Ryan Davis, An Amazing Being (From a Quiet GB Fan)

I'm late to the party with the Ryan Davis tributes, I've been meaning to write my own tribute to him since the news of his passing broke last week. Many Giant Bomb users have already written wonderful tributes to Ryan, along with numerous users reminiscing favorite Ryan moments and organizing meetups to celebrate what Ryan has provided not only to Giant Bomb, but to the entire video game industry. The reaction to Ryan's passing has been incredible. A lot of us have never met Ryan in person, but the way he condones himself in the various content he has produced in Giant Bomb really connected with the community. Many people have wrote that Ryan helped them out in many ways. He helped a lot of the community get over their struggles, whether it's a rough day of school or work, or battling some demons, Ryan pulled us out of that rut many times. To see someone to provide that jolt of happiness through the fog of unhappiness is an amazing. I wish I was as great of a man as Ryan, to always make folks around him smile. The 9 July 2013 Bombcast and the numerous tributes from fellow gaming personalities and websites just reinforces how much he means to the rest of the Giant Bomb staff and the video game industry.

Ryan was our wonderwall. He laid down a bridge over our troubled waters. He was our hero. He was our best friend.

Unlike many of the users here in Giant Bomb, I'm still relatively new to the site. I first learned of the site from my brother in late 2011. I lurked around the site for a bit before registering as a Giant Bomb member in February 2012. I enjoyed what the site provided and initially paid for a silver membership the following month. Despite the nerves when Giant Bomb was sold to CBS Interactive that month, I held firm and bumped up my support for the Giant Bomb staff the next month with a gold membership and renewed recently. I am very happy to be a part of Giant Bomb and to support the staff with my subscription, though I don't feel like I am a true Giant Bomb fan. I haven't watched a lot of the Quick Looks, listened to only a few Bombcasts, and occasionally catch a live TNT or other live streaming event. There is so much content to sort through and if I had the time, would like to revisit some of the past material that the community has heralded. Looking through the Ryan tribute thread, I haven't watched a majority of events that the users have posted as their favorite Ryan moment. There are a few Ryan moments that I have caught that were very memorable, which are the young Brad Muir reaction and the Found Me the Bomb reveal. Those were pretty awesome. I'm sure I'll have the same reaction if I watch the numerous other memorable moments on that thread.

I hope no one frowns upon me for my lack of "Giant Bomb-ness", but I wanted to share my thoughts on how wonder this site is as well as give my respects to Ryan for all of the wonderful content he has provided not only here in Giant Bomb and at his time in Gamespot. My condolences to Ryan's family and friends. Take as much time as you guys need and I'm sure the Giant Bomb community will do everything to help them get through what they need. I have made a $10 donation at Child's Play that was created in Ryan's honor, and at this time, currently contemplating purchasing the "Fuck, Ryan Davis" t-shirt to help support his family.

I will do my best to be a good person to those who I've come across. I am honored to be followed by 14 Giant Bomb members and to have communicated with many more. I had a ton of fun being a participant of the Giant Bomb Persona 4 Arena tournaments organized by FluxWaveZ. My PSN's friends list was empty before P4A came in. Since then, it has populated to close to 30. I also enjoyed putting some time in contributing to the GB wikipedia for a couple of games. I hope the work I have put in is satisfactory. I hope to do more wikipedia work down the road, though my job eating up more of my time and energy isn't helping. I will also do my best to enjoy playing video games, just as much as Ryan did.

Ryan may have passed from this world, but he lives on forever in our hearts. Many thanks Ryan Davis.