TOG - The Older Gamers

Posted by Disdiff at the time of passing (Please Note: Date of Birth approximate):

Gratzina, Lvl 60 Priest, died of a massive heart attack on July 6th week.

I was informed of this in game by her best friend who had logged on as her character to take care of a few last things. I verified that this was true via asking some questions about Gratzina, that only a friend of Gratzina's would know, and concluded that this was sadly correct. Gratzina logged out for the last time tonight.

Gratzina's real name was Suzanne Anderson, and she lived in Seattle where she was an electrical engineer. I lvld with Gratz from the mid-20's through to 60, and really enjoyed playing with her. She always had a keen sense of humor, and was ready to take on anything. I already miss playing with her.

Suzanne was 34 years old, and is survived by her parents.

update 7/17/05 I have an email contact address where I will be sending some of the comments posted here to her parents, just to let them know that she was well liked in ToG, and will be missed. Its not much, but its something, I also added a photo of Suzanne, and her character Gratzina and I doing some typical adventuring..

“Bad luck dude! No ones coming in here! They're all over at my "sex'n'beer" post!!!!!”

John Demon_Keeler Fletcher joined TOG in February 2004. He was perhaps the most loved person in TOG. Brash, funny, generous, friendly and supportive. He organised many BBQs, drinks nights, TOG Tee Shirts and he was there to offer his help or simply an ear to listen. His friendliness extended to new comers and, of all the people at TOG, he was the person most likely to wander into a division he had nothing to do with and make himself at home. In doing so he created bridges between game genres helping make TOG a community.
He loved his wife and two girls a great deal, and if you were to ask after them, you’d be updated with the entire goings on at the Fletcher household as if you were family.
Demon played many FPS games from Battlefield franchise, to CounterStrike:source and was even caught playing the Sims. In each of his games he would join the voice comms with his signature song lines:
“I wanna touch you all over, to the night closes in” which was greeted time and time again with laughter and groans. Then he’d launch into what his girls did that day.

The day Demon left us was the first of many sad days as the news rippled through TOG and other gaming communities bringing forth tribute matches, movies, forum signatures and donations for his family.

A printer by trade, a father by heart, a friend and larrikin with a smile and a joke and a gamer with a passion, Demon left us way too soon.

D_K version: He was a good friend to all he met, loved by all who met him, and missed by all who knew him.

"To prove her mousey worth.." Words our beloved Meesh would use when trying to speak about herself. Words that no one who knew her would have used as her worth was self-evident in the way that she cared, the way that she played and the way that she lived her life every single day.

Meesh was a bright light in so many peoples lives, she was a beacon where guidance was needed, she was a spark that could start an explosion of fun at the lightest touch of her presence. Though she herself did not see this most of the time, those of us blessed with sharing virtual and very real time with her, know this measure and more.

Most people who have seen pictures of Meesh that float around ToG and the web will remember with affection the one of her on the couch munching some popcorn and the incredible hairdo which was the crowning focus for attention within that image.. It is only once one finds out she was wearing a pair of fake cats ears that matched so well with her hair that it all became clear and the humor within this lady could be seen to be expressed with such gentle force that the smiles still show to this day on many a person's face as they remember the moment that they found this piece of information out.

Humor in fact was a very large part of our dear Meesh's life.. Stand up comedy was one of her many passions and one that she pulled off with great aplomb, she could always be seen to understand the pain and suffering of others and was always conscious of how she treated her friends and even total strangers.

This world will continue on without our dear friend, but this world is not the same place to many, as there is a hole where her presence once was. But to honor her memory we remember the best and, typical of this lovely lady's presence, even now the memory of it can bring such joy, where the memory of her absence will always bring tears.

May your avatar be dancing topless on the tables of your afterlife Meesh and may we one day again share with you the joy you always brought and always will.

Andrew (Woftam) passed away after a paintballing bucks party in North Geelong, a suburb of a major Australian city in the state of Victoria.

He collapsed in a car at service station a few hundred metres from where he had just been playing paintball. Despite the efforts of his friends and ambulance paramedics, Andrew passed away as a result of a heart attack.

He was a much loved member of our community, especially in the BF2142 Division where a monthly award in his honour is now given to a member displaying outstanding qualities and exemplifying the TOG ethos.

Husband and Father of two, Andrew was committed to his family.