23/07/2013

Ryan Davis 1979-2013

"Hey folks, it's Tuuuuesday.."

On July 3rd 2013, videogame journalist Ryan Davis passed away whilst on his honeymoon with his new wife Anna. Ryan was 34 years old.

Davis had worked as a game journo for some time, having written for Gamespot in the late nineties right up to 2008 when he formed Giant Bomb along with another former Gamespot writer, Jeff Gerstmann.
I personally have trouble buying into many game review/news websites, for reasons too numerous and insignificant to go into here (Here's a hint: They're full of shit)
But I like a few, and I love Giant Bomb.

My dedication to the site has little to do with videogames, the reviews, the news, or even the presentation. I love Giant Bomb because I love the team, more importantly, I can believe them. The GB crew are a group of thirty-something gamers who reach out from the screen and become more than names at the bottom of articles.
The site has a legitimate irreverent aesthetic toward it. Not fake or forced. Video previews of the latest games come across as genuine and honest, a breath of fresh air in this horrendous "All Triple A games get 10/10 and a new article every day" mindset of modern day game journalism. You buy into the team and their work because they are relatable people, unable to hide their true opinions at the topic at hand, be it videogames, movies or the industry in general, not forgetting the frequent topic of underpriced, over-fried snack foods.

 
The weekly Giant Bombcast show has been a staple of my life for many years now and hours upon hours have been spent listening to Davis host the crew of Jeff, Brad, Vinny, Patrick and others as they break down every topic under the sun, with videogames quickly branching off into discussions about, TV, food, movies, pro-wrestling, phone apps or any number of random topics. It felt like a group of friends putting the world to rights and having a great time in each others company, whilst simultaneously spoiling those games you hadn't finished playing.
The Bombcast is a great escape for me and has legitimately helped see me through some pretty bleak and miserable times. It's always interesting and, more importantly, it's just so fucking funny.

The difference between the GB crew and many other sites editorial teams is that, week in, week out, the GB guys DO come to feel like your friends. After you spend years hearing them discuss their home lives, beliefs, opinions and ideals on a weekly basis you realise that you have come to know and love these people like you do friends you see in teh reel wurld.

This is also evidenced in that readers would constantly send in an abundance of treats and gifts, bizarre drinks, weird international snackfoods and even art for the studio walls. The GB crew have opened themselves up, unashamedly and honestly, to the point that the readers actually care about and respect them as individual people.


And so, when the death of Ryan Davis was announced, every reader felt like they had a lost a genuine friend, a man who was a part of their lives every single week.
The outpouring of grief on the site was all along the same lines. Most of the comments would be people talking about feeling like they'd lost "a real friend" or people showing confusion over how they could be so upset over the death of someone "That they'd never met"
Since then, various reader artwork, videos and blog tributes (such as this effort) have sprung up online in rememberance of the mighty man and his awe-inspiring beard. 

This shows just how big a part of the readers' lives Giant Bomb and its team are.
Giant Bomb isn't a place you go to find out what score some generic shooter got, or who has been announced for some fighting game's DLC. It's a place you go to escape, to be entertained and cheered up, to hear funny but intelligent discussion on videogames and the industry itself, to hear honest and real opinions on a myriad of subjects, to see what the crew thought of that shitty film you saw at the flicks last night, or just to laugh at grumpy men failing to play Kinect.
Giant Bomb is Ryan's lasting legacy, and it is glorious.


In the bigger picture of things, Ryan Davis' death doesn't even register with the majority of the world, much like most passings don't every day.
But for the GB readers, the crew, his family and friends and of course myself, to have known him in any capacity and to be able to mourn him is an both an honour and an absolute privilege.

Thanks for all the awesome times Ryan. We wish you were still here and you will never, ever be forgotten.



You would have thought this article was cheesy as fuck Davis, so I balanced it out with terrible pictures.

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