The co-writer of the original Deus Ex has indulged in a pretty sizeable rant about the world's richest man, Elon Musk, and pointed out his discomfort at the fact that Musk considers the game to be one of his favourites.
Austin Grossman, who wrote the original 2000 games with Sheldon Pacotti and Chris Todd, has been speaking to PC Gamer about Musk, and feels the Tesla and X boss has completely missed the point of the game's message.
Deux Ex focuses on aspects such as what it means to be human, and the power of surveillance and control via technology – things that Musk is personally invested in via his Neuralink company (which specialises in implantable brain–computer interfaces) and the social network X, which employs an AI-powered Chatbot named Grok which has come under fire recently for parroting Musk's politcal views.
"That kind of political weight and social satire is a real common thread between Deus Ex and Dishonored," Grossman tells PC Gamer (he worked on the latter game, as well as Deus Ex) when asked about the game's themes and Musk's love of it. "It is the thing that Elon Musk likes, creepily. It is creepily in Elon Musk's worldview. So that may be its longest, worst legacy."
Musk, says Grossman, sees himself as JC Denton, the heroic anti-terrorism agent who the player controls in the game. "It's bizarre that Elon Musk would not recognise where he actually sits in the Deus Ex universe, because it is not in the JC Denton role," he adds.
Grossman then references an earlier interview with The Independent, in which he admits he "probably went a little over the top in my rant about Elon Musk. Honestly, I hope Elon Musk never Googles me, because I'll then be murdered."
In said interview, the writer said that "Musk plainly imagines he's the JC Denton of this world – a plainspoken everyman, standing up to the elite. As is obvious to everyone, Musk is the one with power and he's just pathologically incapable of honest introspection. I would say Musk is like a Deus Ex villain, except that the franchise doesn't have any villains as whiny and self-servingly delusional as he's shown himself to be."