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World of Tanks

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World of Tanks
Developer(s)Wargaming.net
EngineBigworld[1]
Platform(s)Windows
Release
  • RU: October 30, 2010
  • CHN: March 15, 2011
  • EU: April 12, 2011
  • NA: April 12, 2011
  • SGP: March 8, 2012
  • VN: March 16, 2012
Genre(s)Action, Strategy
Mode(s)Multiplayer

World of Tanks is a multiplayer online game developed by Belarusian company Wargaming.net featuring mid-20th century era fighting vehicles. It is built upon a freemium business model where participants have the option of paying a small fee to advance at an accelerated rate. The focus is on player vs. player gameplay with each player controlling a tank or armored vehicle.

The game models the effects of both armor and cover and include more than 140 armored vehicles from the Soviet Union, Germany, France, and the United States. Britain and Japan have also been confirmed to be in development. A planned "Tree of Europe" has also been confirmed featuring Italian, Swedish and Polish tanks with Hungary and Romania possible.[3][4] The vehicles have been carefully detailed with historical visual accuracy,[5][6] but as this is not a tank simulator, certain parameters (e.g. reduced main gun characteristics-range and penetration physics have been simplified) and in-game controls are very user friendly for gameplay.[7] Eventually, there will be around 500 vehicles available in the game. World of Tanks was released on April 12 2010 in Russia. One year later it was released for the People's Republic of China, later becoming available for the territories of Europe and North America.

World of Tanks is the first game of the Belarusian company Wargaming.net to be released under "Play 4 Free" model, which will see the game released for free with revenue generated from micropayments in the form of in game currency, which can then be used to convert free experience gained on acquiring Elite Status in a vehicle. To convert free experience a player is required to spend money to purchase the in game currency, "gold". Converting free experience into usable experience is not free of charge.[8]

World of Tanks holds a Guinness World Record in the category of Most Players Online Simultaneously on one MMO Server, although its specific genre remains disputable. The record was registered on January 23 2011 when the number of players on the game’s Russian server totaled 91,311.[9] This record was beaten by the European server on 13 April 2012 during the anniversary special weekend where all players could after entering a code be a Premium account holder for a day. Numbers of over 105,000 were recorded during this period.

On October 4th the game reached 40 million subscribers, with record-breaking 500,000 concurrent players online on one server based in Russia.[10]

Game modes

The players in World of Tanks can choose four primary types of battles: random battles, team-training battles, tank-company battles, and clan battles.[11]

Random Battles

In random battles, there are three types of battle; Standard, Assault and Encounter.

Standard

For Standard battles, the goal is to capture the enemy flag/base or eliminate all enemy tanks within 15 minutes.

Assault

In this game mode, an attacking team has to capture defending team's base or eliminate all tanks within 10 minutes.

Encounter

Two teams will fight for a single neutral base or eliminate all enemy tanks.

Team Training

In this mode, a player can make a room and select the map to play. It can be decided to be open to the public, or by invitation. This mode is used for experiments with various tank mechanics, learning new maps, strategic planning and movement, and the great place to train someone. There are no experience points or credits gain in this mode and any repairs need for vehicle are free except for expended shells and equipment (consumables used).

Tank Company

A player with premium account can create a team in four divisions. Each division has different tier points requirement. Companies are available in 4 divisions. Junior, Medium, Champion and Absolute.

Clan Wars

Clan Wars is the browser-based, multiplayer, military and geopolitical component of World of Tanks. The Global Map is Clan Wars' theater of operations, divided into provinces currently limited to Europe, The Middle East, Northern and Western Africa. The gameplay of this mode is based on the strategic struggle between clans for ownership of provinces on the Global Map. In this game mode armored forces of different clans are represented by chips. The number of a clan’s chips is equal to the number of players in the clan that have played at least one battle in any vehicle of Tier V or higher. Such players provide one chip to the clan no matter how many vehicles of Tier V and up they have played. Every clan possesses one headquarters. Headquarters can be relocated from one province to another and is used to dispatch clan’s chips from reserve to Global Map. Commanders and Deputy Commanders manage chips distribution on Global Map. Other clan members can observe the location and movement of their clan’s forces and headquarters. Once a battle is placed, fifteen minutes before the battle starts, the normally grayed out special battles at the top of the screen will become active, from there you wait in a lobby that is similar to the company battle's lobby until the battle starts. Once the battle has ended, all Clan members are notified in the announcements section at the bottom right of the game whether they lost or have won the battle.

Clans

Clans are also in the game for a more in depth involvement with the game. There are many different clans that mainly compete in tank companies. All clans are different from what they need and want from the members of the clan. Some focus on heavy tank battles, while others might train in artillery and light tank rushing tactics.

Vehicle Types

World of Tanks has five different types of vehicles. These are: Light tanks, Medium tanks, Heavy tanks, Tank Destroyers (TD), and Self-Propelled Guns (SPG's), or more commonly referred to as "Arty" (artillery).

Most tanks have a 360 degree turret, able to traverse around all directions, regardless of the facing direction of the hull. Other tanks, mainly the TD's and Arty, have limited fields of fire. In order for these tanks to aim a different direction, the tank's hull must rotate around to face the direction of fire.

Light tanks are used most often as scouts. They are fast and agile, however rather fragile and easily killed/destroyed. Players use them to quickly advance to the enemies starting location to spot for friendly artillery. They have excellent topped-out speeds, and can turn and maneuver rapidly.

Medium tanks vary in their tasks. They have larger guns than Light tanks and more armor, yet are slower travelling. They may be used to counter the enemy Light tanks, or used to strengthen the friendly Heavy tanks. Medium tanks have both fast and slow setups with heavy and light guns. Typically, the faster Medium tanks will have a smaller gun, and the more armored Medium tanks will be slow and can be equipped with larger guns.

Heavy tanks have very large guns and can usually take the most damage. They typically have very slow acceleration due to the weight of their armor. This tank is the power-house of the team.

Tank Destroyers have some of the largest guns, and are more often the 'snipers' of the team. They can have some of the longest vision ranges, and are able to sit further back from the front lines due to their more precise targeting system, remaining out of sight while firing on the enemy. They usually have extremely heavy armor on their front, but weak armor on their sides and rear. Like the artillery, they most often must rotate their tank in order to change a major direction in their line of fire, though American tank destroyers are offered in two tech tree branches, the conventional TD design with no turret, and a turreted line.

Artillery (SPG's) have the largest range of all tanks. With upgraded guns, they may be able to reach all the way across the map from the furthest corner. They have some of the most powerful guns, along with TD's. However they have, along with Light Tanks, some of the weakest armor.

Clan wars

World of Tanks has implemented a never-ending campaign with Clan Wars unfolding on the Global Map. The Global Map with a particular part of the Earth has been introduced and split into certain districts. Clans (or blocks of them) fight for these provinces. In the course of time other continents will be added so there’ll be a chance to take part in battles for superiority somewhere in the desert areas of Africa or tropical jungles of Asia. To form up a clan one must gather a team of at least 15 players with up to 100 participants. Joining a clan will open new opportunities for the player – they will be able to take part in "Clan Wars" special battles. However, those willing to stay away from clan membership will be able to pay in-game gold to purchase a mercenary license in the future. This will enable that person to be recruited by clans on special occasions. There will be a method for both political and non-political methods of waging war and gaining control and power over their own and foreign territories on the global world map. Diplomacy will play an important part in Clan Wars as there would be various options available – non-aggression pacts, mutual aid treaties, intelligence sharing or free pass for allied armies.[12]

Custom features

Various two-tone and three-tone camouflage schemes are available for all tanks, including both historically accurate patterns and game-specific, custom variants. Camouflage is available for temporary use (7 days or 30 days) by paying with freely earned in-game credits, or for permanent use by paying with gold purchased in the World of Tanks (WoT) store. [13]

Since 8.0 was released, players can now place National Flags, pre designed slogans and camouflage that will increase the chance of remaining undetected.

History

According to the developers' account, the concept of the game came to their minds on December 29 or 30th, 2008.[14] The game was officially announced by Wargaming.net studio on April 24, 2009. Developers claim that the game budget was the greatest ever in the game industry of CIS,[15] but there has been no independent proof of this claim.

Alpha testing of the Russian version of the game began September 2009, with only six different vehicles (Su-85,BT-7,T-34,Pz IV,Hummel,Tiger) and one half-baked map available. By the beginning of the closed beta test, which started on January 30 2010, several dozen vehicles and three maps were completed.[16] In three months, the number of beta tester requests approached 40,000, and over 400,000 tank battles took place.[17]

Open beta test of the Russian version started June 24 2010; at that point, there were 7 maps available, along with over 60 Russian and German vehicles.[18]

Closed beta test of English version of the game began on July 8, 2010.[19]

The Russian version of the game was officially released on August 12, 2010;[20] however, due to technical difficulties, the game servers went online on August 13.

According to Wargaming.net official press release, the number of World of Tanks users worldwide reached 700,000, including 500,000 users on Russian servers (350,000 active players), and 200,000 on Western servers (150,000 active players). The number of peak concurrent users exceeded 43,000 on Russian servers and 10,000 on Western servers. The average active gamer spent 3 hours 20 minutes playing the game every day; over 10,000,000 battles have been fought since September 2010.[21]

By January 4 2011 World of Tanks had recorded more than one million registrations worldwide (Europe, Russia and the United States. This milestone was reached in less than a year since the launch of the closed beta in Russia.[22][23]

On January 5 2011 there were 74,536 players simultaneously online on the Russian World of Tanks server, which, according to Wargaming.net, had become a world record amongst MMO games.[24][25] The "Most players online simultaneously on one MMO server" world record was officially registered by Guinness World Records on January 23 2011 and constituted 91,311 players.[26]

According to the game's official site, the Russian server hit the one million registration mark on January 18 2011.[27]

The open beta of the English version of the game was launched on January 27, 2011;[28] the official release was scheduled for April 12, 2011.[29]

The World of Tanks pre-orders were scheduled to be available for the American and European clusters before the game release.[30]

World of Tanks was released on April 12 2011 in Europe and North America.[31]

On May 24 2011 total number of registrations for all three game servers reached 3,000,000 players (2,000,000 on Russian server and 1,000,000 on Europe and North America).[32]

On November 18 2011 the public test of awaited version 0.7.0 was started. Two new maps are released based on the fjords of Norway and the swamps of Eastern Europe. New texture for tanks also introduced.[33]

On January 16 2012 the Chinese "buy-only" premium tank, the Type 59, was removed from the in-game store. The announced reason was the very high usage of this tank in the game, which reduced the diversity of different tanks at the higher levels. Type 59 will still be presented in the game and used by the players who already bought it. It will be again available only through special events, periods which will be announced in advance.[34] On February 2, 2012, a gold Type 59 tank was made available as a "buy-only" item on the Chinese server.[35][36]

On September 27 2012 World Of Tanks has been updated to 8.0. This update has been one of World Of Tanks largest updates since the game started out in 2010 (well over 1.2GB), introducing the new physics update with an updated graphics engine along with new normal and premium tanks.



Reception

World of Tanks has received favorable reviews, and currently holds a Metacritic score of 80 out of 100.

Awards

  • The first prize for the "Best Online Client Game", KRI 2010.[43][44]
  • "Best New Concept" award on E3 2010.[45]
  • "Best Free MMORPG" according to the MMORPG Center’s 2010 Player’s Choice Awards.[46]
  • "Most Anticipated Free MMORPG" according to the MMORPG Center’s 2010 Player’s Choice Awards.[46]
  • "Most Anticipated MMO in 2010" according to the MMOSITE's Reader's Choice Awards 2010
  • "Favorite Strategy MMO in 2010" according to the MMOSITE's Reader's Choice Awards 2010 [47]
  • Guinness World Record: Most Players Online Simultaneously on One MMO Server [9]
  • "Gold Award" from Gamers Daily News [48]
  • "Best Game" KRI 2011[49]
  • "Audience Award" KRI 2011[49]
  • Best «Game that Needed the Award» Award from Gamepro on E3 2011[50]
  • «Rising Star Award for E3 2011» from mmorpg.com[51]
  • «Best Use of Online» Develop Award 2012[52]

See also

References

  1. ^ Games powered by BigWorld Technology, Bigworldtech.com
  2. ^ World of Tanks FAQ, Worldoftanks.com
  3. ^ GeneralDirection (Developer), You Ask We Reply: Upcoming Tanks Answers, Worldoftanks.com
  4. ^ French armor to invade World of Tanks[dead link]
  5. ^ World of Tanks, IGN
  6. ^ Brennan, Seraphina, World of Tanks rolls onto the MMO battlefield, massively.com
  7. ^ Frequently asked questions, Worldoftanks.com
  8. ^ World Of Tanks – Q&A
  9. ^ a b Guinness World Records: Most players online simultaneously on one MMO server
  10. ^ http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/world-of-tanks-surges-past-40m-registered-players/0103889 World of Tanks surges past 40m registered players
  11. ^ "Game Modes".
  12. ^ freemmostation.com World of Tanks exclusive interview
  13. ^ http://worldoftanks.com/news/819-prepare-yourselves-some-stealthy-tanks/
  14. ^ "Интервью с Wargaming.net о World Of Tanks" (in Russian). Gamestar.ru. Retrieved 2011-03-07.
  15. ^ "World of Tanks — танковая MMOG от Wargaming.net" (in Russian). Maxigame. Retrieved 2011-03-07.
  16. ^ "Итоги альфа-теста "Мира Танков"" (in Russian). World of Tanks. Official developers' blog. 2010-01-25. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  17. ^ "Подведены итоги закрытого бета-теста World of Tanks" (in Russian). WorldOfTanks.ru. 2010-06-18. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  18. ^ "Начался открытый бета-тест игры World of Tanks" (in Russian). WorldOfTanks.ru. 2010-06-24. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  19. ^ "World of Tanks Closed Beta Begins". WorldOfTanks.com. 2010-06-08. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  20. ^ "12 августа — день официального онлайн-релиза" (in Russian). WorldOfTanks.ru. 2010-08-13. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  21. ^ "World of Tanks Reaches Half Million Active Players". Wargaming.net. 2010-11-16. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  22. ^ "Количество зарегистрированных пользователей в World of Tanks превысило 1 000 000 по всему миру" (in Russian). WorldOfTanks.ru. 2011-01-04. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  23. ^ "World of Tanks Boasts One Million Users". Eurogamer.net. 2011-01-04. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  24. ^ ""Мир танков" установил новый мировой рекорд" (in Russian). WorldOfTanks.ru. 2011-01-04. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  25. ^ "World of Tanks Sets New PCCU Record". GamersHell.com. 2011-01-06. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  26. ^ "Most players online simultaneously on one MMO server". GuinnessWorldRecords.com. 2011-01-23. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  27. ^ "В "Мире танков" на русскоязычном игровом сервере зарегистрировался миллионный пользователь" (in Russian). WorldOfTanks.ru. 2011-01-18. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  28. ^ "Official Open Beta Begins! World of Tanks Open Beta Launched for Europe and North America". WorldOfTanks.com. 2011-01-27. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  29. ^ "World of Tanks Release". WorldOfTanks.com. 2011-03-17. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  30. ^ http://www.armchairgeneral.com/world-of-tanks-special-pre-order-pricing.htm World of Tanks Special Pre-Order Pricing
  31. ^ http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/04/12/world-of-tanks-released/1 World of Tanks released
  32. ^ http://game.worldoftanks.com/news/general_news/new_milestone World of Tanks - A New Milestone
  33. ^ http://worldoftanks.com/news/853-public-test-update-v70-started/
  34. ^ http://worldoftanks.eu/news/947-type-59-game-store-removal/
  35. ^ http://wot.kongzhong.com/tank_recommend/59G/59G/
  36. ^ http://games.sina.com.cn/o/n/2012-01-13/1121573613.shtml
  37. ^ World of Tanks on GameRankings.com
  38. ^ World of Tanks on Metacritic.com
  39. ^ World of Tanks Review on Gamespot.com
  40. ^ World of Tanks Review on IGN
  41. ^ World of Tanks Review on Eurogamer
  42. ^ PC Gamer UK, June 2011, p.96
  43. ^ KRI 2010 results
  44. ^ Wargaming.net Wins Best KRI 2010 Game Developer Award from Critics in Russia
  45. ^ Massively's Best of E3 2010
  46. ^ a b MMORPG Center’s 2010 Player’s Choice Awards results
  47. ^ MMOsite Reader's Choice Award 2010 Winners Announced!
  48. ^ GDN Gold Award
  49. ^ a b Награды КРИ 2011
  50. ^ Best «Game that Needed the Award» Award
  51. ^ Rising Star Award for E3 2011
  52. ^ BigWorld-Powered World of Tanks Wins «Best Use of Online» Develop Award
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