World of Tanks

[Work in Progress. Large project: Any editorship requests welcome!]

About

World of Tanks (often abbreviated as WoT) is a free-to-play armored vehicle-based MMO shooter game that was released on August 12, 2010 in Russia (April 12th, 2011 in North America and Europe) by Belarusian company Wargaming.net^[1] for the PC. The game lets you operate various armored vehicles such as tanks, tank destroyers, and mobile artillery (SPGs) from the World War 2 and Cold War eras. With over 160 million players worldwide^[2], it was considered as a commercial success and contributed to popularize the genre of vehicular combat.

History

Alpha Test, Beta Test, and Pre-Orders

The game's development started in 2008, at Wargaming studio in Minsk, Belarus, after the company, who used to work on various strategy games in the early 2000s decided to cancel their latest project of World of Warcraft style MMORPG^[3]. The game was first released in alpha version on the Russian server in September 2009. This version settled the core concept of the game: Two teams of 15 players, controlling their vehicles in a similar way to other multiplayer-based shooters, such as Battlefield, fighting on a closed map with no respawn, until all the enemy vehicles are destroyed or their base captured. This first alpha version only included 6 playable vehicles.

The game was fully released on August 12, 2010 in Russia, and on April 12, 2011 in Europe and North America. Ever since, the game kept receiving regular updates, adding new vehicles from new nations, and improving the physics of the game.

Console Releases

A console port of World of Tanks was released on February 12, 2014^[4] for the XBox 360 which used a different engine than the PC version. The port was later updated for the XBox ONE on July 28, 2015, and allowed XBox 360 users to transfer their game stats to the XBox ONE version. The XBox 360 version was later discontinued, and services shut down on July 21, 2020 in favor of the XBox ONE version. A Playstation 4 port was released on January 19, 2016^[5], and crossplay between the XBox ONE and PS4 versions was enabled on July 21, 2020^[6].

A major update for the console ports, titled World of Tanks: Modern Armor, was released on April 27th, 2021. It added a new "Cold War" mode separate from the classic "World War II" mode with a different playstyle and new equipment.

Mobile Release (World of Tanks Blitz)

A mobile version of World of Tanks, titled World of Tanks Blitz, was released on iOS on June 27, 2014. A Windows Store version was later released on December 28, 2015 for Windows 10 users, and was also added to Steam on November 9, 2016. A Nintendo Switch port was released on August 26, 2020, with crossplay supported between the three systems^[7].

2018 Graphics overhaul

in 2018, the PC version received a major update of its graphics and physics engine, with the adoption of the Havok game engine. The update was very well received by the community.

2021 Steam Re-Release

The PC version was re-released on Steam on April 29, 2021^[8]. Steam players would have to start a new account to play the game, which has led to some upset for veteran players.

Controversy

Gold Ammo

Premium Vehicles

Sergay Bukaketovsky Fired

On 25 February 2022, the Wargaming.net's CEO Sergay Bukaketovsky (SerB), was fired for supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine by saying:

“I support the operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and the LPR. The rest are nuances. (translated.)” -Sergey Burkatovsky

The post was deleted afterwards and Wargaming.net released a statement that was Serb's "personal opinion" and it does not reflect the company's opinions. Wargaming.Net was focused on helping the Ukrainians afterwards. ^[13]

World of Tanks Wiki

World of Tanks Wiki^[9] is the game's official wiki site.

WoTReplays

World of Tanks players can submit their replays to WoTReplays^[10], which lets other players download, watch, and comment on replays submitted. Sometimes these replays wind up on the official World of Tanks video series "Best Replays of The Week" (shown below).

XVM and other mods

XVM^[11] is a popular modpack for World of Tanks. The main selling point of XVM is that it reveals the overall stats of your teammates, which are broken down into various color-coded tiers known as WN8 ratings (shown below).

These are also calculated into a "win chance" percentage to predict a match's outcome, which may cause some players to perform unsportsmanlike behavior such as destroying their vehicle at the start of a match.

Notable YouTubers / Fan works

The Chieftain

Known in person as Nicholas Moran, he's the official tank researcher for World of Tanks. He visits tank museums across the world to find out stats and blueprints for the various historical tanks in the game. He also stars in the World of Tanks video series Inside The Chieftain's Hatch.

The Mighty Jingles

The Mighty Jingles is the online alias of british youtuber Paul Charlton. A former official community contributor for World of Tanks, he has then switched for a position of community contributor for World of Warships (WoWs). However, with 642 thousand subscribers on his Youtube channel, he still regularly posts World of Tanks battle replays and has become one of the most popular content creators in the Wargaming community, with many memes parodying his appreciation of the TOG-II tank or his habit to misidentify vehicles.

QuickyBaby

A professional World of Tanks YouTuber and Twitch streamer that helps teach newer players of the game the best strategies. He also covers replays sent to him via email.

Circonflexes

Also known as SirCircon. He's a popular World of Tanks Twitch streamer who saves his streams to YouTube.

SirFoch

A well-known World of Tanks player on YouTube (FochYou) and Twitch until quitting the game on December 1, 2020.

Svet Sekundarnih Sirovina

Maker of World of Tanks PAPOJ, a popular World of Tanks meme video series.

TankToon

Tanktoon is an animated Youtube series created by Dmitriy Plugin and hosted on his channel RanZar^[12]. The show usually depicts the vehicles of World of Tanks as cartoonish characters and humorously living their lives in the game's world, parodying its various mechanics.

Related Memes

Kemp Bush / Unfair Plane

Kemp Bush / Unfair Plane (derived from "camp bush, unfair plan") is a catchphrase ironically used by experienced WoT players to mock the perceived noob players who fail to understand the game's spotting and camouflage mechanics and accuse their enemy to "camp in the bushes"

The Unicum Guides

The Unicum Guides are a series of Youtube videos created by youtuber Sliphantom. They usually consist of guides explaining how to play the various vehicles in the game, narrated by text-to-speech audio, parodying the style of MLG montage parodies. Since their creation in 2015, they have been widely transposed to other similarly themed games, such as War Thunder, World of Warships, Azur Lane or Kantai Collection.

Russian Bias

Russian Bias

Laughing SerB

"Laughing Serb" refers to a series of reaction images of Wargaming executive Sergey "SerB" Burkatovsky, and most notably one, where he is seen laughing while pointing his finger sideways. Those images have gained a notable popularity in the Wargaming community, and are often used ironically to mock the various aspects of the game's balance and mechanics.

TOG-II*

The TOG-II* is a british WW2 heavy tank prototype that was introduced in World of Tanks in 2013 as a playable tier VI premium vehicle.

Due to is very distinctive elongated shape, and generally poor performance in game, it has become the target of many jokes and memes in the community, receiving various nicknames such as "HMS Tog", "Tog Boat" or "Hot Tog".

Search Interest

Reference Links