Russian Bias

Russian Bias is a term and meme used by video game communities to express frustration towards a seemingly unfair balance favoring vehicles and equipment of Russian origin, usually accompanied by a soviet era propaganda poster or image macro to glorify it's power or the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin using his guiding hand to direct inaccurate shells to enemy faces.

Meaning

Vehicles of Russian origin are seen as woefully overpowered and unbalanced compared to their other historical counterparts. The popular example is the T-34 tank, whose characteristics as a fast and well armored vehicle (combined often with an often lack of accounting for crew conditions by the game it is in) and a high-powered gun in almost all its iterations make it extremely difficult to stop with an uncoordinated team. Whether it is the fault of the game or the players, the T-34 and other vehicles like it have gotten an infamous reputation among the WT and WoT communities for their surprising qualities.

Stalinium and Slav design philosophy

Along with the meme, the term Stalinium was coined to explain the seemingly unfair advantage and unusual qualities of Russian armor and cannon shells. Stalinium is a fictional metal that is ultra-dense and extremely durable, resistant to all but very high-power guns. Stalinium shells are believed to bypass all armor, usually leaving a nuke or two behind. Stalinium's armor form is jokingly "stronk" enough to survive naval artillery. Most of the Stalinium meme comes from the overall design of Soviet vehicles historically, as well as the cheapness of "Gopnik" culture.

The Russian ASU-57 (above), for example, is thinly armored, extremely light, is equipped with a powerful gun, and is very fast. The low profile, probable cheap cost, reckless speed, and bare bones design is likened to "Gopnik" constructions. Despite its incredible fragility, however, the ASU-57 holds well as a combat vehicle in War Thunder. Stalinium's existence explains this anomaly. Without it, Russian vehicles would have to become more practical and less jury-rigged. Historically, the cheapness of Russian equipment was also very true, and thus Stalinium now has (jokingly) a historical background as the glue that made such poorly made equipment usable.

Sounds of the Soviets

To match the strength of the meme, equally strong music was selected by the game communities to accompany it. Following on the existing earrape meme, Russian Bias' version is Soviet Russia's national anthem played at an extremely high volume, sometimes with the intent of deafening or breaking hearing for added humor. Another track often used is Russia's theme music from 2008's Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, where the piece's foreboding and harbinger theme, coupled with the march and chorus, promotes fear and surrender to the powerful Soviet armies. Most often found in recent times is instead hardbass (likely due to the popularity of "Gopnik" video channels such as Life of Boris). Music in a Russian Bias video or montage generally is steady throughout, or it can also be suddenly blasted when Russian equipment or vehicles perform exceedingly well. There have been cases where, instead of earrape, a Russian musical piece is played steadily, for much of the same effect.

Is there bias?

Short answer, no, but there are many instances where the Soviets have had questionably stronk vehicles in their lines and Russian guns that perform vastly better than Western counterparts.

In War Thunder for example, people often not only poke at the T-34 for being seemingly unbalanced, but also other powerhouses such as the "Bias Six" (IS-6), "Milk/Potato Truck" (GAZ-AAA truck series), and for a time the Type 65 before the removal of it's Tiger face-melting belts (it was able to stop the fearsome Tiger 1 tank simply by shooting it, even through the thickest part of the armor, with its flak cannons at rapid fire rates). A still modern 'bias fueled' vehicles seem to be the near-unbeatable Yakolev-9T, a fighter plane that it is extremely flexible even in spots that other nations' planes would suffer, and the TU-4, a reverse-engineered American B-29 with even more powerful defensive armament.

Overall, while again there is no bias, Russian vehicles are, in the end, much easier to slip into. Their only real weakness is that they have poor handling and a low skill ceiling (which is something that never becomes an issue with randoms).

[Let our voices be heard, end the oppression, someone else please add on or finish this entry. Request editorship, add videos, Call PhlyDaily or Baron for Stalin's sake!]

[Also, credit to fellow memester Blacklynx for being my inspiration for the page.]