Hello,
WG’s product manager, Maxim Chuvalovym gave overclockers.ua an interview, translated it for you:
Can you tell us a little about yourself, how you got into the World of Tanks project and what are your responsibilities?
I’m a 30 years old who started playing PC games at the age of 6. My first computer game was a ZX Spectrum with a tape recorder and cassettes. I joined Wargaming about 6 years ago before World of Tanks was even released. I work on the global product marketing,besides growing and developing market strategy I also access new ones.
Are you an active player if so on which patch you started?
I try to play all the time even though sometimes time is lacking. Have 58% WR. We are actively involved in the development of our WG clan and try to stay active in the Global Map. I started playing in 2010 like everyone else.
What is the current amount of online active players and what were the numbers from last year?
Globally, it’s about one and a half million users but is varies depending on the season.
The dynamics on active players is positive despite the game’s age and there has been a strong growth in Asia.
What’s your target audience and the average age of your players?
Our target audience is mostly men (about 97%) aged 25 to 45 years. Our audience compared to other MMOs is very mature and involved. For many, the project has become much more than just a game, “Tanks” became a hobby which competes with watching football or fishing and its something people don’t feel ashamed to talk to friends and colleagues about.
There was a rumour a couple months ago that World of Tanks was changing into a paid subscription?
Paid subscription is not being considered. Accessibility is one of the basic principles of WoT.
Are there any plans for a cooperation in the near future with well-known computer brands, and not only?
Of course, we are constantly negotiating with a large number of potential partners. We are interested in the development of this area: both in terms of expanding the range of available products as well to simplify its purchasing and delivery.
Do you plan to maintain the exchange rate of the national currency in the Premium shop?
This all depends on the economic situation. We understand our player’s position and try to consolidate.
Can you tell us any detail on the Sandbox server?
This is a great experiment. The main thing players must realise, this test is being called “Sandbox” for a reason, it’s like a sand castle which can be completely destroyed and rebuilt. We want to teach our players how to give constructive criticism, they should have an understanding that we can do it together, hand in hand. All the feedback that we collect from our players, bloggers, clans and their leaders are sent to the balancing department where it’s then strained and translated into new prototype ideas.
When did Sandbox start and when will it close?
The Sandbox launch was held on June 16, 2016, and it will keep on existing as long players enjoy this format.
About Roles
The tank Roles are necessary because the current classes don’t always reflect the essence of the vehicles. Not all HTs are meant for “tanking”. The new Roles are made in order to help players understand how to play on a particular vehicle.
Do you plan to change the current classes?
The Classes will remain but will be added to the Roles so players can clearly understand what kind of vehicles they are driving and not feel deceived.
-Roles will not affect the player’s skill.
-The team is now intensively working on finalising the interface (In-game and hangar).
-Dev team has fixed the bug where battle sounds keep on playing even after hitting hangar.
-Dev team is aware of the bug where battle stats are unavailable.
-The team is thinking about the possibility to hide players stats on request.
About VR
We are working on VR prototypes. I personally have played VR in various VR devices.
Of course to make the game work on all these devices it requires a lot of resources (both time and financial consuming).
Currently, VR doesn’t have a market and this is something necessary for MMOs but we are working on it so when the market is there we will be fully prepared but its not in our list of priorities.
In terms of audience, this will be a new format of content which been taken with great enthusiasm.
For now, the most important part of this battle’s reconstruction is the 360° interaction.
Will Football/soccer mode come back on a regular basis or will it shut off completely?
We will shut it off but we are always working in new fun modes. We have a few more in store for this year.
-The Dev team will test the possibility of removing team killing in Sandbox but only after the rebalance.
-“Still too early to announce 9.16. Maybe 9.16 will even have something from Sandbox”. RG: 9.16 is expected to come in autumn.
9.16 – the “We have no idea what we are doing but it works for use better than it does to Gaijin” update that will have some HD models… and that’s it kinda
You never know what will they introduce with 9.16.
It’s WG we’re talking about here, and these guys are notorious for teasing us a bunch, but often ending up in dissappointing us. One such example is pretty much most of the updates before 9.14. Do you remember anything significant that happened then? I, personally, don’t. Other than the Czech tanks, there was nothing special.
Lol 3 arty max per team
Still no mention of italian vehicles
Clap clap
still waiting here…….
No team killing on Consoles since the really early days and it works fine.
@ALHAMBRA117 Well i dont really know were to start with pointing out why this maybe works for consolieros but not for real players who use a PC. Maybe because you guys at your ox-boxes and pleystotions are used to aim-assistance in shoters and all the other stuff that makes skill obsolete.
The reason they removed team damage is because there is no reason for it to exist, not because we “have less skill”
3 arty per team is enough.
As a regular tank player it can be a handicap to have a third of your team unable to self-defense if things go wrong and mm isnt favorable.
And as an arty player if you get on a mao where arty can only hit a few places, then it becomes a huge killstealing fest where the luckiest rng arty will get crazy xp and annoy a lot of ennemies while the others do nothing and are useless to their team… Or all of them could be 100 % useless team slots if no ennemies come to these places.
3 max arty is good. And if they plan on removing platoon of arties, maybe 2 of them would be enough.
I justed wanted to leave this quote here: “Our audience compared to other MMOs is very mature and involved”
Have you read the OTHER MMO forums?…
Just for the record, ZX Spectrum is not a computer game. It’s a computer. Most likely he meant “gaming computer”. Although it was capable of doing a bit more than just running games. I had one of those in early 90’s.
i hope they don’t exclusivitize the halloween event to non-pcs again