On June 25, 2018, 18 year old Renard Matthews of New Orleans, Louisiana was shot and killed while out walking his dog. Renard's wake was held this past Sunday, and instead of presenting his body to loved ones in a traditional casket, he was posed sitting in a chair, with a PlayStation 4 DualShock controller in his hands.

Renard's mother, Temeka Matthews, enlisted the help of Charbonnet Labat Glapion Funeral Home to create her son's display. The funeral home, known for these unique wakes (what is referred to as "extreme embalmings"), positioned Renard so that he was sitting in front of a TV playing an unspecified NBA 2K game on the PS4, with a bag of Doritos and other snacks sitting on a table to his left.

Comments on the Internet show that some people think Renard Matthews's wake is in poor taste, but his family sees this as a loving way to honor him. Furthermore, people grieve in different ways, and if his family feels as though this is the best way for them to say goodbye, then some may argue that it's not really up for other people to decide otherwise.

Renard's wake is a rather unique, but it's not the first time video games were used to honor someone who has passed. Most of the time, these tributes occur in-game, with a number of touching in-game tributes to passed away gamers having popped up over the years. Some notable examples include celebrated comedian Robin Williams being added as an NPC to World of Warcraft and a memorial added to Star Wars Galaxies after its lead gameplay designer committed suicide back in 2008.

In other cases, game communities are the ones who create tributes in honor of fallen gamers. When Destiny player TheSquashPhD passed away from cystic fibrosis, the Dads of Destiny clan created a memorial video honoring him. In another instance, a Reddit user named Lastrogu3 described how he would load his deceased brother's final Skyrim save, to see the last thing he saw in-game before dying in the real world. Touched by his story, modders went as far as to create a memorial mod that marked the spot where Lastrogu3's brother last saved his game.

Video games are an important part of many peoples' lives, and while some may disagree, it's reasonable that loved ones would want games to be part of honoring gamers in their family who have passed away. As games continue to become more respected as an artf orm and the medium grows, video game tributes and memorials are likely to become even more commonplace.

Source: Vice