KRONIA RELAY, SATURN—It has been nearly 50 years since the last Warframe account had received an automated ban. Once one of the most popular Sci-Fi Third-Person Shooters available on the market, Warframe had seen a steady decline in users in the years following the game’s official launch out of “Beta” in 2018. A blogger from the time period by the name of Tedrick Gallman had researched the subject at length but did not receive recognition for the works until recent years when scholars confirmed its historical accuracy. Most notable for the attention to detail on seemingly mundane occurrences, his works are now considered an unquestionable authority on the matter of automatic suspensions within Warframe’s user base.

Gallman was among the many who had lost their accounts to the suspension, though his experience is described as being “mundane and simple” as opposed to some of the special cases which drew his attention. Gallman had been banned after taking a short hiatus from the game and returning several months later and from a new Holodeck location. Much to his dismay, he was greeted by a holographic projection of his Operator which explained the situation to him. After an afternoon of chatting and playing racquetball, Gallman said his goodbyes to the Operator and subsequently to Warframe. Though the experience had dissuaded him from playing the game again, it ultimately served as the starting point to his research.

Though Gallman passed away in recent years and would never see his works recognized, he had tracked down each individual case of suspension with meticulous attention to detail after his own in 2020. The last of the suspended accounts belonged to a Tenno going by the name of RIP16; a bizarre tale from the year 2021 which was often cited as the reason Gallman’s works were often discredited. Suffice it to say, Gallman’s work was recognized posthumously in the wake of tens of thousands of players returning to Warframe in 2035.

Many of the once-suspended players are no longer in their prime as they return to their Landing Crafts. Some had given up on Warframe once banned and pursued careers in Game Development, Agriculture, or becoming mercenaries for hire in the Scrap War of 2019. Others, such as Tenno “vVvVvVVVvVvVv” had simply moved on from the game and continued on with their lives only to one day be unsuspectingly reunited with Ordistron 3000X aboard their personal relay.

vVvVvVVVvVvVv had been banned from Warframe “probably because I forgot to plug in my smart phone before launching the game” in 2017. At the time, vVvVvVVVvVvVv was 25 years old and in the first years of running his own business. He and his girlfriend at the time (now happily married for over 15 years) Janice had played Warframe semi-regularly for several years until their sudden bans. When the non-canon sequel “War Sector” was released in Open Alpha by Leyou Digital Holdings in 2034, vVvVvVVVvVvVv was given the chance to relive his glory days in Warframe while savagely murdering deformed human clones and monsters with his daughter wWwWwWwWwWw, 14, and Jason, 12. vVvVvVVVvVvVv’s passion inspired his daughter to put together a surprise for her parents.

wWwWwWwWwWw had managed to find an old Laptop Computer (a clunkily large portable computer with a keyboard and monitor attached) tucked away in the attic in a box full of antique iPhones which her mother kept “because one day they’re going to be collectible or something.” After spending a week back and forth between repair shops, wWwWwWwWwWw was able to restore functionality in the laptop. Incredibly the game was still installed and the updater managed to pull together the latest version of the game. However, she soon found out that there was yet another obstacle: the ban until 2035.

“I didn’t really know what to do about it.” said wWwWwWwWwWw, recalling her experiences on that day. “I had spent so much time getting everything to work that I guess I didn’t even think this could happen.” vVvVvVVVvVvVv had never told his children about the ban. wWwWwWwWwWw felt compelled to pursue the surprise gift of reuniting her parents with Warframe.

In wWwWwWwWwWw’s search to overcome the ban she came across Gallman’s blog which had been preserved on archive.org though otherwise lost to time. She did not want to ruin the surprise she had planned for her parents, but she had to learn more about the bans. “It just kind of turned out that everyone had been banned for no reason until 2035. It was just a few months away at the time so I thought I could just try to keep it a secret.”

“It was the sweetest thing she has ever done for us.” said Janice, in love with the idea that her iPhone and other obsolete technologies collection proved useful. “The kids were really excited to watch us play the game after all the stories they heard. It was a little awkward trying to show them how the controls worked, though, since gaming has changed so much since then. The keyboard itself was a bit of a shock to them but they kept wincing every time we would perform a ‘Bullet Jump’ with the default keybindings.”

Hundreds of other Tenno showed up on the first day of the bans being lifted. By the end of the week, over 75,000 unique Tenno had returned to their accounts. We reached out to Leyou Digital Holdings, the owners of what was once Digital Extremes which developed Warframe, for comment.

“Did we leave the servers on?” replied Steve Sinclair, one of Warframe’s Directors, when prompted about the resurgence of players. Distraught by our questions, he promptly asked the caretakers to remove us from the room.

vVvVvVVVvVvVv attempted to to play Warframe once again with his children. After a few hours of collecting resources they were banned until 2055.