4Game

A while back every player who created an account with Steam could claim a Cromwell B for free as DLC on Steam. Normal accounts were never eligible to receive this but Steam accounts have always been eligible to receive everything that normal accounts could. As a result this has created a heavily a one sided situation where Steam accounts are the only good option for new sign ups now, and people lose out by having older normal accounts or even just those new players who signed up without Steam. It's okay to exclude veteran players to give new players something nice (like what invite codes do) but long-term discrimination based on where players signed up for their account is just unfair. Unfortunately this has become an ongoing trend and it appears that normal users will continue to be excluded from these events, sales, and offers given to others based on things they cannot change and it may become a regular part of the holidays.

Wargaming right now is back at it again giving Steam accounts another Tier VI freebie. All they have to do is claim DLC and deal 23,000 damage in any number of battles using any types of vehicles before January 9, 2023 and they get the Firefly. If you play at all, you know this is effectively a freebie and if you have a normal Wargaming account, you are excluded. Unfortunately there is no way for you to link your normal account to a Steam account to become eligible.

Here is a link to the Steam page for the current freebie given exclusively to players who signed up via Steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2224810/World_of_Tanks__Holiday_Gift_Pack/

While I already bought the Cromwell B years ago and don't particularly care about the Firefly right now, I predict that in the future I will be excluded from something that I'd actually want and that feels bad and makes me not want to give Wargaming any more of my money. If they let me link my account to Steam they'd have already gotten some more of my money via my Steam wallet by now but we can't even do that. In almost every other game on the market this kind of discrimination either doesn't exist or is fixed as soon as it's discovered. If anything, people with older accounts in other games might have some niche benefits but they're almost never punished/excluded from such things like we are in World of Tanks. I find this disappointing and extra scummy to be doing during the holidays.

The solution is to let people link their Wargaming account with a Steam account to become eligible, but they chose the discrimination route instead. Why can't all World of Tanks players just be treated equally?