Wargaming’s premier game World of Tanks continues to plummet in popularity world wide, but particularly in the North American market.
Just this past weekend, Wargaming paid a popular streamer named Dr. Disrespect (a rather unsavory character to say the least) to play their game.
To hear some tell it, it was his first time ever playing the game. The main forum for World of Tanks NA took off on it and you can read about it here. Here are a few screen shots of the conversation:
Now, to be fair to Wargaming, this was not Dr. Disrespect’s first time playing the game. He’s played it many times before. In fact, here he is playing it just last year in May: Dr. Disrespect plays World of Tanks May, 2018
He’s played it before and after that as well, so the idea that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing is, well, a bit suspect.
The last post pictured though is what got me to thinking: just exactly how much has the game changed?
Well, I figured the best way to find that out would be to reroll an account and start all over again as if I had never played the game. So I did.
Using a code provided by Dr. Disrespect, I rolled up another account, updated the game (I haven’t played in about a year) and started off.
Boy was I surprised! I’ll walk you through what I experienced.
First off, you don’t go straight to the garage anymore. You are put straight in to the tutorials, of which there are 4. These tutorials show you the basics of movement, firing, and the like and slowly introduce new aspects of the game.
For instance, in the first tutorial you have no mini-map, no consumables, nothing like that. Those are slowly added each tutorial you go through.
Those are all very, very good things with one exception: the game crashes at the end of each and every one of them.
As I finished the first tutorial and it said VICTORY in big bold letters, it just froze right there. I would have to alt-tab out of the game, kill it, restart it, and then it would move me on to the second tutorial.
That was a recurring theme for each and every one of them.
Then there was the debacle of the last tutorial where you’re put into a “real looking” random match. They are all bots, all named appropriately so they appear to be real players (which gives one the impression that this is what Wargaming does all the time as they have no real players anymore) and away you go. All you have to do to advance to the actual game is win.
It took me three tries.
- First game – 7 kills – lost
- Second game – 9 kills – lost
- Third game 14 kills – won
For a new player, that alone is probably going to make you quit. It was painfully obvious that in order to get anything done you’re going to have to do it yourself on a near Godlike level to have any chance of success whatsoever.
But again, giving credit where credit is due, Wargaming did do a good job (sans crashes and ridiculous RNG and complete uselessness of the AI on your team) of implementing a tutorial system that will at least show new players the ropes.
Nothing like that existed when most of us started playing.
Then we move on to the garage proper after finishing the tutorial. What a mess that is. You get no less than 30 messages and multiple windows in your face that tell you all sorts of things you don’t understand with no explanation for what any of it is or how any of it works.
Looking at all that for the first time must be truly intimidating. But I press on and play the game.
The code provided by Dr. Disrespect gave me two premium T3 Russian tanks, the T127 and the T116 with 100% crews, which was a good thing.
So I play a few games and WOW! I can’t move fast enough, see anything, shoot anything, nothing.
It’s like a Pop Warner kid getting dropped into a game between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburg Steelers. I was simply in every way outclassed with no hope of contributing to my team in any way, shape or form.
Why? Well, simple: being new with a crew that has no skills developed and no advanced equipment at all, you simply have no chance in this game. I mean, here is what you’re up against as a new player:
That was the first game. It gets worse. The very next game I have a power platoon in it and here’s what they consisted of:
So as a new player with no experience, no special equipment, no camo (by the way, you now have to purchase two camo’s to cover a small T3 tank, one doesn’t do it anymore) you are thrown into matches with guys that have top grade, premium equipment, 4, 5 or even 6 skill crews firing nothing but gold rounds the entire match.
This is why Wargaming can’t get any new players. The only new players they get are, sadly, rerolls trying to improve on their stats.
This game is a complete slaughterhouse. Nobody in their right mind would bother trying when faced with completely impossible odds to overcome.
I would, quite literally, have a much better chance of fighting Manny Pacquiao and whipping him good than ever having any success or fun as a new player in World of Tanks.
More to come!
Stay tuned!
Heisenberg
That works dude. You only had two issues: Your link to your site at the bottom didn’t take and the Youtube video didn’t embed for some reason. I fixed both issues and it’s good to go. Good job.
Sorry about that. I’ll make sure it takes next time before I post it. And thanks for letting me post. I’m just now actually trying to get the site off the ground and can use the help. It’s much appreciated.
No problem dude. It’s kinda cool having a sister site!
Good article. Many people have talked about the same issues for years.
The WoT response?
Git gud!
Just like their constant naysaying of any issues or their “then quit” statements when you voice frustration.
Wargaming is the only company I’ve ever encountered that literally tells people to not play it’s games, to quit and go away because you’ll not be missed.
They’ve done it and allowed their forum thugs to do it unchecked since day one.
They literally defend people who run players off from their game and have the unmitigated gall to wonder why they fail.
I rerolled way the other day to see what it was like and oh man was it crazy. Right off the bat they gave me the most broken tier 6 medium in the game, a T-34-85M rental for 15 days and the T26E5 rental lol.
Just to point out you don’t need to have a good crew in the T127 cause its really op for its tier. Pz 1cs cant pen the front of it.
Also if you didn’t hear, Dr. Disrespect in his first game of wot on stream said WG paid him $38,000 to play the Steel Hunters mode in WoT for 2 hours.
I had heard he was paid 50,000. Still, it’s laughable to think they actually paid someone that much money to play a free-to-play pixel tank game.
Until this article, I had never even heard of him.
They paid what? $ You gotta be kidding me? And, they will not give back a @&8#% dime to their average players for life or death! Victor –> You Liar: ( Square this stuff with your statements you made about 2 years ago )
Q(uestion): – World of Tanks is not the same, profits at Wargaming are dropping, the London office is being closed. We’d like to hear your commentary.
Victor Kislyi: – Unexpected. I’m joking, of course. Such news appear from time to time at other big companies as well, and believe me, they do not influence their work in the slightest. Matthias [head of development department] and I just returned with our families from a trip to Finland, and from our perspective, this trip is the most interesting news today. But of course, everyone else finds profits more interesting.
Q: – But still. First, pulling out of the Cyprus stock exchange. Now the London office. You do not publish information about profits for several years already. The question that pops up after this is: why is that so? Are these strategic decisions or necessary measures?
VK: – First things first. The closing of the London office is nothing more than a technical procedure, which had to be done long ago. Wargaming’s headquarters is located in Nicosia for six years already. So we are simply getting rid of a non-existent subdivision.
The stock exchange situation is quite similar. We left because we’d like to keep dynamic and flexible in making decisions, such as many others before us. Remember, for example, DELL.
Chronologically speaking, we left the Cyprus stock exchange several years ago already, so you shouldn’t mix these two decisions together.
The company is busy diversifying the product portfolio, we’re entering new markets (LATAM and Australia), strengthening positions amongst publishers and are actively investing first of all in ourselves. Internal development, employees, technologies and R&D.
In the last year we, as Wargaming Alliance, closed a first-time deal about publishing a game and are working closely with SEGA Creative Assembly. To understand what this means for a company, think about how some eight years ago, we were a tiny developer who was seeking publishers himself, and nowadays, a giant like SEGA is coming towards us and wants to cooperate on their product.