Week 2.2: Game Analysis — World of Tanks

For my game analysis, I chose World of Tanks from Wargaming, an on-line, multiplayer 1st/3rd person tank battle game, and quite possibly the game I’ve played the most.

Game Analysis

Game Mechanics

This is an on-line game with two teams of 15 players. Each player commands a tank or artillery unity/self propelled gun and they must work together to find and destroy the opposite team. The player is rewarded for their performance in battle with experience, crew experience and silver (the in-game currency).

• Experience is used to research new technology and vehicles to advance through the technology tree. Technology upgrades can give the player an advantage in battle.
• Crew Experience allows the tank crew to first master their tank and then learn new skills. Better trained crews can give the player an advantage in battle.
• Silver, the in-game currency, is used to purchase vehicles, technology upgrades and consumable resources such as ammunition and performance boosts.

Genre

This is a 1st/3rd person battle simulation. Similar games in this genre being World of Warships, War Thunder and Call of Duty.

Player Fantasy

The player is a tank commander, their mission being to destroy the enemy or capture the enemy base whilst defending their own base to prevent it from being captured.

Platform and Controls

The game is available on PC, Xbox and Playstation. A more recent improvement to the game allows cross-platform play on consoles.

On the PC, the game is controlled using both mouse (to aim and fire the gun) and keyboard (to move the vehicle).

The console version of the game is a simplified version of the PC variant owing to the limited number of buttons available on a controller. The terrain maps have also been simplified to better fit the resources of a console.

Spatial Abstraction

The game is played on a 3D map that the player is free to explore. Each map is only a few km² to ensure the teams can find eachother.

Avatar

The player controls one of five different classes of vehicle: artillery, tank destroyer, light tank, medium tank or heavy tank.

Camera Perspective

The player can choose between first person and third person views when driving and shooting. I find it easier to use 3rd person when driving and 1st person for precision aiming…

Goals and Scores

Each battle will have a specific goal. This might be to simply destroy the enemy team, capture the enemy base or keep your own base from being captured. Irrespective of the primary goal, annihilating the enemy team will always result in a win.

Player score for is directly related to performance in battle with the player being rewarded with experience and siver (in-game curency).

Progression and Variety

The game offers 10 tiers of tank, the weakest being Tier I at the start and rising to Tier X. Advancement is achieved by by using experience earned in battle to research new technology and tanks which, when unlocked, can be purchased with silver.

Variety is provided by two primary mechanisms: class of tank and tank nation. Five different classes of tanks are available: Heavy, medium and light tanks, tank destroyers and artillery. Each nation’s tanks add further variety. The Soviet and German medium tanks are very forgiving for new players whereas the French light tanks lead to very technical with their paper-thin armour and auto-loading guns.

The player can also progress through operations and missions to receive special rewards such as free vehicles.

Tension and Rest

Each game lasts a maximum of 15 minutes with the average battle duration being around 5 minutes of action. Intensity of game play will depend largely on the map: city maps offer fast and furious corner battles whereas the more open maps can evolve into a stand at the back and lob shells at each other.

Obstacles and Penalties

Whilst each player can see the entire battlefield in the minimap, enemy tanks only become visible once within view range of your team and only then if they are detected. If your teammates are spotting enemies for you and they die, you will no longer see the enemy. Even the strongest tanks are easy pickings for weaker tanks they cannot see.

Resources

Silver is the primary in-game currency and needed to purchase equipment, supplies, technology and new tanks. There is also a premium currency, gold, that can be purchased for real cash and is used to buy premium vehicles, premium ammunition and extra experience.

Gold cannot be earned in-game whereas a player will be rewarded with silver after each battle. The amount earned is based primarily on the amount of damage caused during a battle, less the cost to repair your tank and resupply it with ammunition. For higher tier games most players without a premium account will make a loss and actually lose silver each battle. In this way, the game punishes poor performance and players who wish to advance quickly without gaining the skills the need to do well.

Decisions

The player has a lot of decisions to make in this game.

Between battles they need to choose which nation’s tanks to research, which vehicle line to progress and which technology upgrades to research and purchase. Good equipment choice is also vital and dependent on the player’s playing style. Each piece of equipment will change the vehicles stats slightly, and, with good equipment choices can make a big difference in the outcome.

Crew skills and training is another area where good decisions matter. A fully trained crew gives a big improvement to the tank’s stats. Once trained in a vehicle, the crew than then learn new skills that will also give an advantage in battle. Crew skills stack with equipment and with careful choices, a player can obtain a good advantage.

During the battle, players must ‘read’ the battlefield to know when to hold ground and when to advance. They need to know where they can hide in the terrain and where they can find cover.

Simulation and Chance

The primary mechanic for random chance is gun dispersion. This statistic, combined with a random number generator will determine the accuracy of each shot. If a shot is a hit, a second randum number is rolled and compared against the round’s armour penetration and the effective thickness of armour at the point of impact. If the shot penetrates, a thirn random number is rolled to determine damage caused.

Critical hits are shots that do little to no damage but will damage a crew member or module. A damaged fuel tank can set the tank on fire; a damaged ammo rack can cause the tank to explode; an injured or dead crew member will affect the tank’s performance for the remainder of the battle.

Storytelling

There is no story telling aspect in the main game.

Art Direction and Style

Pseudo-realistic battlefied scenario that tries to simulate a real tank battle. On the console version of the game, the ‘toy’ tanks detract from this somewhat.

Animation and Visual Effects

The vehicles are highly detailed with animated tracks, suspension and accoutrements such as aerials and machine guns that wobble realistically during movement. Gun barrels are also animated to provide a recoil effect and muzzle flash.

Additional effects such as semi-persistent tracks in soft ground and soil/snow effects as the vehicle moves both add to the realism.

Sound Design

The game has realistic sounding gun shots and impact shots. There is also a voiceover/narration effect to represent status updates and encouragement from the tank’s crew.

Conclusion

World of Tanks is probably the one game I’ve played the most. It’s easy to play and a challenge to master, if indeed it’s possible to master. The tier system combined with the different classes of vehicles present an interesting challenge matrix with varied game play.

Unlike many free-to-play games, free players can compete on an almost level footing with premium players. Skill, tactics and teamwork are far more important to success than rapid advancement.

When looking at this game from the perspective of Game Feel and applying the same treatment here (Figure 14), World of Tanks would sit in zone 1 or 2. The reason for my vaccilation is that although the game exhibits a lot of polish, commonly referred to as “Juice” , in the form of animations, sound effects and haptic feedback (on the Xbox) in it’s attemp for realism it lacks the attention grabing wow factor of ‘in your face’ eye candy exhibited by some games.

List of Figures

Figure 1. THORN, 2017 World of Tanks Game Play Example

Figure 2. THORN, 2018 Physics at Work – World of Tanks

Figure 3. THORN, 2018 When Physics Works Against You – World of Tanks

Figure 4. THORN, 2017 World of Tanks Map: Cliff

Figure 5. THORN, 2020 Contract Reward: “The Machine”, Tier X Mercenary Tank – World of Tanks

Figure 6. THORN, 2017 First and Third Person Views – World of Tanks

Figure 7. THORN, 2016 First Person View for Precise Aiming – World of Tanks

Figure 8. THORN, 2017 World of Tanks Victory Screen

Figure 9. THORN, 2018 Battle Scores – World of Tanks

Figure 10. THORN, 2021 German Tech Tree – World of Tanks

Figure 11. THORN, 2021 Operations Map – World of Tanks

Figure 12. THORN, 2021 Stug Mission – World of Tanks

Figure 13. THORN, 2019 Operation Reward – Fatherland IS-3 Tank – World of Tanks

Figure 14. SWINK, 2017 Levels of Game Feel (Swink, 2017,8) – Redrawn from original, THORN, 2021

References