I started playing World of Tanks
many years ago, when one had to be invited to play during the closed
beta era. It was a fun game, very different from the other games out
there, at least the ones that I was familiar with. I enjoyed
grinding a new tank, earning upgrades, leveling up, and all the other
little things that the game had going for it. The graphics and such
seemed to be on par with everything else that was out there, so I had
no problem with that. It was touted as a free-to-play game, but, of
course, that wasn’t true. As I remember, you started out with some
garage slots and the first tanks were free. However, in order to
aquire more tanks and move up in tiers, you had to purchase slots, or
garage space, for each additional tank, and you had to use real
money. You could not purchase a garage slot with in-game currency,
for example. So, from the get-go, you were invested in the game,
both from a time standpoint, and real money. For myself, although it
has been a very long time since I played WoT, to date I have probably
invested around $500-$600 in the game, mostly for garage slots and
Premium Time. So, for a free to play game, WoT managed to get me to
pony up bucks. And, to be honest, I didn’t mind at the time. I was
having fun, the community hadn’t turned toxic yet, and the devs
hadn’t damaged the game to the point where I wouldn’t play anymore.
That was all to come later.

As time went on, I managed to
crawl up the tiers and trick out a lot of tanks with all the
avaliable upgrades and such. I was up to nearly 15,000 games, and it
was around this time that I was beginning to pay attention to what
the developers (hereafter referred to as devs) were doing to the
game. The first thing I noticed was that the community was beginning
to degrade into a bunch of whiners and complainers. Every game lost
was everyone elses’ fault, that guy wasn’t moving fast enough or
didn’t support me enough, or that other tank was afk. The devs did
do the right thing, in my opinion, by finally adding the option to
disable all chat entirely, but only after the community had
complained on the forums for a very long time. I was fine with it.
I turned off chat and never turned it on again, and had a number of
pleasant games.

Unfortunately, the pleasant games
didn’t last. The devs, unable to leave well enough alone, started
down the path of failure by listening to the whiners at the expense
of the silent majority. The whiners complained about how unfair the
arty was, so they practically destroyed that mode of play by using
their ridiculous RNG algorithm, which, in essence, replaced skill
with a dice roll. As I understand it, the RNG extends to all the
tanks. I have shot point blank at a close tank and missed, and I
could remember when it didn’t use to be like that. This was
particularly irritating to me as the arty was my favorite mode of
play. Then the whiners complained about people leaving the game
early and, even though I had never detected any difference in play,
the devs instituted a warning system. I realized this one time when
I was disconnected (a rather common occurance with wot) and, upon
re-logging into the game, was greeted with a warning about leaving a
game early. I get why they wouldn’t want a player to leave early,
but I was dc’d. Seriously, the server can’t detect the difference?
But what really got my goat was when I was issued a warning for not
moving fast enough. So now my playstyle is being called into
question. This was the deal-breaker for me. Time to check out the
competition.

Around this time, Armored Warfare
was entering the picture as another tank game and I decided to give
it a try. And try I did. I downloaded the game and have been
playing it to the complete exclusion of WoT. It is a great game,
super graphics, nice sound, and lots of things to keep the interest
up. You can play pvp, pve, or, recently, Global Ops. My favorite
mode of play is PvE, and I have a few thousand games there as well.
This game is truly a free to play game, as one does not have to buy
garage slots for newly aquired tanks and all tanks, along with
upgrades, can be earned with in-game credits. To date, I have not
spent any real money on this game. I liked it well enough; I was
just waiting for it to become more stable before investing. Crashes
to the desktop were too frequent for now. But I assumed the devs
would square away that issue soon enough, so I wasn’t worried. But
all good things must come to an end, and so it seems that this is the
case with AW.

While playing an spg in Armored
Warfare, I was hiding behind a rock waiting for a shot. I wasn’t
moving. Sixty seconds later (I timed it with a stopwatch) I was
greeted with a warning, telling me that if I didn’t change my
behavior, I would be kicked. In other words, if I didn’t move. I am
in an spg, the sniper of the team, waiting for a shot, and I am told
I have to move? Unbelievable. The devs just took a page out of the
WoT playbook on how to insult a loyal player. I don’t think that I
am overreacting to say that I was insulted. To be treated as though
I were AFK when I wasn’t is not going to fly with me. If I am in
front of my monitor with my hand on the mouse, I am in the game.
Often, I will sit and take a minute or so to assess the situation.
I’ve never entered a game and deliberately left, but now, according
to this new rule, I am not allowed to sit still for a minute. I am
both angered and saddened by this turn of events. I get what they
are trying to accomplish, but I don’t agree with how they are
implementing it.

The bottom line is this. I am an
adult, playing a game by choice, using my own time and money. I am
not in the mood to be treated like a child and given unwarranted
warnings as though I was late to class and have to go to detention.
Warranted warnings, ok. I would accept a legit warning. But warning
me to move and kicking me if I don’t move fast enough? Banning me
for an hour or so if I accidentally drown or go off a cliff? Sorry,
but that is a deal-breaker for me. Personally, I feel that
team-killing should be the real bannable offense, with everything
else second or third place. When we are talking about a PvE game
(and that is the game I am referring to as I don’t play PvP) that
only lasts ten minutes or so, is there really an AFK problem? After
the thousands of PvE games that I have played, I am going to say no.

In conclusion, I am going to
assume a wait-and-see attitude to this game. I want to see how the
community reacts to these latest changes and whether or not they will
accept them. They are deal-breakers for me, but may not be for
others. For all the rest who may not be bothered by these latest
rules thrown at the player base, good for you. However, I hope that
the devs realize that doing what WoT did is not the way to go. These
were the reasons I left WoT in the first place, and I am certainly
not going to remain here if they insist on doing the same things.

To the gaming community, I wish
you well and many good games. To the devs, please look at what WoT
has done in the past, and then do the complete opposite!
There are too many other games out there for you to insult
legitimate players.