Neuralink patient raiding in World of Warcraft after only 100 days of having the implant installed calls it 'pure magic… exploring Azeroth hands-free at full speed'

Whatever else one can say about Elon Musk, the guy employs some incredibly talented engineers, and the latest update from the Neuralink project is like something from the future. A major goal for Neuralink is improving the lives of people with severe disabilities up to full-body paralysis, and now the 18th participant (in what is still a trial) has posted about their progress after 100 days: and part of it involves playing World of Warcraft.

Previously we've seen Neuralink patients playing games like Counter-Strike 2 and, while that is still sorcery, in that case the interface was aided by a single mouth-controlled joystick. But the nature of the two games aside, WoW's controls are on a different level: it's one of those that, depending how deep you want to go, can end up with almost every key bound to some sort of macro, alongside mouse controls.

British Army veteran Jon Noble has had the Neuralink implant installed into his motor cortex for 100 days, and in a new update first describes the surgical process he had to go through:

"The surgery on Day 0 was surprisingly easy," writes Noble on X. "A quick general anaesthetic, a small incision, and the robotic system did the rest—precisely placing the 1,024 ultra-thin threads into my motor cortex. I woke up alert and in good spirits and went home the next afternoon. By Day 3 I was feeling a lot better, and by Day 7 the little scar was already starting to fade. Recovery was genuinely minimal; I felt sharper and more positive than I had been in years after the [Brain Control Interface] was turned on."

By the second week Noble's chip had been paired with an Apple MacBook, "and within a couple of minutes I was moving the cursor just by thinking. At first it felt like trying to remember a dream, but by week three it was second nature. Scrolling, clicking, typing—all mind-controlled. The Mac integration was buttery smooth; I went from total Mac newbie to power-user faster than I ever expected."

By day 80 of using the chip Noble says he was "ready for the big leagues" and fired up World of Warcraft, using "pure thought control".

"The first raid felt clunky, but once my brain and the BCI synced, it was pure magic," he said. "I'm now raiding, and exploring Azeroth hands-free at full speed—no mouse, no keyboard, just intention. It's honestly brilliant. The freedom is addictive."

Noble's post on X, embedded below, includes a video of him playing WoW, and frankly you'd be hard-pressed to know that the game was being controlled by pure thought. Noble's avatar stalks a monster and, with his buddy, proceeds to handily dispatch it using a variety of attacks:

The only appropriate reaction is awe: this really is, as Noble said, the stuff of science fiction. And while Neuralink remains in the trial stage with a limited number of participants, this unquestionably shows a progression from where the tech's capabilities were a few years ago, in terms of the complexity of what Noble's doing in WoW.

Noble is paralyzed below the neck due to a spinal injury. Neuralink has installed its N1 implant in his brain, which translates Noble's neural signals into digital instructions, basically allowing him (with practice) to control various devices via thought.

Obviously the gaming and WoW factor of this is why it's on PC Gamer, and it does demonstrate a key element of the N1 implant: adaptability across different control and interface systems. But the implications for people with severe disabilities are so much wider. Simply being able to control a computer itself is an enormous step towards increased independence, and the obvious implication is that various tasks will become achievable for these individuals without outside assistance.

Neuralink remains a device being tested and developed under the strictest controls, with a very limited number of participants: it is unlikely to be common technology anytime soon, though that is the eventual goal. But if it can already do this, the implications for things like controlling prosthetics and smart devices (such as home devices that could enable greater independence of living) are mind-blowing.

"100 days in and I already can't imagine life without it," ends Noble's post. "The N1 didn’t just give me a new way to use a computer—it gave me a new way to live. Can't wait to see what the next 100 days bring."