The internet moves fast, and old digital spaces get buried easily. But for those of us who spent years in the hobbyist gaming blogosphere, those sites were never just about traffic or metrics. They were built on real friendships, shared server queues, and a genuine love for writing.
Losing Mark "Belghast" Temple recently has been an incredibly heavy blow. It feels like an entire era is shifting. But as the dust settles, it is important to remember that Bel does not sit alone in our memories. He joins a list of incredible writers and close friends who have logged off for the final time.
This post is a quiet monument to the people who made our online lives what they were.
River (Chaotic Ramblings & A High Latency Life)
Losing River in 2014 was a tough one for me. Long before he started A High Latency Life, we shared a digital roof as co-bloggers on Chaotic Ramblings. Working directly alongside him meant having a front-row seat to his talent. River was a force of nature. He was unapologetically sharp, fiercely honest, and had a brilliant, wicked wit that could pick apart a game mechanic or an industry trend in a single paragraph. He never wrote to please developers or chase trends; he just said exactly what he thought. For me, losing River wasn't just losing a community pillar. It was losing a teammate and a creative partner.
Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn (Multiplaying & The Orrator)
Slurms was the collaborative heart of our blogging circle. Between his main writing and the Multiplayingpodcast, he constantly pushed the idea that solo bloggers should not exist in a vacuum, always finding ways to pull different voices together into a real network. He also had an incredible comedic side that many will remember through The Orrator, his satirical Guild Wars 2 blog. Written as a fictional, in-universe newspaper complete with fake lore ads, he used it to perfectly skewer in-game memes and patch updates. To Slurms, blogging was never a competition; it was an open invitation to sit down, laugh, and build something together.
Stropp (Stropp’s World)
Stropp represented the absolute best of independent gaming journalism. Running Stropp’s World, he approached virtual worlds with deep mechanical curiosity and an analytical mindset. Whether he was scoring a widely cited exclusive interview with industry veterans or meticulously breaking down a user interface, Stropp treated the hobby with immense respect. His blog was a staple on everyone's reading list for a reason.
Mario “Ten Tentacles” Delgado (Ten Tentacles)
Ten Tentacles was our resident explorer and the ultimate grouping companion. On his blog, he didn't just review games; he documented long, sweeping adventures. From the deep voids of space simulators to survival game logs, his multi-part write-ups made you feel like you were sitting right next to him in the cockpit. More than a writer, he was an active adventurer who was always the first to volunteer for a community event or group run.
John "TotalBiscuit" Bain (The Cynical Brit)
You cannot map the history of independent gaming commentary without anchoring it to TotalBiscuit. Before his channel blew up on YouTube, John's roots were firmly planted in old-school radio and consumer advocacy. As The Cynical Brit, he brought an uncompromising level of professionalism and consumer-first ethics to video game critique. He used his platform to champion indie developers and fight for player rights, leaving a massive mark on the industry.
Mark "Belghast" Temple (Tales of the Aggronaut)
And then there is Bel. He was the ultimate champion of the underdog writer and the person who built Blaugust from the ground up. Bel spent decades using Tales of the Aggronaut as a lighthouse to guide, mentor, and elevate every single creator around him. His passing leaves a massive void. He was the glue that kept the modern iterations of our community together, proving every single day that the highest calling of a creator is to lift others up.
Keeping the Hearth Burning for Blaugust 2026
What made this specific group of creators special was their motivation. They did not write for search engine optimization or pander to corporate PR teams. They wrote to communicate with us. They turned comment sections into neighborhoods and blogs into sanctuaries.
They may have logged off for the final time, but the archives they left behind and the community architecture they engineered are still here. The torch has been passed to those of us who are still standing.
As a direct tribute to River, Slurms, Stropp, Ten Tentacles, TotalBiscuit, and Belghast, I am making a promise to myself to get back behind the dashboard more often. To prove that the old guard still has stories to tell, I am officially signing up to write for Blaugust 2026.
While our founder may be gone, his vision is in safe hands. Long-time veteran coordinator Krikket and the Blaugust Mentor Committee are stepping up to lead the charge this year. The community is rallying around them to build the strongest Blaugust ever in celebration of Bel’s memory.
Ultimately, as bloggers, we are the ones who make this art form so special. It might have surpassed its original golden age, but blogging is entirely what we choose to make it, and it remains just as important as it has always been. We make it forever special and forever relevant, as long as we continue to enjoy the craft and love our community as much as those before us did. The servers won't be the same without them, but we will keep the hearth burning.
Hear, hear :-)
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