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Are you eagerly anticipating Glorbo’s introduction in World of Warcraft? No, you’re not? Why is that?
Ooh, is it because it’s a load of rubbish made up to eke out websites that are, in fact, using AI bots in place of real-life human reporters? Ah, I thought so!
Earlier this week, a Reddit user created a post detailing a made-up feature that was being introduced into World of Warcraft.
“I have to say, since they started hinting at it in Hearthstone in 1994, it was obvious that they would introduce Glorbo to World of Warcraft sooner or later,” the post by kaefer_kriegerin enthused.
“I feel like Dragonflight has been win after win so far, like when they brought back Chen Stormstout as the end boss of the new Karazhan? Absolutely amazing!”
However, before these choice words, the Redditor had also laid out some other details. Details that would, perhaps, be missed by bots trawling the World of Warcraft Reddit feed for stories.
“I just really want some major bot operated news websites to publish an article about this,” they wrote.
“Feel free to comment below what features and stories you want to see in the future! Maybe you’ll be quoted on some trustworthy news websites as well!”
I’m so excited they finally introduced Glorbo!!!
by u/kaefer_kriegerin in wow
The rest of the WoW community joined in with the fun and, as it happens, a bot operated website did indeed cover the news as fact.
Soon after the post went up on Reddit, a website known as Zleague published an article all about Glorbo’s introduction to World of Warcraft, and the impact it would have on the game. Yep, with quotes and all.
The article has since been pulled, however you can see an archived version of it here.
Lol someone on reddit made a post about a made up feature introduced in WoW so that a news site using AI-driven scraping bots published an article about it and it worked pic.twitter.com/JwiovKt1Fj
— Giuseppe Navarria (@B4DC0FFEE) July 20, 2023
As amusing as this is, the idea of using AI to generate articles based on community discussions such as this one on Reddit is rather sobering.
AI in general has become a hot topic recently, and several developers in the video game industry have flirted with this new technology. The likes of Ubisoft annoucned its Ghostwriter AI tool earlier this year, and the High on Life team used AI to create video game voice dialogue.
Meanwhile, System Shock publisher Prime Matter got into some hot water earlier in the year, when it used AI generated art as a marketing stunt for the remake.
Additionally, several prolific video game voice actors have discussed their scepticism of whether AI can truly replicate human performances and what its impact could be on the voice acting industry, including Jane Perry, Troy Baker, Jennifer Hale and David Hayter.
For more on this subject, be sure to check out Chris Tapsell’s recent feature all about the games industry’s response to AI, which you can read by following this link.
