Earlier this week, a Helldivers 2 participant misplaced their life in a tragic accident. It’s introduced out a touching response from the neighborhood that exhibits how linked it could actually really feel, no matter whether or not gamers have even met or performed collectively.

I’ve seen a couple of tales through the years about tributes builders have made to devoted followers of their video games. Be it the Robin Williams tribute in World of Warcraft or the time Bungie gave a weapon to a Future 2 participant who had overcome large adversity that nobody else has gotten to at the present time. It’s at all times heartwarming to see a developer discover how vital a sport is to its followers, nevertheless it’s one other factor totally to see the sport’s neighborhood display actual compassion when somebody they’re solely linked to by way of a fictional universe loses their life.

Greater than multiplayer comrades

On March 27, 2024, Cordell Dunning sadly misplaced their life in a bike accident. The information was posted by person Affectionate_Ear6472 on the Helldivers 2 subreddit and brought about an outpouring of compassion, camaraderie, and respect from 1,000 gamers and counting. The small print, exterior of the truth that Dunning served within the US Military, of the submit have since been eliminated to guard Duning’s household and out of respect for these concerned.

The factor that struck me about this submit, exterior of simply how unhappy any human lack of life is, was the GIF being utilized in virtually each one of many over 1,000 feedback. The GIF is a part of the Helldivers 2 introductory cutscene, a piece the place we see Helldivers standing collectively and saluting as a unit.

As Helldviers 2 gamers, we’ve all been working in the direction of a standard objective because the sport’s launch. It’s easy, we work to liberate the galaxy within the identify of Tremendous Earth, and we do this by blowing up aliens. For almost all of us, each participant we drop onto a planet with is a soldier in arms. It doesn’t matter who they’re, the place they arrive from, or anything as a result of they’re preventing with us, they’ve acquired our backs, and so they’ll be with us to the top if a 500 KG Bomb drops and we have to use the hug exploit.

These gamers, myself included, had a direct response to the information {that a} fellow participant, a fellow soldier, had handed away. We acknowledge their efforts; we all know how a lot they’ve been by way of on Malevelon Creek and towards the Automatons normally, and really feel that shared camaraderie. They may have been one other a type of faceless, determined divers preventing alongside us.

Arrowhead Recreation Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt additionally commented on the thread, too, along with his personal touching story of loss: “I’m so sorry on your loss. My battle brother of 20 years handed away 3 years in the past. To at the present time, I nonetheless see his username on Discord, Steam, and different platforms and fondly bear in mind the various fond gaming reminiscences we shared. I’ll communicate to the workforce on how you can bear in mind one of many fallen.”

It appears as if Dunning might be memorialized with an in-game tribute in Helldivers 2 sooner or later, giving his buddies a strategy to bear in mind him someplace they should have had a number of enjoyable. Any memorial, even only a Dispatch, can be one thing all gamers can latch onto to assist them pull collectively in making an attempt instances and remind them of what they’re preventing for: one another.