I am not a professional writer. I write for Techpedition and my blog as a fan of the subject matter and as a person whose not able to keep his thoughts in his head. It has always been a dream of mine to get paid for my thoughts, and opinions, to have the respect of others and to have a good time doing it. When I read that Ryan Davis had passed away last week, I was speechless. Ryan meant alot to alot of people, and I don’t think his loss will truly be felt until the first Giant Bombcast without him is released. I can’t even imagine what Brad, Vinny, Alex, Patrick and most of all Jeff are going through right now. To lose someone so early and so close to you, someone you shared both an office and a life with, can be nothing short of heart destroying. The legacy he had built around a community of love, admiration and mutual respect is that of legend and I imagine going forward with out him at Giant Bomb will be the most painful thing those guys will go through for the foreseeable future…or possibly the rest of their lives.
Like most fans, I never met Ryan. In my first and only trip to E3 in 2009, I went with bright eyes to experience the biggest show in games first hand. Sure, I could be on the look out for Miyamoto, or Sid Meier, or Cliffy B…but If I was to see someone famous I wanted it to be the Giant Bomb guys. I saw Brad and I took a picture with Jeff, but sadly I didn’t see Ryan (my favorite bomber). The reason I wanted so badly to see Jeff and Ryan was because they were living the dream. They were getting paid to be the judge. Their opinions mattered. They worked their asses off…twice to go from tubby California gamers duders to the absolute pinnacle of Games Journalism. I wanted to be them…hell, I still want to be them. As I continued to write for Techpedition and began to host two podcasts, I found myself in the same roll that Ryan occupied on nearly all Giant Bomb and previously Gamespot shows. Albeit in an infinitely lower profile.
Behind the mic, Ryan had the ability to effortlessly control a conversation unlike anyone else in the business while still sounding like he was just there for the ride. He was always pleasant to listen to and for me he was THE VOICE of video game podcasts. I’ve learned alot from him, and if you’ve heard Reality Breached I’m probably not using that knowledge too well. All this dumpy Mississippi gamer wanted to do is be as entertaining as the great Ryan Davis. Sure the Bombcast is about video games, but at it core its about Ryan corralling his friends together to record themselves having a great time. THEY are the show, and Ryan was the reason it ran so well. The few times he’d missed in the past his absence was felt. Jeff is good and all, but Ryan had a happiness at his core that Jeff cannot touch.
So if you haven’t figured it out yet, this is my flimsy attempt at saying goodbye to a person I never met. Like many, I didn’t know how much Ryan meant to me until I heard he was gone. I’ve never gotten emotional over a public person’s death, but yesterday I found myself physically upset and at times actually crying. Him being gone and the sheer sadness of when it happened (within a week of his wedding) got the best of me multiple times. I wish I had the talent to capture in words the love and respect I had for that man, and maybe I will some day. He will never know how much he has touched my life, but I can be happy knowing that I once, just once touched his. This dumb little article about a silly DS game, was my one and only interaction with him.
I know Techpedition isn’t a huge website, I know we don’t get loads of traffic or tons of podcast downloads, so Ryan Davis…THE RYAN DAVIS tweeting a link to MY article, could be the highlight of my “career” here at Techpedition. He went on to mention it on a Bombcast about 6 months later, and I was all smiles for the rest of that week too. To get even the tiniest bit of validation from one of my biggest influences was exhilarating. It was like your historically hard-assed dad looking at your report card and saying “Good job kid, keep up the good work.” For him I’m sure it was just another day at the office, but for me when it comes to my writing it was the world.
Goodbye and thank you Ryan, you will forever be remembered, and I will always be trying to be that ever jolly, center of attention you so naturally were. Giant Bomb, Games Journalism, and face/neck stabbing will never be the same.