World of Warcraft Players Trick AI Website Into Covering Fictional Update Known Only as ‘Glorbo’
After brazenly tricking an AI-generated gaming news website into posting an article covering a fictional upcoming feature known simply as “Glorbo,” the World of Warcraft community is overjoyed.
The prevalence of AI-generated news has been controversial in recent years, with certain websites dispatching bots to gather information from the back of the internet and use it to create simple articles.
Reddit user kaefer_kriegerin, who saw similar tactics being used to extract information from the World of Warcraft community, created a post titled “So excited to finally introduce Glorbo!!!” In it, they gave an impassioned description of a fictional feature in the game.
The vigilante’s goal was to entice the bot to pay attention to the post and then trigger the creation of an article detailing the nonsense within the post. In other words, kaefer_kriegerin’s post was something of a Trojan horse, but instead of Greek soldiers, the digital structure was filled with malevolent antics.
I’m so happy to finally be able to talk about Glorbo. I remember my first day at Blizzard when I first started working on the implementation. That was almost 15 years ago.
Great report to track this 👍 pic.twitter.com/Wh1hm0gikM
— Zorbrix 💙 (@Zorbrix) July 20, 2023
“Honestly, I am very happy with this new feature! I would love to see a major news website run by a bot publish an article on this subject.” kaefer_kriegerin wroteas discovered by PC gamer. “Ever since they started hinting at it in Hearthstone in 1994, I have to say that sooner or later it was clear that Globo was going to be introduced into World of Warcraft. It feels like Dragonflight has gone on win after win, like when they brought back Chen Stormstout as the new Karazhan end-boss? Really great!”
These words are, and will be, nonsense in that order. But that didn’t stop bots using the website Zleague.com from picking up the word salad and spitting it out in over-formatted news. How do you know an article was written by a bot?Well, the Zleague article author wrote over 50 articles in 24 hours. If it’s not digital in nature, someone has to ask if it’s okay.
“World of Warcraft (WoW) players have been stoked with excitement since the introduction of Glorbo was announced,” the article reads. Posts by Zleague, which has since been removed. “The long-awaited new feature has sparked a wave of positive sentiment among players eagerly awaiting its impact on the game.”
👀 They found out about Globo https://t.co/KcODRw3gXP
— Lulu Chen Mesavey (@lulumesavey) July 21, 2023
The article also features comments from fellow Reddit users, who commented with a mixture of joy and trepidation about the upcoming ‘Kliclac’ item coming to WoW with the Globo update, which again does not exist.
“One aspect of Globo’s introduction that has generated disagreement among players is the essential item Klikclac,” the Zleague article explains.
“However, kaefer_kriegerin disagrees with this, stating that ‘Making the click rack a must-have would be a huge blow to casual players.’ That’s why he doesn’t have time to grow Zoop!” This argument highlights the divide between players who appreciate the power-ups offered by Clicluck and those who feel it unfairly penalizes casual players. “
Naturally, kaefer_kriegerin and other members of the WoW community celebrated their victory. Activision Blizzard employees fanned the flames even further, with CCO and VP of Operations LuLu Cheng Meservey only tweeting that “they found out about Glorbo.” WoW Senior Game Producer Kyle Hartline echoed that sentiment, saying, “I’m so happy to finally be able to talk about Globo. I remember my first day at Blizzard. We just started working on the implementation, and that was almost 15 years ago!”
I’m so happy to finally be able to talk about Glorbo. I remember my first day at Blizzard when I first started working on the implementation. That was almost 15 years ago.
Great report to track this 👍 pic.twitter.com/Wh1hm0gikM
— Zorbrix 💙 (@Zorbrix) July 20, 2023
World of Warcraft is almost 20 years old at this point, but its ability to make news such as AI generation is as strong as ever.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video game news for IGN. With over eight years of his experience covering breakthrough developments in multiple scientific fields, he has absolutely no time for your pranks. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
