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Saturday, July 06, 2019
The mod that ruined the game
Most players of World of Tanks use the XVM mod, either as standalone or as part of a modpack. The mod requires you to log into the XVM site at least once every two weeks, at which point it updates your statistics. In exchange you get to see in the game the statistics of the other players. That is very helpful information, as it gives you a better idea how dangerous an enemy tank is. No, it doesn't really measure "skill", but a mix of skill and gear in past games. But that still means that the player marked as "tomato" red probably is overall less dangerous than the "unicum" purple player.
However that color coding of players leads to lots of insults flying towards the "tomatoes". Thus players not just want to get better at the game, they want to get better displayed stats. Which is not the same thing, as stats can be padded. And one of the most effective ways to pad stats is to play well equipped tanks with good crews at lower tiers, where many enemy tanks will have less good equipment and crew.
The overall result is what is called "seal clubbing", lots of more experienced players in low tier games racking up lots of kills against new players. That seriously discourages new players from continuing to play, which is the main reason World of Tanks is in decline. Nobody wants to be a noob forever, but leaving noob status requires the constant influx of new noobs, so yesterday's noob can now feel superior to somebody. Scare away the new players and the whole edifice crumbles slowly over time: The least good players leave in frustration, making the next better strata of players into the new permanent victims, until they leave as well. And so on.
What is really remarkable in World of Tanks is that the game company itself uses much better scoring systems. Everything in the game is designed to drive you towards higher tiers. If XVM wouldn't exist, seal clubbing wouldn't make much sense as it doesn't really give you much progress. It is player-designed formulas for WN8 "skill measure" that drives players to ruin the games for new players. If the "skill measure" formula would count against what tier of tank you dealt damage instead of treating all damage equally, the picture would look a lot different. And Wargaming would have an actual chance to attract new players into World of Tanks.
However that color coding of players leads to lots of insults flying towards the "tomatoes". Thus players not just want to get better at the game, they want to get better displayed stats. Which is not the same thing, as stats can be padded. And one of the most effective ways to pad stats is to play well equipped tanks with good crews at lower tiers, where many enemy tanks will have less good equipment and crew.
The overall result is what is called "seal clubbing", lots of more experienced players in low tier games racking up lots of kills against new players. That seriously discourages new players from continuing to play, which is the main reason World of Tanks is in decline. Nobody wants to be a noob forever, but leaving noob status requires the constant influx of new noobs, so yesterday's noob can now feel superior to somebody. Scare away the new players and the whole edifice crumbles slowly over time: The least good players leave in frustration, making the next better strata of players into the new permanent victims, until they leave as well. And so on.
What is really remarkable in World of Tanks is that the game company itself uses much better scoring systems. Everything in the game is designed to drive you towards higher tiers. If XVM wouldn't exist, seal clubbing wouldn't make much sense as it doesn't really give you much progress. It is player-designed formulas for WN8 "skill measure" that drives players to ruin the games for new players. If the "skill measure" formula would count against what tier of tank you dealt damage instead of treating all damage equally, the picture would look a lot different. And Wargaming would have an actual chance to attract new players into World of Tanks.
Labels: World of Tanks
- posted by Tobold @ 9:33 AM Permanent Link
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You blame the players but in would say the fault rest only with Wargaming. They know seal clubbing exist and yet dont stop it.
If they really wanted to they could do things like require x level crew to be placed in x level of tank tier. That way you'd have a natural progression with your crew and have your more experienced crews in your higher tier tanks. That also prevents maxed out crews from being used for seal clubbing.
Then again Wargaming would probably gave to reduce or remove the cost of moving crews or implement a promotion type system where crews can be promoted to the next tank tier for free.
Anyways my point is if Wargaming doesnt do anything about it then it's because either they A dont see it as a problem or B benefit from it or C see it is a problem but is low priority.
If they really wanted to they could do things like require x level crew to be placed in x level of tank tier. That way you'd have a natural progression with your crew and have your more experienced crews in your higher tier tanks. That also prevents maxed out crews from being used for seal clubbing.
Then again Wargaming would probably gave to reduce or remove the cost of moving crews or implement a promotion type system where crews can be promoted to the next tank tier for free.
Anyways my point is if Wargaming doesnt do anything about it then it's because either they A dont see it as a problem or B benefit from it or C see it is a problem but is low priority.
As an outside perspective, and from someone who doesn't play the game, I have to wonder why the mod was developed in the first place. The community surrounding a game has to come to some kind of a unified consensus that an add-on(mod) provides something of value, is needed, and somehow makes the base game better or more fun to play. Can you play the game without the mod? And if you can, what kind of win condition/feedback does the base game provide after a win/loss, and why is it considered so lacking?
I don’t think it is necessarily your own win rating that people are interested in. Without the mod you can’t easily see the win rate of others. Knowing how “skilled” or “geared” your opponents are is what most players want from the mod.
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