Enjoy!

Hello everyone,

before we start, let me say something first. You know how come there are so many leaks? Why Wargaming people can’t keep a secret for long? Let me tell you. It’s disgruntled employees. It’s natural in a way, if you treat your people like shit, they’ll take the first chance they get to tell someone about it – people love to talk. And then, that “someone” tells me. This is not however such a case – this is something else, a classic disgruntled ex-employee. Thanks to the anonymous CZ player who sent me this :)

Remember Ellendway? Some of you might – especially the Czechoslovak community, he’s one part of the former community organizer duo Ellendway/Karlie. While Karlie moved on to e-sports, Ellendway either left the company or was fired, I don’t know (heard both versions). Now, you know what’s one of the rules on any job? “Don’t slander your ex-employer”. Unfortunately for him (and fortunately for us), Ellendway broke that rule, when he commented with his profile under a Czech portal article about World of Tanks: Generals. Czech readers can have a look at what he’s saying in original, but I’ll translate it for you. And of course a screenshot, just in case he decides to delete his comments (happened before).

What he says about WoT Generals:

“Last time I played it, it was when I was working at WG and the game was in early alpha testing phase. The game was slow, boring and practically impossible to understand. Compared to Heartstone, it was insane.”

He continues to comment about Wargaming EU salary policy (pay attention if you want to apply to WG) – he replies to a person, who said that it’s possible the game evolved in the meanwhile and he’d see that, if he continued to work there.:

“Thanks, but I’d rather do a solid job, where they give me more than a minimum wage and I can afford to live and not survive :)”

Interesting. I always thought WG pays well. When another commenter claimed it’s possible that WoT is no longer as profitable, he replied:

“Unfortunately, the tanks are more and more profitable. More and more people supports them and buy premium accounts.”

And when questioned about details, he adds:

“Well, since I worked for them for more than a year, unfortunately I have to say that the income gets higher and higher. Of course, it’s not as easy as just looking at the EU server and saying it’s losing profits. In Russia, there are still over 900k players online (or not?) and now the Xbox version and the mobile Blitz…
You have to understand that 99 percent of players do not complain in discussions, they are sitting and playing. And unfortunately also paying. That’s one of the reasons why I left. When the employer doesn’t care what’s going on with the game and the main thing that matters to him is that each month he gets gazillions of USD, it’s hard to do anything…”

Interesting, especially the last part. Of course, WG is no charity, we all know that. Makes me wonder how much exactly do they care about the game though.

Hello everyone,

another reworked Prokhorovka appeared on the superstest server. Check this out.

The green zone landscape was completely changed (mostly levelled from what I can tell). The circles represent new buildings added for cover and the purple zone had its environmental objects changed (some stones and such were added for cover).

Hello everyone,

23rd of February is the Defender of the Fatherland day in Russia. Originally, it was known as the “Day of the Soviet Army” (or Red Army) and it traces back to 1919, but it was renamed after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 to its current name and in 2002, Vladimir Putin made it a national holiday. Basically, it’s like Women’s Day, but in reverse – this time, it’s women, who give the men some presents. You might have noticed that yesterday, a rather large event from RU server was published on FTR – well, that’s that.

Wargaming made a special ad for this event too – and, well… see for yourself. Technically, there’s probably nothing really wrong with it, but the amount of WoT stuff in it is almost awkward. No Russian language, doesn’t need subtitles.

With that 70 Euro (or how much it costs) mouse though, somehow, I don’t think this picture represents the current Russian family very correctly. But I guess we all have different priorities.

Hello everyone,

While we’re on the topic of cross-border gaming culture — it’s funny how many of our German clan members have mentioned that watching foreign-language WoT content is the least of their worries when it comes to international gaming. Since the new Glücksspielstaatsvertrag came into force, a lot of them have started looking at casinos ohne deutsche lizenz for anything beyond the very narrow slot deposit limits and slow round timers that domestically licensed sites are now stuck with. Same instinct, really — when the local version comes loaded with restrictions, you reach for the international one. Whether it’s a Russian-language tutorial for a British tank or an offshore platform with a wider table selection, the gaming community has always been pretty good at routing around limitations.

Anyway — give the video a watch. The 183mm gun is genuinely a thing of terror when used right, and seeing how the top RU server players handle the platform is worth the subtitle-reading effort.

Hello everyone,

and here’s ANOTHER tier 2 light tank, Renault R35. That’s right: the upcoming French tier 2-5 minibranch will have two regular tier 2′s. It will look like this:

And the model of the vehicle:

Characteristics (elite setup, top gun, 100 percent crew):

Tier: 2
Hitpoints: 170 (155)
Engine: 82 (105) hp
Weight: 10,579 (12,334) tons
Power-to-weight: 7,75 (8,51) hp/t
Maximum speed: 23/12 (24/12) km/h
Hull traverse: 34 (34) deg/s
Terrain resistance: 1,151/1,247/2,397 (1,055/1,247/2,301)
Turret traverse: 24 (24) deg/s
Viewrange: 300 (280)
Radio range: 290 (300)

Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

continuing the Somua S35 minibranch leaks, this is the upcoming 9.7 regular tier 2 light tank, FCM 36.

Characteristics (elite setup, top gun, 100 percent crew):

Tier: 2
Hitpoints: 155
Engine: 105 hp
Weight: 12,334 tons
Power-to-weight: 8,51 hp/t
Maximum speed: 24/12 km/h
Hull traverse: 34 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 1,055/1,247/2,301
Turret traverse: 24 deg/s
Viewrange: 280
Radio range: 300

Continue reading →