Elon Musk’s Gaming Skills Under Scrutiny: A Deliciously Ironic Debate!

Last year, on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk asserted that he was among the top Diablo IV players globally – and surprisingly, the leaderboards seemed to validate his claim. For those who haven’t had the enjoyment, Diablo is one of the most demanding and time-consuming video games available; you create a character and battle through hordes of demons, dedicating countless hours to enhancing skills and gear for optimal efficiency in purging hellspawn. I tried it for perhaps five hours last year and promptly gave up, fearing it would engulf my existence. Most of its players are young, predominantly male, and have ample free time to allocate to the internet and gaming – which aligns perfectly with the fanbase of many Musk supporters.

It catered to these die-hard gamer types to think that someone who tweets constantly and manages multiple businesses was also a top-tier player investing hundreds of hours into Diablo. This rendered him more relatable. It reinforced his cultivated image as the hardest-working man alive. However, Elon soon made the error of actually playing a game live on X, and it quickly became apparent that something was off. It appears Elon Musk may be a fraudulent gamer.

On January 7, Musk engaged with Path of Exile 2, a game reminiscent of Diablo that launched towards the end of the previous year. His character was exceptionally well-geared; suspiciously so. Viewers observed that he possessed better equipment than some of the professional streamers who engage with this game daily, yet he didn’t seem to grasp what their stats represented. I have not played Path of Exile 2, so I cannot independently evaluate these assertions – unlike Musk, it seems, I am quite willing to acknowledge when I am not knowledgeable in a specific game – but within mere hours, numerous inconsistencies in his gameplay and comments were meticulously documented on Reddit and in YouTube content. (He also shared an oddly poor Elden Ring build back in 2022, which was resurrected as further proof.) Clearly, Musk overlooked the fact that we enthusiasts are recognized for our meticulousness.

The insinuation is that Elon Musk is compensating others (likely in China) to play these games using his account to project an image of far greater success than he genuinely possesses. This phenomenon is referred to as boosting, and it is profoundly humiliating.

This has incensed the very audience that Musk has been attempting to appeal to with his gamer persona. Asmongold, a prominent streamer and YouTuber who has garnered a significant following among right-leaning young men, confronted Musk on this matter. He reacted by alleging that Asmongold was “not his own man,” beholden to his “superiors,” sharing a screenshot of their DMs as evidence – revealing that Musk also fails to comprehend how YouTube operates, because in those DMs, Asmongold mentions video editors who edit clips for him, and they are certainly not his superiors. The conflict, humorously, continues.

Over the weekend, the artist Grimes, who shares three children with Musk, tweeted in his support. “Just for my own sense of pride, I would like to affirm that the father of my children was the first American druid in Diablo to clear Abattoir of Zir and concluded that season as the best in the USA,” she stated, definitely of her own volition. “I did witness these events with my own eyes. There are additional witnesses who can corroborate this. That is all.” Her subsequent tweet seemed significantly more sincere: “sigh.”

There is no embarrassment in being unskilled at video games. I genuinely believe that the majority of individuals are, by online standards, not proficient at video games. The disgrace lies in being inadequate at video games yet pretending otherwise. You cannot assert to be a top gamer without investing effort.

It astonishes me that at some point, claiming nerd credibility became significant. During my youth, there was utterly no merit in excelling at games (most regrettably for me, a young prodigy in Mario Kart and GoldenEye 007). Not a single one of my university peers suggested buying me a drink when I completed Dark Souls. However, now there is respect and credibility available for those skilled in gaming. You can earn a substantial income through platforms like YouTube, Twitch, or the esports arena. Apparently, being proficient at games now garners so much regard that the wealthiest individual in the world might think it worthwhile to pretend to be something he is not.

The genuine irony in this situation is that Musk is accused of engaging in the same behavior toxic gamers have accused women of for years. Imagine you’re competing in an online first-person shooter and find yourself near the top of the leaderboard: an aggrieved male voice in the chat might claim you let your boyfriend play for you. Women discussing video games in any context have to confront comment sections insisting that, in fact, they know nothing about the subject, and they are merely pretending. Women streaming games on Twitch face constant insinuations that they’re doing it for attention (seriously, gentlemen, nobody seeks your attention).

This distinctly gendered condescension infuriated me so much as a teenager that I made a point to become exceedingly skilled at the games I played because I relished the reactions on the faces of the boys who told me I didn’t belong when I would defeat them thoroughly at Halo. I am far too old for such behavior now, and too time-constrained, yet thankfully, there are now whole TikTok and Twitch channels devoted to this: women who excel in male-dominated games like Call of Duty, obliterating men who disparage them in the lobby. I would pay a significant amount to witness one of these women challenge Elon Musk in a live match.

In his continuous stream of poor humor, grievances, and cringe-worthy memes on X, Musk has often tweeted about “DEI” in gaming, a contrived dispute indicating that the left has infiltrated beloved gaming spaces to ruin them with progressive ideology. This narrative is aimed at courting individuals who were drawn in by Gamergate many years ago, disillusioned young men that former Trump strategist Steve Bannon cleverly recognized as invaluable to his agenda back then.

What delicious irony it is that it is not women and minorities feigning to be die-hard gamers to manipulate others for their own benefit, but it appears to be Musk himself.