f13.net

Ryan Davis from Giant Bomb passed away; dunno on the details (http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/ryan-davis-1979-2013/1100-4685/#comments-block)

I don't really read Giant Bomb but I imagine some people here do. Welp.

Sucks :(
I don't always love their stuff, but they do what they do well and are hilarious when doing it.

No details as of yet.

And I know it's somewhat ironic posting the following on this forum of all places, but over the last few years I've been battling hard against my own cynicism and trying to just be a better human being. One of the people I saw as a model for that behavior was indeed Ryan Davis. The guy just seemed to be loved by everyone and was just so positive in general. He just seemed genuine and good hearted.

Giant Bomb, if maybe because the people involved come from a similar background as mine, always seemed like a good place to read stuff. The Bombcast is one of the few podcasts that I make sure I have to listen to every week.

Also, the dude just got married in the last few weeks. I can't imagine how his wife feels right now.

I'm a fan, and the GB crew are really the only net personalities I follow. Really tragic, especially since he just got married. Rest in peace.

Just heard about this.  Terrible news, particularly in light of him just getting married a little while ago.  :(

RIP, Bombardier.

Truly an awful, awful thing.

I had the chance to meet him a few times at E3 and PAX and he always seemed very jovial. I remember at PAX Prime 2011, he was excitedly showing me his lock screen on his phone which contained the most intense and smoldering picture of Bradley Cooper I think I've ever seen.

It's weird to think about how you become attached to figures that you know via media and podcasts in this day and age. There are very few of us who can say that they were legitimate real friends with him, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to say that anyone who had followed Giant Bomb (and GameSpot) over the years did not legitimately love the man. He put his heart and soul into everything he did, and it was super obvious.

Sucks. :(

No clue who this guy is though as I don't listen to podcasts and barely read any "mainstream"-esque gaming sites.

34 years old too. Errghhh.

I mean yeah he was pretty grossly overweight and smoked I guess but still.

Nor do I. Today was the first I'd heard of the man.

Still... it's sad to hear about anybody dying. And far too young at that.


Only the good die young. Or so they say.

Was it drugs? You don't usually die in your 30s due to simply eating and smoking.

It can happen. Still, it could be something else.

Dude weighed like 3-4 bucks.

bucks?

Hundred. He was pretty obese.

I've actually heard that that sleep apnea was the cause of death.

He did suffer from it. He had a CPAP machines.

Jesus, they were just talking about having gone to his wedding on the podcast last week.

The new podcast is up.... and it's just basically a memory lane thing. Pretty great.

Listened to it yesterday. That Ryan guy seemed like a pretty decent person and great friend but god did his lifestyle sound unhealthy when being described by his friends and coworkers on the show.

Are they actually going to give a cause of death? I mean if they just let speculation run, I think drugs or the guy died in some odd auto-erotic strangulation job.

Unfortunate tweet from him on July 3rd:  "@DavidEllis I'm on day three, I've gotten collectively maybe 10-12 hours. It's not like I'm gonna die, but C'MON. VACATION."

It's very likely that the unaccustomed to level of exertion on his honeymoon combined with weight/heart issues are the cause.

I don't want to laugh, but eh... heh.

Good point. However, if I died during sex I would want that on my memorial sign with a picture of me giving 2 thumbs up.

EDIT: I'm putting that in my will.

I really don't care how he died, personally. I'd rather just let them have some peace on that subject.

There are a few more unfortunate tweets if you go back a few weeks.

If you don't understand the public fascination with how people shuffle off the mortal coil, I can't really illuminate you on the topic. It's one of the few things we all will have in common.

I'm not looking for an explanation. I know it exists, but it's just ridiculous to assume or even inquire about them releasing information based on silly rumors.

The fact the family is going out of their way to say nothing about it is what's fueling the interest, I think. The ridiculous rumors exist simply because they didn't just say he had heart failure and moved on.

His father tweeted at some point that it was natural causes.

I'm not surprised (for certain values of surprised), all that exertion and drinking and not sleeping, plus a horrible heat wave.

My point is, let those weirdos ruminate. They're going to anyway.

Going out of their way? To not say something? That makes no sense. They're just not talking about it.

I guess my point is that when somebody just drops dead in their early 30s, other than getting hit by a bus, people have a genuine WTF HAPPENED moment. It's not a normal life(death) occurrence.

He wasn't a celeb so he didn't have a publicist to handle this as some final part of their contract.

Since he was only 'internet famous' in certain circles, (which means not famous.) his family isn't likely to do anything but grieve and wonder who the fuck cares. That his dad tweeted anything is - frankly - amazing to me.

I mean, how would your family feel if you went missing or died and we called them up saying, "Hey, what happened to Paelos."  (Previous experience on another forum says they'd be rightly creeped-the-fuck-out.)

There is a WIDE difference between "holy shit, what happened" and "HEY DID HE DO A BUNCH OF DRUGS OR JERK OFF WHILE A BELT WAS AROUND HIS NECK."

there's also a wide difference in wondering, and asking the family what happened.

One is curiosity/confusion, the other is being a dickhead.

Never heard of him, but that's pretty sad.

Still a simple Google image search of the guy and you can do the math.  I'm not really sure why people are acting like this is a big mystery.  Hopefully it is a wake up call for some gamers.

Pretty much that. The guy wasn't in the greatest shape. Then combine that with E3, where I'm sure he didn't get much sleep, especially since the Giant Bomb guys had most of their equipment stolen, but they still managed to put on hours long live video shows each night. Then after that he was getting ready for his wedding, plus helping move around arcade cabinets for some of the other guys. I'm sure he probably hadn't gotten many good night's sleep in the past moth at least.

I've been bummed out all week by this. It's weird to mourn an internet celebrity that I've only met once in passing at PAX, but I spent 1-2 hours most weeks for the last 4 years listening to this man talk about his life and videogames on the Bombcast. He was a really funny/energetic person and I'll miss hearing him.

Sometimes on the podcasts he mentioned health problems related to his weight: sore back, legs, Sleep Apnea, etc. I've seen enough relatives and relatives of friends go downhill pretty quickly when they didn't take care of their weight, but 34 still seems impossibly early to die from health issues related to weight. He should have had at least another 10 years to fix his problems but now he'll never get the chance.  :heartbreak:

I do wish they'd release the information about how he died. Not to satisfy my curiosity, but as a wake up call to any gamers that are in a similar boat and think they can put off physical health until they're older.

They probably could do an awareness thing without explicitly mentioning how he died. I just don't know if we need to know.

Unhealthy people dying young isn't common, but it's not exactly shocking either. And the older you get the harder things are to fix.

Just listening to the Ryan Davis collection This Year just put out. (http://www.thisyearcollection.org/2013/07/s5-ryan-davis-memorial.html) The song they open it up with (after the long intro from the guy who puts these compilations together) had my dying laughing.

Holy shit! I've been traveling with my extended fam for the week, so the first I heard of this was this thread. I've been listening to the Bombcast and the offshoots like dumptruck religiously almost since inception. As someone else mentioned, he was about to get married too. Shit, I think they had hall and DJ and all the other shit lined up. edit: it's been that long: he was married by this point! Last show I listened to was just prior.

He had mentioned being on a CPAP machine, and yea he was a pretty big guy. Having watched other people of this weight category go through this, I am still surprised he was hit this early in this life. I mean, just from pics alone, I've known guys in his weight class go decades longer. I'm mildly curious if there's a family history of something else, but I respect this ain't my business.

This sucks on general principal. I don't know the guys at all but they seemed like a really tight crew in how they balance each other. Patrick leaving recently for Chicago felt like something of a blow to their weekly feng sheu, though I know dickall about podcasts and personalities. They seem to be doing very well since their purchase by CBS, but Ryan was something of the MC for the weekly podcast. I'm curious who will step up.