Well, that’s not OK.

May 29, 2018 / Colin / 0 Comments

I was debating whether or not I should write this because I didn’t want to pile on the wagon of everyone else talking about it, even though no one looks at this website. So whatever!

Last Thursday, the man known as “TotalBiscuit”, or John Peter Bain succumbed to that dragon cancer. I’m not going to pretend that I knew him, because I didn’t. I knew him as much as any other fan did, be it through his YouTube videos, his sports casting, involvement in e-sports, his strong stance on consumer rights, or whatever else I’m missing, the guy was prolific. I wanted to write a short article about how he affected my life and how I approach games.

I can’t remember how long ago I came across him, it feels like he’s just always been there in the background. I want to say he came on my radar around the time I was huge into the Destructoid website and followed Jim Sterling, I somehow came across one of TB’s “WTF is…..” videos, where he goes through the options of the game, and the first half hour to an hour of game play and I really enjoyed it. I’ve followed him since then and enjoyed his content immensely. He was very open and fair about how he reviewed games and what he was looking for. Not everyone liked him, but from what I saw he was at least respected because he was principled and did not allow developers to push him around. I wouldn’t do it justice trying to explain it so I’m just going to link to the wiki that does a good job. Link here: TB’s consumer advocacy .

Here’s TB reviewing a game I love/hate. Space Run!

I enjoyed his “WTF is….” videos, his collaborations with another YouTuber Jesse Cox (especially their Terraria series, you can feel his frustration with Jesse, it’s hilarious), and his Co-Optional podcast. He turned me onto a lot of games and is responsible for a good 25% of my Steam library. His approach to games is something I need to take to heart again because I’ve forgotten it. He liked the games he liked, whether they were huge AAA titles or indie games, if you made a game he enjoyed, even if it was flawed, if he enjoyed it that was good enough for him. In his reviews he wouldn’t mince words, he would tell you what he liked and what he didn’t like and would rate it accordingly. He was arguably to video games what Oprah was to books, if they raved about it people would buy it. Game developers mostly took what he said to heart, the case I’m most familiar with was the game Warframe, he did a “WTF is…” video about it years ago and the developers took his suggestions and implemented what they could into the game. The game is still fairly popular now all these years later and on the day he passed the the community manager and community director shut down their weekly stream and they were visibly upset. Link here: Warframe ends stream early. The day he died and the following few days he popped up in almost every gaming subreddit I’m subscribed to, and practically every gaming news site. It’s hard to deny how much of an impact he had on the community.

He really had a passion for games and I wish I had that. He believed in it so much that he built a career out of it. I used to have it, and I truly hope i can recapture it. I’m making progress but it’s slow.

On friday I downloaded Warframe and gave it a go, I’m probably about 5-6 hours into it and am enjoying it. On top of that I decided to start playing Enter The Gungeon again and am making frustratingly slow progress, but I did make it to the 3rd level. Once I can remember to take screenshots during game play I’ll write up an article about it, it’s fun but holy hard Batman. I’m also going back through his “WTF is…” videos and will be checking what I’ve got in my Steam library vs what he’s reviewed and will give a few of them a chance. I can’t decide what to play for myself so why not let TB decide on a few games for me.

The last thing I’m going to leave is the Twitter post his wife made the day he passed. RIP TB.