I’m a fairly long-time player of since 2015 at minimum. I used to come home from school as a kid and play the game. I’m 23 now. So I’d like to think my opinion at least means something. I still own vehicles like Maus, KT105, Panther II, Coelian, etc.
I used to be an ARB player but gradually migrated into both that and GRB. Back when I took an extended break from the game, the MiG-17 was an absolute beast and the fighting over which was better, that or the Sabre, was non-stop. Now in the last 6-months ish I’ve returned to find that the Sabre is awful, the MiG-17 essentially the same. Now, both of these planes, Korean-war era aircraft, face all-aspect IR missiles from premium A10 and SU25’s, which leads me on to what has been bothering me the most:
Premium vehicle spam, especially at top tier.
Again, back when I played the game long and often, the only ‘overpowered’ or spammy premium aircraft was the German P-47, which was just ridiculous at the time. Now almost every game of ARB is just the same spam of premium MiG-21s, A10s, Su-25’s, AV-8As… the majority of these vehicles are good at worst, OP at best. Why does the A10/SU25 get all-aspect IR’s? Is it to make them sell? Premium vehicles used to simply be fun, unique vehicles with quirks that shook up the monotony of ‘regular’ playstyles. XP-55, Be-6, Wyvern, Calliope, Panzerwerfer, Katyusha, SMK, etc.
Now it feels like premiums are an absolutely necessity for top tier, especially in GRB. I wasn’t around for the release and initial shitstorm of the 2S38 and I can only be thankful for it. The GRB premium spam has honestly become horrendous, I play at 10.3-11.7 UK(Challenger mk2 & 2) and every single game I could swear the team is almost made entirely of premium vehicles. Either Clickbaits, Fuji’s, or one of the 500 T-80 variants you can open your wallet for. Leo2PzBtl’s, 2S38’s… TURMS-T, BMP-2M, M1A1AIM.
This post is getting a bit too long now as I think you all get the point. I’ve probably struggled to keep my narrative in one specific direction, so here’s a TLDR:
There are too many premiums, especially top tier. Most of them are too good, and top-tier tech trees are becoming too easily accessible. Grinding feels redundant, and the game feels more and more like it’s shelling out to wallet warriors above all else. War Thunder is a free to play game, it should stay that way in practicality, not just in name. I feel as though too many gameplay/balance sacrifices are being made just to cram in these vehicles(seriously, why can Su-25’s and A10s face Sabres??)
It comes across, for me at least, that at some point down the line the snail got a taste of the $$$ they could make by churning out premiums into every crease of the game, and then they got carried away. It’s fair, it makes sense, they’re a business and they want to make money, but I want to believe that they still care just a little bit about how their game feels. I just want to go back to the good old days where things didn’t feel pay 2 win, and every major update didn’t copy-paste a vehicle into a different nation for the price of $70.