There are few people on the internet I’d consider a friend. You know, like a “proper” friend, like you’d have offline. One was Owen Allaway, also known variously as username takeup would allow, as The Rev and That Rev Chap. He’d been a part of pretty much every online community I frequent for more than 10 years, and I’d played happy fun blue sky games like Animal Crossing and Viva Pinata online with him and his wife more times than I can recall. I’ve spent far too many pounds on the iPhone App Store buying games he insisted were utterly unmissable. He even wrote for ugvm, the free online magazine I edited many years ago.
And last night he died, suddenly, aged 37.
I don’t know what to say. I’m surprised at how sad I feel, considering I’ve never even met him in “real life”. I can’t begin to imagine how his wife has taken this, but my thoughts are with her.
He also leaves behind a lot of this sort of thing:
He’s left a legacy, all over the internet. From his blog at inverty.com to newsgroups and forums, Xbox Live, his amazing Seaman Diary, and Twitter – this being his final post before he died:
RIP Owen. You were an absolute star. And I never did beat you at Words With Friends.
Beautiful post, Andy. We all have a plethora of images like that. I currently have an unread post on his blog in my RSS reader and I just can’t bring myself to look at it.
Looking on UGVM, Steam, RLLMUK and Beteo, it’s clear that the shockwaves from his passing have travelled a vast vast difference, and poor Patience is right at the centre of it.
Thanks for your post.
J
Beautiful post, Andy. We all have a plethora of images like that. I currently have an unread post on his blog in my RSS reader and I just can’t bring myself to look at it.
Looking on UGVM, Steam, RLLMUK and Beteo, it’s clear that the shockwaves from his passing have travelled a vast vast distance, and poor Patience is right at the centre of it.
Thanks for your post.
J
Beautiful Andy 🙂
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Very nicely put, Andy.
I didn’t know Owen at all but I’ve seen plently of things on blogs/twitter, etc over the last week to indicate what a nice guy he was.
Don’t be suprised at feeling sad just because you never met him in person. Online friends are worth just as much as a friend from down the pub, at work, where ever.
Thoughts out to his family!
Wonderful post, for a wonderful person.
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