But on the headset, you know, in the game, I can actually make people laugh, and like, I can actually have a fun time with them and feel like they like me just based on what I’m saying, so that’s really grounded me over the years.

But, anyway, my idea for the game was that it was gonna be the story of my life—you know, like, basically, it’s a role-playing game, and you’re me, but starting from childhood, you get to make all these different choices—and everybody who plays the game ends up having a totally different experience depending on what they do.

You all start in the same place—the game begins in St. James Hospital with me being born—and the idea is that, you know, pretty much from that point on, you have all of these different options, and you can just become a totally different person.

And there’s an option where you never post that video—you know, the one of me singing the national anthem—and so you never become famous.

And there’s a whole option where you end up going to college and getting a normal job, or like, dropping out of high school and running away from home.

And there’s an option where, for the second album, you just record all the songs that my dad had written for me and you never do all that shit with Deez.

And there’s an option where you never break up with Mandy, and the two of you end up getting married.

And then there’s this option where like, you make ALL the same choices that I made and you get to do basically exactly what I’ve done and like, you see what it’s like for yourself—you feel like the choices are YOUR choices and it’s YOUR life—and so you come out of the game maybe feeling like you understand me a little bit better.

And, obviously, like, you can customize all your tats and hairstyles and wardrobes and all that shit. You can even like, go to the gym and get super-ripped. LOL. I’ve actually been using the game engine to test out new looks on myself before I try them in real life.

And I think what’s cool about it, or like, what I’m trying to say with it, you know, is that none of this was written in the stars. Nothing in life is laid out for us ahead of time. At every stage, you know, at any point in time, we can always shape our own destinies. We can always be whoever we want to be. And a lot of the time, like, whoever ends up being one particular kind of person is just as random as whoever ends up being another particular type of person. It’s just as random that I ended up being me as it is that you ended up being you.

And so the game is sort of this massive project, you know, and I don’t really think I realized when we started it how long it was gonna take.