We're not going to lie, this story moved us - not only for its content, but also because someone managed to use the YTMND format in a way that actually enhanced the storytelling process. This touching tale tells of the impact that Animal Crossing had on an ill family member. We don't want to spoil it, so check it out for yourself.
The story is from "a member in IGN" and illustrated by ONESOUND from This Is Game. If YTMND isn't your thing, you can also view a full-sized copy of the comic here and save it for later, or print it out and show your loved ones.
Update: As reader RySenkari has warned, the YTMND link had been "altered" to shy people away from the link, and the subsequent imagery was NSFW (try going to the site via Digg and you'll get an idea of what we're talking about). If you're sending this to family members or just don't want to risk seeing such things, we recommend either typing the URL in a separate window or just taking a look at the full-sized comic that we're hosting at the moment.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Reader Comments (99)
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 8:59PM (Unverified) said
All the letters from "Mom" are a part of the game! What is wrong with all of you. And yes, the NPC's asking where you have been are a part of the game and happens to ALL players.
ALL players get the "Mom" gifts and letters. ALL players have NPC's saying "where have you been", and "we miss you". This IS NOT SPECIAL TO JUST THE AUTHOR OF THIS STORY. ALL THE STUFF HE SAID HAPPENED WHEN HE SWITCHED ON AC HAPPENS WITH ALL PLAYERS, NOT JUST HIM.
Get it together people.
ALL players get the "Mom" gifts and letters. ALL players have NPC's saying "where have you been", and "we miss you". This IS NOT SPECIAL TO JUST THE AUTHOR OF THIS STORY. ALL THE STUFF HE SAID HAPPENED WHEN HE SWITCHED ON AC HAPPENS WITH ALL PLAYERS, NOT JUST HIM.
Get it together people.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:20PM (Unverified) said
Glad to see you've assumed that a guy who clearly played this game a lot is completely retarded and can't differentiate between the in-game mother and his real mother.
Reply
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 10:56PM Exo said
No shit jason, did you think that all up by yourself or did you have help?
Regaurdless if it happens ot everyone or not, it the situation it happens in that matters.
Also, you can send message to other people that play the same account in your town. If this person had not been playing the packages from her mom would stil be sent thenext time you played.
you fail.
Reply
Regaurdless if it happens ot everyone or not, it the situation it happens in that matters.
Also, you can send message to other people that play the same account in your town. If this person had not been playing the packages from her mom would stil be sent thenext time you played.
you fail.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:02PM (Unverified) said
This is so touching...
Somebody should change this into a movie.
Somebody should change this into a movie.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:10PM (Unverified) said
That is a great story about gaming and the lives of gamers, if someone decided to collect all these kinds of stories in a book, gaming would not be the focus of politicians and parents's attacks...
very "ghost in the machine"... =/ weird that I know how it works and yet I feel she lives inside animal crossing now...
very "ghost in the machine"... =/ weird that I know how it works and yet I feel she lives inside animal crossing now...
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 12:00AM (Unverified) said
Yea. Maybe if we send this to Jack Thompson...he'll stop hating video games :(
Reply
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 12:01AM ramifications said
Yea, maybe if we send this to Jack Thompson...he'll stop hating video games :(
Reply
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:02PM captcarl said
I saw this earlier at work today. It really touched my heart.
I played AC, and AC:WW, and I know some people had stated that you get letters from your mom in the game. I remember getting those and smiling a bit, because deep down I wished my mother was that caring in real life. Even though we may not get along with our mothers, they still love us...to some extent.
I played AC, and AC:WW, and I know some people had stated that you get letters from your mom in the game. I remember getting those and smiling a bit, because deep down I wished my mother was that caring in real life. Even though we may not get along with our mothers, they still love us...to some extent.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:02PM (Unverified) said
Single tear
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:15PM Double J said
Oh Jesus. :'( I feel like writing a touching country song now. Or a movie of the week or something. Now I feel bad for teasing my mom when she let a goomba walk right into Mario so many times.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:17PM Eugimon said
oh god, that's so depressing. I feel the need to go kill little grunts in halo now.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:18PM drun said
My grandmother and father passed away while I was 20 and 21, so I'm quite sensitive to family-pass-away topics. It took me a year to pull myself back to the reality, I was so broken down.
Bad Joystiq :(, that reminds me something bad.
Bad Joystiq :(, that reminds me something bad.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:22PM Aperture said
wow....
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:19PM (Unverified) said
Bloody hell that's so sad and powerful.
Made worse by an old friends mum having the same condition. All she does is play games too.
Made worse by an old friends mum having the same condition. All she does is play games too.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:29PM (Unverified) said
i thought it was the ingame mom because wasn't that posted as a joke on the ign boards by pmuse that user that kept getting banned.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:30PM Klink said
Video Games are the source of evil, eight Jack Thompson?
This made me cry.
This made me cry.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:36PM (Unverified) said
Fair warning. This site is catching on very quickly, and as the views pile up, YTMND's bandwidth is being drained, and it's costing Max a good deal of money with so many people visiting. Earlier today, in an attempt to scare away all the people who were linked to it, he temporarily replaced the site with images from a gay porn website. He may do that again, so if you're viewing this at work, you might want to just click on the image link and not the YTMND one.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:51PM (Unverified) said
on that subject, what makes "bandwidth" cost so much?
Reply
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 10:07PM (Unverified) said
I don't know, and I wish Max would just leave it alone and let people come see it, but YTMND operates on a razor-thin profit margin, and the elitists there are pretty sensitive to any site that becomes popular outside of YTMND. >_< Again, just a fair warning.
Reply
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 10:53PM RevolvingDork said
"Bandwidth" costs vary wildly by provider and plan, but generally you sign a contract to pay a fixed cost per month for X gigabytes of transfered data. If you end up transfering more data than allotted in your contract, you have to pay overage charges by the gigabyte. If you are slated for 50 gbs per month, and 51 people download a 1gb file from you in a given month, you'll have to pay overage charges.
Basically, every time someone views a website or downloads a file from a website, it uses up the site's bandwidth quota.
Redirecting a heartfelt story to gay porn seems like a pretty dick way to go about fixing the issue, however. :|
Reply
Basically, every time someone views a website or downloads a file from a website, it uses up the site's bandwidth quota.
Redirecting a heartfelt story to gay porn seems like a pretty dick way to go about fixing the issue, however. :|
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 2:40AM mezzaninex said
I teared up.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 9:54PM (Unverified) said
I was going to use this story as an excuse to bag on Animal Crossing, but after seeing that cartoon I can't. :(
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 10:20PM (Unverified) said
You'd go to hell for making fun of Animal Crossing anyways, heartwrenching story or not.
Reply
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 10:23PM (Unverified) said
owch, pulling at the heart strings really did hit me like a brick wall god bless all those parents who play games :*(
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 10:24PM BananaBoat said
Animal crossing is mind numbing.
I kept waiting for the video to tell me that it was over nine thousand, or to rickroll me, and it never happened.
I feel somewhat ripped off, though I guess it does say "Heart wrenching" right there in the title. Was not in the mood though.
Her tale would be just as sad, with or without the terrible "casual" game.
I kept waiting for the video to tell me that it was over nine thousand, or to rickroll me, and it never happened.
I feel somewhat ripped off, though I guess it does say "Heart wrenching" right there in the title. Was not in the mood though.
Her tale would be just as sad, with or without the terrible "casual" game.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 10:40PM Vegeta has a ps3 said
oh wow, that was pretty sad.
Really hit me hard when the npcs were wondering where the mother was.
Really hit me hard when the npcs were wondering where the mother was.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 10:46PM Nincodedo said
That really hit me since my mom did the same thing. She had lung cancer and couldn't go out places without an oxygen tank, so she ended up playing Animal Crossing. She had so many letters and her journal was filled with how she felt each day, I wanted to make sure I could keep it so I typed it all down.
And as everyone else... Me sads. :(
And as everyone else... Me sads. :(
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 10:50PM Shmil said
*hurk!* *hides teary eyes*
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 11:03PM (Unverified) said
The YTMND is only NSFW when the referring site is digg.com. It's perfectly safe when clicking on the link from Joystiq, livejournal, etc.
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 12:33PM (Unverified) said
Nobody else think it was a bit sad that all that time playing animal crossing could have been spent with the kids before she died?
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 11:49PM (Unverified) said
It goes direct into the heart.
Is currently the most viewed YTMND so you shouldn't have a problem watching it in YTMND main page but you should be careful when you click in old links,believe me no one wants to be goatsed.
Is currently the most viewed YTMND so you shouldn't have a problem watching it in YTMND main page but you should be careful when you click in old links,believe me no one wants to be goatsed.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 11:54PM Lemmiwinks said
I wanna go see my mommy now.
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 11:54PM (Unverified) said
Wow... that's powerful stuff. I think I need to call Mom now...
Posted: Nov 19th 2007 11:55PM ramifications said
Your story touched me almost as much as the comic did :(
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 12:36AM (Unverified) said
Wow. Words can explain how sad this made me. I was crying for a good 5 minutes.
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 1:35AM (Unverified) said
It reminds me of my grandfather. I took my Wii with me to my grandparents' house last Christmas and my Grandfather played the Wii for the first time. The last time he played a video game was fishing for the Atari 2600.
What made his playing so special was that he was 84 years old and cripple due to Parkinsons. He hands were permanently clenched, his arms shook and his voice was gone but he enjoyed playing Wii bowling. He played it non-stop for days and had the biggest smile on his face. In the ten years he suffered with Parkinsons, his smile had left and was replaced with pain. But not that Christmas day.
When it was time to leave, I promised him I would bring it back and he could play some more. I could see the smile on his face return and I could tell that meant a lot to him. Sadly, he would pass away two weeks later. I still look at the photos I took of him and his Mii and smile. Thank you Nintendo and video games for the chance to reconnect with my grandpa one last time.
What made his playing so special was that he was 84 years old and cripple due to Parkinsons. He hands were permanently clenched, his arms shook and his voice was gone but he enjoyed playing Wii bowling. He played it non-stop for days and had the biggest smile on his face. In the ten years he suffered with Parkinsons, his smile had left and was replaced with pain. But not that Christmas day.
When it was time to leave, I promised him I would bring it back and he could play some more. I could see the smile on his face return and I could tell that meant a lot to him. Sadly, he would pass away two weeks later. I still look at the photos I took of him and his Mii and smile. Thank you Nintendo and video games for the chance to reconnect with my grandpa one last time.
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 9:15AM (Unverified) said
Being someone who recently lost a grandparent, you Sir, brought tears to my eyes...
I thank you...
Reply
I thank you...
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 1:43AM (Unverified) said
Just...wow...pretty sad and beatiful...see videogames are not entirely tied up to violence..
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 2:11AM (Unverified) said
Seriously, I just went to see Martian Child, and this was a bigger tear-jerker. I kinda wish that John Cusack would have narrated though.
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 2:13AM (Unverified) said
I honestly admit that right now, I'm crying. A lot.
One of the saddest (and probably one of the most beautiful) things I saw on the Internet.
One of the saddest (and probably one of the most beautiful) things I saw on the Internet.
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 2:21AM Shignami said
Saw this on /v/ a few days ago.
cried manly tears.w
cried manly tears.w
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 6:36AM (Unverified) said
18/11
they day that /b/ cried
they day that /b/ cried
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 7:51AM (Unverified) said
Wow...I'd never cried at a website before. My mom's just had some major back surgery, and can't get around very well, and she's been interested in getting a Wii, but the costs have just been too much for her. I'm bringing mine when I visit for Thanksgiving, and I'm definitely going to show this to her.
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 2:11PM el tony said
*sniffle*...
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 9:09AM (Unverified) said
To note something similar that happened to my wife.
Her grandmother had the old MSN tv internet thing, we both laughed at it, not in a bad way, but thought it was cute that she was using it. She just wouldn't use a computer. Anyways, she spent hours on it. And would send my wife tons and tons of e-mails, all the forwarding ones, the ones that say "if you love me you will send this to 10 more people."
My wife never had all the time to do it, so usually she just read over them, but always kept them saved.
About 7 months ago, her grandmother passed away, very suddenly. No one knew it was coming at all.
A few weeks after that though, my wife started reading the e-mails that her grandmother sent, and came across one that was sent a day before she passed away. It said about how much she loved her, and that she wishes she could see her that day, and that she doesn't ever want to leave her side.
It was possibly the most heart wrenching thing I have ever read, it was as if she knew what was going to happen.
My wife cried for a long time after reading that.
This story reminds me of what happened to my wife.
Her grandmother had the old MSN tv internet thing, we both laughed at it, not in a bad way, but thought it was cute that she was using it. She just wouldn't use a computer. Anyways, she spent hours on it. And would send my wife tons and tons of e-mails, all the forwarding ones, the ones that say "if you love me you will send this to 10 more people."
My wife never had all the time to do it, so usually she just read over them, but always kept them saved.
About 7 months ago, her grandmother passed away, very suddenly. No one knew it was coming at all.
A few weeks after that though, my wife started reading the e-mails that her grandmother sent, and came across one that was sent a day before she passed away. It said about how much she loved her, and that she wishes she could see her that day, and that she doesn't ever want to leave her side.
It was possibly the most heart wrenching thing I have ever read, it was as if she knew what was going to happen.
My wife cried for a long time after reading that.
This story reminds me of what happened to my wife.
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 12:55PM (Unverified) said
At first I thought the title was sarcastic. Then I read the Joystiq hosted version to be safe from the gay porn.
As my stupid, stuborn, and "macho" self read it I fought hard not to feel. Around the time NPC's question came up I immediately reached for the crumpled napkin sitting on my desk. As I hoped not to be caught by my co-workers and boss I couldn't stop reading. At the end, a big sniffle broke the silence of my tears.
I saw the other version, relieved to not see the gay porn. With the music and great timing I was swept away again.
And now when I thought it was okay to post a comment, all the other reader's stories blew me away as well. I feel truly a bit closer to my other gamers as we're usually fighting amongst ourselves to get anything productive like this done. I think we should all think about that.
This was an amazing comic strip on so man levels. And I'm grateful for having read it. This will be the best web strip for the next poll.
As my stupid, stuborn, and "macho" self read it I fought hard not to feel. Around the time NPC's question came up I immediately reached for the crumpled napkin sitting on my desk. As I hoped not to be caught by my co-workers and boss I couldn't stop reading. At the end, a big sniffle broke the silence of my tears.
I saw the other version, relieved to not see the gay porn. With the music and great timing I was swept away again.
And now when I thought it was okay to post a comment, all the other reader's stories blew me away as well. I feel truly a bit closer to my other gamers as we're usually fighting amongst ourselves to get anything productive like this done. I think we should all think about that.
This was an amazing comic strip on so man levels. And I'm grateful for having read it. This will be the best web strip for the next poll.
Posted: Nov 20th 2007 3:36PM (Unverified) said
Very sad, but well done. Glad to have read it, sadded that the story is true.
Posted: Nov 21st 2007 11:10AM (Unverified) said
T-T
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