TotalBiscuit

Biography

Bain studied law at De Montfort University. While there, he hosted an extreme metal music show on Demon FM.

From 2005 to 2010, Bain ran World of Warcraft Radio, a popular World of Warcraft fan radio station that received special acknowledgement and recognition from Blizzard Entertainment, the developer and publisher of World of Warcraft. Bain was invited to the annual BlizzCon event in 2005 to provide coverage of the event, where he met Genna Bain, his future wife and fellow YouTube personality. After Bain's tenure at World of Warcraft Radio, Bain began Cynicalbrit.com, where he posted more generalized gaming content.

Bain has a step-son named Orion.

In 2010 during the height of the Great Recession, Bain was laid off at his job at a financial advisory company. Bain's unemployment coincided with the beta release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and he started producing videos of himself talking over gameplay on YouTube, hoping to earn money through the website's ad-revenue system. In the following weeks, popularity of Bain's videos skyrocketed. A StarCraft 2 commentator named HuskyStarcraft approached Bain and invited him to The Game Station (now Polaris), a network of gaming channels on YouTube.

Bain partnered with Sony Online Entertainment for the 2012 E3 event where he hosted a show of attendees playing PlanetSide 2 at the SOE booth.

Illness

In late April 2014, Bain released a vlog announcing he had a precancerous mass in his colon; the first indications of bowel cancer, a condition with which two of his grandparents had also been diagnosed. A month after this vlog, Bain revealed that he had "full blown cancer" and later began chemotherapy and radiation treatment. In October 2014, Bain underwent an operation to remove the mass, and his wife reported the doctor's assessment of it as "a success".

In early 2015 Bain's tests came back "clean", dramatically increasing the probability of a full recovery. On 7 April, Bain announced via Twitter that his CT-Results showed a complete remission, meaning no evidence of additional existing cancer could be found. On 12 May, he announced through a YouTube video log that he would require additional post-treatment surgeries, for the removal of his IV port and to treat a hernia resulting from one of the surgeries, among other issues.

On 15 October 2015, Bain announced the cancer had metastasized to his liver and was considered incurable. However, in January 2016, he reported that his latest scan had shown a significant reduction in tumor mass with no additional spread to other organs.

On 23 September 2016, he reported that his cancer had mutated, and a targeted treatment had shrunk his liver tumor by over 50%, from 5 cm to 2 cm. A third scan on 30 November 2016 revealed that the tumor had shrunk even more and remained in his liver, not having spread to anywhere else.

In January 2017 Bain announced surgery had been scheduled to remove shrunken and dead tumors after further spread had not been discovered. Bain stated that his treatment goal was now curative rather than simply delaying a terminal prognosis. On 18 February 2017 Bain announced that he would be undergoing surgery on 21 February to remove the cancerous material from his liver.

On 21 February 2017, Genna Bain reported on her Twitter that surgery had been concluded, and that John was beginning recovery and may have even been able to go home the day after because he did so well.

On 17 April 2017, Bain elaborated on the results of the surgery, noting a disagreement between his surgeons and his oncologist regarding the success of the surgery and the possibility of the emergence of two small lesions within the liver. Bain stated that he intended to take another round of Chemo in order to break the deadlock.

On 28 June 2017, Bain announced on Twitter that a CT scan showed 70% reduction in the size of an active lymph node, and that the tumors in his liver were "insignificant". He followed this by saying "No quit. 4% survival is only a number."

YouTube popularity

The main source of Bain's publicity is his primary YouTube channel, where he posts what he describes as "variety gaming content" as part of the YouTube gaming network Polaris. His most popular videos belong to his "WTF is...?" series, a series of first impressions on video games. He has been described by Will Porter of Eurogamer as a "champion of indie gaming" and YouTube's foremost "love him or hate him" personality. The same critic suggested Bain's online popularity is due to his voice having a "tone of authority", while Bain himself believes that his candour and personality are key to his success. In January 2015 TotalBiscuit was the top Steam curator with over 400,000 followers, more than the next three highest combined.

Apart from "WTF is...?" series, TotalBiscuit hosts programme "Content Patch" (starting from 30 October 2012) in which he addresses gaming news and comments. Bain also hosted The Game Station Podcast and is the current host of the Co-Optional Podcast, where he discusses games and gaming news with YouTube personalities Jesse Cox and Dodger along with a guest. It is live-streamed every Tuesday on his Twitch.tv channel.

Consumer advocacy

In October 2013, Wild Games Studio made a copyright claim against Bain's negative "WTF Is... ?" critique of their game Day One: Garry's Incident, which resulted in the video being taken down, despite having issued Bain with a review copy for the game, and use of copyrighted material for criticism being allowed under fair use. Bain's follow-up video responding to the takedown attracted press attention and leveled further criticism against Wild Games Studio, which resulted in the studio retracting its request.

In July 2014, an online debate about the ethics of YouTube gaming channels was sparked as a result of a survey revealing that some YouTube vloggers received monetary compensation from game developers or publishers in return for recording videos of their games. In response to this discussion, Bain announced on Twitter that he would "be clearly disclosing promotional videos in a splash screen at the start of the video". Disclaimers had previously appeared in the description fields of his videos, but Bain felt this was no longer good enough because YouTube videos that are embedded or that are displayed with certain apps omit that information.

In October 2014, whereas traditional video game review outlets were unable to obtain early access to the video game Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Bain revealed that YouTube vloggers had been offered early access to the game in exchange for agreeing to a restrictive contract which required them to be positive about it. Federal Trade Commission rules require paid promotional deals on YouTube to be disclosed.

Bain became involved in the Gamergate controversy after discovering that a YouTube vlogger had received a DMCA notice for a video in which Zoë Quinn was discussed, warning that removing the video would cause another instance of the Streisand effect. He was subsequently attacked on Twitter. Bain has since discussed the ethical and professional concerns relevant to the video games press, and has stated that he believes that many of the ethical concerns raised during the controversy are valid or deserve to be addressed. He has stated that the harassment associated with Gamergate was the result of lone actors who wanted to provoke conflict among the people involved in the controversy. Bain interviewed Stephen Totilo of Kotaku about the Gamergate controversy in general, and specifically about Gamergate supporters' concerns with regard to Kotaku's ethics and professionalism.

On 3 April 2017, Gearbox Publishing announced a partnership with G2A for exclusive collector’s editions of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, to be created and sold by G2A. Bain was critical of this move, citing G2A’s negative press coverage as well as accusations made against the company, and threatened to withhold covering Bulletstorm, or any other Gearbox game, unless Gearbox cancelled the deal. On 6 April 2017, one day before Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition was due for release, Gearbox published a list of ultimatums made together with Bain for G2A to accept, or else it would back out of the deal. The ultimatums focused on G2A’s Shield service, an open API for game developers, and G2A’s payment system. The following day, Gearbox Publishing publicly announced that it is ending its cooperation with G2A, due to a lack of response from the company concerning the ultimatums. G2A responded to the assertions on 10 April 2017 stating, "All of the requests made of G2A.COM in the ultimatum have in fact long been part of our marketplace", and ascribed the problems to the unfamiliarities that Bain and Gearbox have in regards to how G2A operates its marketplace.

Sponsorships

In February 2012, Bain announced that he would be sponsoring team-dignitas player BlinG, saying: "The StarCraft community has given a lot to me and in turn I've had the opportunity to give back with SHOUTcraft Invitational. Now it is time to take it one step further and directly support a UK talent that I believe has the potential to be one of the best foreigners in the world."

Team Axiom

In August 2012, Bain offered to sponsor CranK, formerly a member of team SlayerS, to compete in the MLG Pro Circuit 2012-Summer Championship.

On 26 September 2012, Bain and his wife Genna announced the creation of Team Axiom, with Bain and HuskyStarCraft as the team's sponsors and CranK, now AxCrank, as their first player. The group joined with Team Acer to form the team Axiom-Acer to participate in the GOMTV Global StarCraft II Team League. The Axiom roster consists of AxCrank, AxAlicia, AxHeart and AxRyung.

On 15 October 2015, Bain announced the dissolution of Team Axiom because of the return of his cancer and a lack of recent success for the team.

Awards

Bain was a runner-up in the Golden Joystick 2012, in category Greatest YouTube Gamer. He has been recognized on several prominent gaming sites including Technorati and Eurogamer. Bain won the 2012 Battle Royale organised by King of the Web and donated his winnings to the non-profit organisation Charity: Water. In 2014, he was an entrant in MCVUK's Brit List. TotalBiscuit has been nominated for a Shorty Award. On 5 December 2014, Bain received a Fan's Choice The Game Award in the category "Trending Gamer".