World of Warcraft FAQ: What is Glorbo?
Q: What is Glorbo?
A: Glorbo is a fake character that was alleged to have been introduced to the game World of Warcraft (WoW) in a thread full of made-up information created by members of the World of Warcraft (r/wow) subreddit. The thread was created after a growing number of users noticed that Reddit had become the target of automated content scraping by bots.
Glorbo came to prominence when The Portal published an article passing the false information as genuine video game news.
Q: What is World of Warcraft?
A: World of Warcraft (WoW) is a fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment.
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Q: What is The Portal?
A: The Portal is an AI-generated gaming news content mill run by Z League, Inc. (zleague.gg). It scrapes content from Reddit and haphazardly regurgitates that content as articles without any editorial oversight or fact-checking.
Q: What is Z League?
A: Z League is a tournament platform for casual gamers which claims to have been built to provide fair, fun, and meaningful competitions for everyone. It’s owned by Z League, Inc. Z League’s main product is a downloadable app that can be used to analyze a player’s stats and sort their team into a division so that they only compete against teams of a similar skill level.
Q: Who are Z League, Inc.’s most notable investors?
A: Z League’s most notable and second-largest shareholder is Andreessen Horowitz, which provided the initial seed money for the venture. Robert Schneidman of Seattle, Washington is a tertiary shareholder, while the company’s major shareholder founder remains Lucas Pellan of Marina Del Rey, California. Other investors include Goodwater Capital and Nomad Ventures. Shareholder interests are represented by Dentons Canada LLP, which serves as the company’s business proxy.
Q: Who are Dentons Canada LLP?
A: Dentons Canada LLP is a law firm located in Montreal, Canada. It’s part of Dentons, which is one of the largest law firms in the world. Despite many companies having pulled out of Russia, Dentons continues to do business with the Kremlin and has deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party and Iran through their acquisition and integration of Dacheng Law Offices in 2015.
Q: What is the overall impact of this issue?
A: World of Warcraft (WoW) players are clearly frustrated with popular gaming sites that appear to be using AI to scrape content from their subreddit. The suspicion of AI-driven output, the lack of originality and quality, and the desire to block these sites from search results all contribute to the negative sentiment surrounding this issue. Players are seeking reliable and authentic sources for their WoW-related content, and the prevalence of AI-generated articles undermines their trust in popular gaming sites.
Q: What is the impact on World of Warcraft’s developers?
A: Z League’s humiliating blunder could mean that players are less likely to engage with and trust information about the game from popular gaming sites. While this could lead to a decrease in player engagement and interest in the game, video game news websites are more likely to experience a net negative effect than the game itself.
Q: What is the impact on video game news sites?
A: For video game news sites, it could mean a decrease in traffic and revenue as players seek out more reliable and authentic sources for their WoW-related content. This could lead to a loss of credibility and reputation for these sites. Sites like IGN, Gamespot, PC Gamer, and more are already hemorrhaging a substantial amount of readers to independent video game news sources on YouTube and TikTok, such as gameranx, Asmongold TV, Upper Echelon, and others.
Further complicating matters is the fact that AI-generated content from Z League’s The Portal is already being cited in Wikipedia articles like the one for BattleBit Remastered:
Q: What is the impact on journalism and the news industry?
A: For journalism and the news industry as a whole, it could mean a loss of trust in the accuracy and reliability of information presented by news outlets that use AI-driven output. This could lead to a decrease in readership and revenue for these outlets, as well as a decrease in the overall credibility of the news industry. The news industry has already been experiencing a period of deep cost-cutting measures and massive layoffs, including those seen at Bloomberg, the L.A. Times, Fox News, Vice Media, ESPN, Buzzfeed, ABC News, NPR, News Corp, the Washington Post, and so many more.