If he and other Halo 3 players stayed online the night of 13 January 2022, they could delay the impending server shutdown. And so, players gathered online before the server shutdown to pay homage and to mourn the game they loved so dearly. His research delved into the ways people commemorate online spaces, with a focus on the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW). View image in fullscreen Strength in numbers … characters from World of Warcraft, which has an online community of five million. View image in fullscreen A Chinese gamer plays World of Warcraft at an internet cafe in Beijing in 2024.