He sounded okay couple weeks ago on the podcast ... tough there is still hope for a miracle .
TB was probably the first critic i ever followed , and his opinion on stuff always highly weighted my decision on buying a game or not.
Sadly his honesty got him many enemies and many haters , as you can see in the tweet responses :/
Today is a sad day for the gaming industry ...
What an awful day for rain .
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it's raining here since the news from Genna are out
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I’m not good at this, but for him, I’ll try:
I used to think that people who cried over celebrity deaths were weird. They had no personaly relations to them, so why would you care that much. But hearing about TB’s situation made me think differently. I knew I’d cry and I knew I’d be devastated.
When TB made his previous public post about the state of events, it was obvious that the end was near... but I never thought it’d be this near.
Waking up today, opening up Reddit and just seeing this... I have no words to describe it. It’s not like a family member, where you feel that sharp pain like someone took a knife and stabbed you. It’s not like some random person that you give your thoughts and prayers to and move on without giving it a second thought. It’s a weird feeling.
I’m not crying, like I expected to. Instead, I am disappointed. Disappointed in the world that would take someone so great, like John Bain, deal him terrible cards and then make him go through all of this. A man that has basically been the most influencial PC reviewer in the largest medium in the world. A man that has made one of, if not the biggest gaming podcasts around. The world screwed you, the odds went against you and what did you do? You went on. You said “fuck these cards, deal me another hand!”. It takes guts, it takes strength and it takes determination. You went through so much pain to do what you love, to support your family, to help the people who watch you.
You insipired me. I wrote some reviews because of you. I supported your favourite game devs because of you. I made some Youtube videos because of you and I was ready to go to a University major because of you. While I didn’t go for journalism, I did go for teaching, which is a direct consequence of not deciding to go for journalism. You have affected my life in a way that might affect new generations as well. If that’s not a sign of your power, then I don’t know what is. Thank you for helping me.
To Genna and Orion... I don’t know what to say and how to say it. I truly wish you all the best, I hope that you never have to go through anything like this again and I hope that you two will be happy again.
John Bain, you have gone against the odds, through pain and through extreme discomfort. Your selfishness, stoic nature and strength show that you were a warrior. Rest now, TotalBiscuit. Thank you for everything.
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I actually cried after hearing his voice in his last WTF is... Now I'm just sad.
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The first "celeb" I really cried for. His presence had such an effect on me - appreciating storytelling, how a game should have some features because players do deserve the choice, how to logically approach problems and how a simple thing like he talking with his friends in Co-op podcast is a great thing and that I want friends like them. Or how perfectly normal it is to have problems and at a point one needs to seek professional help because getting better is more important than what others think of us. His generally optimistic (but not blindly optimistic) nature really helped me to get through some hard times... I remember what dread did I feel when I first got to know his inoperable liver cancer, I was in panic - what will be with me without him (and the Co-op podcast) keeping me afloat? It's not much to say after 3 years, but I know I can manage without having to resort to "crutches", but I'll really miss him being angry at stupid people and happily babbling about his miniatures or good indie games.
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I used to think that people who cried over celebrity deaths were weird
Thats because most people who cry over death of celebrities are wierd. Most of them dont even know what this celebritie did, they just cry along others because thats cool. Someone dies - everyone posts on social medie about him/her same stuff "youll be missed, your work is brilliant" and stuff like that, while in reality majority of these people wouldnt know what these artists or celebrities actually do..
In my opinion, when stuff like this happens to youtubers its a bit different. The work youtubers do mostly is related to their personal life and they open up in their videos just as those who whatch him/her would be friends.. And in such a case that would be just normal to be sad.. You actually knew this person on a more personal level.
As I never whatched TotalBiscuit I have no idea who he is so no feelings towards these news (respectuflly of course), but one youtuber I follow Simone Gierts (girl who builds bad robots) some time ago posted a video about telling that she has a brain tumor. And I actually felt for her. Not like in a way if a friend would announce it, but still. I definitely cared about such news more then random article about random hollywood actor/actress who died or is diagnosed with something like that..
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I could barely sleep last night after reading about his death. I would never have imagined in my life that a person I've never met dying would affect me like this. Having lost my father to cancer brought back some painful memories of his last days and could only think what his family is going through right now.
He was the first youtuber I subscribed to and the first Steam curator I've been following. Heck, I even started playing a game recommended by him yesterday for Steam's spring cleaning event. I genuinely hoped he would beat the disease.
Sorry, I just had to get this off my chest somewhere. Guess I'm not so weird for crying if I'm not the only one.
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I also thought he'd beat it. When he first told everyone about the diagnosis, I was worried, but immediately thought "yeah, nah, he'll be fine. He's a celebrity, he brings attention to the issue, he has only colon cancer (not one of the scary ones like brain tumors). Plus, he's rich and a good guy and the odds will in themselves just sort it out and he'll be right as rain".
Sadly... that didn't happen, other than that one bright spot of hope, where he said that he got the operation, which was a success.
I'm sorry about your father. I really am. Also, do cry if that's what you want. There's no shame or weirdness in it. You have a personal connection and crying is a great way to release the stress that has pent up. I hope you'll feel better soon :)
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I am thinking doctors will see a slight rise in patients checking in for the possibility of colon cancer. If so, I'll be one of those patients. The Bain's family loss deeply persuaded me to check with my doctor for signs of the same illness.
Kid: A star just fell from the sky.
Laughing Bull: That is not an ordinary star, my son. That star is the tear of a warrior.
Kid: What warrior is it?
Laughing Bull: A lost soul who has finished his battles somewhere on this planet. A pitiful soul who could not find his way to the lofty realm where the great spirit awaits us all.
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It's not fair that he has left this world at such a extremely young age. You will be recalled with joy forever mate.
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I liked his WTF videos cause he was never a fanboy or a hater. He really tired to look at everything from a neutral standpoint and picked it apart any chance he could. Even games that get 95%+ on most sites he'd find very reasonable flaws and mention them.
Even went through the options menus to tel you know if it was lacking FOV or any odd resolutions etc.
He will be missed.
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That made me sort of chuckle in a bittersweet way. I only watched a handful of his videos, but I found it both funny and admirably thorough, his dedication to giving time in his videos to the options menu... Nobody else really gives too much of a crap about the options (me included... I still find it funny, really).
Like I said, I haven't watched many of his videos, but after watching one from his WTF Is... series for the first time, and seeing what a good job he did reviewing the game, giving the viewer a taste for it, showing it off, giving his thoughts, and with entertaining comments interspersed throughout, he immediately became my go-to for when I wanted something more than what I could find in Steam reviews or gameplay videos. The next time I wanted to know about a game, I searched for Totalbiscuit's review of it (and I was quite disappointed when I found out he'd never done a review of Rocket League), because he instantly impressed me and I saw him as a trusted and intelligent source who was also down-to-earth and very easy to listen to. In my opinion, Jim Sterling and Nerd Cubed don't even compare... They can be annoying as hell in nearly every video. Totalbiscuit was a real gem and a pro. He provided a really useful service and you could tell from watching just a few minutes of a video of his that here was a good person with passion and commitment and integrity. This is really a shame.
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I agree that it can be a little funny... but he had a point.
The amount of work a developer puts into the options menu is a great way to tell how much time they spent on the PC version of the game. Not to mention that things like rebindable keys is a must for some players, whether they are simply left-handed players or has some disability. It's obscure but vital information for those players (or ones suffering from motion sickness etc.).
Completely agree with you on Jim Sterling btw. He focuses too much on the negatives and frames it as trying to make things better (all while putting out video after video of near identical content). TB did that for a short while as well, but he quickly came to the conclusion that instead of looking at the garbage, it's better to dig out and feature the gems.
The guy always strived to be better and that's why he got my views and respect. He will be missed. :(
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I like Jim, but while his "job" of pointing out industry bullshits and bad games, it's not really entertaining. Following his curation page on Steam, on the other hand helps, because he really likes to point out interesting, well-done games, usually the lesser known ones. He is a good source for discovering new things, or getting an impression of a game. He feels a bit tired about how AAA games work, so he often criticises the repeats and trends of the industry, he's better about good, unique indie games.
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Rest in peace TotalBiscuit, you will be missed but never forgotten.
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I started by watching his WoW cataclysm videos and have been a fan ever since. I felt so sad when I heard the treatment didn't work, but kept hoping he will get better. Rest in peace TB.
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Rest in Peace, he was one of the first youtubers I watched and he always did A great job covering and reviewing games as well as issues such as net neutrality and greatly explaining its importance. Really sad that he has passed away, even with the news getting worse of his health I still hoped he would recover.
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Why people sanitize the death of monsters, I'll never know.
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TL:DR - Conventional treatments ineffective, liver too damage for clinical trials that we know of. I'm retiring as a critic to spend whats left of my life sharing my love of gaming with my wife and all of you via co-op videos and streams. The podcast will continue every week, with a streamlined 2-hour format. We have no plans to launch any kind of donation campaign and suggest above a list of ways to support us if you would like to.
Thank you for reading, watching or listening and I will see you soon, along with Genna, on a stream or YT channel near you.
you can read the full post here.
<3
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