The news hit me real hard. It is now 24 hours since I read about it and only now I can bring my self to reply.
Like many others here I really hoped that this is some kind of a joke, like his running gag about living in the Canadian wilderness with only Wilson the moose to keep him "company"...
Pipz was my friend. Oddly enough, a friend whom I never met and only knew as "Pipz", though he may have mentioned his name - I never told him mine. Yet, we "met" in Aces High twice or three times a week and had good laughs. We could joke about anything from current news to ancient history. Always jolly, always funny and he knew how to make it stick to you. I don't recall him ever angry or bitter. That "HUZZA!" message when he logs in and the "Shalom belly" (his Italian-Hebrew mismash mispronunciation) on the Loose Deuce team speak channel when he saw our Italian and Israeli members logged in. God, I am going to miss him.
For those of us that have been playing this game for well over a decade, Aces High is more of a social club than a computer game. The game itself just provides the framework. I keep logging in for the people and Pipz was the kind that you keep coming to meet again. No face, no name, no background, just a voice and typed text - he made me like him by 100% personality alone.
My condolences to his family, to the Aces High community and the Loose Deuce squadron. We lost one of the best.
Shalom Belly, friend!
