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An email I sent to Giantbomb

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So basically "no one will ever eat Paula Deen recipes regularly, why say they shouldn't go to her for nutritional advice!" while the west (maybe world?) is basically in a heart health crisis and maybe supporting a media empire built on a landfill full of butter and lard is a bad idea??? But on a way smaller scale

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okay but real talk (im drunk so you kno its rela)

 

pizza roll omelet DOES sound incredible

 

rela as hella. and it does sound pretty good. It might kill you, but it sounds good.

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So basically "no one will ever eat Paula Deen recipes regularly, why say they shouldn't go to her for nutritional advice!" while the west (maybe world?) is basically in a heart health crisis and maybe supporting a media empire built on a landfill full of butter and lard is a bad idea??? But on a way smaller scale

 

I think so, yeah. (disclosure: I had to Google Paula Deen to check on this). A media presence has an effect on people and I'd rather be mindful of it.

 

Also I mainly felt like responding to call out the idea that social issues are important but food is not. I think that's not a good mindset (the best cure for anything is preventative measures) and I feel like this stuff reinforces the mindset.

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Yeah I never meant to say (and in fact don't believe I even accidentally said!) that you were only talking about a small group of people with problems. I'm well aware it's a widespread issue. That's irrelevant, though, as you said, to my point. Social issue or no, this has the right to exist. I also think it's weird to boycott some dude who made an omelet with fuckin' pizza rolls, eh. Or popcorn with half melted jelly beans. Or any other ridiculous shit he'll come up with. Like it is inherently ridiculous and stupid and he's aware of it (I actually watched the video with the jelly beans, and he definitely comes off as "this is a dumb idea but fuck it").

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I feel like eating shitty food is par for the course for Giant Bomb. Dan just takes the idea to logical "eating microwave chili dogs out of a shoebox" extremes.

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I don't know if he's told this on the bombcast, but Dan's been warned by his doctor that he's at risk of getting diabetes. He even switched to an all salad diet, only he didn't realize that the salad he'd been dieting on was full of mayonnaise.

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at this point Dan just upsets me, it isn't funny anymore. It's fine that he wants to live this life style but he refuses to consider anyone else. When asked "what if you didn't want that?" he always responds "but I don't".

 

 

I am not trying to say he is a bad person but he has really affected my enjoyment of Giant Bomb. Mortgages aren't that hard to understand.

 

 

I am sorry. But Dan please, just please.

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I feel like my last post may come off really mean, I envy Dan in a lot of ways. He is pretty much the polar opposite of me.

 

I dunno, sorry guys.

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I once ate a ham and cheese sandwich that had two slices of cold pepperoni pizza instead of bread. Dan is my spirit animal.

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Dan often reminds me of some of the early descriptions of Sherlock Holmes -- he is laser focused on the things that are important to what he wants to do and everything else is not relevant.  If it had been relevant, he would have learned it.  Fortunately, unlike Sherlock, he has enough self-awareness/has had it impressed upon him enough times to realize that this is not the way that most other people operate (though occasionally he will bust out with "everyone just needs work hard and they will get the things they want" and "people that are into things that I am not are probably hippies or whatever").

 

He drives my husband up the wall.  My reactions tend towards the occasional "oh, Dan...." but I admit I probably have a soft spot for him since my dad's from KC (and most of his family still lives in the area), and there are some sensibilities I recognize there.

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I feel like my last post may come off really mean, I envy Dan in a lot of ways. He is pretty much the polar opposite of me.

 

I dunno, sorry guys.

 

Meh I think your reaction is fair, he kinda pisses me off too. Not so much that I can't listen to GB though. 

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The only time Dan really gets on my nerves is when he starts offering platitudes about "hard work" and "not giving up". Like, dude, you've put in as much work as 99% of people who have failed trying to do the exact same thing. LESS than many. You've been blessed with good fortune (as well as several social legs up), so show just the tiniest bit of humility and gratitude. Especially in light of the shitstorm that surrounded his hiring, and the (frankly better) writers who dropped out as a result.

 

He hasn't really gone off in this direction in a while though. I wonder if Jeff (who seems allergic to ever taking a stand in anything more controversial than the quality of Yoshi's Island) has told him to cool it on the earnest life advice stuff to avoid getting into it with twitter again. 

 

As a cartoon character, he plays off of Drew wonderfully and brings back a lot of the fun that drained out as a result of Ryan Davis' untimely passing (RIP) and Vinny's move east. 

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Especially in light of the shitstorm that surrounded his hiring, and the (frankly better) writers who dropped out as a result.

While I definitely completely agree with the crux of your argument, this doesn't really strike me as important. Giantbomb clearly doesn't hire writers. They hire personalities. And Dan's got that going on in spades.

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The only time Dan really gets on my nerves is when he starts offering platitudes about "hard work" and "not giving up". Like, dude, you've put in as much work as 99% of people who have failed trying to do the exact same thing. LESS than many. You've been blessed with good fortune (as well as several social legs up), so show just the tiniest bit of humility and gratitude.

 

Yeah, this is what turns me off Dan most. I've stopped listening, so I can't really comment how it currently is, but what made Dan bearable for me is that his self-awareness made up for his lack of knowledge. When his self-awareness goes missing, he says some really painful stuff, even if it's just dismissing the things that other people love because they don't appeal to him personally.

 

Also, Dan's talked before about how he just coasted through college and the like. Does he really think he's worked hard compared to most people?

 

While I definitely completely agree with the crux of your argument, this doesn't really strike me as important. Giantbomb clearly doesn't hire writers. They hire personalities. And Dan's got that going on in spades.

 

Eh, not much more so than other people. Maddy Myers applied and she's maybe the best part of the Isometric podcast. Dan's only really more qualified if what you're looking for is the most "dude's dude" personality, which seems to have been exactly what Giant Bomb was looking for, granted.

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I'm not saying Dan's a better personality than other people. I'm saying he's more than qualified for the type of show they put on. I'm addressing Reyturner's assertion only. His writing skills are nearly irrelevant. I honestly couldn't give less of a shit about getting into the "but white dudes" argument here because that's not what I'm talking abouuuuut.

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I'm not saying Dan's a better personality than other people. I'm saying he's more than qualified for the type of show they put on.

 

I think that's a self-fulfilling prophecy, considering what Giant Bomb was reduced to before Dan and Jason were brought on, but whatever. I'm not that invested in arguing it.

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I mean I'm listening to old GiantBomb right now and listening to new GiantBomb when I do it's... the same shit. So I dunno.

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Yeah, Dan's a smart hire in the sense that he meshes with the environment GB already had. They were down a couple people between Patrick moving to Chicago on his own, Vinny leaving for NY, and Ryan's death, and hiring Ryckert so they could just pump out more of what they've been doing made sense. I do wish they'd gone with a diversifying hire myself, but I get the logic of hiring Dan if the goal was to prioritize "produce more of the same" over "produce different things".

That said, unless there's something really tragic that happens before the next time they can hire again, I'm not going to be so forgiving if they do this again.

(Dream scenario for that: Cara Ellison seems to like the idea of settling down in NY for a while when she's done with the Embed With project, and a Alex/Vinny/Cara GBeast would be fucking amazing.)

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As a cartoon character, he plays off of Drew wonderfully and brings back a lot of the fun that drained out as a result of Ryan Davis' untimely passing (RIP) and Vinny's move east. 

 

This is my perspective on Dan so far, that he's just this bizarre, hilarious cartoon character.

 

 

at this point Dan just upsets me, it isn't funny anymore. It's fine that he wants to live this life style but he refuses to consider anyone else. When asked "what if you didn't want that?" he always responds "but I don't".

 

 

I am not trying to say he is a bad person but he has really affected my enjoyment of Giant Bomb. Mortgages aren't that hard to understand.

 

 

I am sorry. But Dan please, just please.

 

I can totally empathize with this, though. Sometimes laughing at the village idiot can feel very dark. As funny as it is that him and his dad can't open this wine bottle, it's also kind of scary and weird that these guys are grown adults.

 

 

I don't know what the "shitstorm around his hiring" is, but I did feel a bit dissapointed when I first met Dan on GiantBomb. It's just another fat old dude here to talk about wrestling and the PlayStation 1. It makes me feel like shouting "Get off my lawn you lousy kids, I'm watching a Quick Look on Super SMASH TV!"

But I really love the guy now on the Bombcast, and in the Metal Gear run. He's totally what GiantBomb always was, I'm happy to see the content with this kind of energy again.

 

Actually, with all this being said about hiring Dan, I think I'm gonna catch up on some Patrick Klepek videos tonight and see how I like that style.

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Yeah, this is what turns me off Dan most. I've stopped listening, so I can't really comment how it currently is, but what made Dan bearable for me is that his self-awareness made up for his lack of knowledge. When his self-awareness goes missing, he says some really painful stuff, even if it's just dismissing the things that other people love because they don't appeal to him personally.

 

Also, Dan's talked before about how he just coasted through college and the like. Does he really think he's worked hard compared to most people?

Those are pretty much my feelings, except I guess I just happen to like the guy a fair amount, and I'm still listening (and watching pretty much everything). Because I don't take him to actually be presenting himself as any kind of role model or source of real advice on anything other than games, I'm not generally bothered by his antics (other than occasional mild frustration at his refusal to engage with a concept at all), and I even think his dismissal of people's tastes is pretty harmless (none of the "hippy crap" stuff seems to be said with any malice). But when that ignorance extends to unironically patronizing anyone who doesn't have the job they want because they "haven't worked hard enough", or whatever, there's no joke there. It's just an insult to a whole huge portion of humanity who haven't had the same good fortune. I don't resent the man for the easy path he's had through life, but I can't abide him slighting, even accidentally, those not able to do the same.

But most of the time Dan isn't doing any of that, and I find him very entertaining.

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(Dream scenario for that: Cara Ellison seems to like the idea of settling down in NY for a while when she's done with the Embed With project, and a Alex/Vinny/Cara GBeast would be fucking amazing.)

co-signed

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(Dream scenario for that: Cara Ellison seems to like the idea of settling down in NY for a while when she's done with the Embed With project, and a Alex/Vinny/Cara GBeast would be fucking amazing.)

Hmmmmmmmm......

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I don't like Ryckert, he's representative of what is holding back video game criticism and journalism behind. I thank him for at least introducing that Mario Party thing. I always root for him to lose. Also, his dad is a fucking gross sexist and transphobic asshole. But whatever, lol he doesn't like video games, old man dad, haha? :U

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at this point Dan just upsets me, it isn't funny anymore. It's fine that he wants to live this life style but he refuses to consider anyone else. When asked "what if you didn't want that?" he always responds "but I don't".

 

 

I am not trying to say he is a bad person but he has really affected my enjoyment of Giant Bomb. Mortgages aren't that hard to understand.

 

 

I am sorry. But Dan please, just please.

 

I just listened to this mortgage conversation. I assumed it was the ins and outs of mortgages that would confuse him but he didn't even know what a mortgage was, full stop. Which, ok, that's insane for a 30 year old but whatever. But then the way he went on to shrug off the idea that a mortgage or home ownership was ever a good idea for anyone just infuriated me. God knows I wouldn't expect Dan to wrap his head around building equity or interest rates, but when the other guys tried to explain how landlords can take advantage of people he just said "well I'd just find a new apartment" and that maybe people would want privacy he cut them off with "well I don't care if I share walls". Moving is not a trivial thing for most people Dan!

 

Bits like that really sum up why I have trouble dealing with the guy. It kills me too because I like the energy he's brought to their stuff. Anyway, that's my Dan Ryckert rant of the day.

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The only time Dan really gets on my nerves is when he starts offering platitudes about "hard work" and "not giving up". Like, dude, you've put in as much work as 99% of people who have failed trying to do the exact same thing. LESS than many. You've been blessed with good fortune (as well as several social legs up), so show just the tiniest bit of humility and gratitude. Especially in light of the shitstorm that surrounded his hiring, and the (frankly better) writers who dropped out as a result.

 

Yeah, when I hear that from him I think that he doesn't understand how in a just universe Maddy Myers would be there instead.

 

I once read an interview with Maddy Myers purely because the photo of her at the top was so interesting. Look at that photo. That is a photo of someone who is loving life.

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