Watching The GiantBomb Crew sign posters for three hours was actually entertaining, the guys we love and look up to just talking about stuff, with each flick of the pen a focused stare at the paper...these unique shows make Giantbomb the warm, embracing site we've come to know and love. I'd watch something like this over The Big Live Live Show any time. Last year's pax panel was disastrous and this year's was literally incomprehensible, but all of that stops mattering if we were to discuss the essence of the site. I was enjoying their conversation, like all of us do, about everything and nothing, the wits, the cracks, the insights, the truths, the puns, the list goes on, but my right eye kept catching the chat ahead of me : "Steve jobs is dead" it said. I didn't pay attention.

"steve jobs died" "no it's a joke" "it's not a joke" etc. Knowing the answer was just a click away I decided not to check the net and just keep watching the stream. The show kept going and I think I wasn't the only one watching in slightly unsettled anticipation, until Dave finally broke the news to the guys. A few sighs and faint sounds, riddled by confrontation. They tried to keep a normal conversation going for a brief moment but it suddenly stopped like the air was sucked out of the room. Vinny cracked nervous jokes as he finished up the last batch of posters, Brad's mind started to race with thoughts and Jeff just pondered deeply, his eyes staring into nothingness. Someone on the chat even joked "Jeff just thought about his own mortality, now he's thinking about Trackmania 2 again". It was a good joke, but I couldn't laugh. Ryan in this respect, stayed true to his role of host.

It was touching, weird. Not special, no because death is anything but special, it's natural. When the news breaks everyone is an equal, a morbid balance is restored, things put in perspective. For years now I have felt close to this site because these people open up to us, we know parts of them that aren't falsified, we've seen them share actual thoughts and emotions in very human ways, there's no make up. This is what makes this site so damn important, that and of course they're actual knowledge of games and the industry. That's what makes this the bomb. About twenty minutes before the news broke, Dave signed a single poster with what said "Live Long and Prosper". Well, may you all do just that here at Giantbomb.

@TrashMustache: Great post

I bought the signed poster as sort of a geeky goof. See I've never cared about autographs and stuff like that. I thought I'll get this poster to hang up at work and have this story of a autographed poster from a video game site since the bombcast crew are more interesting to me then most celebrities. I was watching the feed and was even joking with my gf how geeky it was to watch guys signing my poster over the internet. Towards the end the news broke(I found out through the stream). In some strange way this poster will always remind me of when I heard Steve Jobs died. I'm an Apple user. 1 MacPro and 1 Mac Mini. AppleTV. 2 iPhones so far, 3 iPods etc etc but what I will always remember Steve Jobs for most is that 2005 Stanford commencement speech. I've kept a printed transcript of that speech close by since I first read it. That speech has been one of the most eye opening things for me. As I wander (and I am a wanderer) through life and the dots start to connect in how my experiences come together to form who I am and where I'm going. RIP Steve. I hope you are in a better place.

I did not watch the stream, but this was a good read.

...Wow. This was a great post... I havent watched the stream myself but damn, that was really deep

Did they archive this? I'm kinda intrigued.