Matt Hughes lost life to suicide Oct. 30

Imagine that your friend sends you an email or tells you in person that, within the next 24 hours, he will be dead.

You brush it off, thinking that he's joking. And then you get the phone call.  Your friend lost his life to suicide. As it turns out, he was serious -- he really was planning to die within the next 24 hours.

Suicide is not a joking matter, and even when you think someone is "joking" about taking his or her own life, you need to tell someone. If worse comes to worse, you'll have a friend pissed off at you when police come to his house when he wasn't really serious. On the bright side, it may teach him that he has friends who truly care about him and that suicide is not something to joke about.

And to me, I would want to take that chance. Because he could be telling you the truth. And you could be the one who saves his life.

For editors at the gaming website GamesRadar, this is what happened when they found out a freelancer was not joking when he sent out an email stating he would no longer be able to contribute or take on more freelance assignments because he would be dead.

Kotaku reporter Jason Schreier writes that Matt Hughes died the day before Halloween. GamesRadar editor Sophia Tong found out after she called the police station in Hughes' town and heard he had killed himself.

Many gamers eulogized Hughes on Twitter. Tech writer Ashley Esqueda wrote, “In honor of @MottHoos, if you ever feel like you’re totally alone, you’re not. Please reach out to ANYONE. Even a weirdo like me. We care."

If someone ever tells you they are contemplating suicide and you can't get ahold of him or her, call the police immediately.

Read original story Games Reporter Matt Hughes Passes Away In Apparent Suicide.