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AlphaNinjaGirl

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  1. AlphaNinjaGirl

    Your Best Tanki Purchase?

    The 123 gold boxes that I dropped. Most of them around the 10K Events. Gosh I miss those.
  2. AlphaNinjaGirl

    The Failure and Death of Tanki Online

    Great to see you again. You're a ninja too now? My my... :wub: Oh, I didn't mean failure in that sense. I meant failure as in falling into disrepair. Like a heart failure. :P Obviously Tanki has been a financial success, its mere existence for this long stands as a testament to that. But as a game, it's flatlined. Out of those 50 million registered accounts, how many are active? I've been keeping a close eye on the amount of players online at any given time. From what I can gather, there are a mere 7,500 players playing from the American continent, and about 11,000 players from the Eurasian continent; about 18,500 active players total. That's a huge drop from the 400,000 or so back in 2014. With all due respect, a couple new technical updates aren't going to bring back the masses that left Tanki. Previous updates (drug nerfs and balance changes), events (Christmas and Halloween 2016), and discounts have shown this. People just don't trust the developers anymore. I appreciate your enthusiasm and optimism, but as for me, I've completely lost faith in Tanki's devs. Any balance update they could possibly roll out right now would just come off as a sad and desperate attempt to line their pockets with just a few more dollars, but unless they pull a miracle out of their butts, the game will be dead before next June. The data doesn't lie. With all due respect, a couple new technical updates aren't going to bring back the masses that left Tanki. Previous updates, sales, and discounts have shown this.
  3. AlphaNinjaGirl

    The Failure and Death of Tanki Online

    Ohh nooo, it's another "Tanki is dying/dead" topic! Where's my downvote button? Oh wait... that was removed. Yep, so... some preface, I guess. Who are you? I'm AlphaNinjaGirl. I've been playing Tanki Online ever since late 2013, but stopped around the end of 2016. I'm a proud free player, always have been and always will be. Well... except for the $100 I spent on gold boxes. If you know me, you probably know me as the fiery-tempered redhead of the short-lived 10K Event. That title is scaring me, what's going on? Oh, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to scare you. All I'm really here to do is to present some data I found, along with some of my personal knowledge, ask a couple of questions, then leave. Is that okie? Uh... sure. Why though? I'm doing this specifically because I care for the game. Some of my best memories are with Tanki. I've had some memorable games, made a few good friends, and gave away around 100 gold boxes. So, consider this me giving back to the game. Sounds interesting, please proceed. Aww, thank you! So, basically, I was sitting in my bed one night and thought, "Huh... I remember Tanki Online. I wonder how it's doing." What followed was a brief look into Tanki's current player count, a few Google searches, and a short but lovely round of Wolfenstein CP. I'm here to share the data I found with you, give you a little history lesson, and try to use trends from the past to predict the future of Tanki. And well... you read the title, so I'm assuming that you know what's about to happen. 2013 Our story starts in August of 2013, four years ago... back when I started playing. The game was pretty different from what it looks like today. The graphics were a bit weird, controls were wonky, and a whole lot of features were different. Isida could steal health, free crystal boxes dropped from the sky, no kill on gold was a thing... you know, classic Tanki. But I'm not here to describe how awesome the game was back then. I'm here to describe the game's level of interest and popularity back then. As shown by Google Trends, which... yes I know it's not *the* most reliable source of data, but it is still pretty reliable... the game's popularity had stagnated, having dropped from a spike in March 2013. Looking back at old news archives, you can see that late March 2013 was when a team kick update was announced -- odd, huh? Anyway, the game's popularity being still wasn't too bad, honestly. There hadn't been many major events from March to September, but keeping a steady pace isn't bad. I remember logging on and seeing about 50,000 players online every day, so the game was definitely doing well. Interest wouldn't spike until the Holiday season though, with huge surges increasing around Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And hoo boy, Christmas 2013 was a massive success for Tanki. The event featured a 60% increase in battle funds, 25% crystal shop bonus, and a full 50% discount on everything (except kits). The game's interest shot up to the highest it had been in Tanki's lifetime, for that year, anyway. But, when the new year event died out, the game dropped back down to a more "normal" rate; about 10% higher than the previous year's "normal" rate, as the trends show. So, in short, between March 2013 and January 2014, Tanki Online grew by 10%. 2014 Ahh 2014. That sweet, sweet year of awesome. My heart races just to tell you about all the cool stuff, but I have to keep this concise, so... The game was riding heavily on its previous years' success, and Tanki Devs showed no signs of stopping on improvements. An interesting survey on 30 Jan 2014 showed Semyon Kirov asking the Tanki players why they found Tanki a good game to play. The most common response was the fact that Tanki was free to play, browser-based, unique, fun, and had a high skill ceiling. The players also enjoyed playing with friends, playing with players from around the world, and of course, getting awesome discounts. Following the players' feedback, the game's popularity spiked in March, April and May, with awesome events bringing huge discounts for players. The buzz from these events didn't die out until June, when the devs started rolling out more technical updates -- changes to CP mode, chat notifications, etc -- but the game still continued on strongly. And of course, who could forget the Christmas event of 2014. That one holiday was the single most successful day for Tanki Online to this day, with a surge of about 250,000 players logging daily, as the discounts were spread throughout multiple days. 50% discounts on turrets one day, 50% discounts on hulls the next, with paints, supplies, and microupgrades following in tow. I bought myself a sweet new Viking M1 on my first alternate account, as a matter of fact. It certainly helped that the new Hammer turret had just passed testing and was now live; players who enjoyed it could grab it for super cheap not shortly after its release. All in all, just a great time for Tanki. So, what happened? 2015 Well, a lot actually. At first, it looked like Tanki was going to continue to grow, settling to a comfortable equilibrium which was 10% higher than its previous year's. The hype surrounding the new Vulcan turret kept Tanki afloat through January, the Iron Days event through February, and the Daily Missions testing in March. But then, in April, something happened. Well... actually, the opposite. Nothing happened. Or at least pretty much nothing. No new events were introduced, rather the game received more technical updates. Balance changes, mouse controls, and LOTS of Star Series promotion. I'm not sure why exactly, but something about April stunk. And the stench would continue to plague Tanki for the rest of the year. During the course of summer and fall, Tanki's popularity began to drop significantly, despite the dev team throwing hundreds of discounts at the players. I have my own ideas as to why this is, but since my opinion is rather unpopular, I'll save that for another day. Popularity didn't return until later in the year, with the Premium accounts, Halloween, and Christmas updates spiking the players again, but only grasping up to 70% of what the previous year's events had garnered. The game's popularity was falling pretty fast. 2016 By April of 2016, the buzz from Christmas had died out completely, and the game was growing cold. A drought of discounts set in; the next double crystal event was in June, but by then a lot of players had already lost interest. Tanki began pouring out some pretty poorly-received updates. Tanki X was announced in February, and players began wondering if their Flash Tanki accounts were safe. In addition, early battle termination was announced, but never really worked. By late March, Semyon Kirov had left Tanki in the hands of Cedric Debono, a tragic day indeed. Not even Tanki's birthday in June could raise interest, being surrounded by tons of down-days as the devs worked on updates. By July, interest in the game had hit an all-time low, with the infamous Paint Separation Update dropping and splitting the community. Announcements began rolling out about changes to the shop, shop-exclusive kits, and alterations. The only discount given in the Fall was that on microupgrades, which had also been reworked. By September, the game's popularity had pretty much tanked (pun intended), showing a 20% drop from the previous year's September. Try as they might, neither Halloween nor Christmas could save Tanki; the latter's paltry discounts were a huge step down from the previous years, and were almost insulting to try and make use of. The unpopular Striker turret had been recently released, but its slow gameplay wasn't helping at all. 2017 and beyond? And so we come to this year. Honestly, I stopped playing after the New Year's event in 2016, and apparently a lot of people did. While most years' Christmas and New Year's festivities created a short buzz that continued on into the new year, 2016's didn't. Instead, the interest fell straight back down to its low, and it's continued that way ever since. As of right now, the game has reached an all-time low in interest. And with September right around the corner, which is historically shown to be Tanki's worst month, I doubt that Tanki will see it to Christmas 2018. From what the patterns show, the game's main draws are Halloween and Christmas. Its popularity grew sharply in 2013 and 2014, but dropping just as sharply in 2015 and 2016. If Tanki continues on its current path, the game should see one last Christmas, before fading completely into obscurity. Wow. What happened? It's hard to tell the turning point, honestly. Maybe it was the Smart Cooldowns update in September of 2014. Maybe it was the Paint Separation update in July 2016. Maybe people just got bored of blowing up tanks. But I think we can all agree on something; Tanki developers stopped caring about the players. They stopped rolling out random free discounts, and started rolling out premium accounts and shop sales. They stopped updating the garage and started updating the meta. They got greedy. Whether or not you agree with me doesn't really matter at this point, the data is there for you to interpret, but this is how I've interpreted it. If you pour through Tanki's old news archives, I doubt you'd disagree with me. If the pattern continues, and it will, Tanki won't see another Christmas. So... what do we do now? ...You really want to know? Yeah... *sigh* Okie... Christmas isn't Tanki Online's last hope. Tanki's last hope was last Christmas, and it didn't help at all. This game is beyond the point of no return. The developers know this, and they want to snatch as much money from you as possible before the game dies. I'd hate for that to happen to anybody, and I'd hate for this game's last moments to be viewed as a disgusting scam. So here's what I'm thinking... We give Tanki one last hurrah. We all log in on Christmas and play the heck out of the game. Troll, mult, drug, anything that gives us enjoyment; just a night of crazy, full-blown shenanigans. We spam all our drugs, all our saved up gold boxes, and spend all our crystals on whatever discounts we get. We talk, laugh, cry, and reminisce. There's no arguing over anything, not the future, not the past, not drug updates or paint updates or anything. Just a huge gathering of players coming together and enjoying the game for what it is, and what it used to be. And then, as soon as the festivities end, we quit. December 26th, 0 players online. Let's give this game we love a peaceful, quick death. Let's not have Tanki be doomed to a slow, painful death by horrible updates and greedy developers. Let's give this game the closure it deserves. If you agree with me, spread the word. This has been Angie, and this has been one heck of a ride. I wish you all the best of luck. See you on the 25th. ;) If you're interested in the data tables that I used, you can check one out here: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2013-01-25%202017-08-25&q=%2Fm%2F07s84qp If you're interested in the Tanki news archives, you can check them out here: http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showforum=203 If you're interested in my ratings... uh... that's weird. But you can check it out here: http://ratings.tankionline.com/en/user/alphaninjagirl/ If you wish to challenge or debate my conclusions... eh, don't waste your time. I honestly don't care enough to talk about it anymore.
  4. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    Maybe. It honestly depends on what Tanki devs do in the future (hopefully revoking the terrible battle creation update), but regardless of what happens to the game, I'm not doing any more 10K events.
  5. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    Honestly though, I don't have much of a choice. I was already spending $40 a month on this game, I don't want to have to spend an extra 5k crystals, and how else do I create battles?
  6. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    10K is officially over, news post on the OP. Goodbye everyone, it's been wonderful.
  7. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    Feeling a bit better, but tired from work. Probably gonna try and schedule 10K VI tomorrow. ...No, 10K VI is not tomorrow. I'm going to work on implementing 10K VI into my weekly schedule tomorrow. :P
  8. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    I love how this topic has turned from "10K Gold Drops" to "Virtual Care for Angie". :P Appreciate it though.
  9. AlphaNinjaGirl

    The Halloween Map 2016

    Awesome! Glad to see I made it in... :wub:
  10. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    I am actually eating a lot of soup. Clam chowder is my favorite... :wub: Still sick though. Sorry to anyone who's eager for 10K VI...
  11. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    I'm on hiatus right now, probably gonna come back near the end of the month... Mainly because I'm *still* sick. v.v
  12. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    Sorry for the long wait guys. I've been battling the flu for the past week and that doesn't really inspire me to get online very much. :( I'll have more news for you in a bit.
  13. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    Sorry for the silence. With Halloween happening, I'm quite a bit more busy than I'm used to. I'll try and update the OP as soon as I can...
  14. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    10K V just officially ended... posting the summary later. Sorry for the confusion with the hours, hope everyone still had a great time. Post how many golds you caught below!
  15. AlphaNinjaGirl

    10K Event (Gold Rain) Forum Page

    Here's the long-awaited (and quite a bit late) battle link! http://tankionline.com/battle-en.html#/server=EN1&battle=fffffff38a2fe76c
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