I don't know how about buying premium memberships for people in the community. I get Ryan wore new balance shoes, but in my opinion this doesn't really seem appropriate for people who do not know him on a personal level. It also screams to me as a bit narcissistic. Like somebody going up to a Kurt Cobain's tribute and dropping flowers and yelling hey look at me I loved the shit out of some Nirvana the most. It could be just me, but that's how I feel about the matter.
This isn't the same thing. Fans of Nirvana or the Beatles or John Belushi or David Farley, none of them listened to a 3-hour podcast every week, watched a 3-hour liveshow every week in which they chatted directly and asked questions, had back-and-forths (and got blocked) on twitter, which Ryan was on all the time, listened to their playlists on spotify, watched years' worth of video content. It's not even the same as an actor dying, like the lead guy on Spartacus, because that was acting. Ryan wasn't an actor, he was a personality, and we all knew him and his personality extremely well because of how often we saw it.
This is a new age with all the social media tools we have, and there's a new level of involvement and connection for people like Ryan and the GB guys, who have thousands of people who regularly absorb the content, and also all of this stuff has a hugely personal twist, making it even more meaningful. I never met Ryan Davis, I never got a question asked on the TNT stream, I never called the big red phone, or got retweeted, or even sent in a question to the Bombcast. But I've listened to and followed these guys for 4 years, and Giant Bomb has been the most regular thing in my life over that period of time. I've probably spent more time watching livestreams and quick looks than I have chilling with my friends, because they live far away and I don't see them as much as I'd like to. And now one of the main parts of that is gone, and it's a massive hole in my daily and weekly life, and I miss it and I'm sad it's gone.
I don't feel weird at all crying over the death of someone I never knew, because he was such an integral part of my experiences over the last 3 years that we may as well have been friends. And wanting to do something to honor the memory of someone who's offered that much time and entertainment in my life is the furthest thing from inappropriate. It may not affect me on the same personal level as someone who knew Ryan in person, and I'm not going to take anything away from how much worse this is from all of them, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt bad for me, and everyone else on this site, too.
Log in to comment