70-Year-Old Dad Banned From 'World of Warcraft' After Game Mistakes Him For A Bot

Is there anything more wholesome than old people playing video games? No, I don’t think so. From the legendary Animal Crossing grandma, to the grandad who’s arguably the world’s biggest Red Dead Redemption 2 fan, senior gamers are pure beings who need to be protected at all costs.

As such, you can imagine why people over on Reddit were so upset when one user made a post on r/wow asking for help, in response to their dad being unfairly banned from World of Warcraft. The user, using an anonymous throwaway account ‘Mydadwasbanned’, explained that they’d reached out to Blizzard support after their dad was mistakenly flagged as a bot, but was told that there was nothing that could be done.

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“He's been playing WoW since the original launch of [Burning Crusade]. He's a 70 year old guy who loves to quest around and [level] new characters,” they wrote. “He also doesn't talk in chat much at all. To the outside perspective, yeah, he seems like a bot. But, it's an old guy playing who loves the fantasy elements of the game and the world. He's probably made close to 10 hunters at this point.”

The poor dad, who “absolutely loves RPGs”, has apparently been playing the game this way for over a decade, and was understandably upset at being hit with a pretty substantial six-month ban. Thankfully though, as the post gained traction, a Blizzard employee going by the user “Kalviery” reached out, and it seems that they were able to help. 

In a new post, u/Mydadwasbanned gave the update everyone had been hoping for - their dad’s account had been restored. “Thank you to everyone who helped my dad get his account back! I called him on my way home and he said ‘Oh, I'm ecstatic!’ which is a big deal for him. He's super happy now and he's already back on. […] Today, Reddit made some 70 year old dad happy.”

The user even attached a couple of incredibly wholesome pictures of their dad thanking Reddit for their help, which is exactly the kind of feel-good internet content we all needed on this fine Saturday morning. You keep on doing you, WoW dad. 

Topics: Activision Blizzard, World Of Warcraft