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City of Heroes Players Honor Christopher Reeve

Posted by Zonk on from the some-mmog-folk-have-social-skills dept.

Thanks to Gamespot for the quick blurb about City of Heroes players honoring Christopher Reeve, who passed away recently. The Superhero Massive Game has been awash in showings of respect. Screens and commentary can be found on CoH Warcry for the past several days.

40 comments

  1. best honor is to GET HIS NAME RIGHT by stoutstreet · · Score: 4, Informative

    REEVE

    1. Re:best honor is to GET HIS NAME RIGHT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You saved me the trouble, thank you!

  2. Sometimes... by cephyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...things like this feel "too little too late" -- I mean sure, its great to memorialize him now. But wouldn't it have been better to do this while he was alive? As a tribute to the work he has done for spinal cord injury patients? So many people are remembered and properly honored after they are dead. A tragedy.

    Does he get to see this? no. Does anyone in his family? I hope so, but I have no idea if they'd understand it.

    It's a great gesture. A great idea. Just misguided if you ask me. We all would be better served if players donated one month of the CoH subscription fee to his charity.

    --
    Moo.
    1. Re:Sometimes... by jeffehobbs · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...things like this feel "too little too late" -- I mean sure, its great to memorialize him now. But wouldn't it have been better to do this while he was alive?

      I look forward to your upcoming Abe Vigoda tribute.

      A tribute is a tribute. There's plenty of things in this world to second-guess, but not stuff like this. If it makes people feel better about the loss of someone that meant something to them, let it be.

      ~jeff

    2. Re:Sometimes... by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      It's a great gesture. A great idea. Just misguided if you ask me. We all would be better served if players donated one month of the CoH subscription fee to his charity.

      I was thinking something similar: "Gee, that's nice, but it would've been nicer if the tribute was outside a friggin' game". Don't get me wrong; like you, i found it a great gesture. It just feels... dunno... lazy.

    3. Re:Sometimes... by cephyn · · Score: 2, Insightful

      feeling better is great. but doing something and making the world better is greater. but you're right -- it's your choice. To me, an empty gesture or weak gesture when an obviously better one is right in front of you is worse than no gesture. Do it right, or not at all. If I did some half-assed war memorial, don't you think some vets would be pissed? Do something to try and better the world (donate) instead of just feeling better -- that's the greatest gesture of all.

      --
      Moo.
    4. Re:Sometimes... by Babbster · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think it's great that you offered tributes to Christopher Reeve while he was still alive and I'm sure that both he and his family appreciated them. I'm sure that they also appreciated all the money you gave to, and raised for, his cause. Now, why don't you just take quiet pride in your great benevolence and not take pot shots at other people who, for whatever reason, and in whatever fashion, were paying tribute to a guy now taking a dirt nap?

    5. Re:Sometimes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...things like this feel "too little too late" -- I mean sure, its great to memorialize him now. But wouldn't it have been better to do this while he was alive?

      Caring too little too late. That sounds like the story of his life: he didn't care about spinal injuries until AFTER he had one himself. He certainly wasn't the first person with one, so why did he suddenly care so much only after he himself got one? So many people only care about something after it becomes their problem too; this is not something special about Reeve. Without that injury, he never would have cared about paralysis victims. He never cared about diseases that he never personally expierenced. If he did, THAT might be a sign of honest charity.
      He spent so much time and money on spinal injury research because he couldn't get over his own injury to move on with his life and because he selfishly wanted a cure for himself.

      Cashing in on the publicity was just a fringe benefit. Publicity that various media corporations helped him cash in on. Media corporations that make money on emotional (as opposed than rational) news.

    6. Re:Sometimes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This isn't actually true at all. One of his last roles was as a cop, given a spinal injury by a bullet. He was well aware of the issues before his accident.

    7. Re:Sometimes... by cephyn · · Score: 1

      No. Reeve wanted a cure, he wanted people NOT to have to suffer the injury. So helping find a cure is the greatest gesture, not a self-inflicted wound. Nice try though!

      --
      Moo.
    8. Re:Sometimes... by cephyn · · Score: 1

      and he reached out to people without spinal injuries to make them aware. so help now, before you have a spinal cord injury -- don't wait. That was his message, and it's respectful to his legacy to listen. now.

      --
      Moo.
    9. Re:Sometimes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet, after that role, he didn't actually do anything to support paralysis victims, let alone start a foundation. That only happened AFTER his own accident. He played the role and still ignored them.

    10. Re:Sometimes... by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "But wouldn't it have been better to do this while he was alive?"

      When he was alive he was working towards a goal, and such a tribute would therefore have been premature. In short, he simply wasn't done yet and I doubt he'd be able to accept such a tribute because of it.

    11. Re:Sometimes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be like martyrdom. The ultimate sacrafice.
      That expierence should transform the subject: to care deeply about the injury-- it transformed Reeve didn't it?
      It would get someone that doesn't give a shit about paralysis to deeply and sincerely care about it. Just like Reeve.

      IN FACT, the best way to get people to care about paralysis is to go around giving as many other people quadroplegia as possible. You would have a great number of motivated individuals to raise awareness about the condition (assuming they survive). Not to mention the others close to the victims, they would create publicity too. After the sieral paralyzer is cought, he can beg the court to bestow the gift of awareness of paralysis upon him by inflicting it on himself.
      Reeve liked publicity, and now you can continue his legacy.

      In the long term, treatments and cure for paralysis will be found the fasest with a large pool of needy victims. More victims -> greater attention, more pressure, more profit for corps -> faster cure. The fastest way to get a cure for paralysis is to cause as many cases as possible in the sort term so the cultural motivation for finding treatment is present for the long term.

      So if Reeve's actual top priority was for finding a cure, then he would be for a plan like this.

    12. Re:Sometimes... by SandSpider · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What, you think that the people who played COH didn't, in some way or another, worship him while he was alive? You don't think that millions of movie goers and comic book readers, when asked to imagine superman in real life, didn't think of Christopher Reeve?

      Christopher Reeve was a living legend, and many, many people extended sympathy and support when he had his accident. I've read in several places, including here, that the reason people are hit by Reeve's death more than, say, Rodney Dangerfield was not because of a difference in, er, respect for the two men, but because people were really expecting him to walk again, and it's sad that now we'll never be able to see that.

      I have no doubt that the Christopher Reeve Spinal Injury Foundation has been able to raise tremendous amounts of money both before and after his death in the aid of finding a cure.

      I'm not a religious man, but what if there is an afterlife, and what if he does get to see the respect that people give him, even though he's dead? And do you think that people in his family, if they do find out about this, are in some way going to feel bad or even not feel better to find out that a large group of people want to pay their respects to their recently lost family member? Unless he ended up bitter at having been remembered as Superman, there's no reason why his family shouldn't appreciate this.

      Also, there's no reason why they can't both honor him and donate to his foundation.

      Let the man have his legacy, and let people remember him for both his work to cure spinal cord injuries and for the pleasure he brought them, letting people know that it's okay to be a good guy and a super hero.

      =Brian

      --
      There is nothing so good that someone, somewhere, will not hate it.
    13. Re:Sometimes... by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      This was the same argument that Maddox exposed in his site. I love Maddox; most of the time he is insigthful and bitter, but he's wrong this time.

      You didn't knew the man before the accident. You didn't knew how he was after the accident. This isn't a sympathy call; you simply don't know what happened through his mind. But the fact that he cared to open a foundation to help people with his problem is something to be very respectful of. Personally, i don't think he thought his foundation would be of any help to him in his lifetime.
      Hm. You can't help everyone at the time. It's a fact, you can't be everywhere and help everyone, you only have two hands. Why he started the foundation, well, your guess is as good as mine, but instead of sitting on all his publicity money (and the one he made before), he decided to help someone else. He in the process? Of course. But yet, he did his part. He should get, at the very least, the benefit of doubt. Don't call the man selfish because you didn't knew if he cared about a disease before hand. You know you don't for quite a few aswell.

      Think of that before bashing someone whose legacy will help a lot of people in the future.

    14. Re:Sometimes... by tsa · · Score: 1

      You're right. He really was a superman. But I guess if your life is hard due to health problems you have to stay out of the spotlights, and then people easily forget you.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    15. Re:Sometimes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you miss the point,

      We are not talking about a Science foundation. We are talking about a Superhero game. Reeve is known as Superman. In this aspect he is being acknolwedged.

      If it wasn't for Reeve putting a human face on Superman there may have not been such a massive following of superhero's or even fictional characters to look up to.

  3. Reeve by Bob_Robertson · · Score: 1

    Bummer. I didn't know he'd died.

    --
    The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
  4. PvP tribute by Lord+Dreamshaper · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is a really nice tribute

    --
    When all of your wishes have been granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed - Marilyn Manson
    1. Re:PvP tribute by Atomic+Punk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      GUComics also had a nice one..
      http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?c date=20 041011

  5. Also on PvP Forums... by antdude · · Score: 3, Informative

    See this forum thread for more screen shots.

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  6. That's rather distasteful, so here's mine by LSD-OBS · · Score: 4, Funny

    Q: What's the opposite of Christopher Reeve?
    A: Christopher Walken.

    --
    Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
    1. Re:That's rather distasteful, so here's mine by CoffeeJedi · · Score: 1

      that joke needs more cowbell

      --
      May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage. RAmen.
    2. Re:That's rather distasteful, so here's mine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      for the humor-challenged, please explain?

    3. Re:That's rather distasteful, so here's mine by LSD-OBS · · Score: 1

      This guy might help you out

      --
      Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
  7. MOD PARENT DOWN REDUNDANT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmmm, this one is funny, but the other one posted EARLIER is flamebait??

    Certain moderators need to start browsing at -1. A -1 threshold should be a requirement to use mod points. It's not as if this story has hundreds/thousands of posts to wade through.

    OOO look! A THIRD redundant link to that page! It needs a -1 redundant rating too. Remember, anything after the first one (sorted by DATE+TIME) is redundant.

  8. Alternatively by talaphid · · Score: 1

    The world would be a better place if all City of Heroes players - no, all MMO* subscribers - up and cancelled their subscriptions, instead giving their money to the Red Cross / $charity and devoting every waking moment to becoming/being a research scientist dedicated to curing $ailment.

    Continuing this line, is your internet connection necessary for the embetterment of your fellow humans? I think someone is just a little misguided, if you ask me. You could cancel your internet access (are you curing cancer with your career in IT?), and instead... see above.

    Alternatively, we can recognize that we're all very selfish and celebrate those few hiccups in our atavistic souls that vaguely resemble charity. Like a bunch of MMO* subscribers wearing red capes as a tribute to their ubermensch.

    As an aside, just so this potshot is known to not be from the entirely cheap seats, I donate more than my City of Heroes subscription fee in terms of my own time to charity monthly. Sure, I'm not curing cancer, but I think I earn a free pass on wearing my red cape this week in honor of him.

    1. Re:Alternatively by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Continuing this line, is your internet connection necessary for the embetterment of your fellow humans?

      Well, he's using it for posting on slashdot, so I think the answer should be obvious.

    2. Re:Alternatively by cephyn · · Score: 1

      I work for a non-profit organization dedicated to curing something. So yeah, I do my part with my career in IT. Thanks for asking!

      Glad you also donate your time to charity monthly, you are hereby exempt from my comment. My point was that if all you do is salute Reeve in a game, online, you're dishonoring his legacy more than honoring it. He would have, I'd be, preferred a donation than a video game salute.

      --
      Moo.
  9. blue oyster cult! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL

  10. No respect! by Comrade64 · · Score: 1

    Someone mentioned Rodney Dangerfield..well he still gets no respect in death...as for the 'saluting' of Mr. Reeve in game. It was too insane. Lot's of AFK characters saluting the flag with a somewhat shallow tribute. No one was talking about his accomplishments except for in defense to people who thought it was a lame idea to stand there honoring him, which it was, but only because it dragged out so long and people acted like it was Mother Theresa dying. He was an actor who played Superman, a role many other actors have played very well, and he was a human being. What a shallow way to honor a Princeton grad who had better roles than Superman.

    I'll admit being a slight hypocrite...I honored him in game with a single salute, then I moved on. I saw players who kept up their salute for hours, probably afk, but a good many who weren't. But what the heck...it's their $15 a month..right?

    Maybe I'll start a 'MMOrtuary RPG' for people to log on and pay tribute to dead famous people in the world. I'll even save people money by only charging them $10 a month. I'll have to make big zones for James Dean and Elvis and have random appearances by their avatrars. Who knows..it could work. Remember what P.T. Barnum said...

    --
    If you are reading this, then you are one of those people whom I just can't take seriously.