Dedicated gamers, and especially players of Eve Online, are mourning one of their own today. Sean Smith was the information management officer for the Libyan Embassy, and he was killed along with Ambassador Chris Stevens. Two others were slain in the attack.

Smith was known in Eve Online as ‘Vile Rat’.

Eve Online is the insanely complex sci-fi MMORPG or just MMO. It has a stable player base of some 400,000 people and its own economy involving corporate espionage, backroom deals, and a player-elected government. Smith was even a member of that government, The Council of Stellar Management.

Smith was online when the protests began. His final message to his friends in Eve was “assuming we don’t die tonight.”

Hundreds of in-game space stations have been renamed in Smith’s honor.

Ned Coker, a publicist for CCP Games, noted that Smith was ‘a true force’ in the community. Dr. Erlendur Thorsteinsson, the game’s software director, remembered Smith and his wife Heather from several player get-togethers and through his work on the Council.

Smith is survived by his wife and two children, Nathan and Heather.

Eve blogger Alex Gianturco wrote in a memorial post about Smith “If you play this stupid game, you may not realize it, but you play in a galaxy created in large part by Vile Rat’s talent as a diplomat. No one focused as relentlessly on using diplomacy as a strategic tool.”