World of Warcraft players are declaring triumph over AI after a false article was published by a gaming site based on their Reddit posts.
Forum members suspected that a bot from Z League’s The Portal site (not linked to avoid giving them oxygen) was extracting and using their words to craft news stories. Users questioned the human ability to achieve the credited author’s posting frequency, with dozens of articles on the site attributed to this author each day. This has led to doubts about whether a real person is responsible for producing them.
To combat this, the members set a trap by uploading unofficial posts about a new character called Glorbo. User kaefer_kriegerin posted,
“I’m so excited they finally introduced Glorbo!!!
“Honestly, this new feature makes me so happy! I just really want some major bot operated news websites to publish an article about this.
“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. 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!”
A senior developer of WoW joined the celebration, expressing his relief in a tweet as he joked about finally being able to discuss Glorbo.
Feels soooooo good to be able to talk about Glorbo finally, I remember my first day at Blizzard we were just starting to work on implementation, and that was almost 15 years ago!
— Zorbrix 💙 (@Zorbrix) July 20, 2023
Excellent reporting to track this down👍 pic.twitter.com/Wh1hm0gikM
Glorbo does not exist in WoW and was entirely made up by Redditors. However, an article based on the false Glorbo news was later seen on the gaming site (article now removed, but the link goes to a web archive).
The article portrayed Glorbo as authentic and listed a series of other bizarre – and obviously fabricated – features mentioned in different subreddit threads including ‘mandatory item Klikclac’, ‘epic quest to depose Quackion’, the ‘Aspect of Ducks’, and the ‘small, cosy island’ of Zoop.
AI in games media
As WoW fans celebrate tricking AI, Zleague has not officially confirmed that the article was created using AI. However, the article has now been removed, along with other flagged pieces suspected of being generated from recycled Reddit posts.
kaefer_kriegerin returned to his Reddit post to share the news:
“UPDATE: WE FUCKING DID IT
“Another edit: The article has been published and I doubt they’ll make another one from this post, but I love how everyone keeps rolling with it. Keep up the Glorb-Posting!
“Update 2 lol They noticed and apparently took the post down.”
Glorbo has now taken on a life of his own online, with further appearances detailed for Bungie’s Destiny 2, as knowingly reported by Wowhead.
We’ve witnessed multiple layoffs in the games industry throughout this year, and while some companies have denied that these layoffs were inspired by the rapid advancements of AI chatbots, this news also proves that AI may not be as intelligent as we think.
Media companies that cover the games industry usually employ human staff writers who have extensive knowledge of games and the industry and can fact-check news, which this AI failed to do.
This article is proudly brought to you by a team of experienced games industry journalists.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
