Online Friends Stay After The Credits Roll

Online Friends Stay After The Credits Roll

From The Gaming Persona by Daniel Kaufmann Ph.D. | Dr. Gameology

May 28, 2026 · 50 min · Season 6 · Episode 18

About this episode

The episode discusses the emotional impact of game maintenance on friendships within online gaming communities.

Send us Fan Mail Destiny 2 heading toward maintenance mode sounds like a simple business update until you feel what it really means: a shared world stops growing, and the friendships tied to that world suddenly feel fragile. We talk through that gut-punch moment, why “servers still online” isn’t the same as a living game, and how a shutdown date can trigger something that looks a lot like grief. From there, we zoom out to the human side of live service games and online communities. We wrestl...

People in this episode

Host: Daniel Kaufmann Ph.D.

Topics covered

  • online gaming
  • friendship
  • game maintenance
  • grief
  • live service games
  • online communities

Keywords

  • Destiny 2
  • game maintenance
  • online friends
  • live service games
  • grief
  • gaming community

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Destiny 2

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