I had always strayed away from being a member of the GB community because it felt repetitive to me. I enjoyed the content when I stumbled upon it, from 2010-2016 or so, but never saw myself as being a devoted viewer because, to me, it seemed identical to other outlets of video game related discussion/review/entertainment. In 2017, when Abby joined, I started to regularly watch, and in 2019 became a premium member almost solely because of the content that Abby produced. Sure, it introduced me to enjoy the rest of the staff's work (which I love), but seeing a queer woman, like myself, within the discussion space motivated me to grow more and more invested in the work Giant Bomb does and why it is important.
I like Giant Bomb because it very intentionally looks at games through not only a journalistic perspective, but also an art historical. Jeff started Giant Bomb to veer away from more market-focused efforts of video game journalism, and instead curating a space where video games were discussed in their current contexts, how they feel, and what makes them interesting at a particular moment in time. I believe that the Giant Bomb database will be an important reference point in games discussions decades in the future, as we have thousands of hours of footage of unique personalities playing games at a cultural moment and talking about how they make them feel.
GB documents cultural perspective on games through the lens of the staff's unique takes, so seeing a queer woman contributing to this process of documentation excited me! It was incredibly validating hearing someone who shared my feelings and thoughts on games and contributing to an archive that I believe is incredibly important. It not only reinvigorated my personal investment into the industry as a consumer, but steered my professional trajectory to where now I manage development of VR educational games. It might be an exaggeration to say that Abby alone made me a VR dev, but I can say that the work that GB does is provoking and makes me proud to be in this industry.
I am incredibly sad that Abby is departing. I will certainly be following her work wherever she goes, but I suppose I want to thank her for the fantastic and important content that she has produced for Giant Bomb. I wish her luck on her professional endeavors. I truly hope that she continues to work in the games ecosystem, her presence has certainly had a positive impact. If she chooses not to I'm sure that she will enlighten whichever space that might be with the positivity and humor that only Abby Russel can bring.
I hope this wasn't too over-sentimental.
Claire
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