Murdered State Department official Sean Smith was influential online gamer

[cali]

Source: Yahoo

<snip>

Smith, a foreign service information management officer, had a sphere of influence that extended far beyond the realm of real-world diplomacy: He was also a respected and hugely influential figure in the world of online gaming.

<snip>


Smith was online chatting with Gianturco shortly before he was killed in Benghazi. The two men, who had known each other for more than six years, had met several times in person and considered themselves close friends both online and in the real world.

<snip>

Gianturco posted excerpts from his final chat with Smith, including this chilling message:

(12:54:09 PM) vile_rat: assuming we don't die tonight. We saw one of our 'police' that guard the compound taking pictures

<snip>



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/murdered-state-department-official-sean-smith-influential-online-185547152.html

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to the mods: this absolutely is breaking news; it has, if not the last messages from a State Department official, some of his final communications.

[arewenotdemo]

1. Well, at least he was "connected"

until he wasn't.

[grasswire]

2. see previous thread

the freepers had it first

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021329642

[aquart]

3. Who were these "police"?

[annabanana]

4. This is very interesting.

Apparently his diplomatic skills translated to the Eva Online game.

[Posteritatis]

8. By all accounts he was quite good at that as well

A set of gag instructions floating around the game's community translates roughly as "blow up annoying enemies; if your allies are being annoying, blow them up too and then ask this guy to smooth things over."

He and one of his buddies pulled off some stunts in that game that actually made BBC News' front page a few years ago. Quite a character, and exceedingly respected among that community - he's one of the guys the game's developers would fly to Iceland regularly to get input on keeping the playerbase happy and having fun, for instance.

[eShirl]

5. This was mentioned at the very end of tonight's "Ed" show on MSNBC. n/t

[Odin2005]

6. Holy fuck, I think I've seen this guy's stuff on Something Awful!

He was a contributor there. Jesus!

[Posteritatis]

7. He moderated the debate subforum. (nt)