Williams had been diagnosed with a serious type of illness and had been suffering from depression. Details of his death reveal that the 63-year old comedian suffered from asphyxia due to hanging.
Williams, who is famous for portraying offbeat characters, was devoted to acting on stage, TV, and the screen. To the video game community, he is also known as a serious fan and a proud player of video games. As a keen fan, he named his daughter after a character from the game "The Legend of Zelda."
Just hours later when the news on Williams' death broke out, gamer Nick Schaedel from Adelaide, Australia initiated a petition in Change.org that asked Nintendo to include Williams in the next game iteration of the "Legend of Zelda" by naming one of the villagers as Robin.
"Please consider naming an NPC in the new Legend of Zelda game after Robin Williams. It was a series he loved, and it's a small tribute to a great man," said Nick in the petition. "He won't get to play it, but he'll live on forever in a universe he always loved."
Williams has been a fan of the game series since 1987. Together with his daughter "Zelda," they have appeared in Nintendo's series of promotional ads for "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D."
In a similar petition, players of the "World of Warcraft" have asked that Williams be included in the MMORPG, another favorite game of the actor, as an NPC. The petition seemed to have succeeded as confirmed by an employee from Blizzard Entertainment. "Yes. We're taking care of it," said by the employee.
Nintendo, on the other hand, still has to decide on the petition but couldn't really make a commitment.
"Robin Williams was loved at Nintendo. Our hearts go out to his entire family, and especially to Zelda Williams who we've worked with multiple times. We appreciate the outpouring of support from the gaming community, and hear the request of fans to honor him in a future game. We will not be discussing what might be possible for future games during this difficult time, but we will hold our memories of Robin close," said a Nintendo spokesperson.
So far, the petition has collected more than 92,000 signatures. It is only a few thousand signatures away from its goal to reach a total of 100,000 signatures. In the petition's page, Schaedel had encouraged the supporters to even go beyond their signing by donating to any of the actor's supported charities such as UNICEF, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, and Amnesty International.
