Players accuse Musk of cheating in Diablo IV and Path of Exile 2

Elon Musk has long sought to bolster his profile in Silicon Valley through gamer cred, displaying skill and enthusiasm for a medium favored by tech geeks. A few years ago, he even explained why strategy video games are better than chess. However, his latest attempt to show off his mettle in the virtual world has other gamers calling him a fraud and demanding he prove his sincerity.

In an interview on the Joe Rogan podcast ahead of the 2024 election, Musk claimed to be one of the top 20 players in the world of video games, in addition to leading a string of big tech companies and campaigning for Donald Trump Diablo 4. While Logan marveled, this alleged achievement also raised eyebrows among others, as the dark fantasy role-playing game is known to require hours of investment to level up characters and beat combat scenes. When on earth would he have time to do all this?

It soon became apparent that the “top 20” rankings were exaggerated. Musk's description of him diablo Strength is determined by lists maintained independently by helltides.com, not Activision Blizzard, the company behind the game. This unofficial leaderboard compiles the best times to complete a specific “endgame” level, with Musk defeating a horde of nasty monsters and the final boss in just 2 minutes and 45 seconds to finish in 19th place. (He has since been knocked down to No. 54.) But that's a narrow metric for determining the “best” players, and the rankings are based solely on game records submitted by Musk and a handful of select competitors — less than 1,000 in total, The game has more than 3 million monthly active players.

There is still some disagreement in the gaming community about Musk’s authenticity Diablo 4 Some believe he has outsourced the tedious “grinding” work, or developed a character strong enough to handle the game's toughest challenges so that he can swoop in and claim glory once the hardest work is done. The other camp believes that Musk is actually putting aside other responsibilities to play games for hours on end, which seems reasonable. And, while Musk told Rogan Diablo 4 It's a way for him to unplug (“If I play a video game that's extremely difficult, then I have to be completely focused on the game, which has a calming effect,” he says), and it's certainly conceivable that he Play while focusing on other business aspects of the game. In the aftermath of the collapse of cryptocurrency trading platform FTX and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s conviction on fraud charges, stories have emerged of game-playing during key phone calls and interviews.

The debate has drawn more attention to earlier instances of Musk trying to show off his gaming knowledge. In 2022, he became obsessed with a different fantasy RPG, Elden Ringwhich he called “the most beautiful art I have ever seen.” That year, he shared his “build,” revealing the “Power Mage” character and its attributes as well as a collection of weapons and armor. The building was almost universally derided as the work of a complete novice, except by Musk's most devoted sycophants. Critics noted that he carried pointless extras—like two different shields—that would make his mage incredibly heavy, slow, and vulnerable to enemy attacks. At the same time, the rest of the equipment he selected was not optimized for heavy armor construction. Musk’s character is once again at a pretty high level, but this is even more confusing Elden Ring Fans took the screenshots as evidence that he didn't understand how the game worked.

Musk has recently angered gamers by climbing up the gaming charts. Path of Exile 2another role-playing game. In this game, Musk plays multiple “hardcore” characters, which means that once the character dies in the game, he will be permanently deleted. One of the characters, “Kekius_Maximus”, was ranked 59th in the world at the time of death and reached level 94. Another deceased character, “Percy_Verence” is currently ranked 13th with a level of 97. On January 7, Musk live-streamed himself playing Percy_Verence on X (formerly Twitter), quickly raising suspicions that despite his upgraded character, he had little experience with the game .

as a Path of Exile 2 Fans pointed out in Reddit posts that there are plenty of signs that Musk doesn't know what he's doing, or at least hasn't mastered the game mechanics that would allow him to take his character to such an advanced level. He struggles with elements of the map interface, makes costly but basic mistakes, retrieves lower-level items while bypassing more valuable ones, and doesn't seem to understand that he can't pick up anything more when his inventory is full . One reviewer concluded that there was no way he could have accomplished this point in the game – clearing hundreds of thousands of maps – on his own. “He's better equipped than many full-time streamers,” they wrote. “It can't be true.”

Comments on the YouTube video were particularly brutal, with many viewers taking it to be confirmation that Musk had outsourced the grunt work to get to the level of the character in the '90s, although there's still no real hard evidence to substantiate this conjecture. “It sounds like a middle school kid giving a book report on a book they've never read,” one commenter said of the confusing comments Musk sometimes makes while playing. “I love that the average Musk supporter can’t defend him here because they don’t understand the game at all,” another wrote. “This has become sort of indisputable proof that he’s a liar. .” The top reply read: “A lifetime of taking credit for other people’s work leads to this result.”

The fallout was bad enough, and on Sunday, YouTuber and Twitch streamer Asmongold directly accused Musk of gaining an unfair advantage by allowing others to play games on his account. “Has Elon Musk's account reached level 97?” he asked during the live broadcast. “The answer is simple: no. Unequivocally, without a doubt. If Elon Musk can prove that he played on this account for 97 hours, I will live stream it on X, starting from the day he proves it , all year long, every live broadcast.”

Most frustrating, however, are gamers who have previously expressed respect for Musk. As an Account and lying is the worst offense. Incredibly cringeworthy, vulnerable self on full display. “Man I still hope this isn't true, mostly. It’s because of his integrity.”

Musk, for his part, has not responded to Asmongold's challenge or revealed how his hardcore Percy_Verence persona has died since the awkward livestream on January 7, and he apparently hasn't posted about it at all Path of Exile 2 As of January 9th. (He also didn't immediately respond to our request for comment.) Given the backlash, he may be abandoning his image as an elite player. But regardless of Musk's true talents at a keyboard or a gaming console, we know his emotional connection to the gaming world is strong. Battle of DotopiaAccording to biographer Walter Isaacson, the video game he once called better than chess sparked one of his most acrimonious feuds with his predecessor, Grimes. In 2021, with both men obsessed with the game, the musician made the impulsive but tactical decision to betray and attack him after they agreed to an alliance. Musk fumed at her, and Grimes retorted that it was just a game. According to Isaacson, Musk told Grimes, “This is a really big deal.” He refused to speak to her for the rest of the day.

With that attitude — and Musk's penchant for lashing out at his perceived enemies online — it might not be long before he becomes hostile to the gaming community that acquiesces him to their own.