This was brought to us by Scorpiany, a long time Wargaming Contributor. So what we’ll do here is post his original post he made on the forum and sent to us in a link. We’ll save our commentary for the end.

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WarGaming’s latest refer-a-friend program was MANIPULATIVE, and CHEATS recruits out of a fair start.

That title, sadly enough, is not clickbait. WarGaming was intentionally manipulative with their most recent “recruit a friend” program, through a combination of a lack of communication, vague descriptions, and a restrictive system specifically designed to provide as little reward to the players as possible.

Let’s take a closer look, and break down just why this is such a huge issue, and why WarGaming should be completely ashamed for this disgusting practice; which was nothing less than a giant middle finger to new recruits, and existing players alike.

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On December 22nd, WarGaming sent out a promotional e-mail that stated the following:

This e-mail clearly says that if the following steps are followed by January 8th, we will receive 5 lootboxes on January 10th.

1) Invite a new player to the game and have them create an account using the invite code attached to the email.

2) Have them complete the Bootcamp tutorial and the relevelant “Boot Camp missions” in the missions tab.

3) I play at least one battle with that recruit in a Random Battle after they’ve completed those missions.

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Sounds simple and fair enough, right? Unfortunately, no. Here’s where things become very shady.

Firstly, the language used in the e-mail was fairly vague. They provided no way to track the recruit’s progress, no follow-up e-mails about the event, whether recruits have followed the steps, and no e-mail even today when boxes are supposed to be given out.

Secondly, we didn’t actually receive our boxes today. Turns out, we’re getting them tomorrow, on the 11th.

But thirdly, and this is the most significant point, it turns out that they’re standard lootboxes (The same ones you get from the missions that only give you some decorations and consumables).

Let’s focus on this third part in particular.

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The invite code that WarGaming provided was a single-use, invite code. Invite codes cannot be stacked, and once you pick an invite code, you’re stuck with it. Here’s why this is significant.

This is a chart that shows what all other invite codes provide new players.

Do you notice the common theme here?

All of the other invite codes provide Gold, Premium time and Premium tanks.

The promotional offer they sent out? 5 small boxes that at most will give a few small consumables and credits, and if the person is lucky, one or two large consumables.

It also provides christmas decorations, which are completely useless to new players because the Holiday Ops event is about to end. Even the consumables are hardly of any value to new players, considering that at most, they’ll be receiving 50,000 credits worth of stuff… And that’s it. That’s all a new player gets. 50,000 credits can’t even buy a camo net.

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The e-mail used language that strongly suggested that we would be getting Premium lootboxes. The e-mail used language such as:

• “fine gifts”
• FREE holiday lootboxes

Now, fine gifts is a pretty bold claim. And to use “FREE” in all caps, twice, when talking about holiday lootboxes and “fine gifts”, really makes it seem like LOOK AT THIS YOU’RE GETTING A GREAT DEAL, SOMETHING YOU NORMALLY WOULD PAY FOR IS FOR FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

That’s the impression the e-mail gives. That we’d be getting the paid premium lootboxes, for FREE, which is why this would be such a great promotion, right? Only Premium lootboxes would make “fine gifts”, right?

And then when you keep in mind that this is a single-use invite code, that forces the recruit to avoid all of the other codes, and considering that all the other codes provide Gold, Premium time and Premium tanks, you would be misled to only one conclusion:

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“I must be getting 5 premium lootboxes, that also contain Gold and possibly Premium time and Premium tanks… Just like all of the other invite codes do. Except if I get lucky, I may even get a Tier 8 tank!”

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Except, this wasn’t the case. Not only did WarGaming make zero effort to clarify what kind of boxes we would actually be receiving, but they did not actually inform us until after the promotion that:

1) We’re not getting them today.

2) They’re small boxes.

CabbageMechanic shared with us today on Reddit (Yes, Reddit, not on the Forums, not on the portal, not via. e-mail… But on Reddit, where people are least likely to even read this):

Wow, thanks CabbageMechanic! How generous, not only are the boxes late, but you’re only telling us after the event finishes, after recruits got screwed out of actual invite codes and on Reddit where noone will actually see this post, that they’re 5 small boxes.

Thanks man, I’m so glad you care about your customers so much! 5 small lootboxes that hold as little value as the text in that post, and had as little thought and effort put into these “gifts” as it took for you to type that post out too. Thanks for caring! Man, if we just got the paper you wiped your rear with, then this would be the perfect gift, so thoughtful and considerate, and such a helpful and great start to new players joining the game!

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Now, here is where Scorpiany and I part ways on things. You see, we’ve had our differences largely because he thinks that shit like this happens mostly because Wargaming just makes mistakes. I on the other hand see through that. I am not presently nor have I ever been a fucking fanboy.

They did that shit on purpose. Here’s why:

Wargaming lost any hope of keeping new players about 4 years ago. That’s about the time the game stopped growing at all and started slowly shrinking, accelerating with each passing year.

So who do they have left? Who’s left they can bilk for money?

REROLLERS! THAT’S WHO!

You have people like GeorgePreddy (Ron Copeland) and others who have so many fucking accounts it’s laughable. They constantly try to reroll another account so they can once again try like hell to get better stats so they can brag to the world about how they “win” at a fucking free to play pixel tank game.

So Wargaming hurls out this fucking half-assed “invite a friend” program. They knew full well nobody was going to invite a friend. They did know that the rerollers would see that and think, “SHIT YEAH! I’m going to call the boys, get some help, reroll a new account and we’ll all help each other with new accounts. Once we get the premium loot boxes, we’re SURE to get at least one good premium tank out of it and then we’ll power platoon our way to new great stats!”

And they fell for it.

And they all rerolled.

And they all discovered that they got shit boxes, not good loot boxes.

And there was much gnashing of teeth.

So once again Wargaming suckers a bunch of people into thinking they were actually going to get a good deal only to snatch the rug out from under their feet. Why do that?

Because they know that people like Ron Copeland aka GeorgePreddy simply will not be able to let that go. He’ll see all the effort he put into creating the new account, playing the required games to get the loot boxes, and then say, “Well, yeah it sucks I got fucked on the loot boxes, but since I’ve come this far, I might as well buy a little T5 premium and start grinding again.”

It’s the weak mental state of the typical Wargaming player. They just can’t fucking let it go. Wargaming drops them a couple little crumbs of coke and they’re down there on the carpet snorting it up so hard they pull up the fucking padding.

That is what this was, folks. It was no mistake, no oversight, no “oopsees” in translation. This was a planned, calculated campaign to get hopeless, mindless, addicted players to shell out another 20 bucks or so, hopefully more.

Wargaming: Now resorting to fucking over what little is left of their player base to make a dime.

Come on, folks. You just HAD to see this shit coming.