The EVE Online blog has been updated with a new post penned on behalf of the current Seventh Council of Stellar Management. In it, the Council pays tribute to Sean Smith, aka Vile Rat, who was killed in the attack on the United States Consulate in Libya earlier this week.

Sean Smith was a veteran of the United States Air Force and joined the State Department 10 years ago. In that time he held posts in Baghdad, Pretoria, Montreal and The Hague. What I liked about Sean was that he was fellow government employee and I enjoyed talking to him about his own 'adventures' in the real world. I recall our talks evolving from him having a crappy connection he could barely play EVE on in Iraq to something finally resembling normal.

Read the full post on the EVE Online site.

Originally posted by kosac
R.I.P. rat

He was actually a nice guy, talked to him once after he destroyed my ship.  Symphathies to his family, I know he had two small kids at home with his wife.  They have to be going through a tough time right now.

Hopefully someone will take up a collection for his family.

R>I>P brotha to the star you go to sore above us peace   to your fam

RIP Vile Rat.

I never got the chance to talk to him but space feels empty without him.

http://themittani.com/news/rip-vile-rat

RIP and god speed

People who play eve die all the time.  Are we going to honor every fallen gamer?  I'm honestly ok with that, but we should be consistant and not play into the media.

It sucks he died, but the fact he was a gamer is irrelevant.  Lots of gamers die every day.

Originally posted by bossalinie

Originally posted by Outllaw
Same crap everywhere. Guy died doing his job while unfortunate he doesn't need immortalized for something that happens to people every day. It doesn't bring him back, it doesn't change the facts. He knew the risks and the worst case happened. Maybe if he spent less time on jabber being with Alliance mates and more time training with pdw's he'd still be with us. C'est la vie.

Here's the difference...if you die, no one will remember you. Care to test my theory?

Hey same with you =P

In fact, same with THIS guy they are "immortalizing". Do you know him? His likes, dreams, feelings, ambitions, ideals??? No, you know him because the News put his picture up and now Eve online is "immortilizing" him- Fact is they are merely immortilizing his image based on a small snippet based on the News because he died doing his Job.

Not to get Political here but many people (Police, Firefighters, Soldiers) die DAILY doing a far more important job and dont get a news story- Therefore even if they are MMO players (many are) nobody cares about them either.

Todays "Media" tells you what celebs and Events are important to you and most run with it, waving Flags all the way- Like Osama Bin ladens death and everyone saying "WE WON" and "WE GOT EM" when WE didnt get shit, we sat at home typing on Forums.

In Short- I agree that this is a total waste...

Originally posted by Outllaw
If I die plenty of relevant people in real life will. If a gaming community doesn't it matters so little. Dead people don't see memorials, the sit in a box in the dirt or get scattered throughout somewhere. Care to test mine?

SMDH if you think memorials are for the dead to see.

I can't prove whether yours or VR's RL influence was significant, but I can say he was a guy who helped shaped the picture of EvE more than the average player. Doesn't mean anything to you? Fine, but don't be a hater because you don't understand that people can have meaningful interactions beyond 5 inches of your eyes.

This is for you to SaintPhillip

This whole situation must seem odd to players who have never experienced a community like the one that exists in EVE. 

I was watching the news while this was all unfolding and I had that generic "This is terrible" feeling, but the show I was watching on MSNBC did a short segment on the Mittani's post about V.R. and it was really just a gut check. I went and read his post and it just makes your head spin to think about someone that you are chatting with saying "FUCK" "GUNFIRE" and then them never coming back because they were murdered. 

I didn't personally know V.R. but in a single server world where players have such an impact, especially when you are involved in the CSM, I think that the feeling is comparable to maybe that guy in your neighborhood that you don't know but always wave to being murdered. It is just... terrible.

EVE players will know what this means "Shoot blues -> Tell Vile Rat." Yeah, he was that guy in one of the largest corps in EVE.