Yes, this is an actually serious post compared to my usual “2S38 sucks” posts.
I’ve seen lots of people complaining about that their teammates are unskilled. Crashes on taking off, runs out in their Clickbait, boats running ashore.
In fact, I think the game is too harsh for low skill players or unlucky games.
There are lots of people who would think that the community and gameplay problems would magically go away if everyone just ‘became more skilled’, that matches would end up fair duels of pure chivalry.
I need to say no more — there are plenty of elite squadrons that only play meta vehicles and pack a team with highly optimized four sweats with meta vehicles, nothing is left unoptimized: like lowering self engine sound and others.
Moreover, too many people look at the issue one-sided. You think your team is the one having the bad teammates — perhaps true for the moment, but the matchmaker does not forever pair you with a set of players, bad teammates are also what makes easy enemies when they are stationed on the other side.
Another delusion is that today’s winners always think they forever will own the throne — if we removed 20% bottom of the players, vast majority of “skill issue” folks will be the new bottom.
The shrinking elite spiral never ends — most War Thunder players are reasonably average and understands basic mechanics (otherwise SU-30 premiums wouldn’t be considered OP) but they are still called skill issue for critiquing a vehicle performance. The goal post is always moving.
For those of you on the top — the spiral will make every game of yours hyper competitive with long waiting times — you can’t even enjoy your meme tanks anymore.
War Thunder runs on a harsh equation — winners take the most (winners as in high scoring individuals regardless of team victory), and losers take a little. (For tanks at least; this should be changed by adding non PVP tasks to tanks like in naval and air battles)
I’ll appeal to your self interest — for those suggesting to punish ‘bad’ players: If you are good at the game, you are only disrupting your fast grind. If you are bad at the game, you are begging for what little you have to be taken away.
Without grass (easy rewards for the unskilled) for the prey, there is no meal for the predator.
I am not talking about hypothetically, the best example of my above statement is the top tier air arcade mode: it is run by 4 man squadrons exclusively playing OP/meta jets, meaning that the mode is essentially dead as players migrated to ARB to escape this mess. Sky rocketing match wait times, and the non-squadron players there do not stay long. All you need to do is to look up “VPO” and “GUUD” to know I am not pulling my essay out of thin air.
So let us be accodmating — the game belongs to everyone, bad, average, good.
It will perhaps be weeks before I go on the forums again — life is too busy and fatiguing, and I generally play the game without dealing with the forum community much, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out.
And yes, I know multiple influencers’ discords have shaming channels — my post will certainly end in these places — happy people do not need the grandeur of delusion. I’m a casual player and I don’t mind what’s going on in the echo chambers. But please, just read my post. Hopefully it was thought-provoking!
Edit: Those opposing this and advocating for elitism: A more “chill” and egalitarian distribution of players is now the norm in 2026, such as Forza. I recommend not using 19th-century views on video games.
Edit 2: No, I don’t really struggle that with my desired grinding methods. I play tank arcade and statshark gives me 3.03 KDR and 2.39KB with an average score of 2798.67 and 89.71% average team position. In other modes, I perform vastly worse, but I still grind at a desired pace. I don’t really care about stats (there are plenty of bigger fishes) but just stating that don’t struggle much with grinding — stats are not too accurate either, because if you have stock grind or play bombers, your KB/KD will be lower.
