Carter Interaction Design Lab Computing and Information Systems The University of Melbourne marcusc@unimelb.edu.au Joji Mori Interaction Design Lab Computing and Information Systems The University of Melbourne joji@jojimo.com ABSTRACT Grassroots or vernacular forms of commemoration such as roadside memorials and spontaneous shrines that appear in the wake of national tragedies have emerged in recent decades as legitimate and ritualized public expressions of grief. Consistent with this trend is the phenomena of online game communities appropriating game mechanics for commemorative practices within game worlds. In this paper, we discuss the spontaneous shrines created in EVE Online to commemorate the sudden death of Vile Rat, a prominent member of the EVE community. We suggest that these in-game commemorations are creative appropriations of game mechanics that hybridized and translated traditional and contemporary tropes for grieving, commemorating and memorializing to enact innovative mourning rituals in a new media space. We conclude by discussing the salient qualities of EVE which enable and facilitate such collective and meaningful commemoration and speculate towards the player-driven memorialization as a design space in MMOGs. Keywords EVE Online; Death; Memorialization; Commemoration; Vile Rat; Sean Smith; Benghazi; MMORPG; Spontaneous Shrines. 1. INTRODUCTION On the 11 th of September 2012 the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked several times by a large number of armed militia. Four American personnel were killed in the attacks, including the U.S Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and Sean Smith, a Foreign Services Information Management Officer with ten years experience, a husband and father of two young children [3]. Two embassy security personnel, Tyrone Wood and Glen Doherty also died [4]. Sean Smith, aka Vile Rat, was also a prominent figure in the game, EVE Online. Vile Rat was a key senior member of the alliance Goon Swarm Fleet, and its many incarnations (all Goon alliances etc. referred to as GSF hereafter in this paper). He was a former elected member of the game’s Council of Stellar Management (CSM) and was a moderator on the GSF’s ‘home’; the Something Awful forums. News of the Benghazi attacks and of the death of American personnel was reported widely. In the mass media, obituaries and reports on Sean Smith rarely failed to mention his involvement in EVE Online alongside his career in the State Department, and the wife and two children he left behind. Obituaries also followed from CCP, the developers of EVE Online, moderators on the Something Awful forums, and from Mittani, leader of GSF and former chairman of the EVE Online CSM. Commemorative comments on various blog and forum threads dedicated to Vile Rat quickly ran to thousands of posts in length. A charitable fund for Sean’s family was organized on the crowd-sourced fundraiser site YouCaring and raised $25,000 within 12 hours, eventually collecting $127,001 from 2,634 supporters. A Wikipedia page dedicated to Sean Smith as a notable person was quickly established, and within EVE Online players, using various game resources, constructed and performed a range of commemorative acts in his honor. In this paper we examine the mobilization of various game features, mechanics and resources to create memorials and perform commemorative acts in Vile Rat’s honor within the EVE Online game world. We argue that these practices resemble other forms of vernacular, or ‘grassroots’ [11], commemorative practices that often follow deaths, tragedies and disasters. While the specific form and materials used were idiosyncratic to EVE Online, these commemorative acts draw on ritual forms and symbolic repertoire common to other forms of spontaneous and improvised memorializations. This instance suggests further possibility for the consideration of memorialization tools in game design. In the concluding section of this paper we point to future avenues of analysis for this case study. 2. VERNACULAR COMMEMORATION AND SPONTANEOUS SHRINES In recent years, scholars have studied emerging forms of mortuary, ritual and commemorative practices that are less bound to institutions such as the church, and more meaningfully connected with everyday experiences and activities [11] [15]. Examples of alternative secular ritual practices of these kinds include roadside memorials [2]; memory fences such as those found at sites of national tragedy such as the Oklahoma bombing or the World Trade Centre [6]; and the AIDS quilt. Throughout the 60s and 70s mourning became an increasingly privatized and individualized practice, and traditional and formal rites that made mourning a public and community affair waned [15]. As mourning became less of a formal social obligation, or duty, and became more private, less ritualized and more personal, opportunities for public expressions and acknowledgement of personal grief also declined [9]. This waning, along with increasing emphasis placed on the expression of individual authenticity and personal identity gave rise to new ritualized forms of public mourning and expressions of grief that were more informal, individualized and varied [15], and were increasingly disconnected from traditional sacred institutions. Makeshift memorials and spontaneous shrines are important forms of these new ritualized practices for public mourning. Makeshift memorials and spontaneous shrines are two common terms used to refer to the practice of depositing and carefully arranging various kinds of materials and memorabilia in public spaces in response to someone’s death or other tragic events [11] [13]. These practices came into widespread public consciousness