Ex-World of Warcraft Developer Calls Xbox Fans “Bots” Used By Microsoft

Mark Kern, who was the former Team lead for the original World of Warcraft, made a statement on Twitter calling a large swath of Xbox fans “paid firms or bots” run by rabid fans and Microsoft themselves. Kern said that this is now standard practice in warfare and warned that it was only going to get worse with the increasing use of AI technology. 

The head of Xbox marketing, Josh Munsee, responded to the tweet dismissing all of the aforementioned claims. 

Can assure you we do not pay firms to act as fans or run fake fan accounts.

— Josh Munsee (@joshmunsee) July 2, 2023

Over the past few years what has become increasingly rampant on social media apps such as Twitter is the sudden influx of fan accounts for brands such as Microsoft and Sony. What makes this a concern is that these accounts give rise to toxicity in the gaming space, muddling genuine arguments and making the community harder to interact with. 

A lot of these accounts also end up being trolls that harass other creators, as well as other fandoms. However, that is a problem that persists across all major brands, whether it be Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft. AI itself is becoming more of a concern as complaints regarding stolen content get increasingly more common with the rise of AI-centric technology such as ChatGPT and Mid Journey. 

Only a few days ago, Steam imposed a ban on all games that use AI-generated assets to avoid the use of stolen assets in games. This included games that employed generative AI text as well as artwork and in-game assets. It isn’t hard to imagine a future with an increasingly high influx of AI-run accounts masquerading as fan accounts for any specific brand. 

Mark Kern has worked on numerous high-profile projects such as being the producer for Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 2 and the original Starcraft, as well as being the team lead for the original World of Warcraft.