Wowhead Economy Weekly Wrap-Up 319
17.03.2024 - 18:49
/ wowhead.com
Hello! Welcome to the 319th edition of the WoW Economy Weekly Wrap-up!
This week we discuss potential developments in bot technology and what effect bots have on the economy in WoW. We also discuss best uses for TSM in both Retail and Classic and how to make effective use of it's strengths. Plus, we dive into some Classic fishing locations in Wrath while preparing for Cataclysm Classic.
My name is Samadan and I'll be your guide through the World of Gold Making!
Is Botting Ruining the Economy?
An interesting thread appeared over the forums of r/worldpvp about recent developments of using AI to read the screen and provide automatic feedback..
I know there has been a lot of talk about bots and how bad the situation is… but everyone needs to know its about to get way worse. Enter AI.
Take a look a Google's new research paper on SIMA: https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/sima-generalist-ai-agent-for-3d-virtual-environments/
The most important quote from the article:
«Our AI agent doesn’t need access to a game's source code, nor bespoke APIs. It requires just two inputs: the images on screen, and simple, natural-language instructions provided by the user. SIMA uses keyboard and mouse outputs to control the games’ central character to carry out these instructions. This simple interface is what humans use, meaning SIMA can potentially interact with any virtual environment. „
It won't be long before solutions like this are out in the open and undetectable versions begin to pop up. Since SIMA actually plays the game by looking at the screen and entering keyboard and mouse inputs it will look like human behavior. At first it will be rudimentary… but gains in the next 3-5 years will completely change gaming. This isnt publically available for now, but competition will come.
This is an unwinnable fight. Truthfully I fear that it may ruin competitive games altogether. Wow PVP is no exception. Where there is money to be made, bots will follow. They'll work completely different and will be insanely intelligent.
Edit:
There is a massive difference between this and a pixel bot. AI watches every frame, and the changes inbetween frames. Then it
understands what is happening and makes inputs through keyboard and mouse to meet its objectives. Its literally doing what your brain is doing. All it needs to do is watch the screen.
Now, of course botting has always been prevalent in a game like WoW. It's been there since the start. We even now have features such as Comp Stomp and Follower Dungeons to help populate the game for the solo player. This is by no means a bad thing for many as is opens up the ways different people like to play the game.
How does this affect the economy?
As an Economy blog, this is the interesting