My .02

Gold_Papercuts, on May 16 2021 - 02:49, said: Greetings Everyone!    I first started playing back in 2012 with my Free to Play account and started this Pay to Win account in 2014.  Soon afterwards, life does what life does and I had to put down WOT for a little while.....which turned into a 5 year hiatus.     Things settled down enough in my personal life so that I could spend a little time playing games again, so I jumped back into Little Tanks around this last Holiday Event season.         WOW oh WOW have some things changed and how some things have stayed exactly the same!!!   Before I begin, I want to be 100% clear, transparent  and put all the cards on the table:   I am in my early 40's, married, 7 kids, career, multiple personal achievements within my industry...and am an unapologetic proud Wallet Warrior.   There.  I said it. To save the inevitable ad-hominem attacks after the Legion rushes to check my game stats to deem how worthy I am to comment on this game....YES I am an average player with occasional spurts of greatness (at best).   I'm not a professional gamer who has the luxury of sitting around playing 55K games a year.   I have things to do, so I play when I can squeeze it in.  Not knocking ya if you can dedicate that much time to this game but I just can't.  Get it?  Good!   I understand that this company is in the business to make money and not in the business to provide me with free entertainment. I understand that the core mechanics of the game are built around incrementalism and that micro percentages make ALL THE DIFFERENCE!   So you better believe that I almost exclusively use Prem Ammo in every battle, in every tank.   I run food, large repair, health kits and OMG do I love those directives!  I will use bond or upgraded bounty equipment every chance I get.  If it gives me an edge...then YUP... I'm "that" guy and I have zero remorse.    I will sit across the map in my invisible E-25 and spam Prem rounds on you until you're tank is a smoldering pile of ruin...and then drink your tears of complaint when you message me after the battle calling me everything but decent.  I live for it!    On the inverse, when I get hunted down like the spamming roach I am... I will shake my fist at thee and charge my brothers to avenge my death!   Curses on you all!!  Hey, you spend money on what you want, I'll spend money on what I want.  I will maximize each and every advantage this game gives me.    Hate me?  I don't care!  I'll see ya on the battlefield and we'll work it out.   So now that I've outed myself as that guy that everyone loves to hate,  what's the point of this post you may ask?          To be honest, the point is....none of that makes much difference.    I still feel like I suck at this game.    Why?   Well.... let's be honest:  Half of the reason is because I play like a Monkey-in-Heat half the time.   Yeah....   I do stupid stuff once the clock counts down to 0.  Sometimes its pure brain-fart, sometimes it's a genuine bad decision to "Zig" when I should have "Zagged".   It happens.    The other half is a split between you the people playing like a Monkey-in-Heat and the really obvious mechanics built into the game meant to keep you spending money.      No this isn't a conspiracy theory, it's a fact.    Remember what I said earlier that this company is in the business of making money?    Well it's a fact jack!    If you think for one second that this game hasn't had resources poured into it to maximize profit.....Buddy, do I have a bridge to sell you!!!   Does any of the following sound familiar?   How the grind comes in waves of heaven and hell for every tank?    How every time there is a mission condition of "win a battle" and you just can't win to save your life? How every time ANY experience based asset is in the upper "90's"  IE: Crew, Upgrades, etc.. you can't win a battle to save your life? How every time you freshly roll over to a new upgrade.... it still sucks and you can't win a battle to save your life? How you are CONSTANTLY in need of Silver to purchase upgrades and new tanks? Why some tanks are just "Good Luck" while others are "Bad" even though there is NOTHING WRONG with either of them and your crew is top notch? Why you will have horrific loosing streaks to horrifically lop-sided battle outcomes?   Your team has melted to (at best) 4 enemy kills...6 games in a row?    How your tank one game can castrate a fly across the map for games on end....and then all of a sudden you can't hit the broad side of the barn at 10 feet away and even if you did...you can't pen it? ALL BATTLE LONG? How everyone else in your platoon or team is having the exact same issue during THAT battle? How you can go into one battle, make one tiny mistake and get splatted like a bug on a windshield and your team still pulls off the "easy" victory yet in the next battle you are running through the enemy like a GOD OF WAR and you still loose?    Do you think that it's random that we all notice the same patterns????   Short answer is: No it is not random.  No you are not crazy.  It's the truth...  all of it.   (Well maybe not some of the fringe conspiracy theories... but if you feel you notice a pattern, you most likely are.) The shills will blah blah blah about blah blah blah....but it's the truth.    The game is designed to MAKE MONEY and that's how it's done folks.  I know this because I work in this industry with numerous accolades on my resume to attest as such.  I know what I know because I have helped design such algorithms for numerous Fortune 500 companies.   If you think it's random, you are either ignorant, mislead, a shill or have an agenda. PERIOD.  If you think serious money and resources weren't spent on Psychologists to maximize Micro-transactions,  you are either ignorant, mislead, a shill or have an agenda. PERIOD.  If you think that this company is in the business of providing you with free entertainment you are either ignorant, mislead, a shill or have an agenda. PERIOD.  If you think that these things will be fixed you are either ignorant, mislead, a shill or have an agenda. PERIOD.    Let me be crystal clear:  I am not hating on those that are ignorant, mislead, a shill or have an agenda....  You do you buddy. Much love to ya and may you go with grace.   As for me, I'm here to kill little tanks.   So why do I even play this game when I know all of the above to be true and go through the WILD emotional ups and downs that I know are programmed deliberately into this entertainment?   Because I LIKE IT!    I came from the original NES generation.  Any OG who's being honest will tell you how impossible most of those game were to beat.    Play Fester's Quest to the end without cheating or throwing the game out the window... I DARE YA!    You see, I enjoy getting smacked around and rising from the ashes.    I get off on beating the "algorithm" .    Every now and then I have that "perfect" game and it's FRIGG'N AWESOME!!!   I love owning cool Pixel Tanks.   I understand and am at peace with what the game is and is not.      Rip me to shreds if you will, I care not nor will respond to ad-hominem.    To be honest, I am outright disgusted with the hate, hostility and general toxicity that is the dark underbelly within the core cadre that is this community.  I see some rays of sunshine peaking through with players active on this forum offering to help others learn the game and become better.   That is the direction we should all emulate!!!!   Welcome new players to the game.  Welcome returning players back into the game.   Offer to help instead of complaining about crappy players and other people's failings all the time.   Focus on making your play better.   We can choose to be better or all sit in the pool of sewage together.   Thank you for reading my .02 and I'll see you out on the battlefield!