Remembering Ryan Davis, 1979 - 2013

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This makes me happy.
 
I feel just absolutely gutted by this. I have lived vicariously through the Giant Bomb guys for the past few years, even going so far as to try and make a text adventure game of the flight club quick looks.

Ryan was just an incredible host and the epitome of the "yes, and" improv nature of the site that made the chemistry just work.

I didn't always agree with his opinion but he always made me laugh, especially how he subtly brought his favorite influences, like comedy podcasts, to the gaming community made me appreciate how smart the personality-driven side of Giant Bomb really is. The only downside is that losing him feels like losing a close friend.

Godspeed, Mr. Davis. Set the high score of heaven's Tapper machine.
 

That was so fucking hilarious, I have that clip saved to my youtube favorites. I actually typed it in shortly after the news broke today =(

I will be listening to his summer jams all day at work tomorrow, I was so fucking gutted all day long. I shed tears today for a man that I never met, someone who I listened to on a weekly basis for over 4 years who I felt I knew better than my best friend.
 
I've been trying to write this post all day. It may go on a tangent, so people may think this isn't the place. I'm sorry in advance.

I feel horrible. Of course. Everyone is, I'm 43 years old and I've lost many friends. Even internet friends. Sure internet friends aren't "real" but the emotions we feel are. I have taken some deaths of internet friends hard. I first experience this pre-internet when I ran a local multi-line BBS with door games. The most popular game was Scrabble. I even held local get togethers with real scrabble boards. It got insane. The best player was the 73 year old retired man. We got to be fairly close in real life as well. One day I got home from work and saw he had been logged on to the BBS play Scrabble for 14 hours. He passed away playing on my computer. That hit me hard but for some reason, Ryan Davis' passing is hitting me harder and it is making me feel weird.

As some of you may know, I've been battling heart disease for the past few years.Last year I had a heart attack and was rushed in to have several cardiac artery stents installed.When I woke in recovery, I asked for my ipod and drifted in and out of sleep for the next 16 hours listening to the Giant Bombcast. Ryan Davis' upbeat attitude help me to get past a scary moment in my life. It was like he, and the rest of crew, were reassuring me. Everything was going to be all right. We are still going to be here talking about stuff you love.

I know speculating on Ryan's death is against the rules, Talking about just my case, I was a lot like Ryan before my heart attack. I was morbidly overweight, got out of breath easily, sweat all the time, and while I didn't use a CPAP machine to sleep at night, my doctors were concerned that I should have a sleep study done. After my heart attack, I lost close to 100 pounds, got fit, eating healthy, and exercised. Most of the time went I was on the treadmill I was listening to the Bombcast.

A few months ago, my heart took a significant turn for the worse. I went in for one corrective surgery, only to be woken up and told the surgeons didn't perform it because they didn't believe I could survive it. They told me I had just weeks to live and they were putting me on the transplant recipient list. I had another group of surgeons told inform me they could do the surgery in a different way and my odds of surviving would be 30%. I went in thinking I might never awake. In the recovery icu, my wife had the nurse put my ipod on me. When I awoke, I started my ipod and the first voice I heard was Ryan's cheerful voice "HELLO IT'S TUESDAY!!" Once again telling me that everything was going to be alright. I really believe that he and the rest of the bombcast was as important to my recovery as my exercise. My recovery so far as exceeded even the most optimistic estimates.

I wanted to write Ryan Davis and tell him how much he helped me. Just doing and loving his job. I didn't write him. I felt it was corny, he might never see it, or worse, he might have read it and then get self conscious. Now I wish I wrote it. Even if it was stupid.

RIP Mr Davis.

Ryan Davis really means a lot to you! Beautiful to read my friend! Your story makes me think of my own loved ones who have passed away. Some were also too young.

I have tears in my eyes right now, life can be very hard. :(
 
This is the worst... some one else said it best, feels like I lost a good friend even though we never met. =(

Can someone please add a ribbon to my avatar.
 
Can't imagine them actually being able to talk about games on the next cast, they must seem awfully trivial at a time like this. Or maybe that's exactly what they need right now. Should be interesting either way I guess
 
Normally I'm not a fan of avatar bandwagon things but this feels like one I'd like to be part of.

However, I think the black ribbon is a bit too serious and morbid. It doesn't really seem to fit what Ryan was like.

I suggest:
eNLNPsi.jpg

This. This is good.
 
I have a lot of Bombcasts to catch up on, months worth. It's gonna be so tough to do it :(

Feel bad for his wife/widow to have this happen so soon :/. Also been feeling bad for Patrick to have something like this happen in his life one year later.

You'll be missed Ryan.
Same here. I have the last three episodes to listen to.

Will be extremely difficult to listen to now, but after years of being a GB fan it's been a part of my weekly routine for ages now. I feel like I owe it to Ryan to enjoy his last few shows as host.
 
Just thinking back to the last podcast and how empty it felt with Ryan gone and the guys talking about his wedding. How I was looking forward to him returning and telling us all about it

One of his last tweets saying how his next Bombcast he would be a married man :(

This day sucks
 
I've been trying to write this post all day. It may go on a tangent, so people may think this isn't the place. I'm sorry in advance.

I feel horrible. Of course. Everyone is, I'm 43 years old and I've lost many friends. Even internet friends. Sure internet friends aren't "real" but the emotions we feel are. I have taken some deaths of internet friends hard. I first experience this pre-internet when I ran a local multi-line BBS with door games. The most popular game was Scrabble. I even held local get togethers with real scrabble boards. It got insane. The best player was the 73 year old retired man. We got to be fairly close in real life as well. One day I got home from work and saw he had been logged on to the BBS play Scrabble for 14 hours. He passed away playing on my computer. That hit me hard but for some reason, Ryan Davis' passing is hitting me harder and it is making me feel weird.

As some of you may know, I've been battling heart disease for the past few years.Last year I had a heart attack and was rushed in to have several cardiac artery stents installed.When I woke in recovery, I asked for my ipod and drifted in and out of sleep for the next 16 hours listening to the Giant Bombcast. Ryan Davis' upbeat attitude help me to get past a scary moment in my life. It was like he, and the rest of crew, were reassuring me. Everything was going to be all right. We are still going to be here talking about stuff you love.

I know speculating on Ryan's death is against the rules, Talking about just my case, I was a lot like Ryan before my heart attack. I was morbidly overweight, got out of breath easily, sweat all the time, and while I didn't use a CPAP machine to sleep at night, my doctors were concerned that I should have a sleep study done. After my heart attack, I lost close to 100 pounds, got fit, eating healthy, and exercised. Most of the time went I was on the treadmill I was listening to the Bombcast.

A few months ago, my heart took a significant turn for the worse. I went in for one corrective surgery, only to be woken up and told the surgeons didn't perform it because they didn't believe I could survive it. They told me I had just weeks to live and they were putting me on the transplant recipient list. I had another group of surgeons told inform me they could do the surgery in a different way and my odds of surviving would be 30%. I went in thinking I might never awake. In the recovery icu, my wife had the nurse put my ipod on me. When I awoke, I started my ipod and the first voice I heard was Ryan's cheerful voice "HELLO IT'S TUESDAY!!" Once again telling me that everything was going to be alright. I really believe that he and the rest of the bombcast was as important to my recovery as my exercise. My recovery so far as exceeded even the most optimistic estimates.

I wanted to write Ryan Davis and tell him how much he helped me. Just doing and loving his job. I didn't write him. I felt it was corny, he might never see it, or worse, he might have read it and then get self conscious. Now I wish I wrote it. Even if it was stupid.

RIP Mr Davis.

Such a touching story. You should really write them.
 
Same here. I have the last three episodes to listen to.

Will be extremely difficult to listen to now, but after years of being a GB fan it's been a part of my weekly routine for ages now. I feel like I owe it to Ryan to enjoy his last few shows as host.
I was debating not doing it but I thought the same way you do. It would be a bit of a disservice not to.

And I'm not a fan of 'so and so would want it this way', but I hope they do some sort of podcast tomorrow.. nothing stops the Bombcast.
 
Tweeted him Saturday:
Paul Garrod ‏@Paul_A_Garrod 6 Jul
@taswell watching random QL's on a Saturday morning and you crack me the F up. Thanks bro.

Posted in the GB thread the same day saying how much I enjoy him. He was my most beloved GB member. Don't know what to say. Seriously unreal.
 
I would love a ribbon or Thanks Ryan Davis on my avatar.

Ryan was a slow burn for me. I came in around 2011 and started out not particularly liking him for one reason or another, but he grew and grew on me. Im gonna miss the guy and his crazy Hummingbird masks and his lemon trees.

Just saw this on Vinny's twitter.

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This was a GOTY video, right?

Yup
 
Even though I never followed Ryan during the Gamespot days, it's been a part of my daily routine to visit Giant Bomb and see what the crew's up to. A part of that joy has been ripped away now, and that hole will never be filled.

My condolences to his wife, family, friends and the GB crew. Especially Jeff. I can't imagine what he's going through. After he was forced out at GS, Ryan risked everything to leave and follow in his footsteps. What a gut-wrenching loss.
 
Started listening to the podcast only this year but fell in love right away. Having my dad die recently I was greatly comforted by love, kind words and attention from people he and I knew. I know the storm of attention today and in the time to come will really help those who were close to Ryan. Keep it up. He's up there thanking you all.

Ps. Remember to love those close to you and let them know before it's too late.
 
On the podcast he talked about how he was sure he was going to be crushed to death when moving the arcade machine, everyone made jokes and laughed about it. :(
 
That was so fucking hilarious, I have that clip saved to my youtube favorites. I actually typed it in shortly after the news broke today =(

I will be listening to his summer jams all day at work tomorrow, I was so fucking gutted all day long. I shed tears today for a man that I never met, someone who I listened to on a weekly basis for over 4 years who I felt I knew better than my best friend.


I remember exactly where I was when I heard the batmanbatmanbatman.com episode, and I remember looking around to see if anyone saw me laughing my ass off as I walked outside my place of work.

I feel privileged to have met Ryan at PAX East and to have shaken his hand while saying "long time listener, first time caller," and telling him how much I enjoyed his work on Giant Bomb.

I'm just so sad today. :(
 
After reading a lot of the posts here, I thought I would have been one of the few to feel so strongly about someone who they've only met a few times, or not at all. GAF is really helping me deal with the loss of Ryan right now, I've been sobbing all day, and to know that he has brought enough happiness to other people's lives to get them all emotional as well... as odd as this sounds, is kind of helping me.

Even though I only knew Ryan through the site, and the times I've met him at PAX, it feels just like a member of my family has passed, and I know a lot of people here feel the same.

To all, lets pull through this together, I hope the GB crew will pull through it as well.
 
When ever i come to GAF and see this Ryan Davis of giant bomb has died thread i just can not believe it at all, i never met him or knew him personally but today it really felt like i lost a friend who i knew for years , it really hit home hard :(

Ryan Davis you well be sorely missed :(

He truly was one of a kind and what ever mood i was in or what ever i was going through , Ryan always made me smile or laugh on the Podcast , Quick looks and TNT.

Really is a sad day in Gaming :(
 
There is literally a pain in my heart. It physically hurts, feels like part of it has caved in.

I know what you mean. I feel like it's kind of strange to be as sad as I am about Ryan, since like most other people in this thread I never met him in person. It really goes to show you how much Giant Bomb being such a personality-driven site helps people connect with the crew. It's going to be rough hearing podcasts from now on without Ryan, seeing the launch of new consoles without him, not having his opinion on game of the year stuff. As much as I'm going to miss his presence, my heart is also aching for his new wife and the other Giant Bomb crew. It's somewhat comforting to know how awesome his wedding was, and that he was able to spend time with all of his closest friends so recently.
 
I’ve been thinking about this all day.

More specifically, I’ve been thinking about what initially brought me to Ryan, Giant Bomb and listening to the crew on a regular basis: video games. There are exceptions, but by and large games make me feel powerful by design. It’s a great feeling. Death is not an obstacle; it’s an annoyance, a brief trip to the loading screen after which I am once more a ninja quartering opponents with my razor sharp sword or a super soldier bellowing challenges across a torn and broken wasteland. Heck, sometimes death itself is a boss I can defeat by discerning then exploiting its movement pattern. I can hurt the world, but the world cannot hurt me.

When real life tragedy strikes, my own powerlessness becomes all too clear. I can’t pass the hat for a hundred coins or pluck a phoenix of its plumage to bring back those we’ve lost, as much as I may like to. What I can do is mourn in my own fashion by remembering what made me smile, what made me think, what made me laugh – for those and others like them are the precious, unforgettable moments that make us love.

My heart goes out to everyone affected by this.
 
We should have something as a whole for GAF when things like this happen like putting the ribbon in the logo?

Anyway this is pretty shocking, sounds like it was sudden, at least from the public information available. R.I.P
 
Normally I'm not a fan of avatar bandwagon things but this feels like one I'd like to be part of.

However, I think the black ribbon is a bit too serious and morbid. It doesn't really seem to fit what Ryan was like.

I suggest:
eNLNPsi.jpg

I like that one, but I'll stick with mine. I've always been one to go my own way.
 
As some of you may know, I've been battling heart disease for the past few years.Last year I had a heart attack and was rushed in to have several cardiac artery stents installed.

RIP Mr. Davis. Shocking and saddening news. Doesn't seem real for some reason.

Baron--best of luck and thanks for sharing your story; it was very powerful. I don't want to be that guy, but I've recently started researching heart disease and found the following fascinating. Perhaps you will too.

It seems the diet-heart hypothesis has a number of holes in it, and shouldn't be treated as infallible.

tldr; some research shows that the diet many doctors promote for heart disease can actually worsen heart disease. The More You Know.™
 
We should have something as a whole for GAF when things like this happen like putting the ribbon in the logo?

Anyway this is pretty shocking, sounds like it was sudden, at least from the public information available. R.I.P

I think it's a nice sentiment but I can totally see Ryan Davis absolutely despising the idea of an internet-avatar black ribbon in his memory.
 
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