Throwing in the Towel - Goodbye !

[Reppic27 78]

Fellow purples,

I decided to uninstall WoT, for me uninstalling isn't something I do lightly. It made me sad which is why I'm writing to you about it. I feel by doing so I can put this game behind me. Also not sure if some of you know me or have played with me but if you want to keep in touch and/or play games together message me and I'll shoot you over my steam ID.

 

Let me apologize for this long post, I will try to make it as small as possible whilst getting my point across.

 

A few things happened today which are in essence a summary of my pains these past 2-3 months. With the corona virus going on and my (sadly) reduction of hours, I've had more time to play and with that I've realized some pretty big issues not only with the game, it's playerbase, but also myself and how I interact with games.

 

Today:

 

1. Tier 8 Heavies (played a variety) shelled constantly by arty. Generally one arty doesn't bug me. Two, depending on how accurate they are starts to cross the line. Three is unbearable. Luckily today I haven't had 3 arty hit me but I've had x2 M44s chip away at my health. In a slow heavy being perma stunned is itself the worst goddamn feeling in this game. No matter how good your crew, food, bounty equipment, whatever... it renders your tank useless. Equivalent of playing with a handicap, forcefully. How is that in any way / shape / form remotely "fair" ? I started to really challenge this game's ability to be fair in just the basic forms. Arty is by far the best example of how fractured the logic of this game's tank classes are. People don't use arty for what it's meant to do. Why would they? Humans don't act like binary robots. They see a target they shoot at it, what's worse is RNG rewards those who take impossible shots, because luck sometimes plays a role and rewards players for doing so. 

2. WoT playerbase, I struggled with this one for a long time. I had always thought I was being some sort of prick. Last months through various posts / threads on the forums and in-game toxicity I've come to realize how daft the NA server overall player base really is. I say NA because I spent 3 months in Germany and started an EU account and you don't see half the shit in EU than you do in NA. I really don't know why. Maybe its the language(s) diversity? Most bad players really believe they aren't the problem, conversely to them, it's everyone else's fault, always, every time, with any and every excuse imaginable. What's worse is how this is portrayed in the forums. When someone decides to complain about arty, I've seen that person met with overwhelming toxic banter from players who CLEARLY have absolutely no idea of simple game mechanics. Further, when you try to explain to them just that, you are now suddenly arguing with several others who are all in the same boat. This has pissed me off more than anything else the game had to offer. 

3. "Bad" Teams, to simplify this, it ties in with playerbase but it goes deeper. I look at my Wn8 and sometimes I'm baffled. How can I be over 3k when I feel the games are too quick and 80% of the time I don't do well (enough). Yet you look at some of these players on these teams and you can't stop to wonder... WTF do they do in a match? How is sitting in the back for 14 minutes, then doing 1 shot of damage fun? Or inversely, YOLOing, doing no damage and dying in 2 minutes. How do people continue to do this time and time again over several thousand battles? I played a string of games today where I died mid-way if not at the tail end of the game, majority of those games, I looked at what I did in terms of how bad did I cripple the enemy, and assess the likelihood of winning based on my team's position and tanks remaining. I called a win 6 times. 5 out of 6 were losses. I had to look at the replays, it is mind blogging how bad people can play this game. I really feel my 7 year old nephew could play better. 

4. The big picture. Looking at the equipment 2.0 system just hit the nail on the head for me. WG doesn't seem to understand it's playerbase, either that or worse, the majority of the playerbase are feeding WG "mis-information" of what is truly needed. Hence, since the majority are just shit, WG will implement ideas which the majority will either appreciate or benefit from. I can't fathom the idea of arty being MORE accurate than it already is.

It really saddens me to leave especially when I think of how great this game is, it's ruined by it's playerbase. This is a complicated game, one that really forces you to use your brain, but the majority don't either because they can't or worse they are too lazy. Thus you get this toxic community of 45%ers who blame the team for a loss each and every time. 

 

I can't do it anymore. 

[M4A3E8sherman 155]

The skill level of the player base has somehow managed to drop precipitously over the past few years. Seems it's uncommon to find even a single other person in a match whose winrate breaks above 54%.

[Ezz 1,770]

I just accept the shitters and the toxicity they cause and click battle. For catharsis play an alt.

Beyond that best of luck finding a new hobby. I'm told there are many rewarding ones out there.

 

[SchnitzelTruck 3,600]

Didn't read, but good for you. If you replace wot with something else life becomes a bit more enjoyable. It sucks when your hobby is rage inducing and rarely fun or relaxing.

[kolni 69,670,872]

1 hour ago, SchnitzelTruck said:

 It sucks when your hobby is rage inducing and rarely fun or relaxing.

get good nerd, it's relaxing to squash peasants 

[Tigeh 84]

Sad to see you go, happy if you find something you enjoy more. Sunk cost fallacy is truly a thing on this game.

I took a 3 year break, and while my financial circumstances have changed a lot since I started playing I'm still enjoying just messing around in a few specific tanks (Bourrasque, ELC Even 90, Panhard and Mutant being the main 4). Now I'm just finishing off honours on missions that eluded me and taking a leisurely look at the 'new' campaign. I hope if you come back you manage to do so with a better outlook - you can't help the pubbies but a lot of the most toxic play I see isn't from people who don't know what they're doing - it's from people farming damage and throwing a game into a loss from a team, people refusing to light, refusing to go fight heavies in their Defender because they want to pick on tier 7 mediums and tier 6's and their platoonmate has the vision they lack, etc.

 

Still, we can only play our own game - and on that note I need to turn chat off so i can't call another selfish prick a "feces-brained, arsebreathing turdlord of a cumtissue' in the next battle.

[Wanderjar 298]

good luck hunting for a satisfying new hobby out there. let us know if/when you find one

 

[Reppic27 78]

2 hours ago, Wanderjar said:

good luck hunting for a satisfying new hobby out there. let us know if/when you find one

 

 

I'm trying. Started looking for other games that can satisfy a long-term desire of being able to play on/off for years. To me, that's the hardest part.

 

With WoT, because of all the tanks and maps, it doesn't get repetitive too quickly. 

 

It's interesting to put effort into searching. I did, after college, 5-6 years ago take an almost 18 months break from WoT, but I recall it was a time when massive amounts of A titles were being released.

 

Today, I find few that really keep my attention. I did give CoD:MW a try but its too fast paced and the battle royal mode, generally I get one kill and then die, you spend 5-6 minutes running around the map for about 10 seconds of action.

[Snoregasm2 646]

Playerbase hasn't gotten worse, you've just gotten more jaded. It happens, and i'm not criticising.  Equally, the game has changed, but I wouldn't call it more frustrating than 7 or 8 years ago (perhaps a little more on balance, but it isn't night and day) - every era has some bullshit (+/-4 MM, arty one shots, physics abuse, TD meta, stuns, armour meta, wheelie boi meta). It's just that initial thrill of 'cool, a tanks shooter' doesn't last 8 years, and once that goes you need something else to keep you playing beyond the sunk cost fallacy mentioned above.

I've adapted over the years to remove (mostly) satisfaction I get from winning to focus purely on my own performance and, primarily, damage. I've also really, really tried to improve, and seeing the results actually make me feel good. Yeah, I still get annoyed and sometimes a team is just so retarded that it is hard to not get mad at them, but mostly I leave chat turned off and accept that wanting to be good = struggling to accept being bad. I try to always blame myself, i.e. I didn't die/we lost because my team are retarded - instead I think that I didn't get 2k more damage because I assumed my team would support/be competent, which is my fault. If i'd played in a way that didn't rely on my team being active (maybe just relying on them dying in x place and therefore spotting y enemies that I can farm), then I could have got more out of the situation. It sounds counter-intuitive, but I find it really helps maintaining enjoyment/keeping rage down.

I hope you find something you'd rather play man.

[nikorda13 7]

1 hour ago, Snoregasm2 said:

Playerbase hasn't gotten worse

Ehhh, im not sure about that. It seems to me that the average player has indeed gotten worse the past year or so. I even have (anecdotal, but still) evidence for that:

So, a year or so ago (right at the time the Chieftain was introduced, I was like fuck this shit) I uninstalled the game and havent touched it for a looong time. Since I don't care about anything below tier 8, I played a lot of tier X tanks and most of them were at around 80-90% mark of excellence. So, I take a long break, start playing again and gradually get the courage to start playing tier X again. First game with E5 - went form 92 to 97%. Cent AX went from 87 to 92%, M48 from 77 to 85%, 5A from 85 to 90% and so on and so on.

Not a single tank increased its expected values, and some actually got laughably low (S Conq now requires only around 4,3k dmg to 3 mark, which is ridiculous for that beast of a tank).

Of course, its not just skill level (I believe its mostly cuz of ebr spam and lower HP pool but still), but i believe it has something to do with it...

[hall0 1,095]

See you in several months or a year.

I´ve been where you are. I even sold my account. But after a year and a half I came back, like the crack addicted I am. And so did many others I know.
When you come back try the game with a different approach. I for example almost completely stopped playing T10. Something I probably would have never done on my old account. Found my new sweet spot at T9 and just playing and derping around. And with derping around I dont mean I throw rounds on purpose. I am just more relaxed than before. I don´t feel the urge to win every round. 

[Reppic27 78]

28 minutes ago, hall0 said:

See you in several months or a year.

I´ve been where you are. I even sold my account. But after a year and a half I came back, like the crack addicted I am. And so did many others I know.
When you come back try the game with a different approach. I for example almost completely stopped playing T10. Something I probably would have never done on my old account. Found my new sweet spot at T9 and just playing and derping around. And with derping around I dont mean I throw rounds on purpose. I am just more relaxed than before. I don´t feel the urge to win every round. 

 

1 hour ago, Snoregasm2 said:

Playerbase hasn't gotten worse, you've just gotten more jaded. It happens, and i'm not criticising.  Equally, the game has changed, but I wouldn't call it more frustrating than 7 or 8 years ago (perhaps a little more on balance, but it isn't night and day) - every era has some bullshit (+/-4 MM, arty one shots, physics abuse, TD meta, stuns, armour meta, wheelie boi meta). It's just that initial thrill of 'cool, a tanks shooter' doesn't last 8 years, and once that goes you need something else to keep you playing beyond the sunk cost fallacy mentioned above.

I've adapted over the years to remove (mostly) satisfaction I get from winning to focus purely on my own performance and, primarily, damage. I've also really, really tried to improve, and seeing the results actually make me feel good. Yeah, I still get annoyed and sometimes a team is just so retarded that it is hard to not get mad at them, but mostly I leave chat turned off and accept that wanting to be good = struggling to accept being bad. I try to always blame myself, i.e. I didn't die/we lost because my team are retarded - instead I think that I didn't get 2k more damage because I assumed my team would support/be competent, which is my fault. If i'd played in a way that didn't rely on my team being active (maybe just relying on them dying in x place and therefore spotting y enemies that I can farm), then I could have got more out of the situation. It sounds counter-intuitive, but I find it really helps maintaining enjoyment/keeping rage down.

I hope you find something you'd rather play man.

Some good points here. Thanks for taking the time to write this.

 

I hope if I ever do come back it isn't because of the addiction but rather out of desire. One thing I have going for me is persistence, so I'm hoping this applies here and thus I won't come back in a couple months. I am expecting a new born soon so crossing my fingers that keeps me away. 

Regarding the playerbase, I have a hard time believing I am more jaded. It's possible but in my personal life I've matured quite a bit and it shows in how I play versus my college days where I raged constantly and broke a keyboard or two. To me, it isn't about the playerbase being bad, we all know they are. It was also proven using a stat website that the playerbase (comparing only WR) has remained within 0.1% for the past 5 years. I wasn't surprised.

Where my issue lies is with the toxicity AND deflecting. Back in the day bad players either claimed luck or knew they were bad. Today it's either rigged or any other excuse under the sun. I mean common, people actually believe spending money in WoT gives you better statistics. It's gotten out of hand. 

Who knows what the future might bring, but I am desperately searching for an alternative. 

 

[Deus__Ex__Machina 989]

56 minutes ago, hall0 said:

See you in several months or a year.

I´ve been where you are. I even sold my account. But after a year and a half I came back, like the crack addicted I am. 

i really felt that

[Snoregasm2 646]

1 hour ago, Reppic27 said:

Regarding the playerbase, I have a hard time believing I am more jaded. It's possible but in my personal life I've matured quite a bit and it shows in how I play versus my college days where I raged constantly and broke a keyboard or two. To me, it isn't about the playerbase being bad, we all know they are. It was also proven using a stat website that the playerbase (comparing only WR) has remained within 0.1% for the past 5 years. I wasn't surprised.

Where my issue lies is with the toxicity AND deflecting. Back in the day bad players either claimed luck or knew they were bad. Today it's either rigged or any other excuse under the sun. I mean common, people actually believe spending money in WoT gives you better statistics. It's gotten out of hand. 

To be fair, I can't comment on NA, and I guess everyone speaking English mean bads will defend their shitty actions when called out on it rather than responding in Polish, if they even respond at all. It kind of ends up at the same place though - they're either too dumb to realise they're bad, don't care or too paranoid/stubborn to accept it is their fault - whichever it is, they've always existed and will always exist. The trick (which I'm still trying to learn - no one is perfect), is taking their play out of the equation completely. And the good thing is, it works both ways - bads can be on both teams, and if they're on the other team they're a free farm to good players.

[SlenderMoose 0]

Take care!

[Ezz 1,770]

It's an aside to the core topic but things like average win rate of the player base mean little as to overall quality. A pool of bots playing each other will have the same average win rate as a pool of cum.

As to expected values, I've noted a lot of fluctuation based on what's meta and who's playing tanks. Plus, if you turn around the thought and question what would make the values drop, it's because it's harder for people to do damage. Either because as per your theory, the players are worse, or because it's harder to farm because everyone else is better. It's one of the reasons comparisons between server gameplay jump out. Some servers appear to have more of the 'paid actors' making farming easier.

Personal opinion, there are more bots now than ever, while the humans out there have improved slowly. Most now understand vision, most get angling, most even aren't afraid to use gold. All of which make it tougher to farm.

[Jesse_the_Scout 2,098]

The players have gotten "worse" in that the bots have gotten just good enough it's harder to tell. I've played some games in the early morning lately, and at mid tier there is a river of bot accounts all with bland, short names, all using the Excelsior to spam games and literally no games in any other vehicles. I shit you not I've seen as many as 5 in one game at a time, more than once. I see them at high tier too, but they shoot and do enough that unless you watch very closely and notice their gun moving too smoothly for a human for too long you can't differentiate them from the grade school horde that invaded after covid. We all used to joke about when the bots someday get better than the pubbies, but it's more like a blending. 46%ers using bots that can play at 42% level when they're away resulting in rivers of 43%-45% win rates.

[Reppic27 78]

I tried Modern Warfare warzones... nope can't do it...

 

World of Warships seems relaxing enough though it isn't as engaging as Tanks, so I need to find something in addition to Warships and I think I'll be set.

[H4NI 138]

try playing blitz, its wot but without all the cancerous features.

[Reppic27 78]

On 6/13/2020 at 3:20 AM, H4NI said:

try playing blitz, its wot but without all the cancerous features.

 

I gave it a try, I feel it's like playing a dumb-down version of tanks. Something for kids for example , it didn't grab my attention too long.

[CandyVanMan 526]

Go outside, gaming isn't a healthy hobby.

It's for killing time.

[Fulcrous 2,073]

Not spending time on tanks has paid massive dividends for me. Overall enjoying the days I'm off work much better now.

[1bravo9 2]

Good luck, and I hope you find a game that makes you happy!

[arthurwellsley 132]

When you inevitably come back to World of Tanks.

Make an EU or RU account.

Cons = worse ping.

Pro's = much larger server populations and different game play.

 

I have accounts on NA, EU, and RU. From personal experience the servers play very differently.

NA - full communication in one language, no agreement, and bads still being foolish and not listening.

EU - more campy less communication, but more sophisticated 49%ers.

RU - I find that once an opening occurs such as a 2vs1 the players here are much more willing to push hard at a perceived point of weakness.

My Cyrillic is non-existent so I would recommend EU unless you can speak Russian.

[Panzergraf 68]

SA - if you play tier 5 and below, MM will fill both teams with bots due to low server population. It's actually relaxing.