December 14, 2007 -
….another in an occasional series of reports about gamers who gave their all:A gamer who served his country in the U.S. Army has lost his life in Iraq. The Associated Press reports that Spc. Randy W. Pickering, 31, died Sunday in Baghdad. Randy loved comic books and video games, his brother said:
He did his computer thing. He loved video games. Video games and comics were his life.
On his MySpace, Randy described himself as:
...a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.
Also on MySpace, he listed Mario and Luigi among his heroes.
Rest in peace, Randy...
Comments
"Willy" Panderlust, I was a soldier, US Army, for 7 years, ended up with a messed up back that limits my mobility considerably, restricting me from a lot of the more "outside" activities people do, as there is only so far I can walk, or so long I can stand before my back starts to really kill me. One of the things I did before I was a soldier, all through my military career, and after it, has been gaming. I've always identified myself as a gamer. Much like how anyone may identify themselves by what they like to do (or what they do). There is no insult in calling a soldier a gamer.
Your statement seems to be very reminiscent of another currently banned anti-gamer poster which has been a relatively prominent and annoying thorn in the side of anyone with half a brain. I'd strongly suggest, politely, that you possibly try not to persist in your attempts to flame people here.
What kind of idiot are you? Seriously? Are you retarded or something?
Here's a little piece of reality - over half of the US population plays video games. That's for ALL age groups, ALL ethnicities, everything.
Calling this soldier a gamer isn't an insult, it's a tribute to his memory and the things he enjoyed.
Even though I'm an atheist, sometimes I hope christianity is right - just so I'd have the satisfaction of knowing you'd burn in hell.
Randy was not only a gamer, he was also a very good friend and a extremely talented artist. You insult his memory, and his legacy!
Please be more considerate in general. Your morals are lacking.
Case in point, Pat Tillman.
I am not advocating violence towards Jack Thompson, "William Panderlust", or anyone else. Gamepolitics and the ECA are not responsable for the contents of this post or my previous post.
EZK says it's not jack... though given the post it's hard to tell, huh? (I'd still second jt burning in hell tho, no qualms there.)
To everyone jumping on Panderlust and accusing him of being JT: What? Are you demonising Thompson so much that everyone who doesn't like games must be him? That's just sad.
(I suspect the onslaught of backslashes is due to EZK's moderation, bringing the text to and from a database without correctly converting it.)
No, the reason we think it's JT is not because he apparently despises games, it's because the way he conveys his message as vitriolically as he does, the bad linguistic form, and the fact that he's trivializing the fact that the soldier was a gamer, saying that it diminished what he did, just really screams Jack Thompson. Identical MO, just about.
Plus, he seems to be the only vehement anti-gamer that frequents the site. Anybody else probably wouldn't bother.
The vast difference in writing style, lack of bragging about his name or occupation, short posts, absence of ad hominems when addressing people, ability to stay on topic, and (according to EZK) his IP address all say that he's someone else. We criticise Jack for saying that all gamers are working together on a vast conspiracy and yet every now and again these comments are filled with people claiming that new person X is really JT because he holds a roughly similar opinion.
Besides, soemone else gave another possibility, Larouche or one of his cultists.
Seem's a bit more likely to be a LaRouchshite.
Takes a bigger man than I to put it on the line for his country, nice one.
P.S JT's a twonk :)
These are the soldiers you want on YOUR side.
RIP