What Wargaming Has Done Right, and What They Can Do To Improve

 

I know what you're thinking, those of you who know what the word contrarian means. Why would I bother to write about what Wargaming has done right? If we look at the definition of contrarian, we find it means this:

con·trar·i·an

noun \kən-ˈtrer-ē-ən, kän-\

: a person who takes an opposite or different position or attitude from other people

While I know I have mentioned some things they've done right, and some of their successes previously, I will try to explain here why their success is very much a good thing, and how it can possibly further the positive development of World of Tanks. You see, although I'm a contrarian to a great extent, I still want to see this game succeed. At the very least, I'd like to see the game spur other developers to succeed with their idea on this unique genre of player versus player armored vehicle combat. So far, sadly, only Gaijin (developers of War Thunder) has stepped up to the plate. As I've mentioned before in a previous article, this is quite surprising to me, and tells me that major game developers are stuck in the mud for the most part. This means that they simply want to continuously rehash the same old sequels, prequels, etc, until you have Call of Duty 15 (do we really need that?). This leaves game development largely up to indie developers, kickstarter heroes (Uber Entertainment with Planetary Annilhation), and lesser-known but very successful developers like Wargaming. I fully believe that these types of developers and publishers are the future of gaming. Of course, the only time that major game producers will take notice and stop producing garbage is when people simply stop paying them (Capcom). 

What Wargaming Has Done Right

There's a lot of evidence showing what Wargaming has done right as far as their development of World of Tanks is concerned. In my first article, I gave quite a few examples of this. Make no mistake, this company has gone from 3rd rate nobody to raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in only a few years. They've managed to create something quite unique indeed in World of Tanks, and millions of gamers have taken notice. This game truly is the very first online player versus player armored vehicle game that has been done so well that while not everyone pays for it, those that do in some cases have spent hundreds or thousands on the game. For those that don't, they've spent a lot of time grinding, in some cases, years to get a few tier ten tanks. Wargaming has created a game that draws people in and either forces them to spend money, forces them to grind for long periods of time, or forces them to quit (or all of the above). This has proven to be a very successful business model, as Wargaming has shown time and time again:

http://ftr.wot-news.com/2013/12/17/wargaming-buying-a-new-building-on-cyprus/

http://ftr.wot-news.com/2013/12/28/wargaming-to-restore-dornier-bomber-for-300k-eur/

(source: http://ftr.wot-news.com/)

(source: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2013/12/17/wargaming-buying-a-new-building-on-cyprus/)

So, not only have they bought up multiple gaming studios, and a bank, but also a new gigantic futuristic-looking building, and are in the process of a restoring an old bomber. These purchases may seem perhaps a bit much, but if you know anything about business tactics, then they make sense. 

The T69, a feared 7/42 opponent

Gameplay

It's really the gameplay of World of Tanks that gets people hooked. The learning curve is punishing, there are many players who will make you pay for your mistakes, and some of the grinds are very tough indeed. Despite all this, the game manages to be very, very fun, if you stick with it. If you can manage to find tanks you enjoy, and become very good, or at least adequate in them, you will find the game to be much more engaging and less bland than many games. Every battle is different, every battle is a chance for you to be a hero, or get utterly destroyed in a smoking wreck. There's the thrill of the fight (que Eye of the Tiger), and the danger that you can die at any time and thus have no further affect on the battle. There's the thrill of hitting a crazy shot at a crazy angle, the thrill of one-shotting big tanks, the thrill of ramming the enemy at high speed and then shooting them to death. Once you learn some of the game mechanics, the game can work for you in many cases, and become quite the experience. It's really the gameplay, and the ability to move up the tiers and unlock new tanks, that keep people motivated to play the game. Wargaming has done an outstanding job on this, and thus people empty their paychecks into the game. 

either lots of time or lots of money

Progression

I mentioned previously about moving up the tiers. This is really the end-game of World of Tanks, and goes hand and hand with the end-game battle scenarios of Clan Wars, Team Battles/E-sports, and Tournaments. It's quite exciting to unlock that next tank, buy it, upgrade it, and play it. In some ways it's almost like trying a new car, Wargaming has made sure that this is something to be eagerly anticipated. When I was still in a clan, almost everyone would tell people when they got a new tank, and people would congratulate them, and it was a fun experience. Getting a new tier ten tank is especially nice, since even with gold/free experience, it is usually quite the grind. This is of course not mentioning the people who literally use their hundreds of thousands of free experience, and tons of gold, to get a tier ten in seconds (very expensive unless the gold comes from tournaments/clan wars, etc). 

What Wargaming Can Do To Improve

While there are many good aspects of World of Tanks, there is definite room for improvement as well. One of the primary concerns about the game is the matchmaker, which for the most part has been bad for years. This could be part of how Wargaming gets people to pay, as mentioned in previous articles. In beta, you had horrible battles like this:

tier 1 vs tier 9 (IS-4 was once tier 9)

Instead, now you have horrible battles like this:

have fun with that

Obviously, they have improved the matchmaker to an extent. Improving upon something that is as bad as the beta matchmaker though, is still not really that great. I believe they should implement a one tier spread at this point, which would cause battles to be much closer, and the top tanks then do not have the massive advantage that they still currently have. Everyone wants closer battles right? Who wants 0-15 or 15-0? It was mentioned before that we didn't have the server population to sustain a one tier spread, people would have to wait forever, etc. I believe now the server population is high enough that this method could work. As shown on wot-news:

NA Server

Total Players:                                  5,240,056

Active players in the last week:      1,187,643

In June of 2011, shortly after World of Tanks launched, there were 177,827 registered that month. Compare that to June of 2013 which is 776,593, which is the largest spike of registered users ever for the NA server (source: http://wot-news.com/stat/server/us/norm/en). Thus you can see that the population of the NA server has significantly increased, and indeed my experience can attest to this as well. I remember when the game first came out, you had around 10-15k at most, online at one time, and now you have 25-40k on average.

Aside from the matchmaker, there's the RNG of 25%, which I feel is far too high, and should be lowered to 10-15% at least. RNG simply makes bad players make big plays, and downplays the effective skill of good players by a roll of the dice. It can be one of the worst aspects of the game, as some games you simply won't be able to salvage a win. 

There's also the camouflage and spotting mechanics, which simply favor high view range, high camo tanks, such as high tier TDs. It also makes light tanks, even high tier lights, that much less effective, as many of the higher tier TDs, heavies and mediums will see them before they can do anything. 

Finally, you have powercreep, which Wargaming insists upon ramping up, almost on a monthly basis. This is something that definitely makes them a lot of money, and while I have no problem with them making money, I do have a problem with obsoleting current or past tanks with newer better ones. It's been proven that over time, powercreep does kill games, and this one will be no different, if they continue. 

All of this being said, I believe World of Tanks has been a truly fantastic game. Unique in design, concept, and implementation, the downside to it is the fact that Wargaming is simply content to be ignorant of many player concerns. Perhaps War Thunder ground forces will change this, or perhaps not, either way, I think we can already tell Wargaming is a bit nervous about them. This is evidenced by their future implementation of enhanced HD graphics, more modules being added (extra armor, etc), and other features to come. All of this is to directly compete with Gaijin, the makers of War Thunder ground forces. It will be an interesting battle between the two developers, but the only winner can be us, the players.