Gaijin entertainment's abuse of paid content in War Thunder.

As we all know, video games are the modern equivalent of a cigarette after work, a nice cold beer after a job well done. And although modern video games are undoubtedly a big step forward, compared to some of their predecessors... there's still certain practices that we as gamers should recognize as abusive by gaming corporations.

If playing a videogame becomes a job it's no longer a videogame.

Today I'll speak about Gaijin entertainment, it is an Hungarian (previously Russian) videogame company who's flagship videogames include crossout & War Thunder. The later game is a multiplayer game which focuses on combat vehicles and armored warfare, however we're not here to discuss the game's issues as “Russian bias” or “Historical matchmaking” I'm here to speak about the abusive practice of “Pay to win” method employed by the Hungarian company.

In the early stages of the game, the starting vehicles got no repair costs or tend to have lower repair costs which don't affect profits significantly, this serves as a good fundation for any starting player to learn the basic game mechanics and techniques which can further enhance the gaming experience. More ingame currency will allow the player to buy new vehicles and so climb into a higher tier which lets us use vehicles as the infamous Tiger tanks, the T-34s or the deadly American “Jumbos” (Sherman M4A3E2 Assault tanks )

However, when we reach that higher tier with vehicles that have more firepower and better performance, is when the game heavily penalizes enjoyment. I had good and bad games like in any game, but whenever I look at the ingame finances,even after a decent game wich ends in victory… I can say with absolute certainty that games like war thunder penalizes players who don't throw cash into the game.

Premium accounts on the game can be bought with the currency of Golden Eagles or with real money, there's also premium vehicles that can be bought with either of those, both of them allow for faster research of vehicle parts and vehicles, including better earnings than of a player who didn't throw cash at the game. At this point I could say that this game is probably the cause of many mental health issues related to modern gaming.

Every time a player buys a new vehicle they start with the vehicle having no extras, no spare parts or basic fire extinguishers which can prevent the destruction of such in a game, as they go through games it becomes a painful process of grinding for new parts research. And when the player is ready to move onto a better vehicle… the process starts again even if the newer one is just a slight variation of the previous vehicle which forces free to play players to research the vehicle all over again from bottom to top

If you're killed during the game there's repair costs to be played right? I remembered playing the high tiers for a bit using vehicles like the Tank destroyer Panzer IV/70(V) this vehicle fully researched if destroyed it costs 11.052 of the game currency to repair in arcade mode. During my first days using the vehicle I remembered managing to score 5 kills on the game and… To my surprise the earnings were 8.342 which is certainly disappointing in comparison to the game saying that I could've earned 52k from the game currency if I had paid for a premium account. If I wanted to account for the costs of that vehicle destroyed… I would need exactly to play two perfect games with the same amount of kills without dying to any other player.

At this point, I can say that playing games like War Thunder is pretty much stressing on itself, you got to focus literally everywhere to ensure you don't get killed by any other player until the point that even a slight disturbance in your room is enough to touch a nerve… and all of it to ensure that you can progress through the ranks towards better vehicles... at the cost of your own mental health.

Could Gaijin at least do their part to reduce grinding in order to make the game more enjoyable ? can't they be publicly sued by the public by their abusive business practices? As a long time player of War Thunder I can say that I'm tired of the eternal grinding and the company's abuse towards free players who don't want to expend s single cent of their hard earned money on pixels that will dissapear in a fiery 3D explosion.

Not many players of the game like me have been heard about these abusive practices, most of us have been straight out ignored and told to "get good" by people who expend their entire earnings on the game.

Even if this small piece is just a small drop of water on the desert... I have the hope that there will be more people that realizes and publicly denounces these abusive practices towards the players.

And I seriously hope that... this makes gaming fun again.