11 replies to this topic

[Stalephreak]

While this is completely up to the developers, I'd like to start the community movement.

According to Fox News, Sean knew he was about to meet his end in an attack, and obviously stayed at his post. To the rest of the media, he's bringing the gaming community out into the light. He's showing people that we're not all teenages stuck in the closet with a "puter". There's a lot of dignity in that, and deserves our respect.

Edited by Stalephreak, 14 September 2012 - 06:43 PM.

[Jost]

Stalephreak, on 14 September 2012 - 06:33 PM, said:

While this is completely up to the developers, I'd like to start the community movement.

According to Fox News, Sean knew he was about to meet his end in an attack, and obviously stayed at his post. To the rest of the media, he's bringing the gaming community out into the light. He's showing people that we're not all teenages stuck in the closet with a "puter". There's a lot of dignity in that, and deserves our respect.

I can see that a couple of folks have voted no, and I'm clueless as to why.

I think this is an excellent idea.

[Stalephreak]

I can think of a few sensible reasons not to. The primary one being that we have people in militaries all over the world. There's no ban on Libyan's playing MWO on Piranha's end. You don't want to offend the entire Middle East. That's probably why they won't have a mech named after a muslim deity, but they have one from greek mythos..SPOILSPORTS....just a thought.

Still, politics aside...this guy did exactly what we would want a soldier to do within the game universe. He faced death head on, and isn't that sort of what a mech pilot is expected to do anyway? I see honoring him with an easter egg as sort of a hat tip to his gaming guild that he stood up for the ideals we're fictitously portraying.

Another reason is to consider how many military members have died who would have also deserved such an honor, and I'm not meaning to downplay that...HOWEVER, Vile Rat put gamers into a good light. Some kind of 'thank you' would be in order from our community. Fox stated that WIRED had the story first...Think about that. WIRED is expected to have breaking stories about the iPhone 9, not wartime news. That in and of itself shows the noteworthiness of his connection to the gaming community.

I can see the cons, but i see a heck of a lot more pros that overshadow the negatives.

[Jost]

Stalephreak, on 19 September 2012 - 05:10 PM, said:

I can think of a few sensible reasons not to. The primary one being that we have people in militaries all over the world. There's no ban on Libyan's playing MWO on Piranha's end. You don't want to offend the entire Middle East. That's probably why they won't have a mech named after a muslim deity, but they have one from greek mythos..SPOILSPORTS....just a thought.

Still, politics aside...this guy did exactly what we would want a soldier to do within the game universe. He faced death head on, and isn't that sort of what a mech pilot is expected to do anyway? I see honoring him with an easter egg as sort of a hat tip to his gaming guild that he stood up for the ideals we're fictitously portraying.

Another reason is to consider how many military members have died who would have also deserved such an honor, and I'm not meaning to downplay that...HOWEVER, Vile Rat put gamers into a good light. Some kind of 'thank you' would be in order from our community. Fox stated that WIRED had the story first...Think about that. WIRED is expected to have breaking stories about the iPhone 9, not wartime news. That in and of itself shows the noteworthiness of his connection to the gaming community.

I can see the cons, but i see a heck of a lot more pros that overshadow the negatives.

Thanks for responding. I've read your comment a few times before replying here, and the only "con" that you seem to be offering is the possibility that honoring a murdered gamer might offend Muslims all over the world. Is that what you're saying?

Also, did I miss a "con"? You mention that there are mwo gamers in militaries all over the world, but I don't see how honoring any one of them dishonors the others or prevents us from honoring the others, so I don't see how that's a reason not to do it.

[DawningGlory]

1st it was EVE online. not MWO.. 2nd "Stayed at his post" HA! he shouldnt be playing games while on the job.. being Military IMO myself I'm upset he would be online during this time when he could have been doing alot more.

I personally dont think he should be put down, but honestly... He could have done more then chat online Stating "F***, Gunfire".

Seriously you dont type that in chat when it happens you take action.

[Stickjock]

DawningGlory, on 20 September 2012 - 01:23 PM, said:

1st it was EVE online. not MWO.. 2nd "Stayed at his post" HA! he shouldnt be playing games while on the job.. being Military IMO myself I'm upset he would be online during this time when he could have been doing alot more.

I personally dont think he should be put down, but honestly... He could have done more then chat online Stating "F***, Gunfire".

Seriously you dont type that in chat when it happens you take action.

1st... tone down your attitude their little buckaroo...

2nd... yeah, he played EVE, big time... also WoT's... can you tell me for a FACT he wasn't over here as well?? Hmmm... Can you?? No... then ****...

3rd... don't think he WAS military... seem to remember he was more IT oriented... so wtf does an IT guy do... if you got the time you jump on a chat session even if you can't play and hang with your Clan/Guild/Merc Corp members to kill some time and have fun...

4th... Regail us with tales of your military exploits in which you know JUST wtf someone would or would not do in that situation...

On a final note... **** Glory...

Ah... /rant

As to the OP?? Dunno... good points made in previous posts (bar'ing the DA above my post)... at the bare minimum... Throw his name in the Game Credits... ?? Again, no clue if he was he or not, founder or not... but even a "memorium for Sean "Vile Rat" Smith" would be a nice touch...

[Stalephreak]

Jost, on 20 September 2012 - 11:17 AM, said:

Thanks for responding. I've read your comment a few times before replying here, and the only "con" that you seem to be offering is the possibility that honoring a murdered gamer might offend Muslims all over the world. Is that what you're saying?

Also, did I miss a "con"? You mention that there are mwo gamers in militaries all over the world, but I don't see how honoring any one of them dishonors the others or prevents us from honoring the others, so I don't see how that's a reason not to do it.

You saw the irked jarhead above.

And you pretty much got what I'm saying, hook, line, and sinker. If you saw the video that started this mess, you'll quickly see that the whole mess was over NOTHING. BTW, for the guy dishonoring the deceased, yeah, the one with the lousy f'in manners.... The reason they went for the embassies was because those are typically not military installations. They are diplomats and support staff. What they did is akin to shooting your child in a Walmart parking lot because their girlfriend laughed at their small, uhh, autocannon. HEY, sounds like L.A.

http://www.globalnew....jpg?size=sw600

doesn't look like any military base I've been stationed on...Where's the anti-air guns? The news doesn't say he went down without a fight...Doesn't say anything to the contrary either. The question was a simple "do we honor him for the honor he did us or don't we?", not a chance to put his entire life on trial...

[Stalephreak]

DawningGlory, on 20 September 2012 - 01:23 PM, said:

1st it was EVE online. not MWO.. 2nd "Stayed at his post" HA! he shouldnt be playing games while on the job.. being Military IMO myself I'm upset he would be online during this time when he could have been doing alot more.

I personally dont think he should be put down, but honestly... He could have done more then chat online Stating "F***, Gunfire".

Seriously you dont type that in chat when it happens you take action.

Vile Rat was a founder. Don't know which one of the Onion's staffers you have doing your fact checking...better give them a raise. Don't know if he was playing beta, the admins would though. However, by now, he would have had access.

http://mwomercs.com/.../5392-vile-rat/

The rest of what happened is what's known in thinking circles (I know, those are foreign to you) as an unknown. We don't know if he took up arms after leaving his terminal, we don't know if he cowered in a corner and wet himself... There weren't survivors... We do know there were 4 people killed. 4 against a mob...HMMM I'd say give him the dignity of the benefit-of-doubt. Those are harrowing odds in any situation, armed or no.

[Jost]

Stalephreak, on 20 September 2012 - 07:21 PM, said:

Vile Rat was a founder. Don't know which one of the Onion's staffers you have doing your fact checking...better give them a raise. Don't know if he was playing beta, the admins would though. However, by now, he would have had access.

What I've read is that he did play, though not as much as he did in EVE. He didn't get the chance to do that.

[Mycrus]

Players in their own way can give their own 'in memoriams' = name your mech, etc.

EDIT: btw, if something should be done then it should be for all 4 of them at that embassy attack..

Edited by Mycrus, 29 September 2012 - 05:52 AM.

[Strum Wealh]

An additional set of questions that a situation like this raises is, "Does PGI, as a company, have an official policy with regard to how they should respond if a member of the MechWarrior Online community dies? Should PGI, as a company, have such a policy to begin with? What legal issues might arise if an official policy were to be considered, or implemented?"

They've written at least one in-memoriam ISN article for a would-have-been player who committed suicide.
There are at least two other easily-locatable threads dedicated to specific individuals (here and here), in addition to this one.

Additionally, there is at least one general in-memoriam thread, dating to shortly after the MWO Forums originally opened.

Is it necessarily imperative on PGI's part to post some sort of reaction to every MWO player - or would-have-been player - who dies, or is it something that would and/or should be better left to the deceased's friends and family?

(I did not vote in the poll, and probably will not do so for some time... if ever.)

[HC Harlequin]

It is generally not done to show honor to one Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine over others.