Ben Pack Appreciation Thread

Good luck Ben. You and Jeff joking backing and forth was funny as hell.

I guess this means we won't ever see the return of the All Hero Challenge. I'm sad. Be(n)st of luck out there.

No more Jan and Ben content makes me sad :(

Good luck Ben, wishing you great things!

Love the energy ben brought to everything! You'll be missed.

Bye Ben, best of luck to you and your future endeavours. Please come and visit from time to time!

I had so much fun watching Bens content. I think my favorite memory was the Quiet Man Extra Life Stream. "Mom's dead parkour!" is the kind of chaotic good we need in the world.

Best of luck to you and your new journey!

Ben always made me laugh. Best wishes to him!

@nicolasvh: Oh, I'm definitely not.

I'm kind of including Dan in my number of people bled over the last year; Dan, Abby, and Ben. Drew was a couple years ago.

That moment where you and Jan were flipping through your school notebook and you drew a Diglett that was the size of a skyscraper, and Jan said something like, ‘I’m beginning to understand young Ben.’

Also Ranking of Fighters and Ben Apetit. You will be missed, Ben.

All the best, junior scientist, wherever and whatever you do.

Real talk, I didn't like Ben at first and I found the Kingdom Heartache bit really, really annoying. But then, he found his voice seemingly overnight and I just could not get enough of his input. As someone else stated, I was generally bummed when he wasn't on the Bombcast any given week for the past couple of years. I will especially miss his willingness to try out games that were outside of the normal GB wheelhouse, especially multiplayer stuff and also his unique sense of humor. Thank you for championing Disco Elysium, a game I feel like will impact games, at least CRPGs, for years to come. I will miss your tall self buddy.

And as someone that deleted twitter about 5 years ago and don't even have a public facing job, I don't blame you for wanting to lay low social media wise. It's not worth it IMHO. Cheers to your future!

@frytup: “definitely can’t blame anyone for wanting to jump out of the social media treadmill”

I’ve been spending time lately thinking about whether there is any actual level of “famous” that I would enjoy despite wanting to be famous. I don’t WANT to be... but deep down I sorta want to be. Or I think I want to be. But I have no idea why. And almost every aspect of it sounds like it would be miserable.

All the best to Ben. Hope he understands he was a part of one of the best periods in GB, and was probably the glue holding together the west coast for a couple years there, content and energy wise.

Kingdom Heartache is lowkey a top tier series. Fuck the haters.

@tdous: Thanks, duder.

I'm going to miss this guy. A lot.

Good luck man, and kick ass at whatever you're moving on to.

Good luck Ben, and thanks for the hours of entertainment you’ve provided.

@toughshed: GotY made sense back when the site formed and the Western gaming zeitgeist basically revolved around the Xbox 360. Nowadays with such a breadth of releases it feels like folks are talking past each other with differing gaming experiences. It doesn’t feel like a spirited debate over common ground like it used to. And honestly that’s fine. Gaming is in a much better place than it was in 2008, but this whole concept of a monoculture awarding a “best” game for a given year just feels outdated.

I'm sorry to see him go.

With all of the turnover at Giant Bomb in recent years, I wonder if that's indicative of their industry as a whole?

Ben, you brought so many good vibes to everything you did. So many smiles on my face. I love your approach to games and how you discuss them, but also you just know how to have a good time. Loved hanging out. Good luck in anything you do man!! Peace!!

Sorry to see you go, Ben. I feel you were really hitting your stride in the last year or two. Best wishes in your future endeavors!

Good luck Ben! You will be greatly missed!

Wishing Ben the best of luck. He was a treasure in his own way and I greatly appreciated what he brought to the table. Take it easy big man. Don't be a stranger.

I don't know if this thread is the place for such speculation, but Klepek said his salary at GB was 65k with no raises

Y'all are not real good at following instructions. This is not the place for weird speculation about things we don't actually know and probably never will. Please stop making this weird.

Bye Ben, good luck, thanks for all the laughs 👍🏼

Thank you so much for all the great content over the years Ben! I always felt like you did a fantastic job being a bridge for us non-anime people to be able to appreciate stuff like that, and in pandemic times, as I seek out new things, it was very much appreciated. You brought a great energy to the table and I'll miss it when it's gone. Good luck with whatever comes next! I know you'll kill it!

You've been a kind, genuine personality here and I have always appreciated your enthusiasm. Good luck in your future endeavors!

Ben's lens Ben's lense Ben's lense Ben's lensebenslensbenslensbenlenbeles

Again. This is not a place to wildly speculate and guess who, what, when, where, or why. Especially when you're guessing someone's salary or personal life.

I get it, you care about the site and the people who work on it. But that doesn't give you the right to openly pry and speculate about someone's life. Nor is this thread the place for such speculation.

All speculation will be deleted.

Ben, you really brought the best pure gamer skills to the crew. Hope you'll find joy and success in the next phase of your life. Thank you again, will miss your bursts of laughter.

Best of luck Ben!

You will be missed, I will definitely miss the great energy with Jan and Abby...

@finaldasa: Besides, we already know Ben has been hired by WWE with Dan's behest to be their new giant, the Ben Show and he's slated to win their world championship at Wrestlemania.

@retris: That's just ridiculous. Ben is clearly going to AEW.

He's clearly crunching his Super Mario World speedruns for SGDQ.

Take care out there, Ben! Really enjoyed your humor and voice here on Giant Bomb! Thank you ⭐️

Ben's Lens, Ben Appetite, The Aftershow, Breakfast 'n' Ben, y'all will be missed! Thank for all the work you put in over the years, and best of luck on what you choose to do next. :)

Sad we will never see the completion of Kingdom Heartbreak (EDIT Heartache? my bad). I guess Ranking of Fighters will need a new intern now (just make sure they don't get paid, as wouldn't be fair to Ben otherwise...). Bens Lens won't be the same without Ben either... ;)

Best of luck Ben where ever life takes you next!

Best of luck Ben thank you for the quality stoner laugh and the emoji.

Ben will be sorely missed. I've been a fan since he was an intern and he was always entertaining. His chemistry with the crew, especially Jan, Abby and Jeff, was special as well. I wish him nothing but the best and am very happy for him.

After reading some of his reasons for leaving, and seeing that a few other people have left for similar reasons, I feel bad for being a passive viewer and not letting everyone know how much I enjoy their work. It is terrible some of the things they have to put up with and I couldn't imagine the toll this job has on your mental health.

Ben's absence is going to cast a long shadow across GB west...

The next new hire is going to have some big shoes to fill...

Equaling Ben's balance of enthusiasm and irreverence is going to be a tall act to follow...

And that's all the tall jokes I got. Love you Ben. Stay real in whatever you do.

I hear you, I'm a passive viewer as well, but I don't think we should feel bad about that. The problems aren't passive viewers, it's the negative/toxic active viewers. I'm disgusted at the antagonistic and even maliciously mean behavior that gets directed at staff. Whether on-site or off (twitter, etc.), by paying members or not, there is no excuse for treating them like that, OVER VIDEO GAMES, ffs!!

The tragic irony of Ben (and likely others) feeling like they need to be 'on' all the time, is that it's the exact opposite of what I want out of GB. I most enjoy an environment where the staff are genuinely comfortable, without pretense, and able to be themselves in a sustainable and healthy way, without worrying about what kind of twitter shitstorm they're going to wake up to the next day over having done their job.

Bottom line: Ben is another casualty of the fact that humans are garbage and the internet is the miraclegrow on our awfulness.

Also: Ben you're the best. Stay Bentastic. May you never tweet again and live a long and happy life.