151 replies to this topic

[Jarett]

I had intended for my inaugural blog post to be about my childlike giddiness for StarCraft 2, but instead it's going to be about 24 year-old Adam Mapleson, who on Saturday night was shot in the chest while coming to the aid of security guards during a robbery in the UK.

I'll be honest - I'm not much of a general "news" kind of guy. Oddly enough, reading about tragedy and injustice sort of bums me out. But in this case the image of the man who was shot grabbed my attention and made my heart fucking drop - he was wearing a Pure Pwnage hat. Immediately I re-read the headline and image caption, admittedly slightly panicked at the idea that I may have misinterpreted it and some Pure Pwnage fan had gone out and shot up a mall or something crazy that Jack Thompson would inevitably blame on my monitor humping adventures. Thankfully, the gamer in this case was the hero.



I'm no journalist, so I'm not going to tell you the story. You can read about it here or here. I'm posting about this because nowhere have I read, nor would I ever expect to read, a headline such as: "Man saves security guard, video games credited for heroics". Yet somehow if the situation were different, and Adam had instead been some ball-less video-gaming metal-listening commuter-shooting robber, someone would be up this story's ass in a Nintendo-second with claims equally as absurd - I'd bet my original gold Legend of Zelda NES cartridge on it. "Completely insane fucker shoots people, video games obviously at fault...... lack of frontal lobe was not a factor, says local moron". Both perspectives are ridiculous but only one gets printed regularly, so I'm here to help balance that out. I'll save the whole "art influences" tirade for its own blog post.

Of course, video games don't actually have anything to do with what happened. It's one thing to fantasize about being a hero and another entirely to make a heroic split-second decision in real life. Adam didn't intervene because he has mad headshotting skillz in CS 1.6, or because he has good taste in music. He did what he did because of Pure Pwnage he's genuinely a good person. Adam, you pwn RL. The cast and crew of Pure Pwnage, along with our entire community, are wishing you the speediest of recoveries.

[Vengeance]

Awesome to see you honouring this heroic guy. I hope to meet him one day, he should come to the UK premier, whether that's this episode or one in the future. I'm sure he's a guy we'd all like to meet, he's a real role model for us all, I guess.

He did what he did because of Pure Pwnage

QFT

[Fasckira]

He is the perfect example of "Its the decisions you make, when you have no time to make them, that define who you are." phrase.

Im in complete agreement with you of course; its great to see such a positive news story (well, positive in the sense that he saved the security guard) and the fact that hes a PP fan just adds the icing on the cake.

[Sean]

It's nice to see someone like Adam doing the right thing. What makes it better is that he's just an average everyday gamer, and it shows that anyone can do the right thing

Hope he has a speedy recovery and it would be awesome to see him posting on the forums sometime!

[DarkAscension]

I have no idea what to type because i'm still overwhelmingly proud of this man. I hope he gets well soon.

I suggest dedicating the next ep to him.

[SorrowNight]

He is the perfect example of "Its the decisions you make, when you have no time to make them, that define who you are." phrase.

Very true, I would really wish to meet him IRL. Especially if it were at a premiere but .. :/ Can't really do much since he's in the UK. Maybe PP will make a special premiere in the UK just for him, eh?

I'll be honest here and if I were him in that situation I'd either run or act as if I'd seen a ghost, lol. Really, when there's a gun involved my first instinct is my own security rather than that of someone else - someone's whose security is in danger.

[HikariKage]

If he ever got gamer army tags I have no doubt they would say something along the lines or "The Human Shield" or "Lol, Who needs Kevlar?"

GG Adam

[-Checkmate-]

oh my god. thats really heroic. i guess when he dies they will not just say he spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours on the computer, but he spent a couple seconds, to save a security guard. thats what counts.

on video game violence.

there is nothing i disagree more. there will always be something to complain and bitch about, alchohol, games, and rock music. but no that Jack guy, what he doesnt focus on is an abused childhood, bullying and sometimes people just have a mental problem, for example, depression can happen at random, its just an imbalance of chemicals or w/e. auhg im getting really sick of these killings, to make it worse they try to focus attention at the gaming community.

Gaming is just something u do for fun.

no im a hypocrit, i shudnt say that, especially since i have slammed my fist in anger and have had arguements. gamers do take gaming seriously and do get very emotional. as bad as that sounds, we must realize one thing.

how many of us take video game violence as the same thing as actual violence? people just view games like counter-strike as games that have guns and guts, but then we dont view soccer as kicking around some ball. to be honest i often forget that cs actually has weapons, i forget in real life guns really do kill people, but when im playing the game im not thinking about blowing the guy to shreds and splattering his intestines all over the floor. i mean theres a differance between a headshot and blowing somebodys head open. its really how u view a game.

anyways this guy is a hero to us all. but to be down to earth, i really dont know if i would be that brave to do such a thing. but that doesnt matter, he did.

approved mod-queue post.. really nice post too tbh.-ThE_MarD

[Dyson]

This is insane o_O

"Its the decisions you make, when you have no time to make them, that define who you are."

Ah yes, absolutely perfect example.

[XxnickpwnsxX]

Wow thats amazing

[Brenner]

Awesome blog post, this guy was a true hero.

[Morra]

So thats what we have to do to get on the front page of pp.....

I hope he gets out of the hospital soon with minor injuries.

After thinking about it, i would like to hear how he described how it happened and why he did it

[PwnDaddy123]

Thats nice of you Jarett

Video games is a bad thing they won't go around saying that Video Games is good since they've been saying for the past 30years, its like saying that Aero is made with Chocolate and one day, they announce to everyone that it was not...

[Hades.]

He is the perfect example of "Its the decisions you make, when you have no time to make them, that define who you are." phrase.

QTF.

I have never seen a more serious post on the purepwnage forums before.

[Sirko]

great blog


I'd love to see adam make a post about it when hes all better.

[amorpheous]

He is the perfect example of "Its the decisions you make, when you have no time to make them, that define who you are." phrase.

Couldn't have put it any better myself.

I have no idea what to type because i'm still overwhelmingly proud of this man. I hope he gets well soon.

lol, I was also lost for words when I first saw the thread about a PP fan on BBC news. I took me literally about half an hour to make a half decent reply.

Wishing Adam a very speedy recovery.

Edited by amorpheous, 28 May 2007 - 06:14 PM.

[Fps Shadows]

thx 4 teh news Jarett taht was rlly sad i adam i 2 wish u the speediest of recoveries.

[StrykerGamer]

He's going to be so happy when he sees all this!

[the_cobalt_hunter]

Snap. Finally, a person who's being respected in the media for playing video games.

Somebody should send the article to Jack Thompson, and prove to him that not all gamers are blood-thirsty psychopaths.

*Wishes Adam a speedy recovery*

[Mortified]

This is sad, good to see you guys caring for someone who deserves it. Also wil we be able to hear about his condition?