Carrie Fisher Memorial Being Added To Elite: Dangerous
By Curt Hutson 30 December 2016
Per community request, Elite: Dangerous, a massively multiplayer space faring game, will be adding a tribute to the late Carrie Fisher in a forthcoming update.
Fans are still reeling from the unexpected passing of actress Carrie Fisher earlier this week and are looking for ways to cope with the loss. Elite: Dangerous players requested a way to somehow memorialize the Star Wars icon. It appears developer/publisher Frontier Developments will grant that request.
DualShockers reports that executive producer for Elite: Dangerous, Michael Brookes, responded to the community’s request using the game’s forums writing, “Sad news indeed — a ‘Fisher’s Rest’ outpost will be added to the game in the 2.3 release.” The 2.3 update is expected to release some time next year.
According to GameSpot, this isn’t the first time Elite: Dangerous has paid tribute to a sci-fi great. In 2015, after the passing of legendary Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy, the developer created a Vulcan planet to honor him. Vulcans were a race of fictional extraterrestrial humanoids from the Star Trek series of which Nimoy’s character, Spock, was a part of.
As for the MMO set in a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars: The Old Republic players have also requested for a tribute to Fisher; specifically one in the form of a statue. However, the tribute might need to be a little less on the nose, as any reference to Fisher’s character from the original trilogy would be out of place, since the story in Old Republic is set thousands of years before Leia was born.
While a permanent tribute to Fisher is still being considered, players having been coming together to hold memorials across multiple servers in her honor.
It’s not unusual for gamers to request memorials to fallen icons in their games. Two years ago, after the passing of Robin Williams, Blizzard honored the actor by including a genie NPC that would quote lines from his character in Aladdin.
Fisher suffered a heart attack on December 23 during a flight from London to Los Angeles. Despite reports that she was in stable condition following the incident, she passed just a few days later on the morning of December 27. Many were shocked by her untimely passing and have taken to all manner of media to express their love of the actress and condolences to her family.
Following her passing, Dishonored creative director Harvey Smith revealed a small speaking role the actress had in the game. Through Twitter, he described her as “gracious, funny and creatively open.”
Elite: Dangerous is available now on PC and Xbox One.
