Wait no, they can’t repair citadel damage. At least not this time
Do you hear the CC sing? Singing a song of angry men? It is a music of a people who will not be shilled again. When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums, it is time to change when today and tomorrow comes…
Gambling Gaming company Wargaming got HE spammed by multiple community contributors, as well as mainstream media for shady business practices, such as the USS Missouri situation and the Yukon disaster.
Let’s start with Missouri
World of Warships (and maybe even World of Tanks) used to be a fun game. Sure, filled with premium content such as premium ships, but after the disaster that’s the CV Rework during the game’s 0.8.8 updates. Things went downhill. First off, the company changed its monetisation strategies of the game by switching to lootboxes, which can be considered a form of gambling. Officially, the game is rated PEGI 7 but you need to be at least 13 years old to create an account, but age can easily be faked online. And children may unconditionally whale out of the game and spend thousands of dollars just to get their favourite ship.
So this is where we’re starting. In 2016, the USS Missouri was released in the game as part of the anniversary for Japan’s surrender in World War II. Initially, the ship can be grinded for free using the in-game currency called Free EXP and while the ship is just a reskinned USS Iowa (a grindable tech tree ship) but with radar slapped on, she had a unique difference that sets her apart. That is her high credit count bonus. This means that she can earn twice as more credits, the game’s basic currency, than other premium ships, whether winning a match or not. The ship became a primary credit farmer and when WG saw this, they removed the ship entirely. Even though and I quote, that the ship is “here to stay”.
Fast forward to 2021 and Missouri came back, but with a catch. The ship can only be acquired by purchasing as much lootboxes as you can, lucky if you have enough in-game doubloons (the premium currency) and/or got the ship in the first crate. If they just returned the ship as a FXP-grindable ship, even if it’s more expensive (because ships like Aegir cost about 1 million Free EXP, and HMS Nelson, a Tier VII battleship, costs the same price as Missouri when she first launched, at 750K FXP), then the company won’t get as much hate.
Of course, Wargaming sent a non-response, a non-apology disguised as an apology. Instead of listening to their playerbase by returning the ship as a free grindable, they still made her a paywall-locked obtainable ship. In addition, there would be web-based combat missions that players can grind, but do you gain the ship after grinding it? Hell no, you still have to buy them through doubloons. So basically, nothing changed.
We had this portal campaign planned without Missouri, but based on your feedback and her special connection to the end of the war, we think this would be a great thematic fit to offer an alternative way of obtaining her. Wargaming said in their dev blog.
So, after completing the campaign, you will be able to purchase Missouri directly in the Premium shop at the same price as other Tier IX Premium ships. They added.
Also, the company said they couldn’t add Missouri because of “technical limitations” even though they managed to add her as a Free XP ship when she was first released. A complete bull.
Now let’s go for the catalyst that started the fire, and costed the company an irreparable citadel: The Yukon disaster.
LittleWhiteMouse, also known outside of the CC program as AprilWhiteMouse is a beloved community contributor who is very well known for giving out detailed reviews about upcoming ships, current ships and that includes Premium and tech-tree grindables. She even gives her own opinion about the ships and even helps out new and veteran players by giving them advice how to be good at the game. In addition to this, she also dedicates her time designing new ships, camouflages (in-game skins) and even signals, flags and patches for the game, and this is all for free. She is also one of the most, if not the most dedicated player in the game despite Wargaming’s shill and atrocities.
However, she finally set her foot down when Wargaming NA asked her and Chobi to design a ship representing Canada called the HMCS Yukon along with a permanent camouflage for it. They are of course unpaid. Chobi and LWM spent one year in designing a ship just for it to be ignored. Not only that, the company badmouthed her and made rude remarks about her suggestions, as well as apologizing. After this, she finally had enough and resigned from the CC program.
Although WG responded to the situation, it’s again a non-statement. Took them 3 days to do it too. They are sorry that the CCs left, but that’s about it. The company still did not do anything much about the problem that lies ahead, that is the lootbox-locked Missouri, as well as the compensation for ignoring LWM’s Yukon camo and ship design.
This is a big deal in the community as she is the most dedicated. And when she quits, you know where this is going, a domino effect happens. In support of LWM, 23 other CCs left, and this includes major CCs like iChase, Flambass and Jingles. These are CCs that boosted the game’s popularity as well had a huge influence for returning, new and veteran players alike. There are also CCs that have been kicked like Flamu, and recently, Yuro, for his harsh remarks and consistent use of the epic gamer word. However, please do not attack him as he has apologised on the behalf of the community and those he have offended.
This massive exodus of CCs leaving the program made its way to mainstream media such as Kotaku and PC Gamer, and the community also hopes that it makes its way to more mainstream gaming news media outlets so that everyone could be aware of Wargaming’s shady and shitty business practices.
To everyone’s no surprise, Wargaming also got involved in a money laundering scheme. Abso-fucking-lutely great.
PS: Wargaming is trying to win back inactive players (at least six months not playing the game) by giving them a free Tier V or Tier IX ship, some of which are very rare. So the “technical limitation” Wargaming claimed are nothing but shallow excuses.
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