Today I found out that we’ve lost the sassiest, most sarcastic, most hilarious, ‘grumpy old man’ you could ever meet on Twitch to another realm. I never called him by his real name, though NW Unblogged did an interview with him once, so I did know what it was. He was The_ColdCanuk in Neverwinter or KodeReader on Twitch to most of us. He had opinions and was never afraid to voice them, no matter how much flack he got. I have no doubt he is ruffling feathers where he is now, and it makes me grin to think of it. If anyone should be immortalized in-game as the out-spoken Control Wizard in front of the Many Coins Bank, it is Kode.
I met KodeReader when I was a freshly affiliated streamer in 2017 who had returned to Neverwinter and was attempting to stream it for the first time. He was one of the first members of the NW stream community who made it his business to host me, join in the chat and support me early on. Kode would often pop into my voice chat and liven up the proceedings as well. He was usually aware of things in the game before I was and would keep us all up to date…though after a while it became a tradition for him to show up merely to ‘harass’ me because he could always get me to laugh or blush. The title of this blog was my bot’s event for him every time he showed up in stream, a testament to my constant use of the phrase whenever he said anything.
KodeReader was a huge personality and yet I always saw him as a humble person as well. If there was ever a Neverwinter streamer who was more passionate and dedicated to the continued growth of his community, the game community and the game itself, it would be him. He got salty at times, because we all do. I can hear his voice in my head now, calling me out on about 16 things I’ve probably said so far that ‘should’ have dirty connotations. He teased me mercilessly about my word related faux pas but in the end he was always quick to reassure me with a ‘You know I’m only teasin’, darlin.”
I’m sitting here in my discord music channel listening as Ian Darksword & Viperstrike (who also knew Kode well) keep me company and queue up all the musics we can think of that we know Kode always loved to play. Well, I’m not sure he’d approve of the Pink song playing at the moment, but maybe that was one I missed. 😉 He was a huge fan of the oldies and classic rock (sue me if I got those genres wrong). We will keep ‘the best’ music alive, Kode. We promise.
I know that if you could see me typing this you’d be telling some horrible joke to cover up the fact that you’re blushing. Don’t worry, I’ve gotten pretty good myself. Someone has to carry on with the dirty jokes. I know you’d be proud of how far I’ve come. *cough*
You have a new audience now, Kode. You tell ’em. We’re behind you.
Lost in Words 