2. Overview
-Multiplayer online game (15 vs 15)
-Tanks (Tracked, armored fighting vehicles)
-Made by Wargaming.net
-Approx. 20 million e monthly revenue
-Over 65 million registered users (500k concurrent)
-Reviewer played the game since 2010 beta
-Reviewer used the help of another 2010 beta player,
special thanks to his help.
3. Core loop
Play “Battle”
Gain resources, 50% more for winning,
another accumulative 50% for Premium.
Repair & Rearm “Resupply”
Energy mechanic money sink,
Ammo, repairs and consumables cost credits
and/or gold.
Upgrade “Research”
Upgrade requires resources and exchanges
them to power and progress, acting as gates.
4. Currencies
Gold
Hard currency for World of Tanks.
See pricing on the image at the right side.
Credits
Soft currency for World of Tanks
Exchange rate from gold to credits is 1:400
5. Currencies
Free Experience
Experience that can be used on any vehicle,
players gain 5% of their total experience as a bonus
free experience for each battle.
Experience
Experience that can be used only on the vehicle it is gained on,
or exchanged to free exp with gold.
6. Monetization
Premium Account
“Premium account gives 50% more credits and 50% more experience per battle, helping
you to progress faster in the game.” - also presented heavily ingame.
- Can be bought as a direct purchase or with gold.
- Unable to meaningfully progress in the game without premium after/around tier 6, making it effectively a subscription fee.
Pricing:
72 500c + 16 days 15.10 €
1 day 1.25 €
3 days 2.42 €
7 days 5.08 €
14 days 6.99 €
30 days 9.35 €
90 days 23.20 €
180 days 41.85 €
360 days 70.22 €
7. Monetization
War Machines A.k.a: Premium vehicles
-Special tanks
-Earn more credits, lose less in resupply
-Useful in crew training
-Can be bought on directly on the store or ingame with gold
-Essential for credit gain on high level play (Type 59)
Examples:
VIII T-34-3+Slot+7 days 39.21 €
VI Type 64+Slot 13.48 €
VIII T26E4 SuperPershing+Slot 24.68 €
V Type 3 Chi-Nu Kai+Slot 7.14 €
IV Valentine II+Slot 5.27 €
III Pz.Kpfw. S35 739 (f)+Slot 5.27 €
II T2 Light Tank+Slot 4.38 €
9. Monetization
Gold (Main monetization of WoT)
-Premium Tanks (750g to 12000g)
-Premium Ammo (for example, tier X ammo for AMX 50 B: 12g per 1, making it 48g due to magazine size)
-Dismounting Equipment (10g)
-Permanent Camouflage Pattern (1 of 3) (tier X: 250g for camo, 150g for inscriptions and emblems[max 3])
-Buying Credits (400c for 1g)
-Convert Experience to Free Experience (48exp for 1g)
-Train Crew or purchase perfect crew on tank purchase (200g per crew member)
-Bigger Garage (1 slot 300g)
-Bigger Barracks (16 slots 300g)
-Clan Creation (2,500g creation, 500g emblem enabling. etc.)
-Changing nickname (2,500g)
10. Social
Ingame
+4 Main chats: General, Tank Companies, Clan and Platoon chat.
+Ingame VoiP with platoon members.
-Poor chat arrangements lead general chat to be ignored. (like in all games truth be told)
-In competitive games, the chat can turn toxic easily.
Social media
+Facebook, Twitter, Forums, Podcasts, News videos, Trailers, Interviews, heavy marketing(even on TV).
+Campaigns monthly, sometimes multiple times a month, promoting the game and monetizing.
+Localization to many different languages.
-Huge differences in communication and events, Europe “gets the least love”.
-Core Dev team nearly never takes player feedback seriously, frustrating the hardcore players.
11. Retention
Double exp for the first victory with each tank the player owns
(3x and 5x exp on special dates to draw in inactives)
+Gives a reason to play with the tanks, especially if player has limited time to play.
+So integrated that it is nearly transparent.
-It’s easy to realize with some critical thinking how meaningless it actually is. (double exp is just 2 matches)
-Having a “bad” victory round take the double exp is a very negative session experience.
12. Retention
Constant updates
+Gives new maps, tanks and features.
+Keeps the game content “fresh” preventing inactivity and drawing inactives back.
-Often changes the game balance drastically, possibly making favorite vehicle unplayable. (AMX 50B)
-Due to lack of acceptance of player feedback, dev’s can add unfavorable tanks over tanks wished by the community.
-Usual “balance issues” used to monetize from new content. (New content is nearly always too powerful to sell well)
13. Retention
Missions
Missions are special tasks you need to achieve during a set amount of time to gain a reward.
+Gives new reasons to play the game. Especially new reasons to play with specific tanks and tiers.
+Gives new ways to play the game.
+You gain special rewards for completing the tasks.
-Many of the rewards feel too insignificant compared to the effort player needs to put in them.
-Some 25% of the missions are clearly aimed to true HC players.
-Due to the luck factor in the game, some of the missions can be very frustrating to complete, increasing player toxicity.
14. Retention
Social Retention & Heavy Marketing
+All the social media covered.
+Constant updates on social media.
+Participation and holding of events.
+Clan wars and League games are retention mechanics for true hardcore players.
+Platoons and clans offer social game experiences for more casual audience.
+Devs try to be transparent and hold “dev talks”.
-Most if not all events are held in NA and RU, EU having no events.
-Participation on a competitive clan qualifies as having a second job. (As in all competitive games?)
15. Gameplay
Game modes
Random battle
15 vs 15 tanks with various game objectives (capture enemy base, capture a base, capture or defend a base)
Platoon battle
Random battle with up to 2 friends.
Team battle
7 vs 7 with points limits and tier limits.
Company battle
15 vs 15 with points limits and tier limits.
Special battle
Tournaments etc.
Team training battle
Training match where you lose credits from using ammo, nothing from repairs and gain no credits.
Clan Wars
15 vs 15 with no limits (everyone plays Tier X regardless), winning and losing contribute to land control on world map. Each area grants a varying gold income
to the clan. This gold is distributed in the guild by the guild leader, if at all. (250g-2500g daily depending on area.)
16. Gameplay
Mechanics Simplified
Matchmaking
-Players are matched against near their own tier vehicles.
-Players are matched to have somewhat the same skill level averages on both sides, with some notable exceptions.
-Players tend to get matched to their highest tier matches, making them desire the “better tanks”.
Detection & Spotting
-Detecting someone and being detected depend on the spotters spotting value and the camo value and tank size of the player being spotted.
-Crew skills, equipment and ingame obstacles add to the pool of camo value that has some RNG.
Aiming & Shooting
-Aiming “tightens” the reticule by waiting the time depending on player crew skills, equipment the tank and the gun of the tank.
-Firing will RNG the muzzle velocity, angle of the shot and the area it will hit inside the reticule.
-Camo values are reduced to the minimum RNG value possible with the camo modifiers in play against the spotters RNG spot values.
17. Gameplay
Mechanics Simplified (For more info, see: wiki.worldoftanks.com/Battle_Mechanics)
Receiving a hit
-As a hit is being received, it’s angle is calculated against the angle of the armor being hit, with some RNG.
-If the angle is wrong, the hit will ricochet with RNG values, with a small possibly causing damage to whatever part it ricochets with RNG penetration and RNG
damage.
-If the shot angle is right for penetration, it will calculate the RNG penetration value of the shot hitting the armor against the armor value, with every angle from
90 degrees adding a RNG value to the armor against the shot.
-If the penetration is high enough to penetrate the armor, the shot damage is reduced by RNG amount of armor being penetrated.
-Shot area is then checked for internal components, if there are components near the hit area, RNG determines if the components are hit
- If a component is hit, a RNG amount of damage from the shot is dealt to the components hp, the rest being applied to the tank hp.
- If the shot hits no components, all of the remaining damage after penetration is dealt to the tank hp.
- If the shot hits a no-damage zone in the tank, no damage is dealt.
- If the shot is a High Explosive shot, it can cause damage on a larger area but has less penetration.
- If a special component is destroyed, it can result in various different results, such as being de-tracked or the vehicle sets on fire.
- If the tank hp is reduced to zero, the tank is destroyed.
18. Gameplay
Tank types
Heavy Tanks
Heavy tanks are the main tanks used in World of Tanks, the game is largely balanced around them. Their role is to take and withstand damage while dealing it
to enemies.
Medium & Light Tanks
Medium and light tanks are the scouts of the game, with light tanks being mainly limited to detecting enemies for other tanks and mediums having some
firepower on their own, while not having enough firepower to take down a heavy tank, they do have enough mobility to flank a tank destroyer.
Tank Destroyers
Tank destroyers are sort of anti-heavy tanks with big weapons and sufficient frontal armor to take out heavy tanks, to assist them in this job they also have the
best camo values.
Artillery (Self-propelled guns)
Artillery has a special view mode to see and aim the gun from above the battleground, shooting tanks from afar in large arcs.
These tanks do not need a direct line-of-sight and can fire substantial damage from great ranges, with the penalty of long reloading and aiming times.
19. Gameplay
Maps
-Currently 37 maps.
-6 maps in beta.
-Maps are approx. 1km to 1km in scale.
-Max view range for a tank is 500m.
-Themed around ww2 areas.
-Editor tools are top of the line.
-Balancing and greenlight takes months for maps.
20. Gameplay
Upgrades - Tech Tree
Tech Tree has abundance of choice and is a great visualization of progress and its role in WoT.
21. Gameplay
Upgrades - Research
Research allows the allocation of experience (and credits) to tank components that either give better stats or progress.
Cannons
Adds more damage or different type of options in ammunition, accuracy.
Turrets
Allows the installation of bigger cannons, and have different stats.
Radios
Ggreater signal range to see allies and spotted enemies.
Engines
Makes the vehicle faster and/or adds acceleration.
Tracks
Adds weight load capacity and turn speed.
*Note that the part tier adds to vehicle tier, “stock tanks” get better MM.
22. Gameplay
Resupply
Resupply is the most immediate money sink in the game, even the resupply has choices for the player on what to spend their money on.
Repairs
Fix the tank’s hp. Note that you must do this to be able to go to battle.
Ammunition
Arm the tank with various ammo types, usually AP, HE and the premium.
Consumables
Add consumable bonuses to the tank, while the cheap ones player needs
to activate during the game, the premium consumables are consumed at
the start of the game.
23. Good
+One of the leading F2P titles on PC, migrating to consoles and even mobile.
+Approx 20 mil. e monthly revenue.
+Constant updates.
+Over 65 million registered users.
+Over 25% conversion rate.
+Extremely successful monetization.
+The whole “Upgrade” section of the game supports monetization.
+Easy to play.
+Runs on older configurations. (with reduced graphics)
+Has pretty decent variety of play.
+Functioning mechanics.
+Events, competitions and other promotions constantly added.
24. Bad
-Alot of the conversion rate and monetization is due to the fact that the game is near unplayable after
tier 6 without purchase.
-Competitive play is impossible without purchase or gifted gold. (Can be helped by the clan income)
-The game is heavily RNG based, once the player realizes it, the game can lack agency.
-Events are held only in specific regions. (at least hide them from other servers)
-Balance issues. (“Russian bias”)
-Player feedback is not taken into account on game development.
-Gold is slightly too expensive.
-Very high buyer’s remorse on most premium vehicles due to matchmaking.
-Vehicle vanity items still very lacking, while possibilities are endless.
-Discrepancies on regional gold pricing. (EU pays more, possibly due to tax)
25. Noteworthy
7.0 patch added the first vanity items to WoT:
Camouflage patterns, inscriptions and emblems.
-This is due to the immense market on vanity items in online games.
-Sadly there are no numbers to see the impact on revenue.
-WG did not expand the vanity side, it is unclear if it is due to mixed reception or due to other plans.
-Endless possibilities for vanity content.
8.1 patch added the ability to buy the premium ammunition with credits
(previously only gold purchase)
-Made a huge impact with their “free to win” strategy, that they smartly used as a big marketing theme.
-It is likely due to the lack of gold ammo usage on lower tiers and to the stealthy soft currency consumption rate.
-Credit consumption is much more devious and unnoticeable compared to gold consumption, resulting in more
premium account purchases and gold conversion. A win-win scenario for WG.
