I didn't want to do this again, post something which goes against what 70% of the community believes. but here I am doing it anyway. Recently, Quicky posted this video here: , apologizing for judging the new "amazing" feature from a very selfish standpoint. I watched both videos, and while on the first one I felt like it was me talking, the second one almost made me puke. I would like to address some points in both of these videos and have a crack at explaining why The Anonymizer is nothing more than a Cover-Up and a shortcut to player's hearts.
If we ask ourselves, as Quicky rightfully did in his first video, why this is happening, we can come up with a fairly simple explanation: introducing something like this solves a lot of WG's problems. Q rightly pointed out that competitive games allow you to watch your opponent's "value" mostly because this is a significant step in planning the battle and constructing a strategy. The problem that WG has with WoT is that while stats are available, they are not taken into account when the teams are made up. So, you can end up with the perfect illustration of an imbalanced match, with literally 0% chance to win: a team of so called "Tomatoes" and a team of mostly yellow and better players. As an average guy as far as WoT is concerned, I am more familiar with this kind of game than Mr. QB is, perhaps, or even the large majority of >52% WR players.
What does this have to do with anything? Well, this is a scenario which is going to continue to exist, even if you won't be able to see it, because everyone's stats will be hidden. So what WG is trying to do is say: listen, instead of actually investing time in our dying money cow and fixing the bloody randomized MM/making it skill based, what we are actually going to do is give you these horse blinds and ask you kindly not to look at other people's stats, so that you will be completely oblivious when this happens from now on.
I also think, and this is strictly my own personal opinion, and so I'll be expecting plenty of response in the comments, that you have the right to suicide or GTFO if you find yourself in such a situation, simply because WG didn't respect a very modern clause known as EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES. You always have to option to fight back of course, and no one will condemn that, but neither should anyone condemn suiciding in a particular instance such as this, since being slaughtered by significantly better players than you isn't really a much more honorable way to go.
Next we have the issue of tomato/unicorn focusing because of this dreaded XVM thing. I promise you, nobody cares if who they are shooting at is a unicum or a tomato, if they catch him out of position or heavily outnumbered.
Also, its very difficult NOT to concentrate on tomatoes when very often what they do is push stupidly right into crossfires or other such as that. Its almost like very casual players have a wish to have fun, which means playing a bit more aggressively, which in turn can sometimes lead into stupid play.
I have, again, never been focused by unicums or simply better players BECAUSE I WAS A WORSE PLAYER. I was focused because of my BAD POSITION, or because I wasn't aware of managing my weakpoints, stuff that is still going to happen even W/O the tomato/unicum branding.
ALSO, it is VERY difficult to focus down actual unicums, and not rerolls. QB himself has shown us that the moment he gets the slightest whiff of being focused down, he changes position. So they are going to be slightly less careful, and have an even larger impact on the game, since now they will be able to profit from the ignorance of the enemy to the lurking danger that is a very good player.
I would argue, and I've heard this sentiment from many people with which I have had the pleasure of playing, that unicums deserve some chances stacked against them. For those who haven't played against them, or have forgotten, or don't really pay attention, let me remind you: maxed crew skills, gold ammo, meta tanks and premium consumables. I would say that being focused down SLIGHTLY, WHEN POSSIBLE, by the enemy team when you have up to 4 trump cards in your favor is a minor price to pay for, to some extent, ruining other people's fun time. Let me also mention, that while, yes they are available to other players as well, they are expensive, and generally speaking, casual players can't afford to spend massive sums like that on tanks, and neither can players w/o premium tanks. Don't forget, even today, the majority of people playing this game are F2P, they haven't invested a single cent in the game and most likely they don't intend to. Yet WG ignores them with impunity, and so do the paying players, who feel so good about themselves (been there, done that).
This is YET AGAIN a problem with the lack of skill based MM that WG chooses to ignore: casual players being pitted against semi-competitives. I've had this happen a lot of times, and it was never fun: after a long day at work, like any other casual would do, I sat at my desk playing some WoT. 5 matches in, my screen has a golden burn-in on its left side, my pulse was through the roof, and I had to quit the game before I smashed my keyboard up. Fun times, right? Yeah, right…
The final point I wanted to talk about is how everyone thinks this is a good idea. Gentlemen and gentlewomen, what have you smoked, because I want some of it too! Unicums are not that magenta color because they are masters of XVM: they are that color because they are masters of the game. The opposite is true for tomatoes. This is a feature which won't affet either of these extremes, because they just don't care. Unicums have made do w/o it before, and they can sure as hell do the same now. Tomatoes, well, maybe they won't have the phrase: "Fu***ng tomato noob b**ch" thrown at them as often, but they will get as much hail as before for being BAD.
And please, continue to beat the drum of CYBERBULLYING. Oh yes, that's the best reason to introduce such a measure, because until now, the only source of abuse to players was how bad their stats were. In fact, if this bullying is such a massive issue, why not completely ban chat instead of stats, since chat doesn't really bring any useful features to the table. /s
Ridiculous…
Let me emphasize just how bad this feature is: if in the next patch, WG will say: "From now on, there will be no identifiable difference between normal and premium shells, not in sound, not in anything. The panel will not communicate the type of shell which impacted the tank, only how much damage it did, if it penetrated." Again, instead of fixing the bloody gold ammo and putting it back on gold currency, so that they can earn some real dollaz from people emptying their pockets, they would be telling you "Nothing to see here, move along and keep you damn mouth shut!"
Sorry for the wall of text, but I felt that even with his very WG biased attitude, QuickyBaby, who I'd love to have a word or two about stuff (IF YOU'RE READING THIS), shouldn't have received the backlash that he did in expressing a totally valid and reasonable view. I felt that he needed someone on his side as well, and I plan to do a video about this soon. All feedback is appreciated, but critical feedback is the best! Thanks for reading and sorry for my English!
