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| In Memory of a Friend | ||||
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You need to install or upgrade your flash player to view this content. On May 10th, 2008, our good friend and Virtual Village moderator, Alex, aka Slither, passed away from injuries sustained while seeing his family to safety during a shooting incident nearly a month earlier at a local shopping mall. He leaves behind a wife, a little girl and a host of friends both offline and on, especially here at City of Gamers. He would have been 27 on May 11th. Slither was only just recently appointed a moderator for our site, but he has been a long time friend and loyal member. This site was his favorite, from what his wife tells us. She says he spent nearly two to three hours a day here, and it was actually at his own request to be a moderator for the Video Games section that we brought him in. I don't think I know anyone who was as enthusiastic about the prospect of being part of our staff. In fact he jokingly told me that it was "like a dream in the making" when I approved his request. In a couple of days he already had two lengthy and enlightening reviews posted about Act Raiser and Berzerk, the only two he got to post before the tragic accident on April 6th. He had planned on doing many more. In November 2006, Slither posted a farewell to the community and that he was quitting the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! because he was about to get married and start a family. We wished him well, and a few of us being married gamers ourselves, we encouraged him that he need not completely give up all those things that make gamers, well, gamers, now that he was becoming a family man, but to simply put those things in their proper places. It wasn't long before he was popping in again, and he seemed to have been enriched by the family experience. He was a sterling example of a forum member who didn't need to berate or diminish others to make himself seem special. He was one of those few individuals who understood that having a wife, having children, having a life, simply made all those silly card and video games that much more fun; an enhancement to the piece of the puzzle that makes up our lives as a whole. We are diminished, here at City of Gamers, now that we've lost our friend. The world is diminished now they have lost a good man. But in equal, even greater measure to that diminishment, we are also enriched by the memories and the example that he left behind. City of Gamers is enriched by the kind words and fun-loving spirit that will be forever symbolically etched into our digital walls. And no doubt the world is enriched by the memories his family has of him and by the legacy he graciously left behind in the form of a little girl. To Alex's family, we wish them our warmest and deepest sympathy and respect. In this relatively new and peculiar world that we call the Internet, we forged a unique kind of friendship with an individual. A friendship that I don't think we've come to fully understand yet. But even knowing that, it didn't make Alex any less of a friend. And for that reason, we will miss him greatly. To Alex, we don't know what the journey your taking now entails. And each of us, no doubt, has differing beliefs as to what that means. But regardless of our differences, we all hope that someday, in some way, we can say thank you for all that you did for our community. Thank you for making this site your home. Thank you for having such a good time while your were here. Thank you for your generosity and for your contribution of time and effort. And thank you, most of all, for just being a friend to us all. We will miss you. [If you would like to send your condolences to Alex's wife and family, you may do so in this thread.] |
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