I suspect he was role playing that he was his gamer persona...
If I ever come up against the Flood or Covenant for real, I'll slip easily into my Reaper role.
To murder innocents because he was possibly role playing(which is not my opinion)suggest he couldn't tell the difference between reality and fantasy. His pre planning negates that possibility. I believe he enjoyed killing for the pure pleasure of killing.
I didn’t mean to say that...I meant to say that he wanted to BE his persona, strong and powerful, and able to act upon the bitter violence and anger he had within, and he arranged to do everything towards that end. His persona was the projection of how to act out his anger and be the one who was victimizer, not victim.
It’s still him, but a face, or a mask, if you will, he didn’t feel he could show to other people in everyday life.
It is a form of acting out that a lot of people do. We are all the sums of all these facets of ourselves, but some people compartmentalize pretty strongly. He had a sullen, quiet face he showed to the world, but he wanted to be his warrior, and attack. And one day, he did just that.