[This article is a W.I.P. – Editorships are welcomed!]

About

World of Warships (sometimes abbreviated as WoWs) is a Free-to-play MMO focused on naval combat, published and developped by belarussian company Wargaming, as a spin-off franchise to their previous popular title, World of Tanks. The game was released on September 17th, 2015^[1] and allows players to choose between destroyers, aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, and more recently, submarines from a historical time period setting from early 20th century to the end of World War 2.

History

Announcement and Release

In august 2011, Wargaming announced the developpement of then titled World of Battleships during the europan Gamescom convention in Cologne, Germany.^[2] The game was meant to be a sequel or spin-off franchise to World of Tanks, and use the same mechanics than its predecessor and the less successful World of Warplanes. The developpement lead was given to Wargaming's office in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The game, who was renamed to World of Warships in 2012, went into alpha testing phase in 2013, then on open beta in july 2015, for a final release on September 17th, 2015. The game was later released on Steam on november 15th, 2017.^[3]

Console and Mobile ports

A version of the game developped for mobile devices, called World of Warships Blitz was officially released on january 18th, 2018 for iOS and Android devices.^[4][5] A console version of the game, called World of Warships Legends was released on august 12th, 2019 for Playstation and XBox systems.^[6]

2019 CV Rework

In January 2019, the game recieved a major update that radically changed the gameplay of the aircraft carrier class (known in-game as "CV"), shifting from a top-down view in which the player gives directions to the airplanes squadrons similarly to a real-time strategy game, to a third-person view in which the player directly controls and aims with the airplanes weapons. The update was poorly recieved by the community, which percieved that the problems the update was supposed to fix were actually made worse (i.e. planes permanently spotting the enemy, lack of efficiency of the anti-air defence mechanics and general lack of balance disadvantaging certain other ship classes, such as destroyers.)

2019 – 2020 USS Puerto Rico Controversy

In november 2019, Wargaming announced that the annual New Year event for late 2019 and early 2020 in World of Warships would be an centered around a new mechanic, called "the Dockyard" in which the players would be able to accomplish missions in game to build and recieve the (fictional) american cruiser USS Puerto Rico for free as the ultimate reward.^[7] However, upon the arrival of the said event in december 2019 many players and community contributors noticed that the conditions required to obtain the reward were drastically changed without notice, with mission objectives so hard that they were practically impossible to complete within the timeframe, and offering instead to directly buy the ship for $300 worth of in-game currency. These drastic and unannounced changed, as well as the unsatisfying explanation from Wargaming's officials,^[8] lead to an intense backlash from the community against the company.

August 2021 Community Contributors mass walkout

[event ongoing – WIP]

Collaborations

Arpeggio of Blue Steel

High School Fleet

Azur Lane

On april 2018, Wargaming^[9] announced a collaboration with the mobile game Azur Lane, featuring various ship skins and characters being added into the game as recruitable commanders. Also, on the opposite side, several warships from World of Warships were added as playable characters in Azur Lane through the newly introduced Shipyard mechanic.^[10] The collaboration was renewed in 2019 and 2020, with new content being added into both games.

Related Memes

Poi (っぽい)

Poi (っぽい) is a Japanese word roughly translated to "supposedly," which has become associated with the Kantai Collection character Yuudachi. Additionally, because of Kancolle's focus on warships, the word has also become a commonly spammed word in the chat for the similarly-themed game World of Warships. It has gained an additionnal popularity in the game community in 2017 with the introduction of the same class ships IJN Shiratsuyu and Yuudachi as playable vehicles in WoWs.

Torpedobeat

Torpedobeat is a sub-genre of montage parody videos using footage from the MMO shooter game World of Warships. The videos typically feature clips of warships taking evasive maneuvers to dodge torpedo salvos accompanied by Eurobeat music playing in the background.

The Unicum Guides

The Unicum Guides are MLG-styled tutorial videos for World of Tanks, but a variant was made for World of Warships called "How to X", created by indonesian youtuber Yuro (formerly known under the alias atsf). These videos also spawned the Torpedobeat meme listed above.

Flamu

Flamu is a finnish youtuber and Twitch streamer who regularly produces WoWs related content, such as battle commentaries or gameplay video guides. A former official community contributor, he has gained over 100 000 subscribers on Youtube and on Twitch, making him one of the most popular content creators for the game. He is best known, for his angry and sarcastic temper, and harsh criticisms of the game mechanics. Additionnally, his followers on his personal Discord server are often invited to post memes and parodies about him in a dedicated channel called "Flolo meme dump".

Sabaton's "Bismarck" / "Pride of a Nation a beast made of Steel"

"Bismarck" is a song by swedish metal band Sabaton, narrating the story of the eponymous german battleship during World War 2, and released on 22nd of April, 2019. The song, which gained a notable popularity in History fandoms, was produced by Wargaming, and its music video, posted simultaneously on the band's and World of Warships official Youtube channels, used cinematics taken from the game. Additionnaly, some users started using the song's lyrics "Pride of a nation, a beast made of steel" as a popular meme catchphrase.

Search Interest

External References