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'

"No mouse, no keyboard, just intention."
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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:
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:
It’s hard to believe it’s already been 100 days since I received my Neuralink N1 implant.

Looking back, the whole journey feels like science fiction that somehow became my everyday reality.The surgery on Day 0 was surprisingly easy.

A quick general anaesthetic, a small… pic.twitter.com/jmqA428RuV March 22, 2026
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.

"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."
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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice.

He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer.

He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."
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