Willy bot 3.0, the 2.0 version was used by the chinese to drive the prices as low as possible.
And I think the chinese had more influence in the Gox bubble than the Willy bot itself, but I have no proof
If you consider logarithmic charts as a valid method of predicting future price, in theory Bitcoin should have made its massive rise in late 2013 regardless of the Willy bot.
I still say the effects/blame of the bot is overrated, ALL markets are manipulated to some degree, the excuse is "Well, Gox was making up 70% of the Bitcoin volume so it was easy to manipulate...", well guess what, all securities exchange on NASDAQ or the DOW are traded 100% there exclusively too, how easy do you think those are to control?
Did anyone see the massive red stick on Wal-mart's chart the other day? There is no way that wasn't influenced by one whale dumping & setting the chain in motion. But even with these whales making big moves it still takes hundreds of thousands, millions even of little fishies to be buying to make it work and sustain itself for months like the Bitcoin bubble. There were MANY people buying Bitcoin in the $1,000 range and they believed it at the time to be the price it was worth. Of course we saw the price drop later due to market fears over potential China Bitcoin ban, Gox's collapse, etc.
Personally i'm praying this is the start of the next bubble because I believe this time it won't fizzle out so quick now that we have more legit exchanges and individuals in control of Bitcoins destiny now.