Tragically he lost his sight, and you'd think his ability to adventure in Azeroth. Not so. Another player, Death Knight Davidian, has been his 'guide' helping Shaw to keep on adventuring.
Owen, from Scotland, is the man behind Davidian. Thanks to a serious of macros set up, both on Shaw and Owen's machines, shaman Hexu is still in the fight.
Thanks to this immense friendship, Hexu is still raiding World of Warcraft and even toppling Deathwing, with the chums ranking closely in DPS. Blizzard, having had this story reach them, felt that as it was such a unique and heart-warming tale they commissioned two unique in-game items in honour of Ben Shaw and his guide Owen.
Hexu's Amplifying Helm and Davidian's All-Seeing Eyes are now droppable items in Azeroth, with their descriptions tugging heart strings: "A man with a friend is never without vision" and "Sharp enough to see for two men".
The guild to which the duo belong, Die Safe, have issued a thank you to Blizzard for the honour.
"On behalf of Die Safe, I just wanted to give the guys at Blizzard a HUGE thank you for adding the in-game items for Hexu and Davidian," posted guild master Kors. "We were all amazed and awe struck when we discovered the items.. it's truely hard to believe that our little guild could create something that could be honoured on such a huge level!"
World of Warcraft's latest expansion Mists of Pandaria is now live.