This is my own personal farewell to Ryan. The only place I thought would be right for this to go is here. Many people have said their piece about Ryan, and this is mine.
Its been a few hours since I heard about the passing of Ryan. I was on Facebook when I saw that the Giant Bomb page had uploaded a few photos of Ryan. I thought it was wedding photos, then saw a comment that said something like "You will be missed, Ryan". So I thought he was leaving Giant Bomb. I came straight to the site and saw Matthew's news post about Ryan. I remember coming to this site in anticipation of news of him leaving Giant Bomb, and a tiny part of me was hoping that it wasn't news of his passing. When the GB homepage loaded, everything I hoped wouldn't be true hit me in the face and filled me with this huge sadness. I said "oh my god" under my breath several times. I really couldn't believe what I was seeing. It just came out of nowhere, and shocked me so much. I checked so many Twitter feeds as soon as I heard this news. I went straight to everyone's feeds within the office and so many feeds from people associated with Ryan. I really wanted to hear what people had to say. I'm not trying to be selfish, his family and friends are probably so devastated, I just felt like I needed closure, and I don't know why. Reading everyone's tweets and blog posts made me realise just how wonderful Ryan was.
I don't know Ryan personally, and have never met him, but I know deep down this is a person who deserves all of my respect for being a fantastic human being. It really feels like I knew him personally. When I heard of his passing I remembered HotSpot, On The Spot, How to Build a Bomb, Bombcast. All of these memories make me so happy. Ryan was himself on these shows, and for me, his personality is something that colours them. I grew up with Ryan on GameSpot. I've followed Ryan through everything he's done since I personally found out about Gamespot when I was a kid. I hope this week there's some sort of send off from the Giant Bomb crew. You deserve this time and you deserve our thoughts.
Ryan, I just want to thank you. You were a part of my life as I grew up, every video, every cast, every podcast, every show, every writing and every piece of content that I've watched, listened to or read that had your stamp on it one way or another, I want to thank you for being a part of the experience. You've made me smile, laugh, and think, and I've cried thinking about you today. You've had a tremendously positive effect on people, and your work will be immortalized to me. Giant Bomb is your legacy, we will always remember you. There won't be a time where I come to Giant Bomb and forget to think of you. I don't want to speak for everyone on on Giant Bomb, but we will always remember you.
We love you, Ryan.
Rest in Peace,
Sion
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