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November 28, 2006

Jeff Buckley As "Corpse Graffiti"

Seems some World of Warcraft players have figured a way to get some laughs while they play their massive multiplayer online role-playing game in their parents' basements. Clickable Culture writes:

Players of World of Warcraft have been swapping stories about the art of "corpse graffiti," a phenomenon I've seen before but didn't realize had a name. In my first few months of play, I regularly spotted a corpse named Jeff Buckley floating face-down in a pool of water in the dwarven city of Ironforge (Buckley was a real-life recording artist who drowned in 1997).

Corpse graffiti ... is created by building a character with a clever name ... and dropping dead in a contextually-appropriate location ... As long as the player refuses to resurrect the character (a feature in the game), the named corpse remains for all to see. The primary use seems to be humour...

Oh like humour "ha ha"? No pun intended, but you ghostin' gamers ... get a life. OK, pun intended.

Posted at 4:50 PM
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35 Comments

Yeah, only pompous music bloggers pretending at indie cred are allowed to be snarky.

Posted by: Peter at 11/28/06 5:16 PM | Reply
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hardly 'snarky'...more 'stupid and immature'

Posted by: David s. at 11/28/06 5:23 PM | Reply
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wtf peter, in what world is it acceptable to joke about a guy that died drowning like that? jack off.

Posted by: robert klein at 11/28/06 5:30 PM | Reply
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I don't know, I'm a big Jeff Buckley fan, but I can definitely see the humor in this. Frankly, I'd consider making my way into the seedy underworld of MMORPGs to see a faux-Michael Hutchence hanging out in a closet (pun not initially intended, but kept upon review). See y'all in hell!

Posted by: Burton at 11/28/06 5:37 PM | Reply
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yeah, because bloggers aren't a weeee bit on the socially inept side, either. pot? kettle.

Posted by: lol at 11/28/06 5:59 PM | Reply
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I wonder if people understand that there are scores of people personally connected to these artists that tragically pass, people we encounter every day that have to deal with this stuff all the time. I used to be good friends with a guy who was childhood friends with a hipster musician that died tragically. After he died, every Halloween would be marked by some douchebag dressing up as the dead musician and it would kill my friend. No one likes to be reminded that the people they care about are the butt of someone else's joke. Sure, the celebrity of certain people opens them up for a certain amount of well-deserved ridicule and shit-kicking, but to ridicule the dead salts the unhealed wounds of survivors. Just because Jeff Buckley corpse graffiti is entertaining to us that didn't know him or knew him only as fans, that doesn't lessen the tragic effect of the mockery. Only one guys opinion, I suppose...

Posted by: anon at 11/28/06 6:29 PM | Reply
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Hey, Anon: Waaaaaaaaaaaah.

Posted by: Mark Swiderski at 11/28/06 7:02 PM | Reply
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I second that emotion, Mr. Swiderski. Well put. So what anon? Who gives a fuck about your friend's emo pain? And who says that corpse graffiti is necessarily salt in a wound? It's a kind of tribute, really.

Posted by: edwin at 11/28/06 7:06 PM | Reply
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I gotta believe Jeff would find this funny.

Posted by: El Payo at 11/28/06 7:13 PM | Reply
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i really wish jeff buckley had lived so he wouldn't be so wildly overrated today.

Posted by: kevin at 11/28/06 7:25 PM | Reply
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Sufjan needs a tragic blimp acccident asap.

Posted by: Freddy at 11/28/06 7:39 PM | Reply
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I didn't realize mourning a friend's death was "emo pain".

Posted by: dot at 11/28/06 7:50 PM | Reply
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Well I thought it was quite amusing even though I'm a big Buckley fan. There were thousands of Princess Diana and Steve Irwin jokes after they died, people complained about them but I bet many more laughed. I can understand it from a personal view of the family and close friends, but at the end of the day its just kids having a laugh whilst playing some crappy little game. I'm waiting for a round of Litvinenko at the moment.

Posted by: Andrew at 11/28/06 8:11 PM | Reply
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Does it really matter what socially-maladjusted shut-ins, who spend there time in a place referred to as the "dwarven city of Ironforge" do with their obviously worthless time. Next.....

Posted by: Tyler B at 11/28/06 8:33 PM | Reply
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haha tyler...
YEHSS.

Posted by: frankie at 11/28/06 8:41 PM | Reply
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i wouldnt think people who play warcraft would know who jeff buckley was.

and i learned something today.

Posted by: goo at 11/28/06 9:15 PM | Reply
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If it gets one person to listen to my music, then it is worth it

Posted by: jeff buckley at 11/28/06 9:51 PM | Reply
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If it gets one person to listen to my music, then it is worth it

Posted by: jeff buckley at 11/28/06 9:52 PM | Reply
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"I gotta believe Jeff would find this funny."

exactly. shaddup

Posted by: ravi at 11/28/06 11:03 PM | Reply
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Jeff posts from beyond the grave?

Posted by: Killachika at 11/28/06 11:07 PM | Reply
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I don't know who's the bigger, sadder geek - the nerdingers who come up with corpse graffiti while playing with their virtual worlds from their mom's basement, or me, bitching about it on a web-blog.

DwD

Posted by: Dw. Dunphy at 11/28/06 11:41 PM | Reply
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Listen, just because an indie hero dies doesn't mean he or she is exempt from ridicule. It's been long enough that the wounds have sort of healed over. Well, maybe not healed over, but it's definitely open season on Bukley jokes by now.

Posted by: Tomb at 11/29/06 1:00 AM | Reply
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All snobbery about the Jeff Buckley thing aside, its actually pretty fascinating that this exists and that we're talking about it at all. If the internet is the library of the collective un(?)conscious then this graffiti has the potential for some very provacative statements.

Then again, I wouldn't be surprized if the gaming community squandered any potential for provacative statements in favor of unabashed racism and idiocy.

Posted by: Cap'n Guthrie at 11/29/06 1:24 AM | Reply
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It seems more fascinating than anything that people would take the time to create "corpse graffiti." At least it gets people thinking and talking about Jeff. We just posted some rarities today, if anyone is interested:

http://rewriteablecontent.blogspot.com/2006/11/lost-found-jeff-buckley-rarities.html

Posted by: Nick at 11/29/06 2:11 AM | Reply
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I agree with Cap'n. It seems more fascinating than anything that people would take the time to create "corpse graffiti." At least it gets people thinking and talking about Jeff. We just posted some rarities today, if anyone is interested:

http://rewriteablecontent.blogspot.com/2006/11/lost-found-jeff-buckley-rarities.html

Posted by: Nick at 11/29/06 2:13 AM | Reply
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Who is Jeff Buckley?

And who are those gnome corpses piled up in the brazier outside Ironforge bank?

Posted by: jade at 11/29/06 2:48 AM | Reply
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lol @ nerdy bloggers

Posted by: randomnerd@momsbasement at 11/29/06 4:17 AM | Reply
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Ah I just love you indie blog/blogger haters - what the fuck are you doing here and why the hell are you taking the time to comment anyway?! Piss off. Don't you have some MySpace comments you should be checking instead?

Posted by: Deb at 11/29/06 9:10 AM | Reply
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Music nerds out rank game nerds now? Well, pot meet kettle I guess.

I'm gonna make a character called 'Freddy Mercury' die of 'Poison' in the elven city of silvermoon.

Posted by: dannygutters at 11/29/06 9:43 AM | Reply
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I'm going to make a character named Abe and leave him in a theatre.

Posted by: dude at 11/29/06 11:47 AM | Reply
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You can call me pot-kettle if you'd like. There are some of us who fall in the middle of the music/gamer Venn Diagram, its just hard to sift through the kids who listen to ICP and talk about rape like its a funny thing. Prove me wrong. I'd love to start playing again.

Posted by: Cap'n Guthrie at 11/29/06 1:55 PM | Reply
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rape isn't funny unless it's with a clown.

Posted by: clown at 11/29/06 2:13 PM | Reply
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Can we have just ONE thread that doesn't turn into a discussion about clown rape?

Posted by: scott at 11/29/06 2:36 PM | Reply
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I can see the "Southpark" angle of all this, however, if the gamer knew how fkn PAINFUL it is to die by drowning, and how much grief Jeff's death caused so many people, I really doubt he'd think it was *cool*. Btw, Jeff was a really cool, funny guy -- and yeah, maybe he'd even get the joke, but really, this kiddie-crap is pretty tasteless. Why doesn't the gamer commit character suicide and use his own corpse if s/he thinks it's so funny? Better yet, why not create a naked Britney character and have it die with its legs spread? Just wonderin'. Whatever.

Posted by: Syrinx at 11/29/06 6:48 PM | Reply
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Music nerds and game nerds are often one and the same. I am both, and I believe I understand the concepts of corpse graffiti and easter eggs rather well. The thing is, it's rarely mockery, but more often homage, and I believe that's the case here as well.

Posted by: Pikka Bird at 05/25/07 3:22 PM | Reply
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