World-famous tech guru and billionaire Elon Musk is currently being criticized on Twitter due to him sharing an Elden Ring meme without crediting the original creator. The popular inventor and CEO has been involved in miscellaneous gaming stories and controversies much more than his contemporaries. A recent example of this is the bizarre Elon Musk Genshin Impact crossover last year.
Elden Ring has been smashing international records in the world of gaming since its release in late February. Many long-time fans of FromSoftware are considering the ambitious open-world game to be the most accessible the studio has ever made, which has likely played a role in its popularity. As a worldwide gaming phenomenon, naturally, Elden Ring has spawned a number of viral memes. While many of these memes are simply absurd, others poke fun at particular aspects of the game's design, including its infamous difficulty level, obscure storytelling, and perplexing environment design. A recent meme even used The Incredibles's Edna Mode to make fun of Elden Ring's garment-altering feature. Some memes look beyond the game itself and tease the culture it has spawned within the gaming community.
Elon Musk picked up on one of these specific memes and shared it on Twitter. However, the meme came from gaming outlet Hard Drive and was connected to an article on its website, and Musk neglected to include a link to the piece or even mention where the meme came from. The official Hard Drive Twitter account called Musk out for this, making a dig at his role in the Tesla company.
Many responses to this Tweet take the side of Hard Drive, but some are defending Musk, arguing that it is unreasonable to expect everyone to cite the original creator of every meme that they share. While it may be difficult to identify the creators behind the most popular memes, a number of funny Elden Ring videos and images are very easy to trace back to their origins. Since this meme was tied directly to the Hard Drive article and hasn't gone viral, it would not have been difficult for Musk to simply share a link to the piece. Some may argue that it would have even been easier than sharing the image itself.
Musk has yet to respond to these criticisms. However, Hard Drive's writers and editors would likely appreciate it if he gave them their due credit. Hopefully, Elden Ring fans who see Musk's tweet will also come across Hard Drive's response, even if Musk never credits the article himself.
Source: Hard Drive/Twitter