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A few years ago, I'd say in 2011, a typical peak hour (c. 8pm) in the Summer meant 60+k players on the NA East server and 40+k players on the NA West server. Record occupancy was about 115k players on NA East alone on a Xmas peak hours if I'm not mistaken. Tonight, peak hour was 20k on the merged server. Enough said, game is dying or arguably already dead.
In the slow and painful dying process, WG tried everything! They rebalanced just about anything they could, added more and more urban and tunel like maps (i.e.: the one where aimbotting makes a difference the most), nerfed arties in just every possible way (they're latest: slightly reducing the already low arty shell velocity multiple time on multiple updates and changing the dispersion patterns), advertised that bogus "fair play policy" that only translated into newcommers falsely believing this game to be cheats free, and so on and on and on. Still, the hemorrhage went on for years. I paused playing several times and every time I received "Welcome back" offers six months latter (read: bribes to lure former players back). I just got one, cashed it in, played a few rounds, and again, I'm not staying.
The reason is very very simple. Oh, yeah, I know, I can already hear the mod apologist troll patrol. People stop playing because the game isn't fun anymore. And what's killing the fun is the unaddressed rampant cheating. Cheaters entertain the myth that arties are killing the game. Sure... Effective DMG has been reduced by about 60% and accuracy is non-existent nowadays. To score a hit arties need to either target HUGE tanks or sizable packs. Arties are now totally ineffective against the typical stationary campers. Oh yeah, we'll stun him, track him, cause marginal DMG but we won't hurt him significantly to the point of flushing him out of camping like we used to. So, yeah, arties are killing the game. Sure! Weekenders and casual players had had enough to be ammoracked non-stop by aimbotters. Like having the thickest armour there is, but having non-stop an aimboter place 6 shots in the paper thin imaginary weakspot devs added so that aimbot scripts have something to lock on.
However, WG knows perfectly well that the typicall cheater is also a high-end spender. So they never ever ever went on with the promised ban hammer. Instead, they twist their policies every now and then. The so called fairplay policy was amended several times so that the "banned on the second offense" became a "three strikes policy (with lenience)", and it only applied to the reading challenged cheaters who were using the only cheats WG was fighting against: those by Warpack Studios. And WG has always been in a open war with WP solely because WP is making a profit out of this and they are not paying royalties. So, the dishonest nature of WG staff and their condoning of the use of cheats is the key factor if WoT agony.
So, yeah troll patrol, go on and keep arguing that stats show talents and that mods are either non-existent or are only quality of life stuff!
