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Elon Musk might just have experienced the unfortunate reality of multiplayer gaming, as his otherwise innocuous Path of Exile 2 stream devolved into brutal trolling that the billionaire can't help but draw his attention to.
The world's richest man is certainly no stranger to the world of gaming, as one of the mothers of his many children explained how he once spent 17 hours of Christmas Day at his PC in an intense gaming session.
While accusations of cheating and account boosting dominated much of the conversation surrounding Elon Musk's outlandish gaming accolades last year, you certainly can't deny that he's a lover of video games - even if his in-game choices leave a lot to be desired sometimes.
He decided to incorporate this into his business interests recently, showing off the capabilities of SpaceX subsidiary Starlink's internet by using it to live stream Path of Exile 2 while he was on board his private jet.
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Live streaming alone is an intensive task for your internet to maintain - especially if you're also playing a multiplayer game at the same time - so Starlink certainly passed the test. However, Musk did encounter an unfortunate side effect of streaming, as users soon hijacked the in-game chat in a method that's known as 'stream sniping', sending abusive messages that were impossible to avoid.
As reported by PC Mag, users with in-game names such as 'ELON_MUSK_IS_A_PEDOPHILE' and 'ELON_MUSK_IS_PATHETIC' began spamming the world chat in areas that Musk frequented, making them dominate the left-hand side of the screen.
Messages included 'YOU HAVE NO REAL FRIENDS AND WILL DIE ALONE' and 'YOU RUINED THE COUNTRY JUST LIKE YOU RUINED ALL YOUR MARRIAGES', alongside other references to Telsa's sinking stock market value.
One even references Musk's recent clash with Ashley St. Clair, who gave birth to his child this year and is currently in a custody and child support dispute with the billionaire.
"Elon. It's me. Ashley St Clair," the message begins. "I have no other means of contacting you so I bought PoE2 early access just for this. Please pay your child support. Thank you Elon."
Musk did eventually comment on the chat messages, noting that other players were "spamming" and that "there's a lot of r*****s in the chat," yet refused to disable the window or turn on the 'Do Not Disturb' function.
He even had another player directly instructing him how to enable these chat-hiding features, yet he continued to play without disruption in most cases. There was a couple of instances where he would individually right-click on players to set them to be 'ignored', although this wasn't enough to prevent the spam.
"It's actually impressive how the wealthiest man in the world can be such a pathetic loser in every area of his life," writes one comment in a Reddit thread, with another adding: "I have to wonder how it feels to have so much hate directed at you. It's probably difficult to feel at peace with yourself."
It doesn't seem like his gaming chops were up to scratch either, as he reportedly died to the game's tutorial boss multiple times before turning the stream off. He can't even use the classic bad internet excuse either - it's a lose lose situation!
