Blizzard has said that it doesn’t make use of generative AI to make content for World of Warcraft. Speaking with IGN at GDC, Warcraft franchise director John Hight said that, while the studio has made use of machine learning to do things that might be cumbersome – like trying to fit armour sets on the game’s different playable races and classes – the more artistic elements of World of Warcraft are still made by actual artists.
“We have used machine learning to help do things that people either can’t do or it’s very cumbersome to do,” he said. “The fitting of armor on characters, you see how many different characters we have. Our artists used to have to go through and they’d build it for human form and then they’d have to go and retrofit all these things for all the various body shapes and horns and big snouts and tails and all of that. That is just not particularly fun work for them. A few years ago, we said, ‘Can we use machine learning to help at least get it to a point where 90% of the work is being done for them and then they can fine tune it?’ And we went about that. It’s actually worked out really well. It’s allowed us to make a lot more different armor. The artists love it because it’s like, ‘Oh, thank God you got rid of the grungy part of what we’re doing.’”
Hight goes on to talk about the feeling in the art team that AI being deployed means that they will be out of a job. He mentions that, while the studio is still exploring how the technology can be used to help make development easier for its teams, World of Warcraft is currently not using any generative AI.
“I am the son of an aeronautical engineer and a fine artist. My mom was the aeronautical engineer and my dad was a fine artist… So I have that appreciation for the creative process, what an artist goes through in their imagination,” said Hight. “I think the artists on the team have a fear that the AI will be deployed to take them out of a job and they certainly don’t want their work to be used without their permission or without credit or whatever else, and so I think we’re all sorting that out. The rights issues, the how far do we use this technology, but we’re not using it. We’re not using generative AI within WoW.”
World of Warcraft is currently in the midst of wrapping up its Dragonflight expansion, and is on the way to its next major expansion: The War Within. In the meantime, the game recently also got a new 60-player battle royale mode dubbed Plunderstorm, which allows players to earn rewards for the regular as well as classic servers.
