WoT player commits suicide

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Source: http://lifenews.ru/news/126013

Uhm, okay, this is some pretty weird stuff. On 13.1.2014, a young Russian Federal Penitentiary Service employee from the city of Kungur by the name of Nikolai Grekhov spent the night from Monday to Tuesday playing World of Tanks and drinking alcohol. His wife told the news that he was obsessed with the game and losing in it made him very upset. After spending a sleepless night and not wanting to go to work, he committed suicide.

So I guess the noobs really CAN drive you crazy…

98 thoughts on “WoT player commits suicide”

  1. Coincidink.

    It might as well be Online Poker…if someone is severly depressed, any further disappointments will most likely lead to this…

  2. Its sad, but its better that he hurt only himself. When i’m in rage mod, i want to hurt others.

  3. “After spending a sleepless night and not wanting to go to work, he committed suicide.”

    i guess he had some more serious problems than bad wot players (and he did not tell about it to his wife)

  5. So, SerB will keep harping on about how WoT is a casual game for the working man? Low barrier to entry doesn’t mean casual. In my book casual means something that is naturally occasional, which WoT isn’t (grind more for next tank!).

    • You’re playing the game wrong. I’m a casual player and I never “grind”, I enjoy the game. A person who has a job can easily afford premium and converting exp. WoT is a very balanced game in terms of amount of resources that people can put into it and still enjoy it together.
      If you play the game like it’s about the grind and getting a certain tank, you won’t enjoy the game as they’re constantly adding new tanks and you’ll be chasing them for a long time.

      • ‘If you play the game like it’s about the grind and getting a certain tank’

        You mean, like a lot of actual players? I guess they should stop playing and giving their money to WG to accelerate grind to the tanks they want.

        • ‘You mean, like a lot of actual players?’
          Care to supply that with evidence and statistics? Or did you make that conclusion just by looking at yourself, a couple of your game-addicted friends and the tiny portion of players who whine on forums about game being too much work?
          If they don’t enjoy playing the game and giving their money to WG, then why are they still doing it? Are they incredibly stupid like Panzerscout?

          • ‘If they don’t enjoy playing the game and giving their money to WG, then why are they still doing it?’

            Because they are addicted… lol

            The whole revenue model is based on players wanting to get more credits or XP faster to get the tanks they want. It’s a fantastical proposition that most players have no goals in mind, and play mindlessly whichever tank is unlocked in the tech tree randomly, happening to unlock some random tanks along the way, and also giving WG money in the process for accelerated unlocking that they don’t care about.

            I never said that most or even ‘many’ players are obsessed, but that clearly the whole design of the system is angling for that direction. Unless you are a pro-gamer, the reason you play is to get the tanks you want (this is even implicitly endorsed in an official WG comic on the Asia server). There is a reason end-game content is a big issue for player retention: once you have nothing else to unlock, a lot of people won’t be interested in playing anymore.

            WoT, like most computer games, is not like Chess or other ‘intellectual’/system-focused games; it depends on content to provide interest. Unlike pay-to-play, where you pay once or in reasonably large chunks that don’t discriminate between intensity of the player, WG absolutely depends on ‘hardcore’ players that are willing to spend money continuously and in relatively large amounts to compensate for the massive amount of users that don’t.

            • Yes, players may have goals such as getting a certain tank. However the most important goal of the game should be to have fun playing it, the game should be about much more than just collecting tanks.

              WoT is like chess in a way that it features an enormous variety of situations and actions you can take to influence those situations, all of that is (player-generated) content by itself.

              There are many players who get the 2-3 tanks they want and enjoy playing those for a long time, not constantly picking the next tank to grind for. Some even just play the lower tiers. There are many players who suck so much that they need the premium account just to be able to play the high-tier tanks they like. There are many other reasons for buying gold besides free xp and premium.

              I am very sure that for most players, the game is about enjoyment and not mindless grinding and work.

  9. As always in the news, they break some logical rules. Typical “post hoc ergo propter hoc” (after this, therefore because of this) mistake. It might be after losing a battle, but not because of it. Some serious psychological problems get explained by EVIL COMPUTER GAMES. And psychological problems don’t just appear (especially given that he was working as guard in prison – they get tested thoroughly), they are caused by some major flaws in social system. His wife knows why, I can guarantee that, but she won’t tell anyone. It’s easier to say that Serb ate his soul.

  10. Just say that: R.I.P.

    And committing suicide is not just a “simple case”. So he should have another problems in his life….

  11. Well after my session of 6 losses and 1 draw (yes no wins) I can confirm that WoT can make you really mad.

    • Please. I once had a 13 loss streak. Recently, I’m winning more and I think it’s the missions – everyone wants the kills, so no damage whoring, ergo faster wins. Especially with my 2.5 kills average yesterday.

      • I’m sure I would have that if I would keep playing. But I don’t want to play since it’s not fun to loose all the time.

    • Although I basically understand how random works (and wins/loses ARE random with small deviation of distribution function depending on your skill), it really pisses me of that I have about 30-40% winrate about 2-3 days of the week, 60-80% winrate about 4-5 days of the week, which gives the total of around 55-65% overall winrate. When I have good days, I get pissed because I don’t play good enough for 75% winrate – I understand it’s just luck. When I have bad days, I get pissed because I play good enough to have AT LEAST DAMN 50%!
      Wow. I really should delete session statistics mod, or I can finish like that guy from the news.

      • Yeah man, chill! As long as my WR stays at 52% I’m cool. Currently I’m on 52.13% and that’s totally cool to me. I have no more XVM as that’s just frustrating, I just play for the sake of it. Oh and I play lower tier vehicles more, I have a tier 10 and three 9s but tier 4,5,6,7 gameplay really suits me well. And I get to play platoon with my friend, who is just about to get his first tier 7 :D

  12. Highly doubtful that he committed suicide because of the game, he most likely had a very difficult life with allot of depression and the game was just the tipping point of the iceberg.
    Suicide duo to depression and alienation is pretty common in Russia and other countries specially Japan, Korea and Scandinavia

  13. wow anyway.. all the best for his family.. it’s never had if someone u know commits suicide :(

    • If he commit suicide that means he was weak and couldn’t stand the real world. If he was a normal person he would have been sorting all his problems out, but he chose the easiest way out – suicide.

      • You are an obvious troll, but you’re also very ignorant. I’m guessing he was suffering from depression. Now you’re thinking “just stop being depressed”, but it’s not that easy. We know depression is caused by chemical abnormalities in your brain you can’t just “think away”. Stopping being depressed is like growing your torn-off arm back.

        • I didn’t say anything about depression, but if you put it that way… You know there are psychologists and medicine that can help treat depression, right? Your fucking argument is invalid.

    • I don’t understand why these guys kill themselves . Why not kill the ones that cause you trouble ? If you fail and they kill you , that is that , but at least you have tried and died fighting .

      Kill the ones that cause you grief , if you die in the attempt so be it .

      Allahu Akbar !

  16. I can imagine SerB’s reaction to this similiar to Frank’s (Bill Murray) reaction when after this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lembVXKlmNc
    ..in the same movie, they showed him the newspaper of an old lady who died of a heart attack watching his commercial:

    - Have you seen the paper, Frank?
    - Ooh, she’s pretty!
    - She’s dead, Frank! This grandmother was watching your “Scrooge” promo and she keeled over. It scared her to death.
    - This is terrific!! I knew that ad worked! You can’t buy publicity like this! Run that promo EVERY half hour! I want a disclaimer. “Anyone with a heart condition MUST not watch.”

    :)

  18. Whoa, that’s pretty hardcore, I thought this happens only in Asia. He was also a penitentiary worker, jail is not a happy place filled with rainbows… perhaps woT triggered something that was yet to come anyway.

    • It rarely happens in Asia, if games makes people commit suicide they are already mentally weak and this most likely caused by their surroundings so in the end the game was not the cause its something that gradually builds up and the games usually tends to be what finally makes it spill over but its rare.

      This is sort of an excuse used by Conservative nuttjobs that games are the cause, but they are just one of many things contributing

  19. you cant know if he was playing wot , souses are not clear about it no one of it name word of tanks.

  21. Meh, this is nothing.

    There have been so many cases of Asian kids literally dying in front of their PCs after playing online games (CS, WoW, etc) for several days straight in a row.

    Or that curious case where a teen killed another teen in an e-cafe by stabbing him several times (due to alleged cheating) then carried on playing.

    Not insinuating that video games make you bad, not by a long shot. The games themselves are fine, it’s the PEOPLE playing them that you want to maim & butcher due to incredible stupidity.

  22. so, how about that skilled mm?

    but something like i’m over 10k matches i should play with players over 10k( in my team), no bots under 50% included!

    • I was going to suggest skill MM (to save lives!), but players will still lose a lot. In the end, I don’t think it matters that much how much the loss is your fault or someone else’s, but simply that you lose. It’s more healthy to play SimCity or something else that you can’t win or lose, or at the very least a non-grind-focused game that is easy to put down.

      • 10k battles doesn’t mean you are a good players….i’ve seen horrible players with far more battles than 10k…yesterday it was some noob with 32k battles….yea….

  23. My mother used to work in the insurance industry. She had seen many strange vehicular claims;

    “In an effort to kill a fly I hit a tree”

    What this turned out to be was that the driver was distracted by the fly, tried to swat it and took his eyes off the road and drove into the tree. It’s not known if the fly survived. Whilst this has nothing to do with WoT or suicide it does show that people are stupid everywhere.

  25. “young Russian Federal Penitentiary Service employee”

    So, was he a prison guard? If so, then no wonder he did what he did.

    During my course I had lectures with a lawyer and he sometimes told stories about prison life (since he used to visit prisons during his career quite often) and some were just terryfiyng.

    Working as a prison guard is one hell of a stressful and risky job.

  28. Has anybody that has commented worked at a corrections facility?…in Russia?…while young…and married…and during winter?…while in your time off you liked to get drunk?…and played WoT?…and neglected your wife?…who is crawling up the walls with horniness?…so scratches the shit out of you for attention?…

    How far did you get? Good. STFU and GTFO.

    When you -just have to!- comment on every fucking life story with a passionate display of empathy, you don’t hide the fact you are autistic…you advertise the fact. Neurotypical people are -able- to feel empathy, but it doesn’t mean they can for everybody.

    The only ones excused are the Trolls, who I might add were not very creative or exploitive of the potential this subject and material had. Must try harder.

    Okay, who wants to hear a dead baby joke? Hahaha, dead babies…little scamps…

    • Empathy is a lie . Hatred will outlive the stars . The History of Mankind proves this . Nothing you can do will change this .

  31. Im not suprised at all. I think there are many people who are straight fucked up and can harm them selves and others due to this fucking game. If we watch the bavior of the players, like willing to spend real money on fictional tenks, TK, swear, threat people in chat. You soon realise WOT isnt a healthy game neither is its community.

    WOT is a grinding style game, which means you either have to play fucking alot or invest in gold, or be good enough to only play few battles to progress faster.

  32. I’m sorry for his family.I hope this doesn’t become blown out of proportion and given as an example of how video games are bad.
    Boy I sure am glad i wasn’t depressed this weekend. Through the grind to get the T-15, I’ve had moments i would have “killed” somebody. Being often top 5 in doing the most damage and losing because something stupid happens like all heavies deciding to camp on the small island on Prokhorovka, etc, can be maddening.

    • Oh, look! Hall of Shame candidate!

      And what the Polish did to you? Raped your mom? Killed your hamster in a microwave oven?

      Oh, no – some of them just suck in a COMPUTER GAME. Obvious reason to gas them all, yes?

      *sigh*

      • the polish exist that’s what they’re doing to me,

        so piss off you American cunt!

        SS already has screenshots of me fucking up the polish chat

        • I’m not American.

          So, you hate Polish just because they exist? Sucks to be you then.

          You seem somewhat proud to be a “hall of shamer”, that means you’re the worst kind of scum that ever walked on this planet. I hope that SS will ban you soon.

          • so why the fuck do you use the word “mom” fucking retard

            also like on WoT, SS doesn’t ban me.

            also again, you call me scum and yet you type SS what a fucking retarded cunt

            • “SS” = Silentstalker for short. In case you didn’t notice – it’s his blog and he can ban people, so they don’t post bullshit in comments. Calling me a retard, while you yourself have mental capabilities of a pencil? Oh, the irony…

              • in case you are a fucked up foreigner, which you are, a pencil isn’t an animate object,

                probably is in your queer countries

                if anything is bullshit it’s your nigger family

                • “in case you are a fucked up foreigner, which you are, a pencil isn’t an animate object,”

                  *sigh*
                  That’s exactly the point. You’re as “intelligent” as an average pencil.

                  So, tell me – where are you from? I’m asking, because it seems that the shithole you live in has no education whatsoever. Afghanistan? Burkina Faso? Mali?

                • what the fuck is it to you, you paedophile where I live?

                  and no, intelligence can’t be used within a simile. not that you’re smart enough to know what one is without using google.

                  at least my shithole will be better than you’re poor communist cardboard box, you little phaggot.

                • Not sure if…

                  Well, no – with each comment of yours, I’m getting more and more certain that you’re mentally retarded. Poor kid. Shame that your caregivers allow you to use a computer, internet is no place for you – psychiatric facility is.

                  Take your medication and have a good night!

                • What the fucks wrong with you!?! Cant you just drop it?

                  Or are you to retarded?
                  Fucking dirty wop, back to your gas chamber with your nigger family

                • Pencil posts random insults! It’s not very effective…

                  *sigh*

                  Those insults are so overused… Why don’t you invent something new in this regard? Be creative! Like: if your mom had a nickname, it would be “SerB.”

                • Sorry, but whilst you were busy cutting yourself and listening to heavy metal, the world moved on to portable computers.

                  So why don’t you stop being such a depressing fuck and hang yourself, the moment that happens all wars will no doubt end, I can’t wait!

                • Wasting your time?

                  Tip: close the browser, switch off the pc, do whatever else you want to do!

                  Ain’t that simple?

                  Oh, well… This kind of super-advanced logic is well beyond capabilities of any pencil, what did I expect?… Silly me.

                • Just hang yourself. Face it the sooner the better, your family doesn’t love you, not that you have a family, but still I’m quite sure they would’ve had you shot out of a cannon.
                  Or, they wouldve had you brutally murdered and nobody to witness it, what a happy time!

              • “James Parker

                Sorry, but whilst you were busy cutting yourself and listening to heavy metal…”

                How is heavy metal related to cutting? Stop showing your retardness, retard.

  38. Meh…A little better…I appreciate the effort though.

    “And in news today, Russian alcoholic found dead by wife…wife says that computer game killed him…police are not at all suspicious…good time was had by all.”

    “New research shows that acting aggressively during online play can lead to suicidal idealations.”

    “I believe the player had just turned blue shortly before death, but his status is expected to degenerate to green.”

    “What smells like bacon and goes thump-thump thump-thump thump-thump?

    A baby in the drier to stop it crying all the time.”

    “What is blue, black, and purple and buried in the forest?

    An unwanted baby that wouldn’t stop crying all the time.”

  40. I don’t believe anybody can be dependent on anything if its not in his/her genes. 60% young people had smoked weed sometimes yet there is only a tiny fraction of real addicts in society. Several millions play WoT yet there is only a tiny fraction who are really dependent on the game. Its not the object its the human = genes.