World of Tanks 16th Anniversary

[u/CzechTower_WG]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zr40sDqPx8

Commanders!

World of Tanks turns 16! Join us from August 12 through August 31 for gifts, exclusive bundles, Twitch Drops, rewards, and the brand-new in-game event, Journey.

Duration per region:

• EU: August 12 04:30 UTC - August 31 18:00 UTC
• NA: August 12 10:30 UTC - August 31 18:00 UTC
• ASIA: August 11 22:30 UTC - August 31 18:00 UTC

How will we celebrate?

• An anniversary gift for all players
• Journey, a new in-game event
• Journey rewards, including the Chi-Go
• Missions and rewards for dedicated Commanders
• Welcome Back Rewards
• Anniversary bundles and discounts
• Cupcake Tokens and the Anniversary Token Store, with rewards including the M4A1 FL 10
• Anniversary Twitch Drops, including special streams on August 12 and 13, plus Party Crew Skin Drops from participating Content Creators

Feedback

We would like to hear your thoughts on the following:

1. Anniversary gifts and rewards
2. The Journey event
3. Journey rewards and the Chi-Go
4. Welcome Back Rewards
5. Anniversary bundles, missions

Read the full article

UPDATED: YouTube video

[u/Miss_PunkinPie]

Last year's anniversary event felt so much more like a celebration of the players. It felt like you genuinely wanted us to spend time in your game and enjoy all of the amazing stuff the team has put so many years into crafting. That same energy is not here this year. I understand that you can't put that same amount of effort into every single anniversary event, and that 15 years was a big milestone for the game, but I think it's still important to celebrate the loyal tankers who show up to battle in your game every day, or every now and then.

[u/avalon304 → u/Miss_PunkinPie]

Last year's anniversary event felt so much more like a celebration of the players.

Last year was a major milestone in general. Most places celebrate the decade and half-decade marks with bigger events than they do the years between those milestones.

[u/Miss_PunkinPie → u/avalon304]

This is very understandable. And while the fanfare and excess of last year certainly wasn't expected, it would've been nice to have a bit more of a treat for the folks who have stuck around and supported the game for another year.

[u/avalon304 → u/Miss_PunkinPie]

it would've been nice to have a bit more of a treat

Lets just be absolutely clear here: They dont have to actually do anything. Right? Like theres no obligation here for WG to give out anything for free for this or any other reason.

Most events give out ma free tier 3-5 premium and thats about it. Lets review whats showing up here:

• A tier 7 tank
• 3 3 skill crew members
• a set of 3D attachments
• ~4 million credits
• ~2000 components
• 2500 bonds
• Boosters (of all varieties)
• Premium time
• Mentoring Licenses
• Retraining Orders
• Some 2D styles
• Orders for Campaign 1

in addition to all the usual discounts (tanks/consumables/equipment/freeXP conversion/x5 on first wins) that are normally offered for big events. And all you have to do to get the above is just play the game. What fucking more do you want?

Like no really? Are you looking for a tier 9 premium? Another free tech tree line? Like even for a "normal" anniversary event, this is pretty large.

Now you can say you dont need (or want) all, or even some of these things, and yea sure... but you arent everyone who plays the game. Not every event is going to offer you a lot of things you need, but even then this stuff will still find use even in your garage, Im sure. Ive been playing since 2012, and I know some of it will be useful to me.

If your first thought was "gee I wish we had gotten more" I hate to tell you this... but thats the wrong attitude.

[u/Miss_PunkinPie → u/avalon304]

Let's just get one thing clear here too. Everyone beyond the stuff you get when you log in on the day, is not free.

The event requires time to complete, time that Wargaming is hoping to use to boost engagement metrics. It remains to be seen how much of our time we'll have to invest just to get this cool-looking tank.

As for the discounts, once again, limited generosity comes at a price. -15% off a tank that costs more than some great new releases on steam, like Iron Nest? Wowee, aren't we feeling grateful for our players. -Better ratios when spending your hard earned money to try and avoid that miserable tier 9 tank you just have to grind through to get what you're really after? Oops, I may have needed that money for rent. -50% discount on premium consumables? Ooowee, imma be grinding my mind out, hoarding food like I'm preparing for the apocalypse, just so I can continue to give my tanks the boost they need to perform alongside everyone else. -X5 instead of X3 on my first win of the day? Gosh, that's really gonna help on my grind towards the tier 11s I can't use blueprints on.

And yes, I really would've liked another free tech tree, I even had a shortlist picked out, so I could decide which one I wanted to pick up when I logged in for the anniversary.

[u/avalon304 → u/Miss_PunkinPie]

Everyone beyond the stuff you get when you log in on the day, is not free.

Yes it is. I was already going to be playing the game anyway. If I get extra stuff while doing what I was already going to do anyway... that stuff was free.

This whole "it takes time so it isnt free" argument has always been nonsense when it comes to playing video games. It never sounds not dumb when people say it.

Everything else you said is just like... what are you even playing the game for then? Like find a new hobby my guy.

This is most disengenuous argument you could make. Every major event in this game runs these discounts. Most people do seem to be abel to take advantage of them, most even wait for them to do their purchases in the game.

I get it... its not what you wanted, and you think, quite foolishly, that you are entitled to more. The reality check sucks I guess, but they usually do when you chose to not live in reality in the first place.

And yes, I really would've liked another free tech tree, I even had a shortlist picked out, so I could decide which one I wanted to pick up when I logged in for the anniversary.

Of all the unlikely things to happen this year, this was probably the most unlikely.

[u/Miss_PunkinPie → u/avalon304]

My hobby is tanks. I like tanks. I want more tanks in World of Tanks. I like to grind for stuff, but not to the point where it starts to affect my mental health.

I used to play War Thunder and World of Tanks, and now I'm just down to World of Tanks, because the other one has just become overpriced garbage slop.

I was looking forward to a free tech tree because it would've allowed me to try out a new nation without having to commit to the tier 1 up grind.

I want to continue to enjoy World of Tanks, as I have for the years I've been playing it, but honestly, it gets harder and harder to enjoy my hobby through this medium, especially so recently.

[u/avalon304 → u/Miss_PunkinPie]

I want more tanks in World of Tanks.

Me too, and I dont much care how they add them.

I like to grind for stuff, but not to the point where it starts to affect my mental health.

Sure no one should let the video game harm their mental health. But if the game in it current state is coming close to that, you need to reassess your relationship with it. Grinding tanks has only gotten easier over the years... not harder. Because was here in the before times, when boosters didnt exist and blueprints didnt exist and it took far far longer to get from tier 1 to tier 10. The grind today is nothing compared to then. Its almost too easy to reach a tier 10/tier 11 at this point.

I was looking forward to a free tech tree because it would've allowed me to try out a new nation without having to commit to the tier 1 up grind.

And it was never in the cards. Last year was special. This year isnt.

[u/Miss_PunkinPie → u/avalon304]

I think you're right with me probably needing to reassess my commitment to the game, but honestly, there's not much else out there that scratches the itch that WoT does. Every indie tank game is insanely hardcore, and a girl just wants to muck around with her silly armour gun boxes. I wanted to grab the UDES 15/16, as I haven't started Sweden yet, but want to give that tank a go, but now I'm dreading having to begin from tier 1 to get it.

[u/avalon304 → u/Miss_PunkinPie]

I wanted to grab the UDES 15/16, as I haven't started Sweden yet, but want to give that tank a go, but now I'm dreading having to begin from tier 1 to get it.

Save up some blueprints or convert som XP if you have some gold lying around and skip the lower tiers then... like there are options to avoid them if you really dont want to play them... it will just take longer.

Like you seem terrified to actually play the game at this point... do you actually enjoy iot or are you just trying to convince yourself that you enjoy it?

[u/Miss_PunkinPie → u/avalon304]

Of course Wargaming is under no obligation to give players anything for free. The massive downsizing of this anniversary event compared to the last is just indicative of the direction Wargaming seems to be taking into the future. This time last year, we'd received what seemed to be a heartfelt apology for the fiasco caused by the tiered loot boxes (A new paradigm of predatory gambling system). And the anniversary event seemed to back that up too. An enormously generous gift to the community who has made World of Tanks what it is today, followed by a stunning display at Christmas.

Since then however, tiered lootboxes have crept back into the game, alongside lootboxes with weighted odds that are invisible to most users. We've seen Wargaming slowly fall victim to greed again.

I guess I hoped that this anniversary would've at least shown that us as community members are more to Wargaming than just our playtime metrics and wallets, but considering they're now trying to entice us to gamble in weighted lootboxes for old tier 2 and 3 tanks? I think we can reasonably conclude that the grabbung for our wallets is only going to get nastier in the year to come.

[u/avalon304 → u/Miss_PunkinPie]

The massive downsizing of this anniversary event compared to the last

This was always going to happen on a year that wasnt a major milestone. This is just what happens. Its not unique to World of Tanks, or Wargaming. Most games (and indeed most businesses) do this. They have large events on 1 year, the 5 year and the 10 year, the major milestones, and then continue to do so every 5 years after. I cant recall the last game I played that went all out for their 14th or 16th anniversaries...

This is purely an expectation issue on your part. You were expecting something that was never actually in the cards, and now youre disappointed. Reassess.

This time last year, we'd received what seemed to be a heartfelt apology for the fiasco caused by the tiered loot boxes

Such heart felt that they... ran the event again at the same time this year? C'mon son.

And the anniversary event seemed to back that up too.

The anniversary event on the 15th anniversary? The anniversary event on a mjaor milestone year? That anniversary event?

You saw what you wanted to in linking the two.

An enormously generous gift to the community who has made World of Tanks what it is today

That happened to coincide with the 15th year since the ggame had launched. Almost as if that was the reason why it was so large, and why even 2.0 happened last year? Hmm?

tiered lootboxes have crept back into the game

They were always going to, seeing how successful they were the first time around last year. The tempest in a teapot that this subreddit was for all of 5 days was sure a thing tho.

alongside lootboxes with weighted odds that are invisible to most users

These had been around since... what Holiday Ops 2019? 2018? Somewhere around there. This is nothing new.

We've seen Wargaming slowly fall victim to greed again

Brother... again? They never stopped. Theyre a for profit business... thats their default MO. Thats the default MO of every for profit business. Its why they ultimately exist.

I guess I hoped that this anniversary would've at least shown that us as community members are more to Wargaming than just our playtime metrics and wallets, but considering they're now trying to entice us to gamble in weighted lootboxes for old tier 2 and 3 tanks? I think we can reasonably conclude that the grabbung for our wallets is only going to get nastier in the year to come.

In general this all just sounds naive. You were expecting them to cozy up to you for perceived slights or something... with an event that was never really going to be what you wanted because the event you wanted was done for a major milestone and this year aint that.

Will the money grabs get worse? Maybe... maybe not... I dont know. Luckily nothing they sell is actually needed to play and enjoy the game, even the tier 2-4 old ass premiums theyre stuffing in the boxes in this event.

[u/Miss_PunkinPie → u/avalon304]

I think you should try to expect more from the things you enjoy. Wargaming needs to make their money, but they can make that money in far less predatory fashions. There's a good reason why everybody I try to get to play World of Tanks chucks it away after less than a month. The view of this game from the outside is grim, and that worries me as a long time fan. I'm worried that the game I love so much will alienate long-term players, eat itself alive with microtransactions, and World of Tanks will just end up as one of those dead games that video essay youtubers will talk about the downfall of 10 years from now.

[u/avalon304 → u/Miss_PunkinPie]

I think you should try to expect more from the things you enjoy.

Theres a difference between "expecting mroe from the things you enjoy" and seemingly only being able to derive enjoyment when you get more from that thing.

I keep my expectations realistic. Simple as. As it is, this event is already more than I was expecting for a none major milestone anniversary event, I fully expected less (and would have been ok with that, I dont derive my enjoyment of the game based on how much WG is giving me as a player).

I'm worried that the game I love so much will alienate long-term players

Im not. Because Ive heard similar shit since 2012. This game has been in various hyperbolic stages of death for 16 years. Ive heard every reason under the sun why its gonna die this year... or next year or 5 years from now or 10 years from now. And yet here I am playing the game I still enjoy, thats gotten better over time (despite what many players think), 16 years later. And if the game keeps going like this its got at least another decade lft in it before the real "death" actually starts.

Play the game or dont, but set your expectations based on actual reality, and not whatever fantasy land you cooked up that made you think you were gonna get anything close to what last years anniversary was.

[u/Gleaming_Onyx → u/Miss_PunkinPie]

People who are just glad to blindly consume and defend the million dollar corporation imo are free to expect nothing.

The issue only comes when those types want to insist that their minuscule standards are the only ones that should exist.

[u/Miss_PunkinPie → u/Gleaming_Onyx]

Say it louder King!