With over 25 pages of entries, the Romantic Poetry Contest was one of our most popular contests ever! So popular, in fact, that we decided to double the original prizes! It was a thrill to read all the entries, and while it certainly took a lot of time and deliberation, the reporter team has decided on the best poems based on the criteria - rhythm and rhyme, vocabulary, humour, and originality (unfortunately there were several disqualifications for plagiarism). The winner of the Romantic Poetry Contest and 50,000 crystals, congratulations to: @GoldRock The winning poem: In 2nd place, recipient of 40,000 crystals: Second placed poem: In 3rd place, recipient of 30,000 crystals: Third placed poem: It was difficult to determine just three winners, so several other worthy entries will receive 10,000 crystals. Worthy of Note Entries (10,000 crystals): ClausFloride emoNinja DoomLOVER12 XtremeXecution Guestguestguest And for his humorous entry: P.E.R.F.E.C.T.I.O.N Congratulations to the winners, thanks to everyone who participated and making this contest a huge success! Special thanks to hogree and Lhamster for being the best and helping judge like the amazing people they are

SnoisivWodahs

All discussion for the Romantic Poetry Contest is to be put here.

Tankmen! Valentine's Day will soon be upon us and love is in the air! Show off your poetic skills to the community with a short poem dedicated to someone or something you love! Your task: Write a poem of any kind or format (obviously more effort will be rewarded, so don't expect a haiku to win). Maximum length of 32 lines (about eight stanzas if you do a traditional format). Theme: The poem has to be clearly related to love of some kind. Other entries will not be considered. The poem may or may not be related to Tanki, that is your call. However, if you use a Tanki Theme, it may be more rewarding. You will be judged upon rhythm, rhyme, vocabulary, humour and originality. As for the rewards: First place will receive 50,000 crystals. Second place will receive 40,000 crystals. Third place will receive 30,000 crystals. Other notable entries may receive a small consolation prize. The contest will be judged by a panel of reporters including myself. You have until February 23rd, 2014 to submit your entries. Submitting your entries earlier is typically a good idea. Entries are to be submitted in this topic. Any other messages here other than submissions will be removed. Additionally, there is a discussion thread that can be found here: http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=187819 And finally, to get you started on the right path, here's an example that I put together for you: ___________________________________ I sit on the cold hard ground alone My heart and soul broken Without the girl on the other side Of the cell... What can I do, to release the pain And free myself from torture's reign Engulfed by lonely feeling With no way of healing Aside from uniting with love. How do I break the iron gate Is it possible or am I too late To escape from this prison And be finally risen And unite with the one I love. The only one that cares about me She and I are meant to be I'll find a way to set us free And come together in unity Together with my true love. ___________________________________ Good luck! NOTE: All Entries must be Original. If any plagiarism is discovered, you will be disqualified.

Happy New Year all. Enjoy the issue.

What makes Tanki so replayable? To this date, over thirty-seven million players have joined Tanki Online. Thousands of new players join every day, but what makes them stay? Despite being away for about half a year, even I have been drawn back into this entertaining game. There would not be much of a community if all the players got bored after the first week, which can and has happened with some other games. How does Tanki keep players entertained for years at a time, and how does it compare to other popular games of different genres? Goals Why do you work hard in school? To get good grades and have a better chance at achieving a profitable career for you, correct? Looking at the other side, you strive in the workplace to earn your pay and get promoted to the next position. From the very first “for newbies” Sandbox battle you spawn in, Tanki sets goals for you - get crystals, buy equipment, become stronger. Rank up, then rank up, then rank up again. By the way recruit, it will take months of consistent play to become the strongest level, and years to have a full garage without gaining crystals from your wallet. Establishing these goals and giving players motivation is the first and most important step to keep you in the game. It’s fun to work towards a goal, and players get a great feeling of satisfaction upon completion, before working on the next goal to climb up the strength ladder. Get equipment, become strong enough to join a clan, fight in professional battles and work your way up to become a legend. How does this translate into other games with varying replay factors? Shooting games like the Call of Duty series are often criticized for not being able to be replayed much, especially offline. After the campaign, there is generally not much else to do other than play online and rank up there. With Tanki, a constant task looms above your screen every game in the rank bar, as you try to scrape together those last points for it to glimmer yellow and display that rank of Generalissimo. However, what if a game doesn’t have a goal? Can it be replayed at all? Well, some games benefit from not having any large goals, but instead having no distinct end point. A great example of this is Minecraft, that is very popular around the world (but Tanki still has more registered accounts, although unsure about actual player count). The game consists of surviving in a block world with friends and building creatively, in which the game only gets boring when your imagination does. This strategy of captivating players is becoming more popular in the gaming industry in more recent years. Content Eventually, everyone is going to hit full garage and two million points. What’s to keep them in the game after that? Adding additional content is a great answer for player’s boredom after achieving all the goals in a game. Tanki is a game that is constantly updated with new content. New guns, tanks, maps, paints, you name it has been added in the last few years. Rebalance to micro upgrades to new physics, with much more still to come, especially in 2014. A lot of the top players would have left a while ago if not for the exciting updates that always put a spin on the current game. How do other games compete in the industry? Most console games release downloadable content, either for free or for a price. Plus and premium versions of games can be purchased usually with such content included. Other games like Tanki push out constant updates that change the game. Still others release consistent updates to balance the current metagame, that forces players to be very adaptable in order to stay in top competitive form. An example of this would be games like League of Legends or Dota 2. Another form of content Tanki does rather regularly is special events. There are the expected discounts for the winter holidays and other important days of the year (holiday paints usually accommodate), but the developers also implement special features for certain days of the year. In the past the gold box has been changed numerous times, like 305 crystals for Halloween 2012, or 3000 this year. Changing the gold box encourages players to hunt for a lucky catch and thus play more of the game. Community Probably the most varying from game to game, the fanbase determines the longevity of the title quite a bit. Friends are made from battle to battle over a player's Tanki career, and obviously one would want to continue playing with said friends, and it’s a lot more convenient to play the game everyone is already comfortable with and has access to than to branch out and try other games everyone may not like. Joining a clan and fighting in wars encourages activity and dedication for the game itself. In the actual community, there is a lot of “community content” to sift through to keep one entertained and involved. Examples would be contests, forum discussions, Twitter and Facebook posts, even reading this article in the paper now. Participating in the community and inputting feedback is a vital part in the development of the game, which in turn changes the content of the game. It’s all a related cycle. While being on the receiving end of community content can keep people interested in the game itself, creating it can be just as if not more rewarding. Contributing to the forums, making videos about games, and helping out others are all awesome ways to keep yourself active. What’s more, creating content yourself makes you feel great when you see positive response and feedback from others who enjoy it. Games with loyal communities tend to live a lot longer than games without. Conclusion Overall, there are several components that contribute to a games replayability, and even more that aren’t touched on in this article. But the real thing that keeps Tanki up competing with other top games is the combination of all factors put together. Not lacking single player interest and content or a thriving environment for players to connect to each other, Tanki is in a good place to live a long life, as it already has for several years. What keeps you sticking with the game? Thanks for reading! ShadowVisions

“Hey Dennis, got any money for me today?” The buff, ragged figure asked. “N-no sir..” the scrawnier voice of the two replied. “B-but I w-will tomorrow.. I promise!” The stronger teen cracked his knuckles and retorted “What a shame. I guess a black eye and some bruises would motivate you and remind you to bring some tomorrow, wouldn’t it?” “N-No sir.., n-no...” But the plead was not heard as a giant fist slammed into Dennis’ skull. Beaten and dazed, Dennis awoke from his trance a few hours later. The pain was unreal, but he clenched his fists and pulled through. Nothing he wasn’t used to, anyway. As he brought himself off the ground, he scanned the area for his belongings: His ravaged lunch bag, old school supplies, a newly emptied wallet, and flash drive. Wait- Dennis didn’t remember bringing his flash drive to school today since he didn’t want it stolen. Could it be his? Picking it up off the ground, Dennis held the drive up to the glimmering sunlight in search of a name on it, but to no avail. That’s odd. He thought. Perhaps a name would be on any files on the flash drive? Dennis decided to take it home for the afternoon to see just who it belonged to. On his way home Dennis pondered why he was such a target. He had never done anything to hurt anyone purposefully, yet he was still picked on by almost everyone else. Though all he wanted was for everyone to be at peace with each other, the rest of the world had seemingly decided that Dennis was to be at war with the rest of his community. He was robbed, beaten, and bruised every day for as long as he could even remember, and there was nothing he could do about it. His fate was out of control, with no real friends to comfort him or to bring him up from this giant valley in his life. It was as if there was nothing left to live for... Dennis walked through the door of his house and sat down at his family computer. He didn’t own one of his own because it would probably be stolen, and his foster parents didn’t trust him. He was left on the streets at birth and adopted by his foster parents at the age of two. Though he was sixteen now, his parents still thought of him as an incompetent child, no more than an unwelcome pest to look after. Dennis didn’t have any siblings, at least, to his knowledge. He was completely alone with nobody to actually care about him. As he plugged the flash drive into the computer, he wondered who would care if he was just to disappear. Going through the list of people he knew, Dennis came to a conclusion: nobody. Perhaps he should just end his own life? No impact would be felt by anyone else. If anything, the world would be a better place. Well, slightly. The world would also be a better place without criminals, but most of them aren’t killed. Dennis’ consciousness argued back. As true as it may have been, it didn’t help his mood at all. Dennis clicked on the drive as it was read by the computer and the two files contained within were revealed: a text file titled “readme” and a html document called “passwords”. Upon opening the html file, Dennis discovered that it contained nothing, not even passwords. Just a blank file. However, as he moused over to the "readme", he realized the other document had much, much more potential. The text contained was the following: “This ancient relic of access has fallen into your possession. Use it however you would like.” Directly below it were the instructions. “The password of any account is at your command. Simply key in the website server host that the account is linked to, followed directly by the username of the corresponding password you wish to receive. Notes: The owner of this drive is immune to any password retrieval by this code. In order to claim the drive, open the password file and key your username at the very top. This first line of the document will become locked.” Simple enough. Dennis mused. But there’s no way it can be real- can it? As wrong as it seemed, since there was no name or owner written on the drive or its contents, Dennis kept it to himself. Who did he have close to him to tell about the drive anyway? He had no friends. It was best kept to himself anyway. For good measure, Dennis opened the html file and wrote his username on the top line, “DennisHartly48” and closed the file. He would try this out later, although it was probably just a lame joke someone left. There was no logical way some prank like this could really work... was there? Dennis looked up at the clock and groaned. He was back in school and it was still early in the morning, but only a few hours until lunch period when he was positive he would be beaten up into a thin layer of broken bones. Dennis remembered that he was supposed to bring money, but intentionally left all of his cash at home today in order to try something new. Either he was successful and it worked, or he would be brutally slaughtered. A risk worth taking, he decided. The bell rang and Dennis continued on to his class previous to lunch. Sitting down at his desk, he logged onto the computer in front of him and inserted the flash drive. Still doubting the credibility of the program, he opened the html file and typed in what he remembered to be the student number of his merciless bully, followed by the server name student information was stored on, the Green Hope High School database. Dennis saved the file with the new text encoded and waited a minute. Then another minute. I knew it, this is just a fraud. Suddenly, a dialog box appeared with the three digit password for the bully to have access to his lunch money: “482”. Dennis’ jaw almost dropped straight to the floor. Could this really work? “Mr. Hartly!” The voice at the front of the class boomed. “Are you paying attention at all?” “Yes, sir.” Dennis replied to his teacher. “I don’t quite understand what you just covered, though. Would you mind explaining it?” He developed a quick lie to make himself look indulged in the boring class itself. However, that wasn’t what mattered. What really counted is whether or not this password worked. The bell rang abruptly and Dennis dashed to the cafeteria as fast as he possibly could without looking suspicious to any bystanders. It was crucial that he get his food before anyone looking to eliminate him happened to show up. Dennis arrived two minutes later and was second in the lunch line. At his turn, the lady running the cash register asked for his account details. Though he was about to collapse from his nerves overwhelming him, Dennis mustered out the username and password, “four-eight-two”, for the woman. The lady smiled. “Thanks, honey.” She looked down at Dennis’ tray and saw the equivalent of a hundred dollars in cookies and snacks that he picked out. Laughing, she charged the bully’s account and sent the boy on his way. The dark, hooded, buff figure approached Dennis no more than five minutes later asking for money. Instead of paying up, Dennis chuckled, threw five bags of potato chips at his face, and said “Eat up. You worked for it, after all.” Confused but satisfied, the content bully slithered away. Did that really just work? Dennis thought to himself. He just stole from a lunch account- no- he just proved the password access file was real. If he could do this with lunch accounts, surely he could change the whole world! Thanks for reading! ShadowVisions

Thanks so much everyone for the birthday wishes! :)

Good luck everyone, hope to see some enticing entries.

The Best of Tanki- Community Introduction Hey guys, ShadowVisions here. I apologize for the lack of content on my end from last issue and thank everyone for the support they gave me. I’m feeling much better now and ready to get back into the swing of things! This relatively short article is going to be an argumentative piece for this issue’s theme of the “Best of Tanki”. I quickly leapt on the first thing that came to my mind as something quite obvious, and you’ll see why. --- Imagine Tanki as we know it today. Well supported, good gameplay, many maps, a plethora of weapons and tanks to choose from and fight in battles. Then add to it whatever you want. More weapons, maps, heck, even a million crystals free. Sounds like a paradise, am I right? Wrong, because the catch is- there’s no players or members of the game, it’s just you and the game. Still sounds good? Maybe to some. But then, what does that mean? Who cares if it’s just me? Well, there would be no battles and nobody to fight. No teams. No clans. No forum. No blog, no cybersport, no newspaper, staff, you name it. Nothing. Think of all your friends made in the game, your clanmates if you have some, your rivals and your role models. Poof, gone. On a larger scale, it doesn’t matter what the game is like if nobody plays it! It would just be you, a single lonely tank, driving around in whatever maps you want. The core concept of Tanki is ruined. You could argue that gameplay is the most important and best aspect of the game, and that community is unrelated because “it’s not part of the game”, but honestly without the community there is no such thing as gameplay, as there’s no one to fight. You could argue that the development or simplicity of the game makes it at its peak. They all submit to the same downfall: useless unless they're a community to enjoy it. Throughout the last few years there have been countless contests, events, challenges, prizes, suggestions, you name it created for the community and partly by the community. The English section of the game is much further today than anyone could imagine it would be several years ago. Tanki is not only a fast paced, enjoyable game but also a platform for player interaction and a medium to make new friends across the world. I certainly have, how about you? That's what makes the community so great and in my opinion the best part of Tanki. Without others I would imagine the game wouldn't be so thrilling as it is fighting along other people you can trust to fight by your side. Perhaps contrary to popular belief, the community has a strong influence on the development of the game. Suggestions are and have been listened to, and player support is a necessity for the success of any multiplayer game. Not to mention, without the community Tanki wouldn't even exist. Hosting such a large game costs money, and a large part of it is funded by players who buy crystals for the game. Players that are part of the Tanki community. If you're still thinking the game could run without the support of the players, just think about it some more, because the community is central to the development and sustenance of the game, holding vital importance. That's my argument for why the best and most important part of Tanki is the community. Thanks for reading and again for your support, and I'll see you all on the battlefield!

If your leader is out for the entire week of application that should be okay to do.

The prize distribution is up to the clan leader. The leaders of the winning clans choose who in their clan gets what amount of the fund.

Let's discuss Cybersport League Season 2.

Happy Birthday and thanks for everything you do :)

Okay :P