GTA player goes viral after roommate turns her in-game comms into poems

❘ Published: 2020-09-06T23:38:55

Rockstar / Pexels, Andrea Piacquadio

After months of hearing their roommate talk to themselves during Grand Theft Auto, someone has turned those ramblings into Rupi Kaur-inspired poetry and the results are incredible.

Gamers are often very passionate. And that passion often means communicating while playing, even if it’s to yourself in a trance of decision-making self-talk. One GTA player, Reb Day, has been muttering to herself during sessions, either releasing frustrations by accosting the characters she runs into, or simply working through deliberations.

Rather than get annoyed with this ongoing stream of consciousness and try to finagle a way to get their landlord to evict the rambling gamer, Day’s roommate saw through the swear words and virtual aggressions, discovering the true art that they contained. Instead of telling her to keep it down, he spent months scribbling down her in-game, self-directed discussions, and subsequently elevated them into a surprisingly fitting form: short poems, structured and illustrated much like Kaur’s work.

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one thing i’ve learned about myself during quarantine is how impatient i am. i struggle with sitting still. i struggle with waiting. whatever i set out to do- i want the result right away- which of course is impossible because nothing comes easy and quick. i struggle to sit down day after day and do the repetitive and tedious work of writing a book. the process is mentally and emotionally challenging. over the past 7 months i’ve had to become friends with patience in order to finish writing book 3. and do you wanna know how i feel about it now that i’m done? i realize the fun part wasn’t finishing it. i was focused on the wrong thing this whole time. i thought the end result of all my hard work was the award. but the award was having the privilege to do work. excuse my corniness ? but some things just gotta be corny. this whole time- the fun part- was doing the patient work of writing every single day whether i wanted to or not. finishing was actually underwhelming. the exciting. brilliant. wonderful part was waking up and not knowing what was going to happen. would i spend the day writing stuff i loved? would i spend it anxious and crying ? would i struggle? break down? relax? go see friends? who knowsssssssss. every day was a mystery and turned out to be the opposite of what i expected. and that’s the journey. that’s living. the end result will happen as long as i do the everyday work. and life kindly humbles me about that every time i forget ?♥️

A post shared by rupi kaur (@rupikaur_) on

Kaur is a Canadian poet, illustrator, and author, with numerous accolades and a book that spent over a year on Best Seller list. Day does “wiggily wammilies,” is willing to grenade people, and is “fine” with not knowing why she’s being shot at.

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It’s a true embodiment of the mantra that art is universal, but you don’t need to take our word for it when you can take hers, written out and beautifully illustrated.

Oh MY GOD

My housemate has just revealed to me that for the past MONTH he’s been taking notes of all the things I say to myself whilst playing GTA …

and turning them into Rupi Kaur poems pic.twitter.com/gIEpTvTrEi

— Reb Day (@reb_day) September 6, 2020

“I don’t want to race — sometimes, it’s just nice to take life slowly and enjoy…the view. Let’s do some wiggily wammilies.” GTA V released in September 2013, but has lasted to this day because of its open world and consistently expanding online options. As Day’s monologues prove, Rockstar has created a virtual universe in which one can partake in everything from racing and enjoying the scenery to simply doing some “wiggily wammilies.”

One of her other thoughts helps express the nuances inherent to navigating the NPC-filled environments gamers are all too familiar with: “Again, I don’t really know why I’m being shot at (and that’s fine). What? Why can’t I shoot you? Are you…my son? Are you…my friend?”

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Day deserves to be commended for having the gall to voice her GTA adventuring and her roommate ought to be appreciated for his artistic mastery. But, above all else, we can only hope that people are inspired by their art and begin giving the same treatment to in-game comms for other titles.