Russian Ministry of Defense: WoT like Real Tanks

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Source: http://ria.ru/defense_safety/20140914/1024032459.html

Hello everyone,

an interesting piece of news appeared on the ria portal. According to the Chief of the Main Armored Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Russian Federation, Aleksander Shevchenko, the teams in the World of Tanks computer game remind him of real armored units of Russian military. According to him, World of Tanks professional players have all the data needed to control real tanks and to be successful in Russian military service.

He said that during the opening ceremony of the International Cup Championship “Kubinka” event, in which players from South Korea, China and Russia are participating. The championship took place on Russian Tanker’s Day at Kubinka museum. According to Shevchenko, Wargaming is actively cooperating with the Russian Ministry of Defense in promoting the interest of youth in tank history. Shevchenko said: “I am certain that there are future generals of our tank forces amongst the current WoT champions.”

SS: If RU armored forces really resemble WoT teams, world has absolutely nothing to worry about with Russian armored units shooting each other, camping in their bases, calling each other noob etc…

85 thoughts on “Russian Ministry of Defense: WoT like Real Tanks”

  1. “Russian armored units shooting each other, camping in their bases, calling each other noob etc…”

    He’s talking about the e-sports teams, not the randoms.

  5. If it works with U.S.A and fps games, hell, why not comrad ! Let’s catch them when they’re young !

    • If tanks were drones maybe!…..you still need 80% grunt even in a modern AFV, these guys would knock themselves over if they farted !
      However, after thinking about it, 20+ years in a cold dark Russian bedroom playing PC games on a warmed up potato, I bet they are small enough to actually fit into a Russian AFV :)

      • No, you dont have 80% grunts in modern avf’s. Im a format Leopard 2A4 tanker myself and everyone there was highly qualified.

        I also know how what is ment by the MoD.
        The majority of the training is done on simulators where you go through various scenarios where you train most common situations and terrain forms. If you are a gamer (like i was when i started training in tank school) you have a MAJOR advantage over recruits who dont game. You not only have a “feeling” for the simulator, you also have a feeling for where to place your tank, where you have optimal angle of attack, where your retreat corridors are. I’ve seen people (who failed training) who just drove their tank in the middle of a field and where killed instantly, or went to face the enemy frontally. If you have some experience in games like WoT you will know that you dont do such things. You know to flank or you know how to use your tanks advantages.

        Its not that you instantly know how to drive a tank, but you learn a lot quicker and you are more effective in using that experience.

        The US recruits pro-Arma players, why shouldnt other recruit WoT Pros for tanking. Makes absolute sense.

        • I know a Danish tanker who bitched about the RNG during training. He was quite right of course, he was in fact fucked by the RNG, but we did make a lot of fun of him nonetheless. It just sounds so preposterous. Just like this sounds bizarre, even if it does make (a little) sense. Just think of the numerous ways to play WOT that make sense in game, but would be retarded in real life.

        • Lol ARMA is 10 times harder and more complex than this fckin online piece of crap… Trust me, I like to show off my skills in ARMA with tanks, but it’s just so hard.

          On the other hand, WoT makes you depend on ballistic computers and predefined conditions.

        • Because most of the techniques that are so good in WOT will fail miserably on real battlefield – side-scraping, double bushing, face hugging, running around like moron with light tank “scouting”, circling, cupola sniping. All those techniques are great in arcade game, but will never ever work in real life.

          I will not even talk about map knowledge, which make half of the success in WOT – you know what positions your tank can use, what dips is enough to go hull down, etc. Good luck with that in real life. You will never ever have such detailed knowledge over what terrain you will be fighting in. Not to mention that tanks are not the only threat on the battlefield – planes, helicopters, infantry can also feast on tanks – threats that do not exist in WOT at all.

          It is a mere recruiting drive, nothing more. And it is understandable, as Russia is currently actively trying to create as many enemies as it possibly can.Weird goal if you would ask me.

          • You didnt understand it. Its not about using the same “tactics” that exploit game feautures in eal life. Its the softskills. Battlefield awareness, fast problem solving and decicion making applying certian factors, and so on. You took that too literaly. Go apply for some tank school and you will see how much you can use from WoT in real, you would be suprised.

          • Okay missread that, still, what do you need strenght for in a modern mbt ? For pushing buttons ? Everything electornically driven. Okay in a german tank the loader still needs to hurl around shells, but those arent particulary heavy either.

  6. yep, WarThunder would be better example due to lots of 1shots… however, I hate WT for teams with mentality: “STAY back and let them WIN”.

  8. I get he means transferable skills, but to say “World of Tanks professional players have all the data needed to control real tanks” is very wrong. 99% of them wouldn’t know how to start the ignition of a T-80, let alone operate the damn thing (or command a professional crew). I’d say a Macdonalds team manager has better transferable skills when it comes to tank command.

    Unless he’s talking at a tactical level (e.g. platoon command)? In which I still doubt they have ALL the data

    • I would add few more things. A good player knows that he must not be overly exposed otherwise the punishment will come. Another important thing is to know how to face your enemy with your tank (armor wise). There are enough examples of n00bs in RL turning their tank and running away instead of retreat backwards (from the book of Otto Carrius, “Tigers in mud” part where he describes badly trained Jagdtiger crew getting killed from behind). Not to mention idiots that expose their flanks instead their front armor.
      One more thing that comes to my mind is the situational awareness and the feeling you have for the battlefield. I think in game experience can greatly improve understanding of the battlefield.
      And what about usage of hull down position and gun depression where only small part of tank is visible.
      I rather have unicum in a tank as crew (or a commander) than a tomato. tomatoes that are still tomatoes after 20k of games means they are unable to learn or understand the basic mechanics. They probably lack the capacity for it so probably they will lack capacity in a real tank.

      • I’d rather have a trained tank commander and two tomatoes in a tank than three unica that have been told they already know everything they need to know about operating a tank.

        • I dont. A tank is really not hard to figure out. Even you who probably never sat in a tank would be able to score a kill, even alone.

          In combat situations a 15 minutes briefing would be enough to be able to participate in active fighting. Show the loader how to load new shells, show the gunner how to aim the gun and switch coax/main and switch thermo/optical and you are done. Thats only a few buttons, the rest is taken care of by the commander.

        • I don’t think it’s about ‘operating the tank’. This is a pretty straightforward knowlege that can be taught relatively fast. He is talking about the general battle awareness that can’t be taught easily, moreover there is a seriouss difficulty in finding those people who have natural talents for it. WoT professional players are definitely better candidates for tank commanders than average men.

          Just like with driving a car. Everyone can be taught to drive a car, sooner or later. But definitely not everyone will be succesfull in particiapting in car races.

          BTW, it amuses me, who the fuck are we to discuss an opinion of a highest rank officer. We do not know a shit compared to him. It’s like discussing neural surgeon actions by kids in the sandbox…

          • When recruiting the WOT pros as tank commanders inform them that there are no med-packs that can revive dead commanders. After that they will politely refuse the position :) the tank commander is usually the primary casualty in this game.

            • Unless you’re in a kv-5 then it’s your unfortinate radio operator, might even be an option to bring in a reserve radio guy: D

      • “I would add few more things. A good player knows that he must not be overly exposed otherwise the punishment will come. ”

        So it looks like there is very very few such players…I have yet to see one. ..considering the amount of arty whiners… sitting like a duck 50 seconds on the same place and then crying arty hit him :D

    • ” I’d say a Macdonalds team manager has better transferable skills when it comes to tank command.”

      emm, how exactly, hes talking about PROFESSIONAL players, not below 50% WR randomers.

      • Remember how potatoes/tomatoes below 50% keeps denying that anyone above 50% is better than them?

        I bet he’s thinking of same thing.

  9. E-sport teams are quite different from random tomato teams.

    Oneshots in RL are quite boring btw, dont know who will play tanks in RL :) We complain about arty, but imagine what it is in RL with airstrikes, mines, infantry with RPG`s and antitank missiles and all that shit going on.

  10. “Russian Ministry of Defense: WoT like Real Tanks”

    Oh boy oh boy, are they going to be surprised that in real life their Guns are shit and generally cannot hit a barn door, their Tanks blow up (do they come with 105mm/120mm holes in them from the factory?) when you fart on the turrets…..LOL Russian STRONK

    • Oh yes, perhaps that’s the reason they were in front of Warsaw in summer 1944. If the tanks were better they would already be in Berlin.

    • Cant hit a barn door ? I could hit a CD (yes, compact disc) pinned to a wall with a the Leopard 2′s 120mm Main gun at 2000m back when i was gunning .. Cant imagine that russian tanks are that more inaccuratre.

      • With a digital ballistic computer and digital (so much electronics wow) stabilisation system…

        Turn them off and try the same thing, tanker boy.

        • Why should you turn it off ? Its there to be used. Every half modern tank has a guidance computer and stabilzed gun.Noone said anything about having to aim optically, which, on that distance, is impossible anyway since the sights dont magnifie that much so you can make out the target with your eyes.

          Also, i shot enough with all off. Part of training. Handcranking and manual spotting/sighting. Still managed a 98.5% hit rate.

  11. If you are the Chief of the Main Armored Directorate and you are short of volunteers for your army what you’ll do? You’d lie that WOT players are good candidates for real tanks and tadam you have at least few amateurs to play with your toys.
    Something simillar hapened after the movie Top Gun when every kid in ‘murica wanted to be an aviator and some of them joined the Air Force only to be disapointed for reality.

    • Meanwhile, in real world the woul-be conscripts pay heavy money to avoid draft. The obligatory service in the red army is considered a hell hole, with a ton of almost formal abuse: Dedovshchina

      • If them traitors do not want to serve our glorious nation then we shall have their money. No problem. Why you see a problem in that? Nothing to see here, move along.

        And no, those green men are not from russia. End of story. Paka, i need to run now. Have a vodka appointment.

  14. Am I reading this right ???

    “According to him, World of Tanks professional players have all the data needed to control real tanks and to be successful in Russian military service.”

    So he says that they can just pop into real tanks and they will exactly in 100% know how to operate this tank ?

    Omg…

    • You missread his statement, he means that you have a FAR better starting ground for training as an effective tanker if you played a lot of tanking related computer games. You dont know how to operate a tank instantly (thou its really not that hard as you might imagine), but you have a far better battlefield and tank awareness.

      • He sais that for a average recruit the training program may look like this: basic tank handling 2 months, cooperation within a tank unit 6 months, combat training 12 months.

        For a WOT professional it would be: 2 months, 2 months, 2 months and he would achieve same level as above in six months instead of 20 months.

      • That totally doesnt make any sense. Operating a tank in game and operating a tank in life are two totally different things. You dont have a WSAD inside the tank. Any player that never was inside a tank and never saw how it works wouldnt be able to do anything.
        Not to mention that this game is far from being realistic

        You can say that you will have better starting ground for playing real drums after playing drum kit on Guitar Hero/Rock Band series because its pretty similar (not like GH/RB guitars and real guitars)
        But you cant say that you have better starting ground for operating a tank after playing arcade tank game

        Seriously, this Shevchenko guy…is insane or smth

        • You are taking it too literaly. Noone said you can drive a tank after playing wot or go to war with a keyboard.

          What he said and ment is that games have a much better training foundation for training than someone who never contacted tactical games. Its a scientiffically proven fact that gaming enhances your problem solving ability and awareness, same applies to wot and real live training.

  16. There is a problem with that. When you use the WoT-players you need a shit ton of gold ammunition. Otherwise you have to many bounces of that pesky NATO-tanks.

    • Jes, russian tenks stronk tenks. Bat uan peson is not inof in ril lajf. U nid uan mor person for the distill det mekys vodka for de engin end drajver.

  20. WoT players can drive tanks in real life the same way CoD and BF players can shoot in real life. Not at all. These games are arcade, they barely resemble the mechanics in real life. WT GF might not be amazing, but it presents a more realistic picture. Same goes for FPS like ArmA or Operation Flashpoint.

    • You are taking it too literaly. Noone said you can drive a tank after playing wot or go to war with a keyboard.

      What he said and ment is that games have a much better training foundation for training than someone who never contacted tactical games. Its a scientiffically proven fact that gaming enhances your problem solving ability and awareness, same applies to wot and real live training.

      Also, when i was in the army we actually played a lot of OPF to test out tank tactics. We built the scenario in the map editor, even placed infantry, fortifications and everything and then let our fellow platoon buddies play it and watch how they could handle the situation. Was a great way to sharpen your perception and awareness skills.

  21. Da good little sheeps, real tanks are exactly like tanks in WoT. One day you will ride superior russian tank and squash like bugs pig disgusting capitalist tanks of western fascists for glorious mother russia.
    And if you … I mean WHEN you come back you’ll get a chest full of medals and bag full of potatoes.

  23. ” According to him, World of Tanks professional players have all the data needed to control real tanks and to be successful in Russian military service.”

    I had to lol at this one.

    Sure, apart from having a brain, knowing how to handle 4 buttons and a mouse will surely make you a successful tanker IRL.

  25. “SS: If RU armored forces really resemble WoT teams, world has absolutely nothing to worry”
    Don’t tempt the devil, SS. You are still butthurt about the last time RU tanks visited your country.

  27. I wonder whether he considered the “psychical” health of these “gamers” …
    I mean… I dont think that raging and killing someone just because hes blocking your path in RL is acceptable.