Remembering John "Totalbiscuit" Bain

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Spacefarer
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John "TotalBiscuit" Bain has passed away.

Post by Spacefarer »

I'm not sure how relevant this is to Cane and Rinse specifically, but in terms of the greater world of modern games media, TotalBiscuit has been a hugely influential and respected figure, especially within the YouTube and Twitch circles. I've been a fan of his for a long time now, and while I haven't always agreed with his opinion, I've always found it fair. His videos brought a spotlight to many indie games and developers, and his podcast, Co-Optional, has always been a go-to* for (occasional) gaming news.
It's hard to believe he's gone...I can only imagine what it's like for his closest friends and family.

Here's to John Bain; TotalBiscuit.

*Alongside Cane and Rinse, of course.
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Suits
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Re: John "TotalBiscuit" Bain has passed away.

Post by Suits »

Even though everyone knew this was going to happen in the very near future, it still stung quite hard seeing the news on Reddit this morning.

Very sad.

Lovely poem that he left.
Todinho

Remembering John "Totalbiscuit" Bain

Post by Todinho »

Yesterday May 24 John Bain passed away after fighting against cancer for the last 4 years, I know he was not well liked here but to me that just makes the need for this thread that much greater to show people here who he really was and not the caricature many, including people in this site, painted him as, and hopefully show why so many people that didnt even know him,like me, are heartbroken by his passing.

I first heard of Totalbiscuit, like many people, back in the World of Warcraft Cataclysm beta days I wasnt gonna buy the expansion but I was really interested in seeing what Blizzard was gonna do with the game, after trying the more traditional game sites coverage and not really finding what I was looking for I stumbled upon TB, it might sound silly now but the way Totalbiscuit presented his content was nothing short of groundbreaking, he had in depth knowledge of the game and was able to present it in a very natural and casual way it wasnt like traditional games media that always felt very scripted and artificial to listen to. I found his style so captivating that I kept watching him even after the expansion had come out and he was adressing issues in the game and patches that were irrelevant to me because I didnt play that game but I just really liked hearing him talk about it, eventually he transitioned to covering games in general with his "WTF is..." series where he popularized this new style of game critique(they were not reviews though he always made sure to stress that even though everybody called them that) the greatest thing this videos did was expose me and whole bunch of people to a multitude of indie games that would never get the spotlight otherwise, personally I would've never given the time of day to a plethora of games if it wasnt for him shinning a light on it, stuff like: Mark of the Ninja, Papers Please,Antichamber,The Swapper,The Stanley Parable,XCOM,Magicka, and the list goes on and on Totalbiscuit was a champion for indie games in trying to get the word out especially if he really liked something like say Dungeonland a brazillain game that I happened to work on as a tester and that he made several videos for because he really enjoyed the concept, and I dont think it's an exageration to say that without him that game would've been nothing. And he would keep at it even if people didnt respond to it, more recently he really enjoyed a game called Invisigun heroes and yet despite how much he covered it the games sales were abysmal but he kept trying to help those devs bringing the game to stream multiple times and trying to make people care, in a youtube culture where people are always chasing the latest thing to profit from it Totalbiscuit did the oposite he loved to shine a light on smaller games even if that came at a financial cost to him.
The funny thing about me enjoying his critique so much is that I more often then not disagreed with him there were alot of games that he pushed and I didnt care and of course games he covered and didnt like and that sold me on it, and even though he would dislike a certain genre or type game he would always try to put himself in the shoes of the people who did and look at things from that angle.

The type of games coverage that he pioneered is today more mainstream in fact the traditional media sites have more and more tried to emulate his type of coverage and presentation, but he was at the fore front trying to legitimize this new industry that for a long time wasnt taken seriously but he helped pave the way in making it legitimate not only by doing a respectable job himself but by promoting many others, Jim sterling worked for the longest time in traditional media and it was the success and council of people like totalbiscuit that made him break away and be an independent, channels such as SuperBunnyhop might have never reached the prominence they have today if it wasnt for TB promoting them and giving them a boost in visibility. The entire subset of youtube games criticism owes its rise directly and indirectly to Totalbiscuit, he was also among the first people to call for and show transparency in youtube coverage and the law only later caught up to him, he made mistakes in that area for sure but he always owned up to them and tried to be as straight foward and open as possible with his audience because most of all he always tried to do what was right by us, he never tried to take advantage of people and he always strived to keep his audience informed and empowered.

Another area where he made incredible contribuitions to was in esports, he was among the first shoutcasters of starcraft 2 in an era where shoutcasting was barely a thing but that was something he loved doing it, he not only worked as a shoutcaster in tournaments but activelly tried to stimulate the SC2 esports scene with his own tournaments and eventually even his own team that built along with his wife Genna Bain, he was a fervent believer in esports and especially SC2 even after SC2 scene had diminushed alot. Once again it is thanks to him that today I give a damn about esports at all, the reason I tune into EVO and other events each year is because he shinned a light on that for me and a bunch of other people, and he did a damn fine job while doing it, SC2 had many casters some had more knowledge of the game and it's intricacies then Totalbiscuit did but none had his energy while casting, when he was commentating a match it was like watching a football caster, everytime there was a climatic battle on the map it was like goal being scored, in fact I pretty much stopped watching SC2 after he stopped casting it because there's just nobody like him.

The last thing I wanna bring up about him was his decision to "support' Gamergate which have earned him the ire and scorn of half the internet many of those that are actually happy that he is gone something that I was shocked to see on twitter but maybe I shouldnt. What many people dont know about his "support" of gamergate was how it first came to be he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer at the time and given 2 years to live, on the day he gave his "endorsement" he had just saw the many "gamers are dead" proclamations and saw many "respectable" individuals essentially attacking this entire subculture and the people in it so before he entered a life threatening surgery he proclaimed his support for the "movement" decision that would haunt him until his death and beyond it seems. After that he was backstabbed by many of his so called friends like Matt Lees, Yogscast and James Portnow from Extra Credits and others, he promoted many of these people and they stabbed him in the back anyway, Portnow in particualr spreaded numerous lies including that Totalbicuit was the "leader" of Gamergate, a prepostorous lie that is the reason I havent watched or promoted a single EC video from that day foward. The lies and slander about him only grew of course as the whole debacle progressed, yet despite being labelled a member of the far-right, a misognist and even an nazi Totalbiscuit "role" in gamergate was one of trying to promote debate and understanding which can be clearly seen by anyone who bothered to look at his videos at the time, for example:

In fact totalbiscuit had been declared a "traitor" to the movement from it's more far right elements that hated him trying to reach out to people to try and bring people together despite their differences which once again can be clearly seen here on his acceptance speech on the game awards that same year:


Despite the campaign that formed around discrediting and assassinating the character of Totalbiscuit the reality is that at his core he was a good person, during gamergate he bound to have aquired a certain subset of "fans" and while many made their carrers them of pandering to people who hated "SJWs" Totalbiscuit gave them no quarter he was outspoken in making it clear that transphobes,homophobes, racists and mysoginists were not welcome in his audince, he kicked people out of cons who made transphobic jokes and went on a 30 minute rant defending Laura K when she was attacked after coming onto his podcast: https://soundcloud.com/totalbiscuit/we- ... have-words , she would be attacked again later on but by so called "progressives" for associating with him at which point he decided it would be best for them to break off their friendship so she wouldnt get attacked by "progressives" for it. He was also an adamant Trump DETRACTOR and was devastated by his victory, also to the shock of the people who still have the gall to call him a nazi he emphatically denounced the nazis marching in charlottesville and was generally a left wing person in virtually all issues, when asked who would he vote for if he could in the 2016 election he said Bernie Sanders.

Beyond all that I want to highlight his amazing charity work TB supported many charities through his life and used his influence to help them, I remember in particular his support for charity water where he raised money multiple times:
https://my.charitywater.org/john-bain/totalbiscuit

When fans wanted to donate for his cancer treatment he directed them to a charity instead : https://twitter.com/totalbiscuit/status ... 56?lang=en

I know many people here have already made up their minds about him and wont even bother to read this but I want to leave this registered here that John Bain was a good person, someone that had the conviction of his beliefs but that didnt lack empathy, who always tried to look at the other side,that was charitable and that paved the way for an entire generation of critics that follow in his wake. His personality might not have been to everybodies liking and he, by his own admission, didnt always handled situations the best, being the sort that speaks first without thinking. But despite that he touched the lives of millions of people myself included not to mention his friends and family that now mourn his loss at such a young age. To me he was an example of integrity, hard work and character, today the world is just a little bit darker without him and I hope the true quality of his character is what gets remembered and not the slander he endured the past 4 years.
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Re: Remembering John "Totalbiscuit" Bain

Post by Spacefarer »

Thank you for sharing your story, Todinho. I think it's a sign of a strong media personality if you can disagree with him for the most part, and yet still enjoy his content.
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Re: Remembering John "Totalbiscuit" Bain

Post by Alex79 »

I don't think I've ever knowingly watched any of his material, yet despite this when I read the news yesterday I felt a little pang of sadness. I don't know why, I think it's just because he was someone I was aware of, and another human with a wife and family and people who obviously cared about him and his work.

And yes, I realise that reading that out loud makes me sound like an android.
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Re: Remembering John "Totalbiscuit" Bain

Post by MajorGamer »

I first ran into TB during his Let's Play collaboration of Magicka with the Yogscast. The entire thing was hilarious. Those ARSE mines will always be a favorite. Beyond that, I kept watching him for his regular content of video game criticism. It became a very good way to get an eye on many great indie games that were coming out and to see someone put a higher standard on the quality of games. For the time, the video format was unique and allowed those to see for themself if a game looks interesting to them. He regularly disliked platformers but being able to see the game in action was another helpful tool to determine purchases. He was very good at being able to identify those traits in a game that may make someone like the game even if he didn't care for it himself.

The TGS podcast was also the first podcast I started to listen to, eventually branching out into others. Things were going fine even if TB could get angry with his fanbase and saying some things he really shouldn't have; leading into shutting down comments to the detriment of his own viewership to try to keep the toxicity down.

Then came Gamergate where he showed his support in the one aspect of it he was for long before it started: ethics. Yeah, the whole movement rapidly went to shit not helped with where it started. But that action caused others, some he considered friends, to attack him for things that seemingly never happened and never providing evidence they occurred. The previously mentioned Yogscast was one, saying he was paid for a WTF is... video and never disclosed it, something that would destroy his integrity if it was true. An Extra Credits person did a similar thing. There were plenty of others such as him getting shit on for retweeting a charity stream that asked to be retweeted. Everyone wanted to attack him for little reason.

Finally, the cancer diagnosis came after a year of symptoms that he didn't get checked (to everyone else, if something is suspicious, especially for an extended period, get it checked ASAP). Content understandably slowed down until he sadly passed away from it last week.

He was certainly divisive. He could definitely be an asshole at times. But he greatly helped the game industry. Taking bigger companies to task for lazy efforts. Highlighting great indie games that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. Too many of those have said his video of their game saved their livelihood. There have even been some behind the scene stories that are coming out where he helped others, no matter how small a voice they may have. He will be missed.
Todinho

Re: Remembering John "Totalbiscuit" Bain

Post by Todinho »

Genna Bain, Jesse cox and Dodger did a lovely memorial episode on TB I highly recommend people watch, its is a tearjerker though:


Dodger also did a stream remembering TB:


These made me remember all sorts of great moments TB had over the years and I just wanted to put these here:






Remember this? With the remastered out I think its cool to remind people that without TB we likely would`ve never gotten dark souls on pc, something that Epicnamebro confirmed himself on his stream:


Also good to point how he would fuck up and would always own up to it and despite popular opinion was always open to feedback and critique:


He will be missed man, its weird I never been so affected by the death of someone I never met and I feel kinda of silly for feeling this way but still...
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Re: Remembering John "Totalbiscuit" Bain

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Interesting videos, Todinho. I can't say I've ever been particularly familiar with TB's work, but it's clear that he meant a lot to you. It sucks to lose someone, even indirectly. :|

Here's a raccoon citizen hugging a fawn to show my support:
Image

And try not to let the overall politics get you down too much. Tribalism has a tendency of getting in the way of people's humanity, especially on the internet when consequences aren't always immediately visible. Complicated issues are almost always reduced to toxic labels and binary talking points. Good people often do or say things they shouldn't based on those, and sometimes end up crossing unfortunate lines when caught up in the perceived righteousness of their cause. Pride's a funny thing sometimes.
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Re: Remembering John "Totalbiscuit" Bain

Post by Suits »

I was actively listening to the Co-Optional podcast before I was listening to C&R as it goes.

Although over time and my Podcast tastes refined, I became frustrated with the aggressive and argumentative tone that that Podcast often drifted towards, and Jesses' journalistic points seemed to get lesser and lesser as he filled what I thought was a persona he wanted to run with.

That said, I always keep an eye on TB's WTF video's and would actively sniff out his food parcel videos that he'd do with his wife :lol: .

Everyone knew he was poorly but it never seemed to be talked about, only really becoming obvious again to me when he's not display his video stream on the podcast because he'd just had treatment and was looking rough or he's mention it briefly.

I saw and pondered for a while when I saw his post about the treatment now being futile and expected the inevitable.

Like I said, when I saw the post and read the poem, it was a kick in the stomach - which seems very odd considering it's someone I've never met, nor did he even know I even existed.

Death is a strange emotion and effects everyone differently for sure.

I'm not going to watch the Co-Optional Podcast send off, it'll just be saddening for me but I'm sure it's heartfelt and in theme by the others.

It's sad, very sad but I very much appreciate the content and entertainment that he brought to the gaming industry, controversies and all.

PEACE.
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Re: Remembering John "Totalbiscuit" Bain

Post by MajorGamer »

That didn't take long. Runescape added in a memorial for TB. I fully expect others to come, especially from Blizzard considering his history with the company.

Genna posted more details of the happenings over the past few years. It seems they've been in a financial hole largely due to the massive costs of the treatment he was going through. It gives more context to TB's rant/freakout when Trump was elected in regards to health care costs potentially rising. As an extra "screw you" bonus, she revealed she has also been personally dealing with cancer, currently in remission.
Todinho

Re: Remembering John "Totalbiscuit" Bain

Post by Todinho »

Yeah I read that all today and man that's fucked there no other way to put it, thankfully the Gofundme campaign seemed to have a been a big success and will hopefully buy her and her son some respite after all this.
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