Tanki and Serious Games

[Pink_Legacy 269]

Hello my dear ladies and gentlemen,

 

I haven't been very active in the forum for the past couple of months (and you did not even miss me!), because I've been having some adventures. Now, I have come back to share my thoughts with you.

 

In August I started playing this other game. I saw an advertisement on TV, and I decided to try it out. So I went and I created an account. Silly me, I chose a silly nickname because I was still on Tanki mood and I thought that I would make the normal learning mistakes during the game and I would have to start a new account. And, guess what? Mistakes and sub-optimal choices don't make the game unplayable! So I'm there still stuck with a silly nickname (mind you, I'm very happy with a silly nickname).

 

Realising that, led me to compare that other game with Tanki, and this is what I have found:

 

• Sharing Information: Do you know how Tanki never says anything? Everything is a state secret up until the day before being released or so. Well, apparently serious games make an effort to share information with their players. In the other game, I had access to the complete description of the Halloween event since September. Tanki? Just a sneak peak (discounts and same decorations as every year, what a surprise!) towards the middle of October, and the complete information two days ago. Same with html5. The other game, tells me that they'll complete migration to html5 by the first half of 2018 (which we all now that more likely it'll be second half). Tanki? When are the alterations for all the modifications and turrets going to be finished? Are you even going to finish them? What about html5? Is Tanki going to die if you release an approximate date? And this big new project with shinies? Are you going to do it some time soon, or is it just smoke to hide all the other things that you are not doing?
• Protecting New Players: In the other game, they've just implemented a new mechanic that prevents veteran players from creating a new account and abuse new players. Tanki, on the other hand, is completely alright with you creating a new account, paying €15 for supplies, and bullying all the new players at private rank (of course, every time I check there are less and less actual new players at private).
• Playing at Your Own Pace: One of the thins that bothers me the most in Tanki is that the system forces highly encourages you to play only to complete missions and then log out, unless you want to pay for premium and participate in even more blow-outs. In the other game, it is okay if you play 20 minutes a day, and it is also okay if you play 2 hours. Obviously, there is a point in which you really can't play much more unless you pay, that's the thing with online games. But the difference is that the other game actually encourages you to play, even if you don't pay, and there's a lot of flexibility to find your own pace.
• In-game Currency: Do you know how if you lose too many battles, buy too many pieces of equipment, or simply play too much in Tanki the system does not reward you enough to keep playing at a competitive level and you get stuck with low modification stuff for a long while? Well, in the other game, should you happen to run low on in-game currency, you aren't forced to climb up the ladder in order to gain more in-game currency. You can simply generate more in-game currency without moving forward in the experience ladder. I understand that there a loads of different genres of games and that Tanki cannot allow players to gain crystals without also gaining experience (or can't it? I wonder), as that would generate imbalance and abuse. But my point is that in serious games, bad decisions and sub-optimal choices don't make you lag behind everyone else for the following five levels.

All that is not to say that Tanki is a bad game per se. Tanki is a great game, it's just fallen prey to really bad management. I really loved playing it up until they merged the servers, and they started adding shinies that encourage drugging. I'll probably drop by every once in a while and play a game or two, just to remember the good old days (and then I'll probably remember why I stopped playing Tanki and not come in another while). But my recommendation to all of you is this: Just find a serious game and enjoy it. Your time and money will be put to a much better, more rewarding use.

[Guest TSY_the_crazy]

Tanki isn't a serious game :blink: :wacko: :o?!

[Musa 5,352]

Try TankiX

Edited October 29, 2017 by Musa

[Maf 32,300]

Well, by "serious games" I assume you mean AAA titles like Battlefield or Overwatch. I remember how devs said in a stream before something like "We really appreciate the fact that you find it fitting to compare us to massive games which have million-dollar budgets and hundreds of professionals working on them, but it doesn't change the fact that we are still an indie studio and therefore have to use different methods to manage and develop our games".

 

So yeah, Tanki Online won't ever be as good as some bigger games in that sense. However, if you play Tanki X, then you will already see a big improvement in the right direction.

[fordmustang12345 3,910]

Imo Tanki is a bit of a serious game , it may not me a multi million dollar game like CS:GO, Call of Duty or Overwatch and the like but its still up there in the top 100 to me

[I-Hate-Druggers 192]

I agree. This game is actually competitive at times. And as the moderator said, this game will NEVER compare to any other “big” games. And we are glad that others don’t know about the horrors.

[ThirdOnion 4,898]

 

• Sharing Information: This doesn't depend on the budget or size of the game, it depends on the choices of the company that creates it. There are large games that communicate poorly with players.
• Protecting New Players: Same as above.
• Playing at Your Own Pace: Eh . . . while I agree that simply doing missions and minimizing play time is most profitable, I think you can do fine even if you play at your own pace.
• In-game Currency: Fair criticism.

 

[Guest]

What's this "other game" you played? Is it Forge of Empires by any chance?

[Pink_Legacy 269]

Well, by "serious games" I assume you mean AAA titles like Battlefield or Overwatch. I remember how devs said in a stream before something like "We really appreciate the fact that you find it fitting to compare us to massive games which have million-dollar budgets and hundreds of professionals working on them, but it doesn't change the fact that we are still an indie studio and therefore have to use different methods to manage and develop our games".

 

So yeah, Tanki Online won't ever be as good as some bigger games in that sense. However, if you play Tanki X, then you will already see a big improvement in the right direction.

No, by "serious games" I mean games that actually take the whole "being a game" thing seriously. In fact, I do not play games that I've got to install on my computer. In the past few years I have only played browser-based games. So no, Tanki people would probably love being compared with those games that you talk about, but I'm comparing it with other browser-based games.

 

Also, have you bothered to read anything besides the title? What I am talking about is how other games deal with their players, not how much better their quality is.

 

What's this "other game" you played? Is it Forge of Empires by any chance?

Spot on!

Edited November 4, 2017 by Pink_Legacy

[Maf 32,300]

 I'm comparing it with other browser-based games.

Well, in that case I don't have much to say here. Haven't played many games that have a similar style to Tanki, i.e. in-browser, free to play, action-arcade, etc.