Why this headline seems obvious for someone as insanely rich as Elon Musk it’s a bit puzzling applied to someone that does play a lot of videogames. The obvious one word question is:
Why?
This is where we get into a lot of speculation. Elon seems to like to be the best, or at least among the best in seemingly everything he does. Whether it’s building electric cars at Tesla or rockets in space or being part of reducing waste in government spending or ___ (fill in the blanks). Is it really that hard to fathom that he also wants to be the best at his hobby: gaming?
The problem Elon is facing is that great gamers that appreciate and heap mass respect on those who are also great gamers are not as fond of people that pay their way to the top – this is called boosting — especially when they don’t readily admit to doing so, giving the false impression that they did this on their own without help. And apparently that’s what Musk has been doing.
YouTube debunker Karl Jobst is looking into Musk’s behavior, trying to figure out if it’s skullduggery or something less, at least in the world of gaming.
“Jobst takes bigger issue with Musk’s claim to be “at one point …. maybe one of the best Quake players in the world,” another claim that people familiar with Musk’s play have debunked. Then there’s Musk boasting about speedrunning “Diablo IV,” becoming a world-ranked player. “Diablo IV” isn’t a game that requires technical skill demanded by action games such as “Fortnite” and “Quake.” Instead, it’s about playing the game long enough to earn the best equipment to be the most powerful. Skill mostly equals understanding the game’s systems and spending an exorbitant amount of time playing.” – YouTube’s top cheater hunter decodes Elon Musk’s gaming farce
Jobst has looked into plenty of other gaming-related scandals, some of which we’ve covered here at PGM before like Jirard The Completionist Character Removed from Sea of Stars game over Charity Controversy I’d put what The Completionist didn’t do — donate money he raised for charity — until called out to do so, far worse than what Musk is doing: paying boosters so he looks like he is some amazing gamer.
It’s been somewhat obvious to me that Musk doesn’t have time to play these games as much as he does when they launch, having these high level characters. He’s a busy, busy guy and he just can’t spend the one thing he doesn’t have enough of to reach these gaming plateaus: time.
Not sure I’d go as far to label Musk a “cheater” and “liar” however. Rather, he’s using his massive warchest to save him time in games, giving him the highest level characters with best gear as quickly as possible. I wouldn’t do what he’s doing, but not going to judge him for spending his money however he wants. Personally, I’d rather earn gaming achievements on my own. Sure, there are time I’ve had other higher level characters in games help me in game with goals, like when I got my legendary fishing achievemnt in New World, I needed some high level characters to protect me in the really hard zones to travel into for the final quest. I didn’t pay anybody for that, I just asked for the help and received it. Is it kind of the same thing? In a way, yes. I wouldn’t have paid anybody to do that, but getting help from others in games can be part of a shared social experience.
Again, I think the problem Musk has here is disclosure. It’s always about disclosure. If he just came out and said, “I pay to boost” then the response from others would be less drama-inducing. Just saying.