The Big boss comes clean

[Furysghost]

From tap article...

Wargaming CEO accepts blame, vows renewed focus on World of Tanks

 

World of Warships and other studios will be allowed to find their own path to success

Wargaming’s chief executive office, Victor Kislyi, was in a mood to spill his guts last week. During an interview with Polygon in San Francisco, he was candid about his recent mistakes and vowed a renewed focus on his company’s flagship title, World of Tanks.

“We were a little arrogant, let’s say, three years ago,” Kislyi told Polygon. “We were thinking we know everything that our players need without talking intensively to them ourselves. It turned into — I wouldn’t call it a disaster, but we hit the wall at some point.”

That wall had a name: Rubicon. The update was delivered nearly two years ago, but the ill will from players, especially from WoT’s rabid Russian fanbase, still haunts the game. It was so poorly received, Wargaming couldn’t simply roll it back.

“We were a little arrogant, let’s say.”

“We are always open to criticism,” Kislyi said. “What we did in this case, it was [my decision]. I literally reshuffled the whole World of Tanks team. Developer and publisher. Before that it was extremely Belarusian-centric team, which was headquartered in Minsk. They didn’t even speak very good English. What we realized is that probably there are some limitations that old team had, so I brought in new people.”

Today, Kislyi said, the core WoT team is more international than it has ever been before, including an American at the top of the organization. That, he said, has made them more able to respond to the needs of their community, more adaptable and better able to listen.

“This took years for us as a company to come to this understanding of this necessity [of this change], and to make it,” Kislyi said.

How does Kislyi know it’s working? Of course, he said, people are playing more. But anecdotally, the community seems more friendly.

“I play every day under my real name,” Kislyi said, “So, this is my temperature check. I play for one hour and I get 20 messages from people. They used to be swearing and complaining. Two years ago. One year ago. Now, they’re mostly thank yous.”

That reorganization, and the change in philosophy that came with it, has paid dividends for other development teams at Wargaming. Properties like World of Warplanes and World of Warships, long the neglected children of the Wargaming family, are being given new freedom to plot their own course.

When Warships launched in 2015 the game got lots of good buzz, including here at Polygon. Our preview called is one of the best free-to-play games we’d ever played. But the community did not stick around to support it after launch. Player retention trailed off, Kislyi said, after six months to a year.

Kislyi blames himself, and his top-down creative demands on the game.

“I was pushing all those teams to literally copy World of Tanks,” Kislyi said. “That was wrong.”

Kislyi said he’s now letting individual teams dictate how their games evolve, and letting each of them engage with their communities on their own to find a path forward.

“What are they going to be making there? I don’t know,” Kislyi said. “That’s for them to decide.” (Seb: and for me to leak)

For Wargaming, 2017 is all about shoring up its keystone franchise, World of Tanks. The plan, Kislyi said, is to completely rebuild the entire graphics engine. The final overhaul is loosely scheduled for August of this year.

“We realize that World of Tanks can last forever,” Kislyi said. “But we have to prepare for a very long winter. The winter is coming, and it will not go away. That’s a good problem to have. So the approach should be that we’re making the game to be built like the pyramids, for centuries or millennia.”

[Phoenix_jz]

Interesting.... I wonder what this means for WoWs, then?

[Furysghost]

So it sounds like let the devs do their own thing...like it or don't like it? Whats your feel for the future of WOWS now?

[CanuckTheCanadianGoose]

"The final overhaul is loosely scheduled for August of this year."

 

So with wargamings timeline sometime next year.

[Spyde]

"The final overhaul is loosely scheduled for August of this year."

 

So with wargamings timeline sometime next year.

 

for World of Tanks.

For Wargaming, 2017 is all about shoring up its keystone franchise, World of Tanks. The plan, Kislyi said, is to completely rebuild the entire graphics engine. The final overhaul is loosely scheduled for August of this year.

 

Most if it is all about WOT.

 

May have to try the game again.. played the US Heavy tank line and it was so terrible i flat out quit. Only played till T5... as the Balance between the heavy lines felt so bad.

 

That and the Bush camping is/was far worse than ships sniping matches.

[IronWolfV]

About time they realized they have all but destroyed Tanks. Maybe, just maybe it might rise from the ashes. Far as ships is concerned. It really doesn't mean much since it has it's own team and direction anyways.

[Lert]

Could've told them that ...

[IronWolfV]

Could've told them that ...

 

Only surprise is the fact the guy didn't even speak on Warplanes and that fustercluck.

[awiggin]

"“We were a little arrogant, let’s say, three years ago,”"

Err, news flash, that attitude is alive and well.....

[Pendragon1951]

I know this is mote point now but don't you think that is kind of a antiquated way of thinking towards your players to not even get an idea how they feel towards your game, I know many games in the past that have lived and died by that attitude towards it's players. Right I think of all the games I have played I think Warframe is the best at listening and trying to implement fixes and content to their game.

[Comrad_LeberWurst]

I really didn't think of that, the language barrier being a piece of the problem.

 

[LoneStormchaser]

Be interesting to see with this goes.

I really enjoy playing Warships, but as a long, long time player of online games, I've seen them come and go.

Listening to the community is what it's all about and upon reading his comments, it's encouraging to see he acknowledges their faults.

I only hope that his words are truthful.

 

[Sonoskay]

This makes me nervous.

 

are we positive this isnt Corporate-speak for "We will no longer go out of our way to support WoWs and WoWp, we will let them sink on their own?"

 

 I suppose WoWs has a healthy enough player base,  But does WoWp?

 

 

 

 

[LoneStormchaser]

This makes me nervous.

 

are we positive this isnt Corporate-speak for "We will no longer go out of our way to support WoWs and WoWp, we will let them sink on their own?"

 

 I suppose WoWs has a healthy enough player base,  But does WoWp?

 

 

 

 

 

If you or any player feel that what your saying here might be what he's saying, then dropping money into their bucket might not be a good investment.

[Sonoskay]

 

If you or any player feel that what your saying here might be what he's saying, then dropping money into their bucket might not be a good investment.

 

That depends.  Sometimes Its not that the return investment isnt good, Sometimes it means its just not as big as they want.  The nature of capitalism isnt about being profitable and Sustainable, its about Making as much money as quickly as possible.

[VTAdmiral]

 I suppose WoWs has a healthy enough player base,  But does WoWp?

 

Warplanes was dead on arrival, and very little that can be done will do much for it.

 

It was stillborn because it's a highly simplified game released to compete with an established and greatly superior WW2-era FTP flight combat title. And the only reason the same game's tanks haven't buried WoT is because World of Tanks came first and got established.

 

World of Warships has no competition currently.

[Battlecruiser_Siegfried]

“I was pushing all those teams to literally copy World of Tanks,” Kislyi said. “That was wrong.”

 

Too late now, dummy.

[crzyhawk]

 

That depends.  Sometimes Its not that the return investment isnt good, Sometimes it means its just not as big as they want.  The nature of capitalism isnt about being profitable and Sustainable, its about Making as much money as quickly as possible.

 

I try to figure it like this:  I go to a movie and spend 2-3 hours.  Ticket to get in is 13.45, and 6.00 for a soda, so I'm looking at $19, $20 dollars for two to three hours of entertainment.  At that price, a T6 cruiser, (Molotov, $22.99) is approximately one movie (soda and hotdog).  A match is 20 minutes, so for a movie...that's 6-9 games.  So, to get equal value for my entertainment dollar, I need to play ~10 games with a ship.  If I play those 10 games and I enjoy myself, the money is no worse spent than going to the movies.

 

[Mordran]

This makes me nervous.

 

are we positive this isnt Corporate-speak for "We will no longer go out of our way to support WoWs and WoWp, we will let them sink on their own?"

 

 I suppose WoWs has a healthy enough player base,  But does WoWp?

 

I didn't get the impression that is what he was saying, more that they've taken a more community-oriented approach with WoWS and they realized they should have been doing that with Tanks and are going to devote themselves to fixing it.  Doesn't mean they're just going to toss WoWS aside, all 5 servers are fairly healthy and at least NA and EU are pretty profitable.

[Sonoskay]

 

. And the only reason the same game's tanks haven't buried WoT is because World of Tanks came first and got established.

 

 

You say this as a given, But thats hardly the case, I woldnt call the Competing game "better". Well... it MIGHT be now, I havent played either in years, but in 2011-13, i vastly preferred WoT over its main Competitor.

 

But I had heard WoWp was getting better and Continued to get better For a while i was hearing it had a chance to recover.  

 

WoWs Had Compitiion. but stomped it to dust.  

 

My main Concern is WoWs is a damned good game, i dont want to see it abandoned so soon. BUT Perhaps I am just being a worry wart. it seems they have a plan for the entirety of 2017 for WoWs. And I have heard rumors of a complete rework of CVs. I suppose it depends on how well WoWs grows over the next year.

 

I try to figure it like this:  I go to a movie and spend 2-3 hours.  Ticket to get in is 13.45, and 6.00 for a soda, so I'm looking at $19, $20 dollars for two to three hours of entertainment.  At that price, a T6 cruiser, (Molotov, $22.99) is approximately one movie (soda and hotdog).  A match is 20 minutes, so for a movie...that's 6-9 games.  So, to get equal value for my entertainment dollar, I need to play ~10 games with a ship.  If I play those 10 games and I enjoy myself, the money is no worse spent than going to the movies.

 

I agree, but i was talking about it from a Corperate standpoint.

in the game world as a whole, Most big corporations ( Sony and Ubisoft being exceptions)  dont bother with Medium  sized, medium profit games anymore The return investment is smaller than funding a  small studio to make a small but high profit game, or Funding and making big AAA game. It doesnt matter if there is money on the table.  All that matters is that money on the table isnt as big as they want it to be. So they dont bother.   With WoT literling being a reccord breaking game at points. it might mean that something that Makes money, but not a ton of money (Like WoWs perhaps)  isnt worth investing in anymore.

 

But this is all Speculation and What ifs. This very well could be a good thing. We will just have to wait and see.

 

 

[LoneStormchaser]

 

That depends.  Sometimes Its not that the return investment isnt good, Sometimes it means its just not as big as they want.  The nature of capitalism isnt about being profitable and Sustainable, its about Making as much money as quickly as possible.

 

At first, after reading your reply, I wasn't going to comment on what you wrote. But I can't resist.

You know nothing about Capitalism nor about how to sustain the growth of a company.

Big business isn't sustained by poor people, but by people who already have money. These people belong to a community where they can "boast" about themselves. They are not interested in making a quick buck. They already have the bucks. Being retired, dependent on profits from companies I have invested in, which pays me healthy payments from dividends, the last thing I want to see are those companies that make a quick buck, but rather a steady, changing growth in their business. One that adapts to the changing environment and the demands of their clientele. So please, refrain from talking about you know nothing about.

[steelrain97]

Could've told them that ...

The community was telling them that, they just didn't and still don't want to listen. They have been saying this stuff for 2 years now. Actions speak louder than words Victor. Show me, don't tell me.

[Mordran]

in the game world as a whole, Most big corporations ( Sony and Ubisoft being exceptions)  dont bother with Medium  sized, medium profit games anymore The return investment is smaller than funding a  small studio to make a small but high profit game, or Funding and making big AAA game. It doesnt matter if there is money on the table.  All that matters is that money on the table isnt as big as they want it to be. So they dont bother.   With WoT literling being a reccord breaking game at points. it might mean that something that Makes money, but not a ton of money (Like WoWs perhaps)  isnt worth investing in anymore.

 

Just depends on the company, I played Eve-O for years and more people play WoWS worldwide than played Eve.  It is a decent little cash cow, especially when you have the market cornered (as WG does with boats and Eve did with space), and it's a steady stream of revenue to fund your other projects if you can just manage to turn out enough content to keep people interested and spending money on it.

[Sonoskay]

 

At first, after reading your reply, I wasn't going to comment on what you wrote. But I can't resist.

You know nothing about Capitalism nor about how to sustain the growth of a company.

Big business isn't sustained by poor people, but by people who already have money. These people belong to a community where they can "boast" about themselves. They are not interested in making a quick buck. They already have the bucks. Being retired, dependent on profits from companies I have invested in, which pays me healthy payments from dividends, the last thing I want to see are those companies that make a quick buck, but rather a steady, changing growth in their business. One that adapts to the changing environment and the demands of their clientele. So please, refrain from talking about you know nothing about.

That entirely Depends on the phiosphy of the person running the corperation.

 

Look at a company like Wamart, Last year they closed *profitable* stores because the margin of profit wasn't as high as they expected. The Figured they could Take the money they were investing in those stores and Invest it into something that would be MORE profitable. This is what i mean. 

 

I am  no Economist, And i will gladly admit I am not the most educated. Economy and Capitalism are Complicated things. But Dont tell me i am wrong when i can show you examples of where this exact thing happens.

[crzyhawk]

I agree, but i was talking about it from a Corperate standpoint.

 

in the game world as a whole, Most big corporations ( Sony and Ubisoft being exceptions)  dont bother with Medium  sized, medium profit games anymore The return investment is smaller than funding a  small studio to make a small but high profit game, or Funding and making big AAA game. It doesnt matter if there is money on the table.  All that matters is that money on the table isnt as big as they want it to be. So they dont bother.   With WoT literling being a reccord breaking game at points. it might mean that something that Makes money, but not a ton of money (Like WoWs perhaps)  isnt worth investing in anymore.

 

 

But this is all Speculation and What ifs. This very well could be a good thing. We will just have to wait and see.

 

It also could be that the Russians think profit is profit, no dime is too small to pinch.

 

The difference I think is that the big developers have multiple huge titles.  WG, really...has 1.  They've got to be careful what they do, because if they break the golden goose, they are finished.