Abstract
Digital memorialization has transformed how individuals process loss, with online bereavement forums increasingly incorporating ludic mechanisms such as virtual gifting, streak tracking, interactive candles, and commemorative badges. This article investigates the phenomenon of the "gamification of grief" through a twelve-month digital ethnography conducted across three major online bereavement platforms. Drawing on participatory observation, textual analysis of over 1,400 forum posts, and semi-structured interviews with 28 active mourners, we examine how game-design elements mediate the emotional landscape of loss, influence communicative norms, and foster online communal bonds. Our findings reveal a dual dynamic: while ludic elements offer accessible structural scaffolds for continuous mourning, lower the threshold for empathetic social exchanges, and provide symbolic longevity for the deceased, they simultaneously engender performative grief, social obligation, and the commercialization of remembrance. By analyzing the structural interplay between platform affordances and human emotional vulnerability, this study articulates the socio-technical complexities of digital bereavement. Ultimately, we propose a conceptual framework of "thanatological ludification," emphasizing how digital interfaces subtly reshape contemporary rituals of death, memory, and social support in networked societies.
