Being a field well over its 50 years of age, the videogames industry has certainly seen its share of emotional moments, and some of the most wholesome stories in gaming are usually the first to come to mind when we want to know about uplifting people and celebrating their lives through digital media.
After all, who said you can’t be a world-devouring, reality-bending dark knight, but one with a heart, amirite?
So, in order to place a list to remind you of all these moments, here are some of the most wholesome stories in gaming for you to feel good about.
These wholesome stories in gaming will restore your faith in humanity, one pixel a time
Hollow Knight Silksong’s homage to Seth Goldman
Starting out with a recent one, recently released Hollow Knight Silksong is a prime example of how a team of developers can turn “gaming stories” into “wholesome stories in gaming” with a little care and some will to appreciate its community.
Seth Goldman was a 16-year-old Hollow Knight fan who was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Through the Marty Lyons Foundation—an organization dedicated to fulfilling wishes of children with terminal illnesses—Seth was able to meet Team Cherry, the indie developers behind his favorite game. Rather than just having a conversation, the developers offered him something extraordinary: the opportunity to design a custom boss character for Silksong.
Seth got to see the completed boss design in action before his passing in 2020, which meant he experienced the fulfillment of his wish despite the game not releasing until September 2025. Players who encounter Shrine Guardian Seth in Act 3 now find themselves battling not just a tough opponent, but a living tribute to a young fan’s passion and creativity. The character is thanked in the game’s credits, and the gaming community has responded profoundly—discovering Seth’s story months after release, players began leaving heartfelt messages on his family’s obituary, turning it into a digital memorial that connects strangers across the globe through shared grief and appreciation.
World of Warcraft and the eternization of Ezra Chatterton
Born on January 31, 1996, California’s original Ezra Chatterton was an avid World of Warcraft player who shared the game with his father, Micah, on the Norgannon US server. Diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2007 at 10 years of age, Ezra’s passion for the game led to a collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In May 2007, he visited Blizzard’s offices and worked directly with developer Jeff Kaplan (known as Tigole) to design in-game content — a visit taht resulted in several personalized additions that were patched into the game shortly after, allowing Ezra to see his creations come to life.
Some of his contributions include:
- Ahab Wheathoof, a tauren NPC located in Mulgore, near Bloodhoof Village: this NPC has Ezra’s voice, embodying pleas for help to find his lost dog
- “Kyle’s Gone Missing!” quest: A beginner-level mission that tasks players with finding and feeding Kyle the Frenzyheart (later renamed Kyle the Friendly), a wandering dog. Ezra also provided voice acting for the character
- “Merciless Gladiator’s Crossbow of the Phoenix” item: the weapon, described as “finely crafted of Ordon horn and Phoenix bone”, was designed by Ezra, whose online name, “EPhoenix”, tied into the item, representing rebirth
- Ashes of Al’ar, a mount that Blizzard granted Ezra the world-first acquisition of. The mount is a rare find
Ezra’s participation in World of Warcraft, though, never ended there: sadly, he suffered a stroke in August, 2008, passing away two months later. News of his passing quickly spread throughout the community, prompting thousands of players to send condolences to his family.
In response, Horde players flocked to Mulgore to complete the “Kyle’s Gone Missing!” quest as a collective tribute, turning a simple in-game activity into a virtual vigil — nowadays, the quest has become something of a cult rite of passage. Blizzard itself honored Ezra posthumously by renaming an Elder NPC in Thunder Bluff to Elder Ezra Wheathoof during the 2009 Lunar Festival. This spectral tauren appears annually, allowing players to pay respects and receive blessings, ensuring his memory endures in the game’s seasonal events.
Micah Chatterton, Ezra’s father, published a heartfelt tribute in the Orange County Register, reflecting on how the game provided joy during difficult times. Academic discussions, such as in Game Studies, analyze this as an example of virtual memorials, comparing it to other in-game tributes that help communities mourn.
CS:GO’s community rally for Adam “Loop” Bahriz
Adam Bahriz, known as “Loop” on Twitch, was born with Hereditary Sensory Autonomic Neuropathy (HSAN), a rare genetic condition that caused him to be legally blind and deaf, and unable to feel pain. Growing up, this disease caused him to inadvertently injure himself, including damaging his corneas.
Because, unlike movies like “Novocaine” and that uninteresting 007 villain tell us, “not feeling pain” is not only not cool, but incredibly dangerous: you never know how hurt you are, illnesses that would signal pain and discomfort would go unnoticed, potentially evolving to more dangerous capacities — even the estimated age for survivors of this particular condition is a mix: either death in infancy or 25 years on average, depending on several factors.
This makes this entry even more notable since, in 2017, Loop was playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) competitively when his teammates bullied him after he disclosed his disability, eventually kicking him from the match. A viewer recognized the injustice and posted about it on the CS:GO subreddit, asking the community to “give him some love.”
And love Loop the community did: the response was overwhelming, getting his Twitch stream up to more than 5,000 concurrent viewers, hundreds of dollars in donations and several shoutouts from pro players — with some, like Ryan “freakazoid” Abadir, even joining his stream plays for a handful of matches alongside him.
Loop ultimately raised enough money for dental work (dentures cost approximately $6,000) and continues his competitive gaming career, achieving Global Elite rank—the highest matchmaking rank in CS:GO—and reaching A+ rankings on third-party platforms despite his disabilities.
Animal Crossing and Grandma Audrey shows Nintendo does have a heart somewhere
As wholesome stories in gaming go, this is one of the most well known out there…
In January 2019, game designer Paul Hubans posted a simple tweet with a screenshot: his 87-year-old grandmother Audrey had played Animal Crossing: New Leaf for 3,580 hours over nearly four years, playing almost every single day. The post went viral, accumulating over 11 million views, capturing the internet’s heart with the image of an elderly woman so devoted to a relaxing game. What makes this story uniquely uplifting is: Nintendo noticed.
That’s right: the company known for Zelda, Pokémon, Donkey Kong and ridiculous patents and lawsuits took notice of an elderly woman playing Animal Crossing and by Mario it would do something about it!
That “something” came in the form of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. When the game was announced, the community discovered a new villager character named Audie — a reference to Audrey’s in-game name. This wasn’t just a passive nod; Nintendo and fans collaborated to crowdfund a special edition Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch for Audrey, allowing her to continue her virtual life on the new game.
At 88 years old, Audrey received her new Switch and began exploring New Horizons, proving that gaming communities can celebrate dedication and passion across all ages.
Final Fantasy XIV is a testament of how a community can show love for its devs
Masayoshi Soken, the renowned composer and sound director for Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV), stunned fans with a personal revelation during the Digital Fan Festival on May 15-16, 2021. He announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer in March 2020, at the height of the global pandemic, and had battled it secretly for nearly a year.
Despite undergoing chemotherapy, which he described as mentally and physically grueling, Soken continued his work from a hospital bed, contributing to the Shadowbringers expansion. His hospitalization lasted six to seven months, from March to around October 2020, during which he composed key tracks like the climactic boss theme “To the Edge.”
The announcement came at the festival’s close, following a performance by Soken’s band, The Primals. He shared that only a few people, including producer and director Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P), knew about his condition to avoid disrupting the team’s morale. With their support, Soken secured special arrangements to keep composing, crediting the structured development schedule for helping him maintain a sense of normalcy.
By May 2021, his cancer was in remission, and doctors had cleared him to attend the event in person. Tearfully, Soken thanked the global player base, noting that their positive reactions to his music provided the motivation to fight through treatment.
Honorable mention: Bethesda is all about its community
Ooohhh-wee, get your tissues ready, folks. When it comes to wholesome stories in gaming, what we got here is a triple-decker exclusively for Bethesda.
First, way back in 2016, the now-Microsoft-owned studio demonstrated the power of corporate compassion when they honored a Reddit user’s brother, Evan, by creating an NPC tribute in the Fallout 4 Nuka-World DLC.
You see, Evan was originally meant to receive a care package of Fallout merchandise from Bethesda after the family experienced the death of their father — the company is known for its close-to-heart interactions with some of its fans. The thing is, the package arrived too late: much like his father, Evan had also passed away by the time the package arrived, but that did not deter Bethesda from immortalizing the fan in the game.
Thus, Evan, the helpful survivor of Fallout 4’s post-apocalyptic world came to be: an always friendly, never hostile and unkillable character with a heart of gold, the character is full of witty dialog and even offers the Sole Survivor (the player’s character) a recipe of Nuka-Love: if you have the game with that DLC installed, he’s easy enough to find, living inside a trailer beside some crops in Nuka-World’s southern ends.
According to Evan’s family, while the character’s looks were somewhat off, the dialog and mannerisms captured the essence of the real man perfectly: “the words they use sound exactly like him, he was a pretty funny guy, full of puns”, they admitted in later interviews.
That, however, was not the first time Bethesda has shown a particular type of care towards its fans. In 2009, when Eric West was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, he had only two and a half years to live. Despite the grim reality of being terminally ill, his family says he never relented, never let it get to him, remaining positive, silly, happy, life-loving, and compassionate throughout his ordeal.
A passionate Elder Scrolls fan, Eric ended up hearing about the Make-A-Wish Foundation and, through them, he requested to visit Bethesda Game Studios. The team at Bethesda was reportedly impressed by Eric’s extensive knowledge of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (the one that got recently remastered), and they made him an extraordinary offer: they would create a character in the upcoming game — a small project called “Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim — based on him. Not only that, but Eric received a private viewing, playing a beta version of the then-upcoming game at a movie theater screen Bethesda have in its offices.
Eric never got to see Skyrim in full form — he passed before the November, 2011 release — though he remains immortalized through “Eric the Slayer”, a character that combines his real name and his internet persona. (combining his real name with his internet persona), lives on in the game as a testament to his passion and the studio’s commitment to honoring their fans.
Oh, and he’s still there, by the way: even after so many re-releases and anniversary editions and even a tabletop version, Skyrim players can still find Erik, The Slayer in the small village of Rorikstead. Interacting with him the first time nets you the small sidequest “Erik, The Slayer”, where you have to convince his father to let the boy travel to Whiterun and buy armor in order to fulfill his desire to become an adventurer.
In doing so, you can also interact with him in two other contexts: Erik can be a character to be rescued from Lost Echo Cave in a later quest and, as you advance through the plot’s main twist, you can find him again and induce him to The Blades, a group of dragon hunters that we’ll not delve too much into so we can avoid spoilers.
Finally, Bethesda went at it again on Starfield. In March 2023, Alex Hay, a 35-year-old iOS developer (he’s the guy behind the Toolbox Pro iOS app, which users told me if hella useful), posted on Reddit expressing his disappointment that the game’s release had been delayed, mentioning how he stopped cancer treatment and was under palliative care, seeking to make his life easier when “that” moment came. Thing is, Alex wanted Starfield to be his escape during his final moments — sadly, that never came to be, as he would pass away before the September 2023 release, barely missing the mark of Bethesda space-exploring title.
The Starfield community did not let that slide: rallying under the hashtag #AlexInStarfield, the players urged Bethesda to include a tribute — which the studio listened to, responding to it by including a handwritten note hidden in the game that reads:
“To all my friends and fellow explorers. I’m always with you, out in the starfield.
Love always, Alex Hay.”
Well, goddamit, you guys: it’s hard to type with watery eyes, you know!
How about you? Do you know of any other wholesome stories in gaming such as these? Let us know in the comments!
