Incredibly popular game all over the world. World of tanks marks 10 years: in honor of the big anniversary on April 22 launched a large-scale event “Decade”, Which culminates in August. Players are waiting for exciting events, nostalgic features, special missions and, of course, gifts.
Why has the game become a phenomenon? How has the audience changed during this time? How to play 12.5 thousand battles on one tank and be happy? Exclusive to Gamemag.ru these and other questions are answered by the global publishing director of World of Tanks Maxim Chuvalov.
Good afternoon! Pleased to meet you! On behalf of the editors of the first Runet video game site, Gamemag.ru, I congratulate you on your anniversary!
Thank you so much! We thank you separately for the fact that during these 10 years during different periods they supported us informationally, helped to convey our messages to the audience. We really appreciate it.
Could you tell us how the last 10 years went for the Wargaming team and the World of Tanks game? What heights did you reach and what was the most difficult for the project and developers? How has the game evolved over the past 10 years?
10 years in a person’s life is a long way. 10 years in the life of the game is an incredible way. Try to remember what computers were 10 years ago! We just developed YouTube, social networks were already popular, but they were still far from their current power. I’m leading to the fact that any user’s product from the 2010s to the 2023s is a lifetime: a huge number of changes, new technologies. Just look at how the Internet has “grown” in terms of speed, how computer technology has leaped forward.
The game industry has also evolved. For example, today, the way we download games, how we get them, how we play them, is moving towards online distribution. For us, this means that at one time the decision to go in this direction was correct.
Recently held an event World of Tanks Classic: in it we returned the 2011 version of the game. The “tankers” got a real opportunity to compare how it looked then with what it looks like now. The difference, of course, is enormous. A long development path has been covered not only in terms of content and balance, the graphics have also been changed, and a graphics engine has been created. The game has changed in all aspects and, hand on heart, has been transformed beyond recognition. Because we are constantly trying to keep it up to date.
The main value that we have acquired over the years is the community, our players. 10 years ago, in a closed beta, it was clear that there were significantly more applications from the audience than originally thought. At the open beta, we already understood: there will be a hit. But only after the release came the realization that it was serious and for a long time. Now at World of Tanks over 160 million registrations worldwidean incredible amount of active audience. A large percentage of “tankers” play it for 5, 7, 9 years and do not get tired of it, because they constantly receive updates. Our fans are well versed in the game, many of them know the history of tank building well. This is a very close-knit community. A cultural phenomenon has arisen that helps people find common interests, communicate, and meet.
If we talk about the gameplay, then we created our own game genre, settled in it tightly and are developing it.
Over the past 10 years, many different activities have been carried out: we have implemented Tank Soccer and Tank Races, sent greetings to our players directly from space, and made tanks pixel. Branded two real aircraft, popularly known as “Tankolets”, collaborated with world-famous stars: Gianluigi Buffon, Dolph Lundgren, group The offspringwho gave a concert in the hangar of World of Tanks. The game set 2 Guinness records for the simultaneous stay of players online, received 4 “gaming Oscars” – Golden Joystick. There is something to remember and something to be proud of!
But the most important thing that we understood: it is necessary to constantly move forward, improve the game and evolve together with our players, together with the game industry, to grow along with quality standards.
What do you consider the main achievement of the project and the development team?
There are quite a few achievements, at different stages – their own. When we started, the main achievement was that we ventured to switch to a fairly new in the west (or, let’s say, outside of Asia) free-to-play model, unusual for our target player. That we were not afraid to make a completely new genre – a slow session shooter, and MMOs at that time looked completely different. We were not afraid of the setting. It should be noted the courage of the team that relied on everything new – on what was not in the industry.
Later, a significant achievement was the rallying of a large development team, which was able to constantly support the game in technological, gameplay and content terms and not slow down for ten years. The ability to work on such a live product, with my online, my audience and do it constantly 24/7, I consider it a very great achievement. After all, it is not easy and quite risky to make changes to the game, as they say, “live”. Despite the fact that for 10 years the game had ups, downs, and creative crises, we always retained the ability to get out of them, reach new heights and delight players. This is a merit of our developers.
Of course, striving to make the game better, we encounter some limitations, especially technical ones. We have millions of players, and each of them plays in his own special conditions: on his computer, uses a certain Internet connection, etc. And I consider it a great victory to make the game relevant, playable and high-quality for everyone. . On the fingers you can count the games that do not leave many players overboard for one simple reason: to play them, you need powerful iron. The achievement of our development team, I believe that it can go this way all the time, without getting tired, without exhausting creativity, faith and enthusiasm.
Where did the team get ideas all these years? What is inspired?
The largest generator of ideas, of course, is our community. I would say that the team draws inspiration from several “wells”.
Firstly, these are ideas and reviews that we collect at different sites, communicating with our players, bloggers. A lot of non-standard ideas migrated to us from the allowed modifications that users themselves made to our game. This is user generated content, which is better than no one can think of. Naturally, there are a lot of ideas, so you still need to be able to choose them and understand what the community really needs, what will benefit, to separate them from simple “Wishlist” like “just improve my favorite tank.” This is one direction.
The second area is industry standards. We see how other projects are developing. We all play other games, watch successful mechanics, find popular moments that can be implemented in World of Tanks.
The third big “well” is the internal ideas of our team, which is also creative, plays in the project and sees, already from a slightly different angle, how to make it better.
We have a huge backlog, a list of tasks that we would like to implement, but it is much more than we can do in one year. Because an idea is just a small part, it can even be shown to players on a test server. But to bring it to release and to make it play well, was of high quality and at the same time did not break other game systems, it is quite difficult. An idea in itself can be very good, but as part of a system, it instantly interacts with the rest of the game. Nevertheless, we always want to do much more – because we are “burning” our game.
Were there any unusual or funny cases that you or someone from the team particularly remembered – when creating the game, at exhibitions?
Of course, for 10 years there was a lot of everything, a lot! Jokes a whole bunch. But they become jokes much later. When something happens, you relate to this in a working way: there is some kind of problem – it needs to be solved. And after years, you remember and smile. I remember that at the start of the game, PR specialists went to Germany to raise the server. Represent PR specialists! Because techies didn’t have Schengen visas (the servers were in Germany), but they had to go urgently. Configured by phone instructions.
I also got into the memory of the case when one user wrote a review: the game is excellent in everything, almost perfect, but its smallness lacks variety. It turned out that he played 12 and a half thousand battles at the first level … He just did not know that it was possible to pump tanks, and he played on the MS-1. 12 and a half thousand fights! He probably rolled for a year and a half. This is some incredible case, unique, funny. But most importantly, the player was thrilled, it’s cool!
By the way, many interesting points can be seen in the diaries of developers to “The decade“. In them, we will also tell different stories about the stages of the life of the game, so stay tuned for the event. We tried to do this in an atmosphere of comfort and warmth, taking into account the current circumstances, of course.
How many people are currently working on the game? Is any of the original team of game designers, artists and programmers left?
In total, Wargaming has more than 4,500 people in 18 offices around the world. About 1000 people work on the development and operation of World of Tanks. Our units in different cities – Austin, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul – are necessary for us specifically for operations, communication with players, support. The largest development center is in Minsk, and teams are also working in Kiev and Prague.
As for the original team, yes, there are a lot of such people. If offhand, then from the backbone that participated in the release (and this was about 70–80 people), most still work. They really like to follow how the project develops and grows, in which they have invested their souls, and to work “fatherly” on his “upbringing”.
You have the main game on the PC, the mobile part of Blitz, as well as the console versions. How is the audience of these projects different for 2023? Which ones are more popular and which are less popular?
The audience, of course, is different. When World of Tanks Blitz was just released, there were no such games on mobile devices, mostly simple casual games were popular. Such really large ones, with a heavy client per megabyte of that way, 800 or gigabytes, with mechanics, like ours, taken from the “big tanks”, with good content could be counted on the fingers. Especially free. Naturally, there are intersections with World of Tanks players, because someone likes the gameplay, like the tanks themselves. Whenever possible, they like to play on the computer, when they don’t have access to a PC — in the country, outdoors, in transport, or elsewhere, they play on a mobile device. But in general, Blitz over the years of its existence has developed its own audience, very large, very loyal, and it is much younger than the audience of “large tanks”.
The console audience is perhaps also younger. It is generally different, differs mainly in geography and is concentrated where consoles are more popular than PCs.
Each project has its own large audience, they firmly occupied their niches, provide tank gameplay on different platforms, and the player already chooses for himself how it is more convenient for him to play. I would not compare these projects with each other, which one is more popular, which one is less. Of course, “Tanks” on PC are revolutionaries, this is a phenomenon. However, all three projects are steadily growing in audience, gaining more and more fans. Their teams are constantly working on improvements, additions, new major milestones in the history of their games.
Some online games have begun to switch to the Nintendo Switch hybrid format. What does Wargaming think about this?
Now I can’t say anything on this issue, except that we try to be at the peak of technology and prepare our product for expansion to new platforms. We closely monitor them, and not only for new types and generations of consoles, but also for VR– and cloudy by gaming. We are experimenting with everyone, including Nintendo switch. We are preparing different prototypes in order to understand how our specific product can be implemented on a particular platform.
Over the past 10 years, much in the world has changed. And in the game as well. How has the audience of World of Tanks changed over this time? What did users react particularly vividly to? Of the latest updates, which of the most pleased the players?
Everything flows, everything changes. Our audience from 25-year-olds turned into 35-year-olds, and 35-year-olds also became 10 years more. In fact, we are now seeing a significant influx of young audiences compared to previous years.
Users react violently to unusual events. For example, “Tank Football”, “Halloween” – there is increased attention to them. A lot of people return to the game to take part in these events and get high. Of the active audience, a large percentage of users are involved in them – usually about 70% at the start.
Of course, most of the players were pleased with the update 1.0. It seems to me that this was such a qualitative leap into the future, that is, already into the present, which was not left without attention by any player. Everyone noticed a completely transformed game, new cards, for a long time they got used to it all, discussed.
We always try to surprise players in different ways – with new branches of tanks and mechanics, maps, battle modes like “General battle” 30 to 30 or “Front lines”. Of recent events, I went very well Battle royale (“Steel Hunter”). The “Battle of the bloggers” had a huge effect on the audience, most of the players were very active during the whole event – they liked the gameplay and the confrontation of the blogger teams.
By the 10th anniversary you will probably have some interesting activities? Could you tell us in detail what the team has prepared for the anniversary and will the coronavirus pandemic in the world hinder the holiday?
Our top priority is player comfort. To make the forced stay at home more enjoyable, earlier we gave all players 14 days of a tank premium account. We also try to entertain and support players in this difficult time: the game has many activities, such as the “Front Line”, ranking fights. In addition, we give gifts to players who returned to the World of Tanks after a break: upon entering the game they receive 2 weeks of a premium account and a premium tank for rent for a month.
Our main task as game developers is to ensure stable operation of servers and provide quality service to players. We have activated all our resources so that users are satisfied at any time of the day or day of the week, conducted a test and additionally prepared our facilities in case the number of players grows.
Despite the current situation in the world and the fact that developers work from home, the game events that the World of Tanks team has planned in honor of its 10th anniversary will take place at the previously indicated time.
We have prepared many surprises and gifts and we invite players to celebrate the anniversary with us: to take part in a large-scale event, together to remember all the most interesting things that happened with the game. “Decade“Is a series of in-game events preceding the main event of the year – the 10th anniversary of the game. The whole series is divided into five stages, each of them tells about 2 years of the creation of the game and also contains its surprises and unique artifacts. Players will be able to receive rewards, earn anniversary coins, as well as a lot of in-game property.
The first act had already begun on April 22, and the legendary general chat, which many tankers so yearned for, returned to the game for exactly one week. So, if you want to exchange pleasantries not only with your teammates, but also with your rivals, you are welcome – you just have a couple of days left to take this opportunity. In general, the first act will last until May 18, and then there will be many more interesting things, stay tuned for announcements.
In addition, in 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, so we have launched a special gaming event called “Road to berlin“Dedicated to the last weeks before the end of the war in Europe. It will last from May 4 to May 18, during this period, players will have to fight in hot tank battles against artificial intelligence. It will be possible to participate in an offensive operation and perform quick attack maneuvers, sequentially capturing enemy territory. Battles will take place on four maps specially redesigned for playing in this mode, including the new Berlin map, which will later be available in Random Battles.
Thank you for the interesting interview! Once again, I congratulate the World of Tanks team on the holiday and wish you great success for at least another 10 years!
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