I took two years off and have come back. In the past when you did arcade tank battles people pushed for the points and worked generally as a team. Now it seems everyone is focused on just snipping and letting team mates die.
Why did the sense of a team go away?
Probably the biggest issues to destroy any sense of team work was the “skill” bonus multiplier and the RP rewards being changed to be based more on game time.
Previously working as a team to win was most profitable, now it’s based around personal kills and time in match.
Mind you it’s not solely a War Thunder issue, players are becoming more selfish and dumber in other games too.
Not sure how many games you have played since you posted this but it is far far worse. It is now a solo game with you versus sixteen enemy players and at least half as many on your own team who act like the enemy.
If you are doing well in a particular spot then be prepared for someone to arrive and push you out of the way or actually into the enemy line of fire to be destroyed, in air people will literally collide into you to get a kill or an assist, you will be artillery targeted and bombed by your own side for some perceived slight or just because they feel like it.
It is a very toxic player base, selfish, self entitled, childish in the extreme, vindictive and spiteful and as the previous poster has stated Gaijin have made it even worse with how they have made the game.
You make a very good case - I can relate. However, I am sure that cannot be all players. Sometimes, surely, you and a random teammate team up and support each other?
Team play in WarBlunder is as rare as rocking horse shit. It is a nasty game with a toxic player base who are not the sharpest tools in the box encouraged and abetted by a company that revels and encourages such behavior and actions.
I treat and play it as a time waster like Candy Crush, Cookie Clicker or any other similar game it is not worth any more time, effort or interest and certainly not any hard earned cash it does not deserve it, it is a too lazy developed game.