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Is World Of Warplanes A Massive Failure For Wargaming?


Allan W

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Just logged on to the WoWP server to find 1700 logged in. Went over to WoT to find a total of just under 40,000 players between NA East and NA West servers. I've noticed the wait times for games in WoWP have been steadily lenghtening.

 

Is this a harbinger of failure for WoWP?

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They need to do something, I am finding my desire ebbing as well. Even with x5 they squeaked over 2100 this weekend. Basically I'm a bag of credits for a few very good players.

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Well, it does look like it could be doing better in NA. The EU numbers, IIRC, have been stable at around 10k at prime time, while WoT goes to 200k+ in the same time frame.

 

One part of the problem could be the fact that the NA servers cover way too many time zones, therefore not allowing concentration of higher numbers of players at a given time, other could be that players are on at earlier times in Warplanes and keeping the 17h-22h time slots for playing WoT. but this is just speculation on my part, and it doesn't account for the entirety of the number disparity.

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I think it's the demographics as well. People have had some very good aircraft games to play and the hardcore I suspect find the WOWP models and gameplay lacking. At the same time it's to difficult to stay alive as a newbie. Plus the earning potentiel without premium is horrid. Would be nice that Newbies got a HP bonus to keep them alive longer and that bonus slowly drops away as they get x number of games under their belt.

 

I also don't find the chat very pleasant, either you don't get a response or it's caustic. In WOT you are more likely to get some humour and a positive response.

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That is an issue as well (albeit a minor one) - in WoT you can chat effectively even in the middle of the fight sometimes (behind a rock for few second to write "Cover the other flank", in WoWP you are all the time moving. Learning curve is rather steep for people not used to air combat games and I believe there would be about as many "top notch" players on US server as on EU - but there they are concentrated in much smaller population so more visible, more often matched to low tiers etc.

 

Personally, I would say a solution may be to merge US and EU server, but then there comes the issue of prime times and even of the connected accounts. But I am quite sure our NA colleagues are looking for solutions.

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I also don't find the chat very pleasant, either you don't get a response or it's caustic. In WOT you are more likely to get some humour and a positive response.

 

 

Why am I not surprised...

 

Back in the days when I built plastic models, us builders of AFVs had a sense of humour, while the builders of planes were too anal retentive when it came to details and build quality and are likely to have less humor thank the AFV folks.

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One part of the problem could be the fact that the NA servers cover way too many time zones, therefore not allowing concentration of higher numbers of players at a given time, other could be that players are on at earlier times in Warplanes and keeping the 17h-22h time slots for playing WoT. but this is just speculation on my part, and it doesn't account for the entirety of the number disparity.

The server follows the same population characteristics as WoT. Early in the day only a fraction of prime time numbers are on and that builds up slowly til you hit prime time figures. Despite the low pop figures I've discovered that if you stick to tier 4 and below you can usually get into games in a decent amount of time (for WoWp) at any time of day.

 

As for numbers I just logged in and saw the most I've ever seen with 2100. That's not leaps and bounds above the old high I've seen (2k) but it's some progress. The game has also only been out for 2 months (and WoT didn't jump up to 40k on NA overnight, that's a figure that's been slowly growing since launch). I'll be more interested to see where it's at at 6 months. If those numbers haven't doubled by then I think it's safe to say it's dead (in NA at least).

 

These figures shouldn't be surprising, though. WoT is successful in large part because it has no competition. WoWp has that in WT and frankly the game didn't do much of anything to differentiate itself from that product. It's clear WG is no Blizzard (or rather Blizzard back in the day) that can release a game in a competitive genre, make it better than everyone else, and draw in the crowds because of that.

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I DL'd the euro client and gave it a run. The ping for me is 130ms and the game is playable. It was nice seeing over 100 planes in queue, can't judge the game play from one tier one match, but I will say I didn't see anything surprising. Since I tend to play closer to euro prime time than US I may play a bit more, but not having a link to my WoT account means I won't have any premium time..

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These figures shouldn't be surprising, though. WoT is successful in large part because it has no competition. WoWp has that in WT and frankly the game didn't do much of anything to differentiate itself from that product. It's clear WG is no Blizzard (or rather Blizzard back in the day) that can release a game in a competitive genre, make it better than everyone else, and draw in the crowds because of that.

 

 

 

Then again, if you take worldwide concurrency of WoWP and compare it to WT, the difference is not that big as WT fans seems to try to claim (ca 2x more is not that big difference for a game that's supposed to be "the bee's knees" - and quite a few people who were very publicly leaving WoWP some months ago are now getting back and actually are even being quite open about the reasons)... On EU the concurrency is slowly improving, though we are trying obviously to make it much faster (right now, by a crossover contest).

 

I think it shows (rather than "being there frst" - after all there were online games sometimes with better graphics trying to burst out around the release of WoT and they did not make it... There was competition), planes are less sited for casual gameplay (there is only so far you can go for arcade controls, you cannot do away with the fact it is in 3D and high speeds and that requires simply more skill etc.). It is probably also one of reasons hardcore sims went out of "wide public" fashion some time ago already and went to niche - old popular sims were, by today's standards, extremely arcadey (Aces over Pacific, Red Baron, all the oldies goodies) - but that also meant they were often quite easy. Now... Well, maybe arcadey MMOs will bring people back in, but as demonstrated above it seems that they may be a bit too hard (even such simple like WoWP or WT arcade mode)

 

It also shows that game should not be opened to audience too early. Early Beta was really not that much appealing and lot of people have impressions from back then.

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of the 2000 or so players on, I wonder how many are new, is the recruitment rate equally to the loss rate. I am sure WG knows and won't be saying anything about it at this point

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WOWp's does seem to be taking off slowly (No pun intended). I have played it some, but not much. I got 3 premium planes because they were reasonable. Given my somewhat limited time to play I choose tanks over planes. Bottom line.

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I DL'd the euro client and gave it a run. The ping for me is 130ms and the game is playable.

That's actually playable. I wonder if anyone in WG has given some consideration to merging the US and EU servers?

 

Edit: Considering the time zone differences this change would likely do little to help the population issues for when the majority of NA players are on.

Edited by Skywalkre
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I think it shows (rather than "being there frst" - after all there were online games sometimes with better graphics trying to burst out around the release of WoT and they did not make it... There was competition), planes are less sited for casual gameplay (there is only so far you can go for arcade controls, you cannot do away with the fact it is in 3D and high speeds and that requires simply more skill etc.). It is probably also one of reasons hardcore sims went out of "wide public" fashion some time ago already and went to niche - old popular sims were, by today's standards, extremely arcadey (Aces over Pacific, Red Baron, all the oldies goodies) - but that also meant they were often quite easy. Now... Well, maybe arcadey MMOs will bring people back in, but as demonstrated above it seems that they may be a bit too hard (even such simple like WoWP or WT arcade mode)

 

It also shows that game should not be opened to audience too early. Early Beta was really not that much appealing and lot of people have impressions from back then.

 

What games out there feature tank combat along the lines of WoT? I can't think of a single one. All the games I've played that feature tank combat plus some mix of infantry and air have very simplified mechanics with the tanks a distant afterthought.

 

I agree completely with your comment about the beta issues. The game was simply awful in the closed beta period before that major update to controls was released. I know that turned a lot of folks off and with good reason. Along the lines of the comparison I made between WG now and Blizzard in their prime (as in, there is no comparison) that was a huge mistake on their part which put out a lot of negative publicity. They should have realized their game was bad and kept it under wraps until it was right. Even now, after release and a major patch, the game is just good at best and well short of amazing. With that in mind it's understandable that the population is low and stagnant.

Edited by Skywalkre
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Actually had a series of good battles and most notably in my Blenheim, getting the 2nd set of guns help and came away alive in the last 3 battles with 3 kills each. I find staying away from the first meeting engagements really helps and then pick the fight you want to take part in.

 

edit server pop 1847

Edited by Colin
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Guest Jason L

 

I think it shows (rather than "being there frst" - after all there were online games sometimes with better graphics trying to burst out around the release of WoT and they did not make it... There was competition), planes are less sited for casual gameplay (there is only so far you can go for arcade controls, you cannot do away with the fact it is in 3D and high speeds and that requires simply more skill etc.). It is probably also one of reasons hardcore sims went out of "wide public" fashion some time ago already and went to niche - old popular sims were, by today's standards, extremely arcadey (Aces over Pacific, Red Baron, all the oldies goodies) - but that also meant they were often quite easy. Now... Well, maybe arcadey MMOs will bring people back in, but as demonstrated above it seems that they may be a bit too hard (even such simple like WoWP or WT arcade mode)

 

It also shows that game should not be opened to audience too early. Early Beta was really not that much appealing and lot of people have impressions from back then.

 

What games out there feature tank combat along the lines of WoT? I can't think of a single one. All the games I've played that feature tank combat plus some mix of infantry and air have very simplified mechanics with the tanks a distant afterthought.

 

I agree completely with your comment about the beta issues. The game was simply awful in the closed beta period before that major update to controls was released. I know that turned a lot of folks off and with good reason. Along the lines of the comparison I made between WG now and Blizzard in their prime (as in, there is no comparison) that was a huge mistake on their part which put out a lot of negative publicity. They should have realized their game was bad and kept it under wraps until it was right. Even now, after release and a major patch, the game is just good at best and well short of amazing. With that in mind it's understandable that the population is low and stagnant.

 

 

I find the gameplay of WoT pretty much nauseating. I probably would have loved it as a teen with way more time on my hands to be obsessive about a game rather than obsessive about work stuff. As it stands now I prefer the simple mechanics and skill based gameplay of Battlefield.

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It's the two month mark. On a Sunday evening with the playoffs over with there are 1900 on. It'll be interesting to see where the pop stands a month from now.

Edited by Skywalkre
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For jason.

 

Sort of a side track or bunny trail. By Battlefield do you mean Battlefield 4? Never played any version of Battlefield. I thought it was FPS game (Sniper type game). Recently heard that it has tanks. So I am curious.

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Guest Jason L

For jason.

 

Sort of a side track or bunny trail. By Battlefield do you mean Battlefield 4? Never played any version of Battlefield. I thought it was FPS game (Sniper type game). Recently heard that it has tanks. So I am curious.

 

Battlefield is low on the realism but very strong in a game-world combined arms. It's mostly infantry FPS, but you can spend your entire time in various AFVs, planes, helos and boats. IMO it's got much higher skill requirements in terms of conventional gamer skills than WOT, even in the highly simplified vehicle mechanics.

 

WOT is slow, BF requires you to be fast, map aware, know how to work the team mechanics, etc. And be a fast/accurate shot.

 

The AFV combat is limited, there are only a few weapon loadouts and only 3 types of truly armored vehicles. Armor angling is now a feature as well.

 

If you've never tried a BF game, you really should.

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I enjoyed playing commander in BF, it can really make a difference to battle. Once you became commander the ground fight was pretty much over for you and you need to concentrate on the map and applying your resources (supply, vehicle drops, arty and UAV) to the people that needed it.

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Personal experience is that a lot of guys I've come across in WoT are eagerly awaiting this game and talking about it for a while. With WoWp there was basically no discussion and when there was it was either a ) play WT instead or b ) the beta sucked.

 

If WG can pull it off (and that's a big if) the prospects are very good.

Edited by Skywalkre
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