Gamescom chat was half Dolly Parton RIP and half GTA 6 spam, what a weird night

All Anyone At Gamescom Can Talk About Is Dolly Parton

Caught the Gamescom Opening Night Live stream last night and the Twitch chat was something else.

Dolly Parton passed away at 80, announced by her nephew Bryan Seaver on Instagram right as the show kicked off. The chat immediately filled with #RIPDOLLY, and it kept going for over an hour. Meanwhile people were still spamming GTA 6!!! every few seconds. It was this weird mix of mourning and hype that only a gaming livestream could produce.

Dolly didn't have much of a gaming footprint. A Words With Friends collab back in 2020, a couple songs in Pop'n Music on Wii, and a pinball machine from 1979. That's about it. But her nephew's post said she was always on your TV, your record player, your phone playlist, becoming part of your family whether you liked it or not. That hit different during a show where everyone's waiting for the next big thing.

I think that's why the chat couldn't let go. GTA 6 is the biggest thing on the horizon, but Dolly was a constant for decades. Two completely different kinds of anticipation colliding in one Twitch chat.

Do you think Rockstar would ever slip a Dolly Parton song onto a Vice City radio station as a tribute, or is that too on the nose?

Source: GameSpot · Curated content.