Elon Musk's Elden Ring Build Sparks Ideological War Between Gamers

Elden Ring has been the video game hotness for the past two months, and even Elon Musk has found time in his busy schedule between fathering two children and buying Twitter to tackle FromSoftware's massive open-world adventure. When a fan of his asked him what sort of build he was running, Musk replied thusly:

Int/Dex build, so mostly mage with some weapon skills. Shield in left hand, staff in right with rapier & claws fast switch.

Change armor from heavy to medium for fast roll or tank.

Move talismans around a lot.

Many small hits in a row to damage stack is important.

Summon!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2022

This is a … complicated build, to say the least. It requires lots of inventory management and seems to lean into the so-called "fat rolling" that makes FromSoft games' dodge mechanic effectively useless. Some might argue it's sub-optimal, but also that it's not something to get worked up about. However, as this is Elon Musk's build, and Musk is arguably one of the most polarizing figures on the internet, it became the subject of a small skirmish among gaming publications.

It started with Kotaku, who wrote a lengthy and brutal roast of Musk's strategy in Elden Ring. Over multiple sections, Kotaku writer Ashley Bardhan tackled three flaws with Musk's build: that it's unfocused, overcomplicated and his "many small hits" comment doesn't make any sense. She does praise that he uses summoning to make it through the game, however.

The article is intended to be a humorous piece of roasting, but many gamers felt it was a little too transparently an excuse for the writer to dunk on Musk.

So desperate are they to bring this man down they will even stoop to picking on how he builds his character &plays.
It's a game! You can have a tanked out mage if u want 😂

Kotaku: Elon Musk’s Dumb Elden Ring Build Proves The Billionaire Is Maidenless.https://t.co/tXwPXG4NNy

— Miss Penguin 🐧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@MissPenguin1755) May 12, 2022

we've really gotten to the point of elon musk hate where y'all are just roasting his elden ring build 😭😭😭

— patrick 🐸 (@_lazado_) May 12, 2022

Kotaku wasted a whole article ripping Elon Musk about his Elden Ring build, which is almost exactly the same build I have.
They also compared him to a 13 yr old, because he's playing games in his 50's.
Do they really have nothing better to write about?

— Capn Awesome (@Tom_Knight7) May 12, 2022

Gamers getting mad at Kotaku is nothing new, but the story reached new heights when Forbes published a rebuttal. Writer Erik Kain argues that Musk's playstyle, which is similar to his own, allows for variety and takes a particular dig at what he calls Kotaku's "shield-shaming." Overall, though, the crux of his argument is:

The Kotaku piece goes on from here, complaining that his build is too complicated and the entire post is just a backhanded way to insult Musk and billionaires writ large. And fine, I don’t really care about Musk or billionaires. I just think this article and the attitude it exemplifies is lame.

Between Kotaku, Forbes and several other blogs, there has been what some might say is far too much ink spilled on how Elon Musk plays Elden Ring, when the real question should be what ending is he pursuing? It would surely be telling of Musk's worldview if he's going for, say, the Ranni ending or the Frenzied Flame ending.