I've been playing World of Tanks for seven years. In that time I have seen many things both terrific and terrifying, but they always led to the improvement of the game; even if only in incremental steps. With so much going on over at Wargaming it's nice to be reminded that devs do think of the players, especially the oldest and longest playing in the community.
However, if I had a choice between the gift of a free tank, credits, bonds, and a skin vs a chance to corner the lead game devs, I would take the dev every time. Because despite getting rid of all the silly stuff, like tier 5's playing against tier 10's, and changes to every aspect of the game; matches still feel like a random mess at times.
I've been more confident of this ever since Frontlines was dropped by BongFish. The fact that a company that was brought in to make a game mode understood WOT's player base better than Wargaming did, was a clear and evident sign that the devs have long been out of touch.
The core gameplay loop is in a dire need of a boost. Seven years in, I still can make a list of my core issues.
- Arty still feels horrible to play against, is still a feast or famine class to play as. Giving them a stun that lowered crew skills only ever made me want to uninstall the game as soon as I got hit by an arty while in a 1v1 with another tank.
- Scouts feel very underwhelming depending on the map.
- TD's feel like they have nothing to do on most maps but sit and wait for their lines to collapse. A lack of good overwatch spots on maps to support pushes. A lack of good defensive positions on other maps.
- The visual rendering system still feels weird and clunky. Not enough in-game information for newer players.
- The power creep is getting out of hand and it's insulting to see Wargaming continue to release premiums that are obviously better than previous releases, and some in tech-tree tanks.
- Wargaming treating the U.S. player base like whales. Honestly, I saw the "Feast" bundles. I'm really curious to know what people are buying this. I can only think it's the type of person being exploited by such a business practice because other than a celebrity looking to get into the game quickly while not giving a flying #$##, the only person I can rationally believe is buying this is some poor person that needs help.
- 2xp crew XP is a meaningless and vapid weekend "Special" for most of the community. Yeah, I get that some newer players would actually love it for their crews. But how about a better crew system? How about that Crew skill and Rework that was talked about two flubbing years ago.
- Update the bloody garage UI. This runs like a dinosaur. I can log into Fallout 76 faster, and that game is an utter dog turd of an experience, with a horrible UI to boot.
Seven years and some things don't change. I would write more, but I honestly have to get ready for work. I just needed to vent this.