And I mean all of GB. From everyone who’s worked on the site, everyone on both sides of the cameras, and the beautiful community that I’m incredibly proud to be a part of. Like a lot of you, I am also sad about Vinny, Brad, and Alex leaving, but I’m also very happy. I want to say that I don’t begrudge any decisions made by these wonderful people, and I’m incredibly excited for them and look forward to what they do next. I’m excited to see where GB goes from here as well. I trust Jeff to do what he believes is best for the site, and I will be along for the ride as long as he is. The change is hard to believe and process right now. It’s easy to feel sad, and it’s easy to think to myself that it’s the “end” but I choose to be happy that they were here for how long they were. I choose to be happy that I was at least a small part of this family called Giant Bomb. I wanted to take a moment here to look back on how GB has made me who I am today, and thank those that deserve every bit of my love for supporting myself and the community.
I believe I found out about Giant Bomb through a youtube recommendation/however youtube worked at the time. It must’ve been a Best of Giant Bomb, and I think it was Best of Giant Bomb 10 – Don’t Shake the Baby (it could’ve been before this, but my brain doesn’t like remembering things that long ago) So first thanks goes to Derek Stone and his beautiful work creating those for so long and continuing it to this day. You have a hell of a job to do and I can’t even imagine what you’re going through to create the next one. Big love to you my friend. Without you, the GB community wouldn’t be what it is. I strongly believe you have brought a large number of new people onto the insane roller coaster that GB is.
After that, I got sucked into the Persona 4 ER and GB became a daily presence in my life.
So over the 10+ years I have gained many friends and people that I consider family because of this website and community. I would never have considered myself a social person, but every time I join a random community thing to play some games, I am better off for it.
The GB PC Gaming Hub. I remember very explicitly when I met my best friend to this day, and many others that are close friends. It was an Arma 2 game night. I joined the mumble and joined the Arma server. I was stuck in the ground the moment I spawned, and had a blast chatting with other duders. One of those duders is now my best friend and I love him dearly (we are farmers now <3) So thank you guys, even though I’ve lost touch with many of you and I’m sorry for that. I hope to get back in and play some games with y’all again.
PAX East 2014. It was the first time I ever felt truly part of the GB community. I drove all the way to Boston by myself for that PAX. I met some wonderful people there. Took a picture with Drew Scanlon that is still my favorite picture of myself ever. I witnessed the very first “PAX wrestling” thing in the front row. What an incredible nightmare that was, and I also took one of my favorite pictures ever, which was the aftermath of the N64 taped to the floor surrounded by loose controllers and fake glass. I went to Vinny and Rich Gallup’s video production panel (which would be more influential to me than I realized at the time) I cursed at the GB panel during the Q&A for some reason, but it was still funny and I loved every moment of that show.
The Community Endurance Run. Thank you to everyone whose participated in those and supported each other in those incredible events every year. I participated a couple times after that PAX and then took a big break and participated again this year. Thank you to Gino, ZombiePie, and everyone who helped make those events possible. Raising an actual incredible amount of money for what the scope of those events are. I love you all and can’t thank you enough for having me in the mix. This past one especially. It was such a great creative outlet for me, and it’s the most proud I’ve been of something I’ve produced along with all of you.
Around 2017 or so (I can’t remember, it’s all so fuzzy) I entered a very dark point in my life. At the time I had been living alone for about 5 years, working overnight stocking groceries. I hadn’t gone to college, because I didn’t know anything about what I wanted to do with my life. It was a constant work, sleep, work, sleep etc. All while dealing with undiagnosed depression. It came to a head in 2017 and I ended up going to several mental hospitals. In my time there, I realized what I wanted to do with my life. I realized that I loved what Vinny and Drew did at GB. I made the decision to go to school and pursue a degree in video production. And I did. I got a degree in Digital Video & Cinema Production and now I am producing videos for my job. I mean, I work for a less than stellar company right now, but I never would’ve guessed I could be doing what I do for a living. I make videos now. It’s fucking wild. Thank you to GB and everyone who has held a camera, touched an edit, encoded video, and came up with insanely creative video ideas. You are the reason why I’m doing what I do today.
I got a fucking GB tattoo man, and it’s a damn quarter-sleeve! I got it in honor of the 10 year anniversary, and now I want to get another one/add to it.
The Destiny 2 clan I joined. Destiny 2 came out on PC and I looked through the forums for a clan to join and I honestly just picked one at random. It ended up being a European clan, which is actually great because I had gotten used to being up at odd hours due to working overnight. These fools have also become like family to me, and I consider many of them very close friends. Thank you for welcoming me with open arms, and thank you for getting me through the final hours of my 36 hour endurance run for the GB Community ER.
And finally. The Giant Bomb Infinite regulars. As soon as GBi launched (as GBTV at first) it became a constant presence in my life. No matter where I was, GBi was running somewhere in the background. The wonderful people in that chat are close to me in a way I can’t even describe. There’s always a handful of folks in the GBi chat that are just shooting the breeze, no matter what time of day it is. It was wonderfully described recently as having “strong ‘it's 2:30 AM and the party is dead except for five people sitting outside on the lawn’ vibes” The excellent people in the GBi chat are incredibly supportive of each other and we all get through tough days together. I would also like to thank Will Carle for GBi even existing. I love you GBi. And everyone in the chat: Stay horny.
This has gotten way too long now, and if you read this far, my apologies. I’ve tried my best not use any hyperbole throughout this, and I truly mean it when I that I wouldn’t be who/where I am today without Giant Bomb. Thank you Vinny, Alex, and Brad. I wish you all the absolute best in your personal and professional lives. Thank you Jeff. I’m coming along with you wherever you take this site. Thank you to Drew, Patrick, Jason, Dan, Austin, Abby, Jan, Ben, and everyone who was and is a part of the GB family. Thank you to everyone behind the scenes over the years making the site work and be what it is. Thank you Ryan, for everything.
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