Do you know the story behind PVT L Starline?
In Halo Reach, you may notice each marine has a name and rank. Most people know that the NPC helper names are randomized from a list of Bungie employees, and their rank generally reflects their status in the company. Well, not all of them. There is one Marine with the name PVT L Starline. There is no L Starline at Bungie. There never has been, and probably won’t ever be, yet, his name is immortalized in a major gaming franchise alongside the game’s creators. Who is L Starline, and why do we see him in Reach?
PVT L Starline, in reality, is Mr. Logan Starline of Dayton Ohio. Logan was born July 12th, 1982 and raised in Ohio, where he attended the University of Dayton and earned a Masters Degree in Public Administration in 2007. Logan then put his education and talents to work for a non-profit organization called Rebuilding Dayton Together, where he helped provide housing for low income residents. In 2009, Logan married his long time friend, Melissa Angst. A few months after his wedding and honeymoon, Logan Starline fell ill with a nagging infection. On February 25th, 2010, 2 years ago this week, Logan’s symptoms worsened. He went in to the hospital, where he passed away from cardiac arrest at the age of 27.
While the death of any 27 year old public servant is tragic, how did this Ohio resident end up in a Halo game? Well, Logan grew up a gamer. Though he obviously took his studies seriously, he also had a passion for games and found an online home among gaming communities. In college, Logan discovered Halo and by 2004, he had made the Bungie fan community his home. Sharing his name with X-Men’s leading man, Wolverine, he was better known to the Halo community as BerserkerBarage. Just for the record, he did know how to spell barrage, his online presence would forever be haunted by the 15 character gamertag limit.
In Logan’s own words, graduate school trained him to be used to reading massive volumes of text each night, so his seemingly fanatical participation in the Halo community did not seem uncommon to him. On any given day, he could likely be found on Bungie.net, Neogaf.com, Halocharts.com, Halo.bungie.org, MLG.com, or all around the GGN (Good Game Network). Having been trained in communication and politics, he wasn’t shy about sharing his opinion in the various forums, and he certainly enjoyed effectively and articulately defending those opinions, much to the chagrin of those that argued with him. In his 6+ year of active participation of the Halo community, he made many friends, and a few sworn enemies too.
Many nights, he could be found patrolling Halo matchmaking, either playing doubles with the girl that would later become his wife, or playing BTB with the many friends he made in the Bungie community. He was an avid Halo player from CE and was still playing just days before a surprise infection took his life. Logan Starline anticipated the release of Reach, but never got to play it. Now, he lives on in the game as PVT L Starline.
More about PVT L Starline
BB’s Average Joe Interview
Bungie.net Service Record
Community farewell
TTL Farewell
HBO Farewell
Average Joes vs HFCS
Average Joes vs Halocharts Admins
What MM was like with BB
Clips from our Recon contest
