Aliveness in Azeroth
The story of Mats Steen, a prolific World of Warcraft player known as Ibelin, who passed away in 2014 from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, opens up new horizons on the very notion of being alive.
Tuesday Night on Earth. A letter written late last Saturday, still reeling from the emotion of the documentary The Remarkable Life of Ibelin. Feel free to like, comment and share this letter.
What if an entire life could exist in a parallel world? A life loved, respected, celebrated — yet invisible to those closest to it. Amid the ordinary violence of life, social networks and digital spaces sometimes offer moving stories that awaken an unexpected sense of humanity within us. The story of Mats Steen, a young Norwegian with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, is one of them.
Mats passed away in 2014, at the age of 25. For his family, his death marked the end of a life shaped by physical isolation and limited mobility. But when his parents accessed his online accounts and posted a farewell message on his personal blog, they began receiving dozens of emails. That’s when they discovered a parallel, vibrant, complex, and unsuspected existence — the life Mats had built over ten years in World of Warcraft (WoW), under the identity of Lord Ibelin Redmoore.
Another life, another form of presence.
In this massively multiplayer game, Ibelin was not just an avatar or a source of entertainment: he was Mats — but amplified, mobile, alive. A version of himself that gradually took shape through thousands of hours spent in World of Warcraft.
He had friends, enemies, a reputation. He belonged to a guild, Starlight, with whom he shared quests, conversations, sometimes arguments, rituals. Starlight has its own codes, a certain sense of honor and community, leaders, and important discussions.
This parallel world was neither an escape nor an illusion: it was a space of existence, of connection, of attachment. And above all, it was a space of liveness (and even aliveness) — the quality or state of being alive.
To be alive in this sense is not merely to exist biologically. It is to be affected and to affect others. It is to leave traces, to create memories with others. Above all, it is to develop a kind of language no machine will ever fully simulate — one that goes straight to the heart of communities. Mats fell deeply in love with Lisette, who played in the game as Rumour. A chance encounter — Rumour stole Ibelin’s hat. The best stories often begin with something small. That love grew between the two players, in very real ways.
Through Ibelin, Mats turned his living room into an arena of shared experience. The time spent in this virtual world allowed him to build a true social life, with rituals, bonds, shared myths — and also boredom, at times. Some players recall how Ibelin helped them through dark times. One mother testified that he helped her autistic son reconnect and open up again. Ibelin existed in meaningful ways in the minds and daily lives of many others.
Each year, the guild honors the memory of their departed friend, proving that this digital liveness endures far beyond physical life.
Digital Affective Archives
What The Remarkable Life of Ibelin shows is that online life can generate profound emotional and social bonds. And this aliveness is not measured by virality or instant impact, but by emotional investment and shared time.
Digital affective archives are therefore essential; the guild logs a huge portion of its conversations. Online communities create their own languages — a mix of lore, private jokes, emotes, and abbreviations. A living language, fed by shared context, collective memory, and attention to others. A whole para-community life that matters to people, that influences, connects, and binds them. It’s supported by a range of social tools orbiting the game — like forums that record key exchanges and events, sometimes acting as guestbooks, or voice chat sessions.
What emerges is the infinite complexity of what makes social connection: the importance of accumulated signs, presences, absences.
For aliveness to emerge, it requires a certain density of connection — a long, even slow temporality, giving rise through cumulative effects to a whole new way of experiencing existence.
Sensitive Communities
In an era where our identities are often reduced to a handful of markers — sexual, political, ethnic — this story shows the power of sensitive communities.
Despite the absence of bodies, faces, or certain senses, deep friendships can blossom across Discord servers and online guilds. These ways of building and becoming require a particular mindset — one that conventional social science often underestimates.
The fiction proposed by WoW here becomes an expressive and relational matrix. It allows for vulnerability, imagination, and a kind of sincerity we sometimes express more freely from behind a mask.
It’s vital to rethink what it means to be alive online. We often pit the digital against the real, the virtual against the authentic.
But Ibelin shows us that the boundary is porous. The real is also where we feel, remember, and weave stories. And sometimes, that happens in the pixels of a video game.
Mats is unforgettable — as long as he lives on in the lives of thousands of other players, both on Earth and in Azeroth.
The Text of the Week: Love, by Mats Steen
“In this other world a girl wouldn’t see a wheelchair or anything different. They would get my soul, heart and mind, conveniently placed in a handsome, strong body, luckily pretty much every character in this virtual world look great. Many might find this silly, but at least looks don’t matter much anymore, it’s all about personality. So, the attractive girl kept confusing me as I wasn’t used to being flirted with like that. There was something very exciting about her, her humor, the way she acted, how she would express herself. I was sold. Suddenly she kissed my cheek and vanished into the woods. It was just a virtual kiss, but boy I could almost feel it. My character just sat there, clueless of what to do next.”
Mats Steen, on his personal blog “Musings of life”.
Amazing links
An AI Image Generator’s Exposed Database Reveals What People Really Used It For (Wired)
The impact of World Of Warcraft on my entire life (Reddit)
Have a great week! This newsletter is written with love, passion, and (French) coffee.
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My book “Alive In Social Media” is available on Amazon.