Hi Tankers! For this piece we have a slight departure from my more factual writings, and delve into one of my fantasies. And before you ask, no I'm not talking about sharing a jacuzzi full of jelly with a cute Mexican midget, I'm talking about my fantasties for World of Tanks.
Today I muse over ways to improve the quality of gameplay at higher and lower tiers, by encouraging players to stick to the tiers most appropriate for their particular level of skill.
The EXP Pandemic
Do you remember how long it took to get your first Tier X? Granted you were probably chasing multiple lines, or giving up when getting stuck on a particularly difficult tanks, but it probably felt like a lifetime.
Pretending for a moment that credits aren't an issue, let's take Object 140 for example. From MS-1 to Object 140 is a grind of roughly 1.1 million Combat XP. With cards on the table, my all-time EXP average is 503XP/battle. Within that average of 503XP/battle, roughly 51% of them are wins, so assuming a win produces 2.5X the amount of XP that a loss does (since you get a 1.5X EXP Bonus, plus you tend to have played better than you did on a loss) we can assume an average of 723XP/win.
For the purposes of calculation and comparison, let's pretend I'm dedicated to the game, but have a few other real-life responsibilities. I can squeeze in 4hrs per day of gaming with each battle averaging 8mins. That gives us 30 battles per day.
To collect the required 1.1M EXP on a Standard Account, we need to play:
- 503XP/battle x 30 battles per day x 70 days = 1,056,300XP - 723XP/win x 2XP on First Victory x 70 days = 50,610XP = 1,106,910XP So with my current average XP yield at 30 battles per day, it would take me 70 days to pick up an Obj-140 from an MS-1 stock grind on a Standard Account With the old Wargaming.net premium account, you could earn 50% more EXP, thus: - 503XP/battle x 30 battles x 48 days x 1.5 Premium = 1,086,480XP - 723XP/win x 2XP on First Victory x 48 days = 34,704XP
= 1,121,184XP Under the same conditions, it would take me just 48 days to pick up an Obj-140 from an MS-1 stock grind on a Wargaming.net Premium Account. Assuming credits weren't an issue, I could therefore get the tank three weeks sooner than if I ran a Standard Account. More recently, the World of Tanks Premium Account was introduced, improving the benefits of the Premium account while restricting those benefits to one particular Wargaming title. In addition to the 50% Credit and EXP boost, WoT Premium Account gives players the ability to apply a 3XP modifier to their wins 5 times per day, thus: - 503XP/battle x 30 battles x 36 days x 1.5 Premium = 814,860XP - 723XP/win x 2XP on First Victory x 36 days = 26,028XP - 723XP/win x Selective 3XP x 36 days x 5/day = 260,280XP
= 1,101,168XP
Under the same conditions again, it would take me just 36 days to pick up an Obj-140 from an MS-1 stock grind on a WoT Premium Account. Assuming credits weren't an issue, I could therefore get the tank nearly two weeks sooner than I could on a WG.net Premium Account and a whopping seven weeks sooner than on a Standard Account. This potential to accelerate the grind through the WoT Premium Account means I can grind the required EXP in just over half the battles. This also doesn't take into account EXP bonusses from special events such as Holiday Ops, EXP Fever or On-Track, although these factors apply to Standard and Premium players equally.
The Bubonic Blueprints
The introduction of Blueprints has also created pathways to significantly reduce (or even skip) the duration of the grind after all prerequisite modules have been unlocked.
I am personally not a fan of Blueprints in World of Tanks, as all you're doing is skipping the part of the grind where the tank has its best modules available to you and should be performing at its technical peak, the quality of crew notwithstanding.
Having said that, many experienced players are goal-focussed in their tech tree grind and may be chasing a particular tank for Personal Campaign completion or having a larger selection of preferred tanks for Competitive Play. In this case it is not uncommon to see Blueprints or Free XP used to aid this process, and to be fair it is not these experienced players which create the negative impacts for quality gameplay.
Quality of Play at High-Tiers
The EXP Pandemic and Bubonic Blueprints have resulted in many players possessing the ability to race through the tech tree at a pace that belies the time (or number of battles) it takes for them to have their "lightbulb moment" and understand how to actually play the game.
This pool of poorly skilled players in the upper echelons of the game results in a significant reduction in the quality of gameplay for more experienced players where they witness: - Poor mastery of game mechanics
- Poor map awareness and positioning
- Poor familiarity with the role of the tank
An imbalance of such players and the resulting sense of a complete loss of control over the battle outcome is particularly frustrating and demoralising for experienced players. Undoubtedly this must also create a frustrating user experience for players who simply aren't ready to play in that league, but persist in climbing the tech tree as quickly as possible in search of a bigger stick. The problem is, until Tier X is reached there is always a bigger stick to *BONK* you and players who excel at handing out the *BONK*ings.
Quality of Play at Low-Tiers and the Seal-Clubbing Paradox
The selective tiering system of World of Tanks lends itself to be abused by Seal Clubbers. Seal Clubbers are highly experienced players who make virtual careers of driving the very best low-tier tanks with the very best crews and equipment. Their aim is to inflate their winrates, statistical position and egos at the expense of new players trying to come to grips with the game, existing players trying to grind a new line or (in the case of the ANZ Server) bots introduced by Wargaming to populate the lower tiers.
Such is the extent of the problem that it is not uncommon for experienced players to drop back to low tiers with Seal Clubber tanks themselves with the view to giving career Seal Clubbers a good ol' paddling. However to paraphrase an infamous quote from Battlefield: Bad Company 2 user fucksnipers: "He who clubs clubbers risks becoming a clubber himself. As you grip the club, the club grips back"
The problem here is twofold; New players may be put off wanting to progress further and decide to leave the game before they've even started. The more tenacious new players do not find their first somewhat-balanced PvP game experience until Tier VI, where tanks truly start to specialise for their individual battlefield role. New players are therefore forced to master game mechanics concurrently with appreciating their battlefield role.
Aside from new players, this is also a frustrating experience for experienced players who might be dropping to start a new tech tree line, and do so with stock modules and unskilled crews. With only a handful of human players per side on a poorly-populated ANZ Server, career Seal Clubbers can have a powerful influence on the outcome of the match.
PR's Fantasy Solution is in your BUTT
With overly-experienced players frequenting lower tiers and insufficiently-experienced players frequenting higher tiers, solutions must be found to restore quality gameplay to World of Tanks. So other than the jello-filled jacuzzi complete with vertically-challenged companion, my fantasy is thus:
1) Check out your BUTT
World of Tanks routinely collects data on player performance, and outputs this various forms such as WTR. While WTR lacks transparency as to how it's calculated, we are told that it is a superior metric to WN8 as it considers factors beyond kills and damage, and weights them according to the role of the vehicle. Higher WTR scores can therefore be expected the more you play the tank in its intended role. So what if, using WTR or other agreeable metric, there was a mechanism for the game to identify the optimal tier for a player to exist in for a particular tech tree line such that they would be challenged on the battlefield without punching above their weight or playing to the detriment of the development of other players or retention of new players? What if the game client could provide this feedback to a player as to where they should be playing for their best World of Tanks experience? Let's call it "Best User Tier for Type" or BUTT for short. I'm sure there are folks in Wargaming marketing that can come up with something better, but for now Sir Mixalot approves.
Unfortunately while you can show someone the door, it is still up to the individual to walk through it. To this end, other measures may be necessary.
2) Sit on your BUTT less
Queue times are a sensitive issue for many tankers, so avenues to reduce queue time are always welcome. To this end, I propose players that queue to suit their BUTT are given priority in the queue. This priority degrades exponentially as players queue in higher or lower from their BUTT, but players should not be penalised where: - They have insufficient EXP to unlock the next tank on the line - There are no other players in queue of tier compatible with their BUTT
In summary, if you want to Seal Club you'll have to wait. If you want to play beyond your means, you'll have to let the adults go first.
3) Get a BUTT load of credits
Not every experienced player at low tiers is an asshole. For some, having the illusion of control of outcome over a match might be a means of unwinding after an IRL day where a modicum of control has been elusive, or an escape from a bloody onslaught at higher tiers where the spirit of cooperation and combined arms tactics has been sorely lacking. But does someone's decompression session need to necessarily come at the expense of new players or new grinds?
In addition to priority queue time, players queuing to suit their BUTT should benefit from increased Credits/EXP, let's say +15% when queuing on your BUTT. Players queuing +1 tier outside of their BUTT should earn the nominal rate, while players operating >+2 tiers beyond their BUTT should earn -15% Credits/EXP. By playing to suit their league, players should be able to pull credits out of their BUTT. But once again, players should not be penalised where: - They have insufficient EXP to unlock the next tank on the line - There are no other players in queue of tier compatible with their BUTT
The BUTT of the Argument
My proposed BUTT mechanic achieves the following: - Penalises those who intentionally play to the detriment of player development. - Rewards those who play to their capabilities while challenged
- Disregards penalty where suitable matchmaking is unavailable
With this in mind, I am not oblivious to the fact that the World of Tanks Matchmaker is already a complicated and fickle beast, as well as a subject of much controversy. Were longer queue times to be the by-product of such an exercise, I strongly suspect players would be prepared to forgo a little more time in-game to improve the quality of the time spend a little longer in queue
