I know it’s not going to be remotely shocking if I say I’m very sad to see Austin step down from his editor position here, but for the record I believe that has less to do with Austin Walker being a fixture of the Giant Bomb staff and more to do with the fact that he is Austin Walker. I love that Giant Bomb feels like it belongs to itself, but at the same time the site has been nudged in many of the directions it’s gone over the years by a strong awareness that you need to move with the times, even if you do it in your own way. Additionally, while it’s fantastic that the discussions in this site’s videos and articles can be roaringly silly, I also have a strong interest in painstaking dissections of video games and serious investigations of the culture surrounding them.

When Patrick Klepek left the site at the end of 2014, it felt like there was a gaping chasm where a lot of the site’s introspection on the gaming community and push towards social consciousness in the field had broken away overnight. Several years ago it would have seemed unconscionable that anyone but the most academic or progressive gaming website would hire an ex-university researcher with a master’s in politics and aesthetics, working on a media studies PhD. Maybe you would have seen this at Gamasutra or Kill Screen, but you wouldn’t have expected it from the far larger body of sites offering their thoughts on interactive entertainment from a more reclined position. Despite this, I earnestly believe that if you are not covering games from at least a somewhat social or cultural perspective, you are not looking at them in a comprehensive way.

That’s where someone like Austin figures in. He makes the practice of being radically thoughtful about media seem effortless, he is a ray of fresh perspectives in a space that can become so stale, and he has signal-boosted alternative voices from people who might have otherwise not found the audience they have. Austin has been probing in his criticism without being grating, and unafraid to engage gaming on almost any topic without ever seeming confrontational. He’s a great example of this concept that we desperately need to keep spreading: That close reads of games and challenging criticism of them does not mean that the writer/speaker harbours hate towards them or is in competition with them. This doesn’t mean that people who are louder or more forceful than Austin are “doing it wrong”, but I think two of the qualities with the greatest capacity to change the world for the better are empathy and intelligence, and Austin has brought those in spades. Friendly and polite to guests and staff, thinking deep when he speaks, and cracking great jokes: That’s been Austin Walker. I know this post is getting hazardously gushy, but I’ve been genuinely inspired by Austin, even as someone who is writing about games in a purely amateur capacity.

Austin’s departure from the site is very different to Patrick’s, not just because they’re different people, but also because we had Patrick for almost four years, and we had Austin for just over one. Our time with him has been relatively short-lived, but it speaks to how fun and thought-provoking he’s been that he’s made such a mark on Giant Bomb over these twelve months. While it’s sad knowing that he won’t be taking up his old chair on the Beastcast and New York livestreams, it does feel very Austin that he’s venturing onwards to new pastures. From what he’s said he places a high value on constantly growing as a person, and he seems like the kind of guy who thrives on having varied and new experiences regularly thrust his way. He deserves a site of his own and I have no doubt that the places he takes his new outlet will be a benefit to everyone who wants to dig into the underbelly of this industry, community, and hobby. Here’s a big thanks for what he’s done.

“Never stop dancing”- Austin Walker