WoW director turned to ChatGPT for expansion suggestions & the results were awful

World of Warcraft’s director admitted he turned to ChatGPT for inspiration on the next WoW expansion… but it didn’t go well.

The most recent WoW expansion, Dragonflight, was fairly well-received by players, many of whom are already in anticipation of what is to come next.

Even though the next expansion is likely a year away or more, it’s no surprise that the developers are already thinking about what new content will be added.

That requires the addition of new plot lines for players to experience, new NPCs to interact with, and new quests for players to complete. And the devs are turning to a new source for inspiration.

Devs use ChatGPT to name next WoW expansion

In an interview with IGN, World of Warcraft director Ion Hazzikostas admitted that he asked ChatGPT what the AI would suggest Blizzard name the next expansion. And the answer was… quite disappointing.

“I kid you not, the number one prompt it returned to me…was ‘Return to the Shadowlands.'” Hazzikostashad a good chuckle at Chat GPT’s suggestion, quipping “[s]o I feel like I have pretty good job security, not too worried about ChatGPT replacing me anytime soon.”

Shadowlands was, of course, the last WoW expansion to be released before Dragonflight. Back in 2020, players got to journey to the Shadowlands, which introduced new features such as Covenants and the rougelike tower, Torghast, Tower of the Damned.

Blizzard

Players’ reactions to the expansion were largely mixed, with some criticizing the fact that the main story was spaced out between several patches after the expansion dropped. When it finally did end, Sylvanas’ story was also criticized for not making sense by many players.

It’s no surprise, then, that the WoW development team wouldn’t be eager to go back to the Shadowlands, especially with the taste of the last disappointment still fresh in players’ mouths.

Player response to Dragonflight has been a bit more positive, so expect for the WoW team to continue to innovate for the next expansion rather than turning to AI.