PC PC has always been my preferred medium to play games and when I am not playing PC games I’m listening to others talking about PC games. One of them were John Bain. A games and games industry critic.
I’ve followed John Bain and his work for many years. Much longer than any other YouTuber, streamer or podcaster. He was knowledgeable, his thoughts were always well put together and his content well produced. He cared about giving costumers the power to make informed decisions in an industry where the water’s become muddier and muddier over the years. Our tastes in games were similar so I always turned to him first for his thoughts on the games that were coming out.
When he told his audience in 2014 he had ben diagnosed with bowel cancer my heart sank. No one escapes cancer. Cancer took my grandfather and now it will take my most trusted games critic. It may sound stupid but these people produce thousands of hours of content. Those of us who consume every piece of John Bains critiques, thought-pieces, podcasts, streams etc have spent more time with him than with our best friends. With that context it maybe doesn’t sound so stupid any more. I made peace with the fact that that John Bain only had a few months left. That the steady stream of his opinions would dry up.
Then he beat it the fucking mad man. On the month a year later his cancer was in complete remission. I was over the moon. The impossible had happened. But it was to good to be true. The cancer had moved to the liver and he was given two to three years to live. He got almost four.
This morning I woke up to the news that John “Total Biscuit” “The Cynical Brit” Bain had passed.
I know you will never read this but I have to write it down anyway. You fucking rock, you know that? You were never afraid to speak your mind about the games you were critiquing or speak up when the games industry was was up to some no good shenanigans. I always knew that I could get the facts from you and then your opinion. You never mixed the two.
You were open about your own issues. Your mental health as well as your physical. You weren’t one to hide behind a facade of roses and sunshine. When things were shit you told us, normalising the fact that life can be shit sometimes and that’s okay. The same reason I’m writing this blog. It’s okay to feel shitty. It helped me and many others in our own fights, whatever they may be. We are in this together.
I will not mourn your death. I will celebrate your life. The energy waisted on mourning would be an insult to all the awesome you’ve contributed to my existence and the world at large.
Thank you.
Sergej Tanja Brändén 