Thursday, January 9, 2014

  Hiatus and a Message to the Readers

Dear readers, I feel that I owe you at least an explanation of the infrequency of my blog posts, and why I haven't written for a few days. Recently my interest in this game has basically hit an all-time low, and at the same time, my general disgust with Wargaming's antics and behavior towards players and their game has hit an all-time high. I feel that this company, while obviously very successful, is simply trying to squeeze as much money out of WoT as they can, while they still are able, at the expense of their veteran players. As I've mentioned in previous articles, I have absolutely no problem with a company making as much money as they can. However, the way they do it, can be an issue with me. The way WG is going about it, is simply despicable in my opinion. WG knows that this cash cow will not last forever, and they're putting all engines on overdrive. Evidence of this is them releasing an obviously broken overpowered vehicle, the WT E-100, and not nerfing other obviously overpowered tanks literally for months (years?), the T57 Heavy and Foch 155, among others.

Almost every day on the WoT NA forums, another veteran player writes an 'I quit' forum topic, and sometimes there are several of these topics. I personally know at least 5 vets who have quit and gone on to other games. WG depends almost entirely on the big-time clan unicums (players with 60%+ win rate and 2350+ WN8), players who simply are willing to put up with the large degree of frustration for tens of thousands of battles for whatever reason, and new players. There is however, a large number of other players, such as myself, who see the wolf in sheeps clothing that WG is. 

I feel that the hours and days of work I've put into this blog have been somewhat fulfilling, but also, possibly not worth the effort. I really have no idea how to generate as much interest as blogs such as FTR, Overlord's blog, and others. I thank all of you for reading, following and commenting. Perhaps it's because my blog is not from the perspective of the average WoT player, perhaps it's because I write editorials and commentary about the game, instead of discussing up-to-the-minute news or real-life historical happenings, perhaps it's none of these. At any rate, it has been an interesting experience.

At some point, War Thunder ground forces will go into open beta, and be released. WG is already getting ready for this, and they know that it could potentially be a very big deal. Even if that game doesn't pan out, eventually someone will create another PVP online tank game that is direct competition for WoT. And, barring that, games like Star Citizen, Planetary Annihilation, and other massive games will take people away from WoT. While I don't really trust Gaijin to be much better or any better than WG, at least there's a chance they won't be the trolls that WG is. 

For now, I'm taking a hiatus from writing. I might come back and write again sometime, and I might not. I urge you to read the entirety of this forum post that has become very popular recently, as it describes just about everything that is wrong with WoT, in great detail:

http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/319852-dear-wot-i-am-breaking-up-with-you-for-10-reasons/

That's a great post, I couldn't have said it better myself. 

As for me, I will be robbing banks in Payday 2, killing zombies and surviving in Contagion, commanding forces in Company of Heroes 2 and Tank Operations: European Campaign, and generally playing anything but WoT. There are always other games to play. Thanks everyone for your time and attention, and I hope to see you all in War Thunder Ground Forces, or perhaps some other game.

- Vector03