online shooting game War Thunder made some changes to the way the economy works recently, and the people who play this game are so annoyed that they not only bomb the game to hell and back, but the developers development was forced to implement extremely the act of apologizing in response.
Basically, a game that over the years has become more and more pay-to-win—as well as becoming a dump of state secrets—recently implemented economic changes make it even harder to get anything from the game—especially progress—unless you regularly spend real money.
Players, fed up with mining, did one of the few things available to them: they went to Steam to leave negative feedback, post Thousands messages protesting the changes and attacking the Gaijin developers. At the time of publication, the game’s Steam review looked like this:
The most common negative reviews summarize the situation nicely:
I didn’t want to leave a negative review, but Gaijin’s blatant disdain for their players forced me to take action.
War Thunder is a game like no other, with a comprehensive damage system, combo weapons, and a beautifully modeled variety of tanks, planes, and ships.
Unfortunately, this “uniqueness” has left Gaijin with little real competition over the years. What started out as a “free to play” title over time becomes less and less free. Gaijin continues to add countries and vehicles, while increasing repair costs and reducing RP/SL gains. A premium account is not enough to progress comfortably anymore, now you have to buy premium vehicles in every country.
For players new to this, Gaijin recently admitted that they balance free vehicles around negative SL earnings for average players. That means they WANT you to lose money playing, so you’ll be forced to buy a top-of-the-line premium vehicle.
In response, Gaijin canceled the most recent and punitive economic changes—though this won’t do much to reverse a gradual trend that has alienated so many longtime players. —and posted one of the most regrettable statements I’ve ever seen:
Dear player,
First, we would like to extend our sincerest apologies to each and every one of you. We deeply regret that our actions have let you down and we have not adequately addressed the concerns you have voiced over the years. We share your passion for the game and we are heartbroken when our decisions do not meet your expectations.
Over the past week, we’ve diligently analyzed the feedback you’ve provided. We acknowledge and agree with your concerns about the balance of the economy (Silver Lions and Research Points), as well as the revised study. Therefore, we have prioritized addressing these issues as our immediate concern.
We are in the process of creating a plan to address these issues. While we’ve made some initial progress in understanding the scope of these issues and potential solutions, we expect to provide a more detailed roadmap on the 14th. June.
We understand how urgent you feel for the changes to be implemented, and we assure you that we share your excitement. However, given the size and complexity of a project like War Thunder, it takes time to ensure that any changes we make are effective and beneficial to the player experience.
We also constantly review the countless other feedback and suggestions we receive. Rest assured, these are important to us and will be worked out, but at this point our top priority remains the economy and progression of the game.
We are truly sorry for the disappointment and frustration we have caused. We assure you that we are doing everything we can to improve the game and regain your trust.
Thank you for your understanding and patience during this time. We appreciate your continued support and your dedication to the game we all love.
I think it’s too late to listen now. Apparently this player base has had enough of this crap and has been angry for a long time. very long timeand going back to a set of changes that will help address very few fundamental flaws in the game’s basic design, which is really something that people are very upset about.
Changing the severity and duration of the squeeze won’t do anything as the squeeze itself makes the player very uncomfortable.
As another measure, players are currently planning a boycott on May 26th, though other plans for a “seal club day” on May 25, to try to get “new players to give up”, may not be a great idea or look.
