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Outlook: The secret world of our dying son

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Mats Steen's avatar and Mats' father Robert Steen

24/03/2019 GMT

The secret world of our dying son

BBC World Service - Outlook, The secret world of our dying son

Mats Steen found friendship and escape in a fantasy online land

Mats Steen was ill for years, but he found friendship and escape in a fantasy online land

When Mats Steen was a young child growing up in Oslo, he was diagnosed with a degenerative disease. His parents Robert and Trude were told it was unlikely Mats would survive long into his 20s, and that he'd become less mobile as time went on. The physical restraints of his illness meant that Mats spent more and more time at home, playing online games. He died when he was 25, and his parents worried that his life had been lonely and friendless.

Then, in the days before the funeral a mysterious group of people started arriving in Oslo. Robert and Trude didn't know them, but they seemed to know Mats extremely well. They were a close friendship group, the result of a second life Mats had been living in the online game World of Warcraft. Far from being isolated, Mats had been leading a vivid life through the portal of his computer screen. 

A version of this story by Vicky Schaubert was first published in Norwegian by broadcaster NRK.

Presenter: Maryam Maruf
Producer: Harry Graham

Image: Mats Steen's avatar and Mats' father Robert Steen
Credit: Patrick da Silva Saether/NRK

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