Video games may have a deeper influence on Elon Musk. The "Biography of Elon Musk" published in September this year revealed many interesting anecdotes about Musk's family life and business operations, including many content related to the world's richest man and video games. Among the content related to games, the most widely spread is that Musk once asked his ex-girlfriend Amber Heard to cosplay the angel from "Overwatch". In addition, Musk also considered becoming a professional Developer possibilities.
In 1984, when he was only 13 years old, Musk sold the shooting game "Blaster" he produced to a magazine called "PC and Office Technology" and received a reward of US$500. When many authors write about this plot, they will use this example to prove Musk’s genius. However, according to Isaacson in "The Biography of Elon Musk", starting from "Blaster", "Musk began his life obsessed with video games." After "Blastar", Musk approached "PC and Office Technology" with two other games, "one of which is like "Donkey Kong" and the other simulates roulette and blackjack." "If you played video games with Elon right now, you would keep playing until you finally had to go to dinner," said SolarCity co-founder Peter Rive.
In 1994, Musk interned at the now-defunct game developer Rocket Science Games, programming live-action moving image (FMV) rail-shooting games such as "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm" and "LoadStar: The Legend of Tully Bodine" . Isaacson revealed that after Musk solved a multitasking problem in programming, Rocket Science wanted him to stay at the company full-time, but Musk realized that "as much as he loved games, he could make money developing them." Money, but that’s not how he wants to spend his life." "I want to have more impact," Musk told Isaacson.
"Musk told her (Amber Heard) that she reminded him of Mercy, his favorite character from the game Overwatch. So she spent two months She took the time to design and customize a head-to-toe cosplay outfit so she could play Musk's favorite character," Isaacson wrote.
Cybertruck is an electric pickup truck first announced by Tesla in 2019 and has not yet entered mass production. According to Isaacson's notes, part of the car's design was inspired by the vehicles in "Halo." "Whenever someone points to a more traditional car photo, Musk always retorts, referring to the video game Halo, the vehicle in the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer, or the one in the Ridley Stars. The vehicle featured in Kotter's film Blade Runner," Isaacson wrote. "I don’t care if anyone buys it," Musk once told the design team. "We’re not building a traditional, boring truck... I want to make something cool. You guys don’t care about anything. Don't say it, don't go against me."
"When Grimes was voicing the cyborg pop star she played in the game Cyberpunk 2077, Musk once walked into the studio unannounced , holding a two-hundred-year-old gun in his hand, insisted that CDPR provide him with a cameo role."
"Cyberpunk 2077" also inspired some of Musk's more bizarre ideas. For example, Musk once considered putting Tesla's nearly inoperable humanoid robot "in the driver's seat of (planned Tesla) self-driving taxis to meet the legal requirement that the vehicle have a driver." "You guys. Remember, there was that kind of operation in the first "Blade Runner" movie." Musk told the design team, "In addition, the latest cyberpunk game is the same." Musk is probably referring to " The Delamain taxi service is very popular in a side mission of "Cyberpunk 2077". "He loved to make science fiction come true," Isaacson wrote.
You may have heard before that Musk loves a turn-based strategy game called The Battle of Polytopia. In 2022, Vanity Fair magazine revealed in a profile of Grimes that Musk "has the highest score." It's just that he described the game as "a much more complex chess." "As a teenager in South Africa, Musk enjoyed various types of games, including first-person shooters, adventure games, etc.," Isaacson wrote. "But since entering college, he has begun to focus more on playing strategy simulation games. This In games like this, two or more players usually compete with each other and use high-level strategies to build their own empires." According to Isaacson, Musk liked playing games such as "Civilization" and "Warcraft" in college. But compared with those games, now he is particularly addicted to "Battle of Low Polymer". At one point, Musk didn't speak to Grimes for an entire day because Grimes "suddenly attacked him with fireballs" during "Battle of the Low Polymers." Another time, Musk postponed a cross-country work meeting because he couldn't stop playing "Low-Model War" and played that game all the time on the plane home... Musk once missed the visit of his sister-in-law Christiana. birthday party because he "played the game for hours alone in a room or in a corner." Interestingly, Musk also suggested that his brother Kimbal play Low-Poly Battle, saying he could get the most out of it. Learn how to be a CEO. But Kimbal eventually had to give up because "it was destroying my marriage." Musk also tried to quit "Low-Mod Battle" because the game would even appear in his dreams and "took up too much brain space," but he downloaded the game again after just a few months.
In the early days of SpaceX, Musk liked to play the multiplayer shooting game "Quake 3: Arena", and his player name in the game was Random9. "Musk and other young engineers often work late into the night, then open Quake 3: Arena and engage in death matches that last until 3 a.m.," Isaacson revealed. "Of course, Random9 is the most aggressive player. The one."
Isaacson wrote in Musk's biography that in 2022, Musk felt that occupying a board seat at Twitter was "not enough", so he began planning a hostile acquisition of the latter. Musk flew to Grimes' hometown in Vancouver, Canada, where he played "Elden's Ring" on his laptop all night until 5:30 a.m. the next morning. (Note: In the book, Isaacson incorrectly describes Elden's Ring as a "war and empire-building game.") "The moment the game was over, Musk pulled the trigger on Twitter trigger," Isaacson wrote. "He announced on Twitter: 'I've made an offer.'"
Elon Musk has been obsessed with video games since he was a child, which had a certain impact on his later career. Musk has publicly stated that he is very keen on video games, and he was even so addicted to them that he forgot to eat, which had negative consequences for his life and work. But the game's training in thinking also helped Musk develop keen insight and systematic thinking skills. When creating SpaceX, Musk used a video game-like joystick to control the rocket recovery system. He also tried to acquire the gaming company Valve to obtain its cutting-edge technology. It can be said that video games inspired Musk's passion for technology and innovation and inspired his design thinking, but excessive addiction has also had a negative impact on his life pattern and time management. Musk seems to have learned from this, and ultimately maintained a sober passion for video games.
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