The reason behind the attack is still under investigation, but the U.S. government believes it might have been related to a American flag burning demonstration in Cairo.
Eve is a multiplayer online role-playing game where users create and pilot ships through space. Smith was working as an information management officer with the United States Foreign Services in Benghazi at the time of the attacks. Users can visit other planets, trade with other users, or engage in battle. A U.S. official killed in an attack on the American consulate in Libya messaged an This protest was in response to an amateur film made by American Sam Bacile, depicting the Prophet Muhammad as “a buffoon, a womanizer, a homosexual, a child molester and a greedy, bloodthirsty thug,” according to the Ambassador to Libya John Christopher Stevens were two of four U.S. officials killed Tuesday when al Qaeda-linked forces stormed the consulate in Benghazi, Reuters In his free time, Smith inhabited a complex world known as the EVE Online Universe, a cyber landscape that could serve as the setting of a science-fiction novel.
His influence in the game actually grew for more than half a decade. Smith was one of four Americans killed in the Benghazi attack. Gianturco describes Smith as "the single most influential diplomat in the history of Meanwhile, the response from the game's community has been swift — the Spacemonkey Alliance created a memorial video, a number of in-game space stations have been renamed in Smith's honor, and
Alexander "The Mittani" Gianturco 2012-09-12 So: Vile Rat, Sean Smith, my friend for over six years, both in real life and in internet spaceships, was the “State Department Official” killed in Benghazi by a mob of religious lunatics, who had been incited to violence on this September 11th by a movie that was apparently made sometime in July.
(RIP Sean 'Vile Rat' Smith via Facebook)
The U.S. has dispatched the Marines to Libya to help reinforce security in the area.
A recent attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya killed one American ambassador and three other diplomats, including information management officer Sean Smith…
The game has more than
“I’m clearly in shock as I write this as everything is buzzing around my head funnily and I feel kind of dead inside,” Gianturco
Earlier that day Smith, who goes by Vile Rat online, sent popular Eve Online player We saw one of our 'police' that guard the compound taking pictures." Sometime Tuesday evening protesters climbed the wall of the U.S. embassy in Cairo, “entered its outer grounds, pulled down an American flag, then tried to burn it outside the embassy walls, according to witnesses,” In Eve, Sean briefly was in the top echelon of the game's player-run government.
By now, many of you will have heard that one of our own was killed on the night of September 11 th in a senseless assault on a consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
"This time he said ‘FUCK' and ‘GUNFIRE' and then disconnected and never returned." Sean Smith, diplomat killed in Libya on September 12, 2012, in a Facebook memorial page photo posted by Owe Jørgensen. While the event was reported on by major media outlets like "In Baghdad the same kind of thing happened — incoming sirens, he'd vanish, we'd freak out, and he'd come back ok after a bit," says Gianturco.
On the day of his death, Smith typed a message to the director of his Eve Online gaming corporation that read, "Assuming we don't die tonight.