Premium Ship Review #136 – Puerto Rico [LWM]
shipcomrade.com/?p=3882Posted Dec 31, 2019, 9:41 PM UTC
21989
shipcomrade.com
I don't think ive ever seen mouse this angry at WG.
What a year for WG. CV rework, RB, PR, legendary upgrades, EA quality appologies and tweets...
There is no doubt in my mind that WG has overplayed their hand.
The "nothing can be done about this event" sealed their fate. Sure they made their money like a scummy developer taking an epic gaming deal - but this will have a long lasting effect on the game.
They have openly lied about selling t10 premium ships.
Disgusting.
69
Wait for submarines ;-)
22
I'll quit if they actually add subs. Which will make me sad, because I was gifted 20 of the mega boxes this year and got exceedingly lucky with them. But I won't play a game with subs. They promised not to add them.
8
There's no doubt about subs arriving. Even if they turn out to be awful for the game WG sees it as an investment and will not back down on it no matter how unhealthy they may be for the game.(As we've seen before) They will be shoehorned into the game and monetized.
Even if they initially won't be in randoms you can bet they'll try to force them in eventually so just be prepared.
11
The only hope we have is: they follow what they said about adding it 1st on the live server on the separate game mode and saw the chaos those things will bring into the game and cancel everything related or move it to operations only.
It's impossible to balance subs to be fun to play with and against in the current game, the same applies to CV (and CVs are still somewhat possible since you can defend yourself and you can dodge some attacks, the same doesn't apply to the current submarine implementation, if they lock on you, those torps will follow you and deal huge citadel damage no matter what you do)
7
Not trying to rile you up, but subs are coming, and will be in the primary mode. A company doesnt invest a large amount of labor into a project and not use it.
6
Great. Can I get a no-CV queue to go with? Pretty please...
2
Not trying to be an asshole here. But you would have to be delisional to think that WG isn't going to add in subs no matter what the community feel's.
WG sees the issue with WOWS coming in 2 year's and want's to attract the largest fanbase of naval history(submarines). in 2 years WG won't have any more large scale lines to add in. USN is done mostly. same for GB, Germany,France,IJN. The only lines they really have left other than pan asia, and an EU tree would be submarines for Germany,Russia,USN,GB,IJN.
Barring premiums WOWS has run into a situation that's worse than what WOT has coming for it since at least WOT can just add in tier 11/12 and add tank's from after the 1960's. WOWS doesn't have that option since the only ships that have seen large scale use are submarines, CV and frigates. BB and cruisers both died out after WW2 and Destroyers basically morphed into frigates but larger.
WG is 100% all in on submarines and will implement them as the most powerful class, even if it's to the determent of the game.
1
Subs at least technically can be countered, unlike CVs. If they removed CVs and put in Subs, I'd be fine with that tbh.
0
was it a promise? I thought they just said that they will never be introduced without promising it
3
Subs could, theoretically, be the ultimate CV counter.
I know when I play subs, I plan to hunt CVs doggedly until they stop getting into the queue completely.
2
They are getting added. It doesn't matter if they are miserable to play / play against, horribly unbalanced, utterly detatched from reality and just a bad fit for the game. The only thing that matters is that they add another avenue to exploit the whales.
1
She was pretty pissed with the initial release of the Graf Zeppelin.
3
What fate? WG made their money and will continue to make money as people continue to play the game.
There are no consequences and nothing matters.
3
Yep the are scumbags - but they will roll on to the next scheme to screw everyone over. The low braincell count general playerbase doesnt read reddit or much of anything so they are oblivious to this
1
Disgusting
These emotions are meaningless without any direct action.
...I wish there was someone who would not only support the anger, but mobilize said anger into doing something that will put WG under. For good.
Edit: whoever thinks of upvoting me, don’t
-4
The people who spend money mostly can't help it. World of Acquisition is the game they are playing. Luckily I caught the red flags early, but this game will bore and frustrate you into spending money. That then becomes the game.
3
Mouses feels at the end are a damning (and justified) indictment of WG over this whole latest sorry episode.
64
There was a new ship in a match today, driven by a longtime supertester. A little bit of brief banter had them confessing to checking out other games and being just about done with the crap. It was rather illuminating as to what WG have managed to do recently.
Edit: just finished her review. That was a rather scathing appraisal of WG at the end. Ouch. I wonder if anyone will come to their senses.
29
It's WG we are talking about. They had no sense to begin with.
2
Did you ask them if they used to like the warships in this game, and if they hate warships in general now because of their experiences in WoWs?
-2†
Not the tester you ask about, but I like warships in general more than ever still, even though I feel less willing to test because it's like we don't matter to WG anyway.
2
if you are playing, even if not paying, you are supporting more of such behavior from Wargaming.
People have this delusion that by not spending money that they are effectively protesting or such. Not true. You are the krill to their whales. To keep whales happy queues must flow and the F2P perform that function.
2020 resolution, I am now DeletedUser on the forums. However staying to watch the dumpster fire is fun on its own.
So for all her angst, if LWM is still playing then it all is just words and nothing more. She got on her soapbox at the end of the review but it is meaningless words if she and others are still playing. Wargaming expects you to vent and then shut the fuck up and keep playing and so many will dutifully do so.
In other words, you are earning your dumpster fire.
0†
WG actively hides the identities of the people in the marketing department (or whoever gives the suggestions for monetization) for a reason.
Do we even know what level the marketing or monetization guys are at? Are they embedded in the St Petersburg office? Are they at the WG head office?
Edit: I’m being serious here. This is not a rhetorical question.
23
The thing is, all we can do is speculate on this. Was this a call from up on high from the owner that the devs were forced to obey? Was this some brainchild from a marketing person? Maybe it was a collaborative effort from several developers that marketing simply greenlit? We just don't know. My contacts at Wargaming certainly won't tell me for obvious reasons.
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WG has brilliantly manufactured a culture of "us vs them" when it comes to interacting with the playerbase, a culture found in another MMO but from a much smaller company.
They don't see us as anything other than dribbling vegetables on life support whose wallets they are entitled to. Our opinions and criticisms mean nothing, our pleas and outrage fall on deaf ears.
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Great summary at the end, excellent work as always.
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“Go to hell” is far too tame for WG. I expected much stronger on Mouse’s part. MUCH. STRONGER.
-11
A stronger reaction implies that I'm emotionally invested. The thing is, this event and this display from Wargaming have pushed me so far from investment that I'm simply disappointed and disinterested. Hate and anger would mean they still have my attention. They don't. They have to fight hard to keep me on board because they have alienated the Hell out of me with recent events. I'll simply wash my hands and quietly walk away.
63
To simply cut ties with this game and go onoto better games with better communities would be best. WG rely on their CC's for free marketing so if CC's start leaving they are losing out on potentially millions of dollars of free advertising.
9
Heh. Even I'm not that much of an optimist. "Better communities" are only found in games with small audiences. :3
15
I feel so identified with this statement, the game lost my interest way since the CV rework and now even more.
I don't feel anger or hate towards WG, I just... feel disappointed, I don't see myself playing more than a few months more if they are going this way, they somehow managed to make the game this uninteresting.
7
Exactly. For now, it's status quo... but only because of my current commitments. I am primed to be torn away by something, anything else that catches my fancy unless Wargaming cleans up its act.
10
Excellent description of the ship. Even more excellent description of WarGaming.
14
I appreciate your reviews LWM. Thanks for keeping your reviews objective and offering explanations to your subjective findings. If I have to miss out on a ship, glad it is not broken and OP for the whales and PTW clans (yet).
Additionally, I was pleased to read your sharing of insights with the PR debacle. Thanks for the summary of tidbits that has transpired as well as expressing what the community has shared about the event and electing to host it within your review.
I appreciate your vigilant eye and honesty with reviews, both of ships and notating the duress of WoWs community, over this very busy 2019 year. I am not holding my breath over WG’s change to tactics and further announcements for 2020 but I do wish you a happy and pleasant new year LWM and thank you for your time and dedication.
13
I am actually curious to see how this will develop.
WG could go the bad boss route and terminate Mouse's CC status (if they haven't done it already) but this would be a PR suicide.
Or they could ignore everything and keep quiet as they've done for several days by now, and hope we forget everything because they believe we are dumb wallets/credit cards to be drained and little else.
Or they could come clean, admit their mishandling of the whole holiday event and maybe punish the bad influencers as well (e.g. iearlgray). Of course this will never happen but I'm just putting it in as what could be.
13
"a PR suicide". well done for the play on words
6
maybe punish the bad influencers as well (e.g. iearlgray).
IEarl is so low on the ladder I can see him being happily thrown under the bus as a “sacrifice” to the community so WG can “show” they aren’t immune to critic. Meanwhile they’re already installing their, even more abusive, “event” and it starts all from the top again.
Then again, IEarl deserves the sack 100% to begin with.
6
I would accept that sacrifice...
2
I hate the idea of someone loosing their job like this. We all have lives to pay for and mouths to feed. On the face of it though, he’s completely failed in his role (I think, honestly not exactly sure what it is) so it’s probably inevitable.
1
Well if you are working for a company that is experienced a PR disaster. If u want to keep your job. Don't go out and pour gasoline on the flame. That is incredibly stupid
1
Not that they haven't been a little too quiet the last week or two about it all, but it's worth mentioning that right now and the next week is the real holiday in Russia. They likely won't even be back in the offices at all until after the seventh.
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Yep, what usually happens is that some overeager regional rep will start banning or filing takedowns, and eventually when the mothership gets off vacation the carnage gets sorted through.
1
I don't think I have seen Mouse this angry since the disastrous initial release of the GZ.
But yeah, I am in the same boat here. I had been planning on working towards the Gorizia and PR before the event started. Then I saw the actual requirements. I said "fuck it" and haven't touched WoWS in weeks. I just don't care anymore.
If WG doesn't care about its player base, why should I care about them?
10
Very well written summary. It really does feel like WG decided its time to squeeze every last drop out of this game. The passion is gone.
Something has changed and it is very much for the worse. I hope the backlash is enough for them to change but I doubt it.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a senior community manager (or whatever his role is) seem more keen to alienate their community than what we saw from earl grey over this. I suspect he’ll loose his job over it, or at least suffer some kind of demotion.
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Looking forward to this. Welp.
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1
LWM's (likely 100% ignored) criticism of WG sums up how I feel about WoWS atm. It's increasingly giving me "World of Tanks"-Deja vus (or rather PTSD).
"Been there, done that". Only this time it's with the addition of
- lootboxes
- gambling
- scummy manipulative mechanics
- flat out lying in their advertisement
- (and soon NTC 2.0 shoved down our throats)
Never thought I'd say this, but... Looking at how much WoWS has its foot on the gas right now to suck people dry, WoT was gentle in comparison.
And I got zero hope, they'll slow down their pace in 2020.
7
Extremely small nitpick, the 127 mm / 54 guns are also found as one of the alternative main armaments on the HSF Harekaze.
5
even more nitpicking, those are singles while the others are duals
3
Nitpick of a nitpick's nitpick. Midway's 54s are also singles.
2
nice one. I wasn't sure about Midways guns
1
Interesting how the PR at Tier X still has tier IX radar.
3
PR dumpster fire was one of the main reasons I quit a month ago.
3
Well said W.M. Great job
3
Thanks to the Mouse!
The effort that goes into these is much appreciated
3
I'm not winning special prize (or any prize at all) ? This must be rigged! /s
Thanks for the review.
1
I knew this would eventually happen as soon as the jb was being sold. And I vividly remember the potatoes with their pregant wallets bragging all over the forums and the sub about jumping to T9. Welp, now we have this broken and predatory bullshit. Make sure to thank those clowns for "funding development" and "keeping the servers running."
1
Which tier 9 did WG allow the player base to buy? I’m drawing a blank.
1
You can buy Jean Bart and Georgia for money... I think initial price is around 76$, but you can bring it down to the level of a Tier 8 Premium BB by using one of those yearly or semi-yearly coupons...
2
Ahhh, yeah. I forgot you could buy those right out. Thanks.
1
That's a pretty fine roast there.
+1
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It makes me really miss TB. I would have loved to see his "I will now talk about predatory monetization schemes and microtransactions for 40 minutes" video about this entire event.
So much this. TB was amazing with his critiques. They always felt on point, insightful, and well placed. Some people may not have liked him, but to me he was dead-on with almost everything he said in his reviews and commentaries.
Losing him was a serious blow.
I'm drawing a blank, who was TB?
TotalBiscuit, british game / industry reviewer. Passed away from cancer in 2019.
Jim Sterling has done a decent job taking up that torch.
I've personally never liked his presentation though, and I feel TB's is also easier for the average person to digest as well. TB also had a much better voice, and for videos like this you could just play them in the background while you worked on something else. Not that I don't appreciate Jim, or anyone else, trying to pick up that slack, but I don't those shoes will ever be filled.
The biggest reason why I don't watch JimSterling is that I just can't stand his voice.
I am very thankful for his work, even if it won't be able to replace TB's.
Too bad Sterling thinks he's God's gift to mankind and that he's never wrong. I'd happily trade him for TB in a nanosecond.
Might... wanna watch Colbert a bit for comparison material- you’re confusing the actual man With the hyperbolic self-charicture ><
Refreshing!
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[deleted]
Yeah well the moment I stop thinking about WoWs for a second I instantly feel much better for that second so I think it’ll be easy.
Outrage is a hella drug
Genuine offer: if you think the game is having that much of a negative impact on you and it would perhaps be easier if your access to the things surrounding it were restricted, we could ban you. The frustration you're expressing isn't healthy, bud-- if putting that stumbling block in the way for you might help you peel yourself away from such a negative influence on your life just say the word.
Here's hoping you feel a bit more at peace soon, one way or another.