There is a situation when you do something just because others are doing the same. Even though the thing is the furthest from his mind; but he sees that others profit from certain acts, so our imaginary person decides he must join the crowd.
A terrible thing happened in the last few days. Brandon Cole died, who was not only a kind, cheerful man, but who did a lot for accessibility. Because of him, so many games originally made for the sighted have become playable: Forza Motorsport, Last of Us, and so on.
These are acts and developments that I think would never have happened without him. Even though there are so many people in the community who are ambassadors for accessibility, there was something special about Brandon... Something that no one else could convey to the average user like he could.
Cancer is a very terrible thing. Many of you may know that this is the disease that my dear mother died of as well. Unfortunately I know what I'm talking about, I wish I didn't...
I think Brandon has suffered more in the last few months than we ever will in our entire lives. It's a horrible thing to know when someone is fighting cancer and there's just nothing you can do to help.
But lately, all I keep seeing is news of his death everywhere. On the audiogames forum, there are at least six threads by different people with a wide variety of messages. Twitter, Facebook and even Mastodon have not been exceptions where ou can see these sad posts.
Some people told that they could never open Forza again, for example, because it reminded them of him. Some posted that they woke up crying every day, even though they didn't know him personally.
But the most disgusting thing is the videos of it. Totally random people, unemotionally talking about how much it hurts them to lose Brandon... But it's all like they're announcing their next gameplay video. No emotion, no personal attachment, just an extra video because everyone was doing it.
When I lost my mother, I wrote a poem for her a month later and published it. Many people read it, but most of them couldn't necessarily feel my pain and the grief I was going through. I know for a fact that she would not look kindly on me posting on social media every day about my pain. Besides, my family and relatives don't need it either.
I feel very sorry for Brandon's family right now and I sympathise with them. Seeing this plethora of hype posts and videos from the most random blind people can't be easy. I wouldn't be happy either if absolute strangers made video montages of my mother. Because it's just fucking unnecessary. Stop it, guys.
No one needs to be famous under someone else's name. Of course, then suddenly everyone becomes the deceased person's best friend... I speak from experience. There was a lady who started crying to us after the events of last year, that she was the last person my mother had called and she had told her everything. It's another matter that it was all a lie.
No. You're not Brandon's best friends, and you're probably not even acquaintances. You've never been close to him, and a "hi, how are you" conversation means nothing. Brandon didn't even know who most of you were. He probably doesn't need the fake news, the hype videos. No one wants to show you crying about it day and night. Because clearly that's not the case... But if everyone is going to do it, you have to join the crowd.
I'm not very religious, but I still think a dead person is sacred. And we don't play with saints, we don't try to be popular by their merits, by their fame.

I'm sorry I just have to double post and laugh at the fact some mad ones think I'm Cyrmax_IT from the audiogames forum because I posted here my thoughts. Just sigh xd

Lol at this point Arctic Moon be posting on the forum like it was her blog :D

I thought she and Cyrmax were leaving anyways?

No, I was seriously curious about other people's opinions. If you have realized after these years, I never post something without context or explaining what I am about. I was never like some of the guys who post random links and there you go. If I wanted some opinions or wished to recommend something, everything was minimum 2500 characters. And I know it's my problem, because sometimes less context would also be enough, but I always try to be precise. That's why when I was still a moderator, I tried to let everyone not post nonsense things without any sort of text.
I had no intentions to use this forum as my blog, I just wanted to tell my opinion and ask others what they think. In fact it wanted to be the beginning of a constructive discussion, until some very good detectives from audiogames thought I'm the same person as Cyrmax. Funny that is, but the topic isn't about it now. :) they caused us a few funny moments nevertheless.


-- (djsenter):
Lol at this point Arctic Moon be posting on the forum like it was her blog :D

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I've never told anyone that I am leaving. I simply refuse to support a project which changed paths in 180 degrees and is doing illegal things. I'm not taking part in such a game as a staff member. If you have the right mindset for it, go on. I just don't allow myself to go below a certain level.


-- (Sir-Charlie):
I thought she and Cyrmax were leaving anyways?

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