I thought this week it might be worth taking time out from the endless cycle of major releases to take a look at a game I totally don’t understand, but completely respect. That game is World of Tanks.
Despite having never played this game, I continue to be blown away by it in terms of the numbers that are playing and the money it appears to be raking in.
At PAX Australia, for example, the World of Tanks team went all out. In terms of floor space and people attending their booth, there were only two real competitors: World of Tanks and League of Legends. Their booths were bigger than Ubisoft’s, Microsoft’s — bigger than anything.
I spoke to some of the people behind the game at the show. They were telling me that 100 million people are currently playing World of Tanks. 100 million. I mean seriously, that’s ridiculous.
The interesting thing for me about World of Tanks is this: it’s a niche game. It’s a niche game for history buffs and people who like tanks but, because it’s a global phenomenon, it’s the kind of game that brings that niche together in one spot.
I find the whole thing interesting, but also insane. Anyone here into World of Tanks?
Comments
46 responses to “Community Review: World Of Tanks”
My Dad asked me about this once, so here’s my review:
“Dad, it’s a game where you shoot other tanks with your tank. I don’t know, it seems fucking stupid” “Yeah son, all the young dickheads at work play it, they put all their money into. I don’t know. It sounds stupid”
You could say the same thing about Counter Strike or Battlefield or just about any multiplayer FPS really.
You and your dad sound like awesome people.
The way in which you pass judgement without actually experiencing something is awe inspiring. Why take the time to introspect, or consider that people enjoy doing things that you don’t, when you can just declare it all to be stupid. You get to feel totally superior without all that time and effort considering other human beings are not like you.
Those few brief seconds of thought you saved can then be spent posting in online forums on subjects you don’t care about.
Man! Anyone who thinks life is complex should take a leaf out of your book.
got me to reply. 7/10. gr8 b8 m8 i r8 8/8.
It was pretty poor bait. Maybe you are just weak willed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6G_o1MYECg lets argue on the internet.
Let us be calm and enjoy the magic of Jem and the Holograms.
Tough crowd.
Monday’s gamer is full of woe.
I should have just stuck to my Seinfeld routine.
What’s the deal with World of Tanks?
*BOW BA BOW BOW BOOOW BOW BOW*
ITS NOT EVEN A REAL GAME!!!
Haha, awww.
BUT IS IT THE GOOD GRAPHICS?
On the Kevin Spacey rating system it is a Outbreak out of 10.
Motaba!
Those guys are awesome. 10/10*
*I work for them, so this is a completely unethical review.
I’ve heard that Batguy sleeps with Batguy. We probably can’t trust anything he says.
I’d sleep with Batguy. You can’t disregard what he says just because he fell for that charm.
Don’t let #hashtag hear such heresy. Next you will be suggesting that claims be addressed on their merits as opposed to the life history of the individual making them. That way lies madness.
ETHICS IN JOURNALIZIMS OR FEMINIZIMS OR NET NEUTRALITY or somesuch whinge.
its action is kinda like an fps, but it functions at a slower pace in terms of movement, and aiming, so it’s less reliant on twitch reflexes (im not as young as i use to be!!)
technically free to play. spending real money gets you shiner tanks that are better than un-upgraded tanks but worse than upgraded grind tanks.
some of the more complicated mechanics are not explained in game in any way, which you have to read the wiki for,(regarding spotting/camo and penetration/angling)
I’ve not played the game, but the people at the booth last year told me a level 1 tank which you get for free can’t defeat a level 10 tank which you have to pay for. That feels wrong.
Tier 1 tanks never come up against a tier 10 tank.
Tier 1 fights tiers 1 and 2.
Tier 2 fights 1, 2, and 3
Tier 3 fights 2,3 and four.
and so on, and so on.
I am yet to play a match that has been unbalanced for any reason other than personal skill. (ie, being unlucky enough to have nothing but noobs on your team)
Huuuuuuhhhhh. Okay. They didn’t mention any of that. We cool World of Tanks. We cool.
I think it sounds like that guy needs to get fired.
From a cannon.
Into the sun.
Funny you should mention it, Mark.
I only just started playing a few weeks ago at the suggestion of one of my work colleagues.
I never thought much of it before hand – I couldn’t see the big attraction, really – but now I am playing it I must say it is actually really enjoyable – especially the city maps. There is actually a fair bit of strategy involved in quite a few aspects and the firefights are as intense as they are fun.
If you haven’t tried it i’d certainly recommend it. Start with one tank, upgrade it fully and just play with that one tank for a month or so to get the feel for it before moving on to other tanks – otherwise you will end up smack bang in higher tiers against people that know a lot more than you do.
Also, I haven’t spent a dime yet 🙂
Holy shit, an actual honest, useful review. Bravo!
Oh, shit!
Was I meant to be being snide?
Well, damn.
Also, you should spend a dime you damn cheapskate! My livelihood depends on it!
(though, it seems that there’s plenty of other people picking up the slack for you, so really: keep up the good work!)
Hmmmm – Freecodesforabuddy? 😛
And to be honest, this is the first game i’ve been tempted to actually spend money on.
Warthunder anyone?
Not enough players playing ground forces. While you can get Arcade games fairly frequently, there’s next to no one playing Historical or Simulator (in my recent experience).
And if you are playing Arcade, then may as well play WoT which has more maps, tanks, and players. I actually like War Thunder a fair bit, and I wish there was more players, but for the time being I will play the game which has no wait time for matches.
I’ve been a player since 2010-2012(cant remember exactly when I opened my account) and this game is my online white lines. I’ll even admit I am pretty active in their community, although when I gained a wife, the situation changed somewhat. I did make the popular and somewhat famous E-75 and E-100 threads. I’ll just say for a game that’s free to start playing, get into it, but if you want to get the most famous tanks fast, good luck without premium. Lol.
Feel free to message me there: 1nc0mp3t3nc3 is my handle
Been playing it since before there was a SEA server (on and off obviously) and I hugely enjoy it. Tank balance is pretty good (some rough spots) map balance is pretty good (though it overly favours brawling playstyles) and the mechanics are good. The tanks could feel a bit weightier (imo thats the one thing that War Thunder does better). A alternative “realistic” or “hardcore” game mode would make it perfect for me.
I’ve spent a bit of money converting free xp, and a little on permanent camo on my favourite tanks, but that’s it. Definitely got more enjoyment out of it than most games I have spent $90 on.
I used to play this a while back, but I’m still waiting to download an 8GB update due to laziness.
Tier 1s don’t turn up in high level matches unless you’re using them as a scout in specific competition battles. It won’t happen in a random battle.
All of the tier 1 tanks are free and you can get to tier 10 without paying a cent of real world money. Real money can buy you premium time, which gets you a better rate of xp and credit returns for each battle. It can also be used to buy premium tanks, which get a better return BUT, they are slightly worse than a fully researched tank of the same tier. There are no premium tanks above tier 8, so you still have to start from tier 1 to earn a tier 10.
Gold can buy credits, or convert some of your earned xp into free xp, which can be spent on anything, rather than the research tree you earned it on.
Lastly, you can use gold to buy premium consumables and ammo. You can buy them for credits too. It’s expensive either way. Usually it’s limited to clan wars and competitive play, where winning gives your clan a return of gold to be divided up amongst the players to cover their costs.
I’ve been playing WoT for a few years now, since my father in law got me started while visiting in the US. Their community is a lot more vocal than the asian servers, mostly I suspect, due to the language barriers. Can’t complain too much though, much better latency than the US servers and with 20000+ people online every day, you never wait more than a minute between games.
It’s a difficult one to master, too. Wargaming are constantly balancing to keep it competitive, adding features and improving graphics. There’s that many tanks in the game, you’ll never get to try them all outside of something like PAX.
I like that its not p2w. The premium tanks are usually worse than the normal tanks.
World of tanks for me was one of those games that looks fun but there wasn’t enough appeal for me to try it. Once one of my friends convinced me to try it out I was instantly hooked. He stopped playing soon after that and even though there are a lot of features in the game for playing with friends and clans, I find the game very enjoyable to play by myself in the random battle mode.
Reaching tier 10 in any research tree is a pretty big achievement in itself, I’ve only reached tier 9 myself in about a year of playing – with a premium account on and off.
If you play the game you’ll quickly learn after tier 5 really requires a premium account but it will take many hours of play to even reach tier 5 so you’ll have time by then to figure out if you like the game enough to out some money into it.
Penetration!