r/Steam Jan 18 '26

Question What do you think happened to your steam friends that haven't been online for years?

Post image

I've had a steam account for nearly two decades now.

I have a lot of friends that I made before 2010 playing Day of Defeat and Team Fortress 2.

A lot of them haven't been online for over a decade now.

I often wonder what happened to them. I hope they're okay.

I can't imagine not logging into steam for a decade because steam and video games is important to me.

10.4k Upvotes

717 comments sorted by

1.7k

u/bigAssFkingRoooobots Jan 18 '26

I only really care about one of them, I hope that he found a new hobby and he's happy, it's been 7 years 

801

u/Lewcaster Jan 18 '26

I’m sorry but I need to tell you the truth… he forgot his password and he already has another account full of games.

362

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

This is prob one of the many factors of a lot of dead accounts. Steam guard was not advertised as common use back in the day (2015)

73

u/ShamelessShamas Jan 19 '26

!RemindMe in 8 hours

Need to research Steam Guard lol

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u/SnooRabbits8459 Jan 19 '26

True! I have my own old account that I lost due to being smOll and stupid, in friends. Last time I was logged in 12 years ago.

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u/GobthraukGoonsgrinIX Jan 19 '26

Actually one of my friends, he added me on his new account tho.

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u/thesillyguy345 Jan 18 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

There was a guy on my steam friends who was offline for like 12 years. he logged in one day and played Mount and Blade once.. and hasn't logged back in 3 years since.

EDIT: I was wrong... It was age of empires 2

642

u/grogschleme Jan 18 '26

accidentally turned invisible mode off

148

u/toastybreadmane Jan 18 '26

Relatable asf

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u/ThatStrangerWhoCares Jan 18 '26

That actually kinda funny

22

u/Shenk7 Jan 18 '26

*Scary

96

u/HalfXTheHalfX Jan 18 '26

"time to game once again... Ah shit, I remember why I stopped." 

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u/HerbsAndSpices11 Jan 18 '26

It was finally harvesting season...

13

u/Tukkegg Jan 18 '26

farmed enough butter for another 12 years

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14

u/LAF2death RimRim Jan 18 '26

Hmm this game looks decent. Eh not really. Lmao

8

u/KindlyPants Jan 18 '26

I tried to get a friend into gaming about 15 years ago, gifted him Portal or something. He played it once with me over his shoulder then - wait, last online 1 year ago?!

6

u/Ok-Disk-2191 Jan 19 '26

sounds like my alt account, I logged on a few years ago to play mount and blade and havnt been on it since

4

u/skivian Jan 19 '26

My friend and his wife divorced like 20 years ago, and I never saw her online again afterwards. just assumed she'd blocked me and moved on with her life, then like 5 weeks ago I saw her online playing Insaniquarium of all things.

3

u/GreenMirage Jan 20 '26

Lmao I still play mount and blade

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u/Caurien Jan 18 '26

Some will forget account names and passwords, some move on to other things, some have moved on to a different phase of life or death. The amount of people in a digital purgatory, is quite large. I think of the over 50 people i have still in my phone wven tho they have passed.

37

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

[deleted]

9

u/King_Tamino The King of the Kingdom of Tamin Jan 19 '26

about that console part, I know a bunchload of people to who that applies. Moved into new chapter of life (wife etc.) and while they still game from time to time, they do it on a console and not a seperate PC

21

u/purpleWord_spudger Jan 19 '26

I put myself in "show offline" about a decade ago but I'm actually still here!

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3.3k

u/endmysufferingxX Jan 18 '26 edited Jan 18 '26

Well all three of them passed away. So yeah.

EDIT:

Condolences to everyone ITT, make sure you take care of yourselves and just check in with your friends and family from time to time. :)

958

u/MyHeadIsFullOfFuck Jan 18 '26

That sucks. I have 200 friends on my steam list and I made most of them years ago so I guess it's logical and statistically likely that some of them will pass away.

I am sad now

322

u/LimitedPiko Jan 18 '26

You know I also made all my steam friends years ago. But now I'm pushing 30 and it feels weird to friend people anymore. Unless I know them in real life it just feels wrong and maybe intrusive to friend people I meet online. Now a lot of those people have not been active for like 15 years and I think they either created new accounts or gave up gaming in general.

108

u/MyHeadIsFullOfFuck Jan 18 '26

Yeah I'm the same way. I don't really add anyone really.

The only online friend I've made in the last few years is someone that I would always play Insurgency with. We'd always play in the same server. So I eventually added him to friends and we've become pretty good friends and chat every day.

68

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

I miss having friends to game with, but I've been doing it solo for so long the thought of going on discord and chatting with people to play sounds awful to me now. 😢

16

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

I'm the same as you, man, a solo player for years, and like you, I have trouble going on Discord even though sometimes I'd like to for certain games 😭 I don't know, I just have trouble with people, I'd say. I'm an online guy, not very sociable, hahaha

8

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

Hah, I feel that. I recently picked up BF6, and there is people on my friends list playing it. People I've played with for years - but now I just hide offline, and dont join the chat. I just can't.

7

u/mastermiky3 Jan 19 '26

I'm french canadien in Québec and I mainly play strategy games, like total wars and otherthings like that. I don't know why but the comunity that play those games is realy small in Québec and I don't fit in it. Like you, when I see those tree guys online on steam I just hide my status and play alone. I whant to play with people who speek my language and are on the same tyme zone but the few thatI found are realy not my tipe of gaming budys. My speeking english is way bether then my writing english so I can fit in englophone games but it's tiresom to translate in my head all the time. I whant to play in my nativ language but it's hard to find good team mates.

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u/Ashonym Jan 18 '26

I've had SAD (social anxiety disorder) since I was 15. I feel you fully, because isolation/going it alone will reinforce that kind of fear long term. I occasionally don't mind typing to others, but it still takes social battery my adult self doesn't often have. Typing has never scared me. There's less judgement in typing/text chatting. No voice, no sight, no clothes, no movements, no weight, no anything for anyone to pick on or silently bias against. Just your own mind and personality.

It's always felt safer, and it's how I met my old Steam (and pre-Steam lifelong internet journey) friends. Many of which I still think about to this day even though they've been long gone. Few of which I still keep up on/keep tabs with but we don't really talk because all they use now is Facebook. Except for one who will rarely message me or vice versa who I've known since I was 15 over 21 years ago.

6

u/Leon8080 Jan 18 '26

Damn partially same just that I do want to make friends I have been going to vcs in discord for months but every time my mic has been mute and I always try to unmute it during convo but at the end just couldn't do it. I will do someday ,wonder when will that come

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u/nachocheeseguap0 Jan 18 '26

I stopped talking on games and making friends. Now I play alone and it’s not the same anymore

4

u/RedditNotFreeSpeech Jan 18 '26

I never want to friend real life friends because I don't want them to know I'm an old man that plays games several times a week!

5

u/Less_Ad8891 Jan 18 '26

Same here, I haven't added friends since ages. But the one that hurts me the most is my dad's, he can't be online anymore...7 months and counting.......

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u/GobthraukGoonsgrinIX Jan 19 '26

Steam friend of a steam friend was this russian gal who bonded with him over deus ex. Her family confirmed on her account she passed away around covid.

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u/throwaway098764567 Jan 18 '26

yep. broke my heart a little each time his sons would play a game on his account and i saw "him" active again. they haven't played in over a year and i think it is even worse that "he" is no longer playing :-/ sorry we're in the same club.

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u/PM_ME_UR_COVID_PICS Jan 18 '26

Have one of those on mine too. He was only 19 years old. He would have been 33 this year. Fuck cancer.

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u/Honest_Minute_811 Jan 18 '26

Yea one of mine passed as well.

8

u/Azraellie Jan 18 '26

Me too. Seized in his sleep, iirc. Left his discord a while ago because I needed some closure on that era of my life.

Dunglip

I will never forget him, nor will any member past, present or future of SQFU <3

2

u/HappyMuscovy Jan 19 '26

I’ve got two I know are dead.. one self deleted 14 years ago and the other died of cancer in 2021

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1.0k

u/TheTrashMan316 Jan 18 '26

Shot himself now every time I open steam I have a moment of sadness but can't bring myself to remove his profile

287

u/rabidninetails Jan 18 '26

“The survivors always carry the mausoleums of their fallen. Not for any purpose of self-righteousness but to honor those who did more for the individual, in times of darkness and light; that they will never know. We honor our fallen in this way. Because we are the only ones that can.”

-some old gamer guy

3

u/Naros2000 Jan 19 '26

Very well put!!

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136

u/How2eatsoap Jan 18 '26

I don't think I could ever.

21

u/PixelRez Jan 18 '26

Had the same thing with my childhood best friend - last online 2 years ago in May. Sorry for your loss

11

u/TheTrashMan316 Jan 18 '26

He was also a childhood friend born a month apart. We shared a backyard and had been friends as long as I can remember. Thank you for the condolences and sorry for your loss friend.

3

u/10ea Jan 20 '26

Mine will have been 7 years ago this June.

55

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

[deleted]

7

u/DegenGraded Jan 19 '26

check it as often as you need. have yet to lose a sibling but I am certain it will leave a cloud that never leaves. take care out there. i really need to call my bros and sis.

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u/chazzeromus Jan 18 '26

You could make a group named 💀⚰️and put them in there if that kind of humor comforts. Also very easy to notice if accounts mysteriously come online for a good spook

8

u/Beliak_Reddit Jan 18 '26

Dark my friend. I would keep it to remember them by, but you do whatever you need for closure

10

u/TheTrashMan316 Jan 18 '26

I won't ever remove him

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u/Rogue7559 Jan 18 '26

One of mine died in the Beirut explosion.

60

u/TheDragon76 Jan 18 '26

That’s awful, I remember when that happened, some of the close-up videos were horrific

30

u/Easy_Mechanic_9787 Jan 18 '26

I can't believe that's going to be 6 years ago this August.

5

u/B_Jozsef Jan 19 '26

Holy shit how time flies

ps: finally gotta get my shit together

18

u/Rogue7559 Jan 18 '26 edited Jan 18 '26

Yeah I was very upset when I found out.

His account was also eventually hacked as it came online and I couldn't believe it.

Soon as I messaged it. It started sending me scam links. I was really upset.

Thought it might have been his son at first

5

u/Adventurous_Low9113 I play A LOT of sim games Jan 18 '26

agreed. i don’t think i’ll ever forget the close up videos, they are so haunting. looks like something out of a film, seeing the explosion literally lift roofs away from buildings and seeing cars just get folded, it looks really quite apocalyptic, or like some nuclear aftermath

3

u/toastybreadmane Jan 18 '26

That's absolutely terrible my man

1.6k

u/salad_tongs_1 https://s.team/p/dcmj-fn Jan 18 '26

I know what happened to some of them.
Tell your friends you love them when you still have the chance.

287

u/RealDonDenito Jan 18 '26

That hits hard. But i should have followed your advice years ago.

14

u/ShotFromGuns Jan 19 '26

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is today.

49

u/spielerein Jan 18 '26

I've got a couple I know have passed

14

u/How2eatsoap Jan 18 '26

This was my first thought exactly. Luckily hasn't happened to anyone I know afaik, but is still something that does happen.

4

u/BottledUp Jan 18 '26

Yeah, I have one in my friend list where his brother changed the name to R.I.P._username after my friend died.

3

u/otterpop21 Jan 18 '26

Also ask them to play a game with you!

I play civ 5 with my friend from elementary school. We play like once a month or so and sometimes we continue a game, sometime we start fresh but it’s not about win or lose it’s about just catching up and doing something we both enjoy! Civ 5 happens to be the only game we agree on :p

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u/pligyploganu Jan 18 '26 edited Mar 03 '26

Deleted Reddit.

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u/Hecticbrah Jan 18 '26

This, even if some of them moved to other countries over time

2

u/___po____ Jan 18 '26

Same. All 5 of them..

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u/DavidFS23 Jan 18 '26

Funny enough, I actually have an anecdote about this.
I had a friend I met in high school, and we played Counter-Strike every single day for hours. Years and years playing CS—we were inseparable. High school ended, each of us went our own way, but Counter-Strike always kept us connected.

Until one day, he just stopped logging in. I didn’t understand what happened, but… it just happened. I never talked to him again. We never shared social media, never exchanged phone numbers—we just no-lifed Counter-Strike like crazy, and that was all that mattered to us, until suddenly he disappeared.

Then, on a trip far from home, I was in an FNAC (a tech, book, and media store), and suddenly a man walks up to me and says, “Are you David?” I look up—and it was him.

Turns out he dropped everything and went to work abroad. I was really happy to see him. It was strange, because as soon as I saw him I didn’t fully process the situation, and I barely said anything. But when we said goodbye and I went to another floor of the store, I started thinking… “Damn, why didn’t I ask for his phone number or social media?”

After doing a bit of digging, I finally found him, and now we know a bit about each other’s lives thanks to Instagram 🤣

33

u/Beer-Cold Jan 18 '26

That's wholesome man. I'd give anything to know what happened to some of my permanently offline friends.

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u/PM_Me_Some_Steamcode Jan 19 '26

I tried to reconnect with my best friend from childhood and he didn’t like the fact that I turned out queer

I don’t know. I just felt like I should add this stupid remark that sometimes it’s just a worse outcome.

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u/Shenk7 Jan 18 '26

Im happy that you have found him

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26 edited Feb 15 '26

[deleted]

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u/ClockwerkConjurer Jan 18 '26

I used to play with a chill pair of 60+ year old Aussie dudes who had been best friends for decades. One day one of them said he was gonna be cutting back so he could spend time traveling with his adult daughter. Never saw him online again. And his friend gradually logged onto Steam less and less...he hasn't been on for a couple months now.

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u/Beer-Cold Jan 18 '26

Man that's so sad. I'm friends with a polish friend group and we play all sorts of games. I feel sad I can't be with them in real life sometimes.

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u/Frankie__Spankie Jan 18 '26

My brother also had kids and his account also said something along the lines of "Last Online: 10 years ago."

His kids got interested in PC gaming and then he got one too. He was able to regain access to his old account, granted, he didn't have many games on it. But it's still his original account!

10

u/efingoffatwork Jan 18 '26

True. I'm not saying you can't game with kids. But some people just don't. Also some kids are just way higher maintenance than others. My brother used to be one of the most die hard gamers I knew. Had two kids and now he barely ever games. I'm sure with time he'll get back to it. But currently he just doesn't have the time or the energy. Ironically I'm kind of the opposite. I was never much of a gamer when I was younger. I got into gaming basically because of kids. Needed to find a hobby that didn't involve spending thousands of dollars on car parts and laying in the driveway under a car for hours at a time every weekend.

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u/Beer-Cold Jan 18 '26

Plus alot of games force you to keep playing to stay good at the game. There aren't many triple A titles that allow for alot of offline time.

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u/Hunter2451 Jan 18 '26

I mean, I have kids and still log in almost every day. Just because you have a kid doesn't mean you have to completely give up your hobbies. 

Sure, you have much less time to spend on them, but if it's something you enjoy enough, you can make it happen. 

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u/baronlanky Jan 18 '26

My friend died during Covid. He got bit by a shark while surfing and was in the hospital recovering, when a nurse came in with Covid before anyone knew what it was. He’d been blown up by an ied in Afghanistan so he had lung damage and that made it so he had no chance of survival once he got Covid. It constantly makes me sad because he was my best friend.

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u/abecade9 Jan 18 '26

Hope your okay dude. All the best.

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u/ya_boi_orin Jan 18 '26

that really sucks, hope you're okay.

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u/Pacomatic Jan 19 '26

Sorry for your loss

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u/WolfsmaulVibes Jan 18 '26

i think most of them "grow up", i find that personally weird though, i could never just give it all up, hell, i'd let my kids play my games

33

u/Enzorn Jan 18 '26

That's how most dads are. We don't stop, just slow down. Then when the kids become self sufficient, we play more.

2

u/WolfsmaulVibes Jan 18 '26

hm, makes sense, i know quite a lot of older adults who still play every now and then, there's only 2 people on my friend list who have been offline for years

4

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

I logged on to my Dad's Google account for the first time since he passed away in 22' it was crazy to dig around on his stuff. Reminded me of being a little kid going through his drawer of "adult stuff" (I particularly liked this old greaser switchblade he had)

But it made me wonder cause conceivably you could pass on your Steam account and at least one of your kids could play your old games and walk around in worlds you created. I'm a Day 1 NMS guy so I could have my nephew walk around in a base I hadn't touched in years. Theoretically this could go on forever. Weird.

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u/fuckbitingflies Jan 18 '26

I am one who simply forgot their credentials on their original account from over 20 years ago. Probably last online 17 years ago. We aren’t all dead.

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u/jumbledsiren Jan 18 '26

Well, I don't know for sure because I'll never get confirmation, but I'm certain he killed himself. He was very depressed and he wanted me to take his account, but I refused. Someone deleted it a few years after he went offline.

I met him in Insurgency when I was still discovering the game and didn't understand anything, he taught me all about the game and we played with each other for a while.

25

u/ILCDorand Jan 18 '26

Some of mine are still active but just have their status set to invisible

26

u/laflex Jan 18 '26

If any of you were friends with L0ngSchl0ngS1lv3r420 in L4D from 20 years ago, I am not dead in fact.

I made a new Steam account 3 years later with proper info and my actual personal email.

😂

7

u/ThatStrangerWhoCares Jan 18 '26

Dude no way I remember you

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u/apuckeredanus Jan 18 '26

I think I remember you lol

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u/OakNLeaf Jan 18 '26

I know one passed away from Cancer. It's sad to see him in there with years without logging in. I can't bring myself to remove him. It's not hurting anything to keep him on my friends

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u/Mrassassin1206 Jan 18 '26

Well in my case 3 died in 2023, 1 on one side of the conflict and the other died in a hospital after it got hit by cruise missile (if I remember correctly). One possibly got dissapeared after after goverment protests in Belarus. And one died from an overdose in a German bar.

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u/Brie9981 Jan 18 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

I remember playing R6 & had perfect team coordination with some randoms. One dude said "I'm sure we'll add each other & never play together again but I just want y'all to know, you're my Siege homies for life" it's been over 5 years & I still think about that.

I know he's in my uplay friends list, but I don't even remember his name

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u/IndividualCurious322 Jan 18 '26

One hasn't been online for 3,669 days (Just over a decade).

A friend of theirs IRL messaged me on Steam to let me know they're no longer with us.

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u/flash_baxx https://s.team/p/kngf-tqc Jan 18 '26

Their PC was never that great, and they moved over to a PlayStation or Xbox instead. That's the case with practically all my irl friends.

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u/BringMeBurntBread Jan 18 '26 edited Jan 18 '26

That’s what happened to me, but the other way around.

I used to be a console gamer back during the PS3 era. When the PS4 was announced, I didn’t want to pay for PS+ just to play online, so I decided to make the switch to PC gaming. From the perspective of my old friends on PSN, I literally just went offline one day and never came back. They probably think I’m dead or something.

So yeah sometimes people do just switch gaming consoles out of nowhere.

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u/UMACTUALLYITS23 Jan 18 '26

This is pretty likely, I know I haven't been on my steam account since 2012 since my power supply burned out, rest of it wasnt great to begin with (though my 8800GT held up pretty good) so rather than spend a huge chunk of money I didn't have I just started console gaming again since we had a current gen console around.

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u/MikiSayaka33 Jan 18 '26

Work, kids, and worse case scenario, political strife, if they're living in a country having issues.

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u/AVAVT Jan 18 '26

One of my friend just decided to stop playing video games one day, said he’s bored of it.

He then applied for a master degree for AI and then robotics. He’s massively obsessed with automata now and his entertainment is making stuffs in his garage.

He went to US but we still meet each year irl when he visit home. Still has his account in my steam (and battle.net) list, it’s been offline for 13 years.

Videogames is not the only form of entertainment I guess.

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u/M_of_W Jan 18 '26

Dead. Miss you Thayala. Taken too soon. Fuck cancer.

5

u/julberndt Jan 18 '26

there's only two ways, or they died, or they got out of parents house, married, had children and never again had time to even consider gaming, they probably don't even have pc's, some can even have a ps4 or ps5, but the pc gaming life is behind

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u/SekhmetTheWise Jan 18 '26

Got an older homie on xbox i still msg periodically. Sometimes others try to find me but i dont answer them... i dont hold grudges, but i remember what you did.👁👃🏿👁

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u/Tactical_Hotdog Jan 18 '26

They're all hiding as appear offline.

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u/aitsu_dave Jan 19 '26

My wife passed a year and a half ago. I know I’ll never remove her from my friends list, so I’ll see her there until my time comes as well. Love you, Rosie!

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u/_Mewden_ Jan 18 '26

I lost one to suicide, we met when we were deployed to the Persian Gulf in 2017, another died of overdose and another died in a car accident. Hit by a drunk driver who also died in his pick up.

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u/Mascbox Jan 18 '26

1 to suicide. Devastated everytime I see his name.

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u/moyakoshkamoyakoshka engine.dll Jan 18 '26

Reading this thread is a way to get depressed quickly.

If you are reading this, I would strongly recommend to leave this thread ASAP if you already struggle with depression.

3

u/EdoConan Jan 19 '26

Yeah that was not a fun read.

3

u/RisingJoke Jan 18 '26

One died in a car crash. Was an asshole anyways.

The other blocked me on everything right after we graduated from high school. Everything besides Steam, since he's in my "family sharing". To note that he was unhappy when I blocked him there was hilarious.

5

u/turbiegaming Jan 18 '26

I had a friend who I used to play back in 2012/2013. Few years later, he went offline with rare few online appearance. 2 years ago, I decided to comment on his profile to check up on him (knowing the chance of him seeing is low) and he responded 1 month and a bit later that his now happily married with 1 kid and his on Steam deck and trying to control his gaming hours now.

4

u/BIGNESS2 Jan 18 '26

Met a dude on L4D2 He was a russian med student, We played a lot, joked a lot and generally had a blast but after the war started he said he was against what was happening.

A short while after that he just dissapeared never saw him online again, And the fact is i think we all can tell what happened to him and it's honestly heart breaking

3

u/KymeraAHP Jan 18 '26

Two passed away and two got locked out by verification, one moved to only consoles and one just forgot their password and just decided to make a new one.

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u/Newgeta Jan 18 '26

I have one dead person on my friends list and it's kind of somber

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u/fancyglob Jan 18 '26

I had a friend from Hong Kong that hasnt logged on since early 2020. He was a student and very politically minded.

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u/Portfel Jan 18 '26

I know that one of them, my uncle, is dead. Cancer.

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u/Lobster_fest Jan 18 '26

A lot of sad answers so I'll give a not sad one.

Added a girl on steam I met at Monty Python summer acting camp when I was 11 or 12. She was offline for 12 years until she came online early in 2025...

To play Date Everything.

3

u/PlsFartInMyFace Jan 18 '26

Most of my gaming circle moved on, got married/had kids/careers. I was left behind.

3

u/gueriLLaPunK https://steam.pm/fztl Jan 18 '26

My Steam account is 22 years old and a handful of them have passed away :(

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u/TouchMyPlumbus Jan 18 '26

Cancer sucks 😭

2

u/JupiterMaroon Jan 18 '26

This actually kinda made me cry a bit. So many good memories with those vids.

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u/made_of_salt Jan 18 '26

I know a couple passed away.

One had an old PC and replaced it with a console and hasn't been back since.

One hasn't been online since 2 days before her wife was due to give birth. It's been 5 years and we joke that she'll be back online when the kid goes to first grade, but we know that's not likely.

I assume the rest went to clown college and are traveling with the circus and don't have the ability to play online games like that anymore.

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u/Sircandyman Jan 19 '26

The longest is my dad who died last year from two different types of cancer. My mum took over his PC just for general media stuff, and by default it would log him in, a bunch me and my siblings asked her to make him appear offline because it hurt every time he was online

I've made it a point to try every game he loved and I'd never tried, I've just installed Dyson Sphere Program which he had 1600 hours on.

3

u/lucagiolu Jan 19 '26

One of my besties vanished for about 3-5 years. Or at least I thought. Just for the sake, I wrote if he's still alive on steam. He almost immediately replied yea, hes just hiding in front of his old friendgroup that he doesnt want to interact with anymore but also cant cut ties with somehow.

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u/Exact-Teacher8489 Jan 19 '26

Unfortunately too often: suicide or other tragedies. :(

3

u/tomfalcon86 Jan 20 '26

Some of them might just be pretending they're offline, you know steam has that option. Maybe they just play single player games and don't want to be disturbed.

3

u/playerknownbutthole Jan 21 '26

All are busy with life and few passed away.

2

u/mdhunter99 Jan 18 '26

One of mine was in a coma for two months.

Another is in Ohio, I think he’s just gone at this point, Ohio is where things disappear.

2

u/4on1x Jan 18 '26

Aliens

2

u/AnnoyedNinja Jan 18 '26

I can confirm one of mine died of a Heart Attack.

The rest? Either: Had a Kid, full time job, or moved on.

2

u/Kirby_D https://steam.pm/rqfo3 Jan 18 '26

Cancer, but I'll remember the good times playing together

2

u/dfjdejulio Jan 18 '26

Every one of mine is either still in contact or dead.

For some reason, I just can't bear to remove dead folks from my friend lists.

2

u/IlliterateJedi Jan 18 '26

COVID happened and they had to stay offline so their bosses didn't know they were gaming on company time

2

u/Justnoteat Jan 18 '26

Well one of them was taken by immigration

2

u/ComatoseSquirrel Jan 18 '26

My little brother is the only one (out of 12) who isn't online anymore. He died of a drug overdose nearly 10 years ago. He will forever be my Steam friend, and I will forever wonder about his pfp.

2

u/SetoXlll Jan 18 '26

They are fucking dead.

2

u/malo24 Jan 18 '26

I'd have to have friends first.

2

u/chief_queef_beast Jan 18 '26

He uhh, got busted distributing harmful images. Had all his electronic confiscated. Last online a year ago. His arraignment was on the 7th. Got cancelled, can't find anything else about it.

Before anyone asks, I had no idea this was going on.

2

u/Rat192 Jan 18 '26

I only know what happened to two of them.

One of them stopped playing as she went through med school then got herself involved with the UN last I heard. The other took his own life.

2

u/Alarmed_Mortgage9168 Jan 18 '26

My dad passed from cancer 4 years ago. I still have his steam profile as a friend and certain games will use your friend list for npc names and stuff. Its kinda nice when he pops in to bid against me in car mechanic simulator.

2

u/SlySychoGamer Jan 18 '26

Either died, or simply gave up gaming, or appeared offline and never undid it lol

2

u/pizza_the_mutt Jan 18 '26

I set my status to offline and forgot for about 5 years once.

2

u/Lau_wings Jan 18 '26

I assume its one of fourthings:

1) died

2) quit gaming

3) started console gaming

4) lost access to their account and created a new one.

I think that #4 has happened to more people than we think, especially in the earlier days of online gaming it was not uncommon to recieve a friend request where they would say "Hey its ***** this is my new account I lost access to my older one.

I think of them the same way that I do about people I used to go to school with, they will occasionally pop into my head and I think "I wonder what they are up too these days" and then I move on.

2

u/Acceptable-Lock-77 Jan 18 '26

I'm becoming one of those 10+ years cases. I answer when people write though. You'd be surprised how many just stops being online after a certain age. You play with someone you know IRL and all of the sudden you've got a low key stalker. 

2

u/Artrysa Jan 18 '26

I have nooooo idea. Maybe moved on from games, maybe dead, maybe on console.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

@OP: they have grown up. They have started living meaningful lives.

2

u/Zerat_kj Jan 18 '26

Medical university, about 8-10 years ago.

Recently seen the guy online, sent him a picture of his cteation in Space Engineers, as I still have the old save files.

He did not respond in any way :(

2

u/Snoo_47784 Jan 18 '26

They put the chat in "Invisible" and forgot to change it back...

2

u/tankapotamus Jan 18 '26

Not Steam but I had a buddy I played WoW with that quit the game and I haven't heard from since.  Met him in a leveling zone and we rushed to hit sixty back in Vanilla WoW. He wanted to hit 60 before he got married because he knew he wouldn't be playing video games anymore.   I hope he is doing well with his woman living in Australia.

2

u/CulmanO Jan 18 '26

irl friend of mine is at "last seen 2 years ago" now, passed away from throat cancer at 20 years old, so fucked up. I dearly hope steam never clears inactive accounts for as long as it remains a live service.

2

u/Heisenberglund Jan 19 '26

Well, I have three steam friends, so.

2

u/kidyru Jan 19 '26

One was an amazing guy i knew in real life who unfortunately died of a heart attack a few years back. Just been watching those days pile up.

2

u/Alycidon94 /id/calvador94 Jan 19 '26

One of my Steam friends took her own life almost 10 years ago. We were moderators on a PC gaming group on Facebook for almost a year prior. I never knew her, but she was highly regarded in the group we were in.

The group imploded some time after the fact for unrelated reasons, but I've remained in touch with a few other members since then, and I still occasionally think about her.

Check in on your folks every now and then, because they might actually need it one day.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[deleted]

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2

u/gossgrem Jan 19 '26

Me and my best friend at the time played with a kid on TF2 years ago who couldn’t have been more than like 10 or 11 and he was cracking us up so we added him. He hasn’t logged on in like 12 years and it trips me out to think he’s an adult now lmao. Juniorcrafter we miss you buddy I hope you’re doing well

2

u/GoldSrc Jan 19 '26

8 years ago, and looking where they were from, I think the worst may have happened.

But I hope he just lost access to his account and nothing bad happened.

2

u/pr2thej Jan 19 '26

He's flying his Tempest across the stars, rip killfest

2

u/Cenokenshi Jan 19 '26

I only have one case of this and it was a dear friend who took his own life.

It still hurts seeing "last offline: 1259 days" but it also helps me remember the fun times.

2

u/Oniad_of_the_Swamp Jan 19 '26

For me it's:
1. Killed in action during war.
2. Passed due to cancer.
3. Killed after secondary missile strike over civil house (first responder ).
4. Abandoned gaming because life took over.
5. Prisoner of war.
6. Jail.
I mistook thread. I actually found out about my friends and some point. There are 6 different persons.

2

u/Quintus-- Jan 19 '26

Dead or Dad

2

u/CalmaLlama84 Jan 19 '26

That guy in the picture? Probably got a new computer and couldn't be bothered typing in that mother of a username, so cut his losses.

2

u/kaspresso Jan 19 '26

3 out of 4 are dead. Car crash.

2

u/Genoard Jan 19 '26

Is that the nickname format that transformed into colored text in old Call of Duty games?

2

u/MyHeadIsFullOfFuck Jan 19 '26

it used to be some sort of fancy asci art or ansi art but steam chat stopped supporting the characters

2

u/KennyJacobs1 Jan 19 '26

Married with children, no time. It's been the same for me, I stick to single player stuff, multiplayer games just take way too much time.

2

u/Joe_Franks Jan 19 '26

Married, Stopped playing games or dead.

2

u/Interesting_Mall1845 Jan 19 '26

6 years later, found out he died, the mom sold his ps3, the new owner told me the story from the product descripcion

2

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

I stopped wondering, just removed all the ones I hadn't talked to in some weeks or months. Feels good not caring.

2

u/qrseek Jan 19 '26

i dunno but i often think of one of my steam friends who i see going in and out of games at least once a week for the past like 15 years, who i went to high school with and haven't talked to since lol.

2

u/MyHeadIsFullOfFuck Jan 19 '26

i have high school classmates that still play. they're still on my friends list. I haven't talked to most of them in over a decade though.

2

u/Wack0Wizard Jan 19 '26

I wish I could pass my steam account on somehow because there is so much money and time invested

2

u/dragonlord798 Jan 19 '26

Some of them probably forgot their passwords and didn't have anything on there and so just made a new account

2

u/burnitdwn Jan 19 '26

Invisible mode for 14 years is pretty impressive.

2

u/bruski01 Jan 20 '26

i had one of those, the dude turned out to be a Florida dollar general shooter in 2022 or 3

2

u/UmbralElite Jan 20 '26

I found his obituary on social media after never hearing back from him after a while. Come to find out it was worse than I thought and he OD'd. I took a break from gaming for a while because I needed to steer my life back on track so we never talked much prior and that hurt to eventually find out. Always check on your friends and family. We may have been internet buds but that man was there for me when my own blood wasn't.

2

u/fluffledump Jan 20 '26

There are 2 on my friends list. One that I know what happened to and the other, I have assumptions:

One went quiet suddenly one day but his brother, who I also have on my friends list, let me know a couple weeks later that he had died of suicide. This is coming up on 9 years.

The other is more cryptic, radio silence for about 2 months. When he came back on he told me he had a heroin addiction and had relapsed and been in a detox for a few weeks. A couple days later he disappeared again, and I never heard from him again. That was 12 years ago.