Recently I've become obsessed with the World of Tanks beta on Xbox 360. I couldn't nail down why it was so fun until I started comparing it to other games I've been playing online recently. It was then that I started to see the genius that Wargaming.net has poured into this game.
Online gaming has been around for some time but it's really exploded in the last five years. Five years is a short time to gather data on a social movement for study. You can look at server traffic and number of games sold to see what constitutes a good game but that data is flawed. Just because lots of people are playing a certain online game doesn't mean that it's a good online game. What you have to study is how people are playing these online games.
The powerhouse in online gaming for consoles is first person shooters. If you've ever played one you know that the way people play them is far from the way that you'd expect them to. There is little to no teamwork with many players going 'lone wolf' in order to amass the greatest number of kills during the match. These games further the desire to be the star of the show by awarding points to the players that can be used to further tailor themselves into killing machines. First person shooters do include awards for playing the support roles but these are less gratifying than being the top killer in most cases.
What you end up with is individuals fighting for personal glory and points. The more kills the more bragging rights the players walks away with. It's a single player game where the difficulty and fun is increased by playing against humans rather than predictable AI opponents. It might be a successful online game when you look at sales but it's not a good online game when you look at the way people are playing it.
This problem is furthered when you add vehicles to a game. The Battlefield franchise puts a wide variety of vehicles into their games which are supposed augment the troops on the ground. The level of teamwork required to use helicopters, tanks, jets and boots on the ground is astounding. It's rarely done well and most of the time is done poorly. A common scene in this game is players standing around the area where the vehicles appear then fighting over who gets to drive. Their goal isn't to actually win the game but rather to play with the toys. This is frustrating to players who actually want to win.
World of Tanks does some things that solves many of these problems. First of all everyone gets a tank. In fact you are a tank. Even better is that there are many types of tanks to choose from. Fast tanks, heavy tanks, tank destroyers and long range artillery. The best thing about these tank options is that they are all useful and fun to play. There is no super unit that can dominate the field on it's own and everyone must work together to win. It's well balanced.
This balance is furthered by a remarkable matchmaking system. Tanks are rated and teams are made of only similarly rated equipment. In addition, it does it's best to make sure each team has the same number of tanks types on each team. Rarely have I ever joined a game where the teams were not identical. It's extremely well done.
Perhaps the best thing they've built into this game is the option to quite without penalty. It's the smartest thing that I've ever seen in a game. In all the games once you are dead you are dead. Your tank stays on the battlefield until the game ends but you don't have to stay and watch. The game lets you retreat back to the menu, select another tank from your garage and join another battle.
By doing this the designers have done a few smart things. First off, it keeps people rushing back to the matchmaking queue, reducing wait times for a new match. Secondly, it forces the player to experiment with different types of tanks, making them appreciate all the roles on the battlefield. In most first person shooter games you can always play as the class you at anytime. There is no function built in to make people expand their horizons and keep teams balanced. You always have a large number of snipers and rocket launcher wielding soldiers and are always short on medics.
With all the amazing things this game does the best part about it is that it's fun. No matter what tank you use or what game you join you always feel like you have a chance. (Unless your teammates are really bad.) Plus when two lines of tanks meet on the field it's intense. There are explosions, noise and smoke everywhere. It's fun.
World of Tanks is a good online game because people have fun and work together. People use the voice chat function to actually coordinate attacks rather than insult each other. It must be successful too because they are coming out with two sister games soon. A version in beta where you fly WWII airplanes and sometime in the future a sea combat game. If their setup similar to World of Tanks they should be fun.
That's my rant about World of Tanks. Play it.
