Tanks in World at War HC again, sorta!

In keeping with the "hate" theme of yesterday's blog, let's talk tanks in World at War. Seemingly eons ago, Treyarch summarily yanked the tanks out of World at War hardcore TDM while leaving them on core TDM. I heard about this while I was at work, and I was initially excited to see how the gameplay would change without tanks. I was let down when I learned that Treyarch had removed the vehicles permanently, while leaving the big, empty maps in the regular rotation. I sent PMs to JD_2020 & posted in the World at War forums asking what it was that triggered the decision to remove tanks. And some exact reason, not some vague muttering about tanks "not being in the spirit of hardcore" or somesuch. If they didn't  people's opinions from the World at War forums, what did they use to make the decision? Are there some numbers somewhere? Were the tank levels voted down more frequently than others? I can't believe they were voted down less than they were after the vehicles were removed... Throughout the life of the forum thread, the votes for were handily leading the votes against; steams of invective (tank whores, tank campers, mobile camp spots) against tank users poured out. Yesterday, suddenly, Treyarch rep JD_2020 tweeted: "Yes, tanks are in Hardcore HQ", and I was bit stunned.

The vehicle maps in World at War aren't really TDM maps. They're objective-based maps, the objective being to control the tanks. A lot of players (most players? you tell me.) can't co-operate to get even the simplest objective accomplished, even in TDM where the objective is to simply kill every enemy that you see. I play mostly HC TDM, and it looks to me like a significant percentage (half, maybe?) of HC TDM players pretty much run off doing whatever. Often, these players just run blindly out to get shot over and over and over. Those guys aren't playing Team Deathmatch at all; they're playing Team Deathmatch Free-for-all. It's FFA with fewer enemies.That's an iffy strategy on non-vehicle maps, but it can work out OK, depending in individual skill & connection quality. On a tank map, against a team with players determined to use the tanks the way they were intended to be used, the unorganized team gets its ass handed to it in a basket.

I regularly played with three guys then: my uber-player brother, Reibochief, and my bro Matt64. Reibo, hands down, was the tank master, so our strategy was to let him have first crack at a tank. If other tanks were available, we'd take 'em, but our primary mission was alaways to protect the tank. Often, Matt64 & I would be on foot, with an anti-tank class (my usual loadout was a LMG, sticky grenade, & satchels), so we could defend Reibo's tank from enemy infantry and enemy tanks. Matt64 & I wound up going a little negative sometimes, but, it was worth it, because we made it possible for our tanker(s) to go overwhelmingly positive. (Cue Reibochief in the background, chortling, "Cannonized!" with every tank kill.) The real problem wasn't that tanks were "overpowered" or, in JD_2020's quasi-mealy mouth terms, "not in the spirit of hardcore". The trouble is that almost no one uses teamwork of any kind in TDM games. Treyarch couldn't figure out a way to smarten up the players, so it dumbed down the game instead.

So, that's it in a nub. The problem isn't the tanks, it's that many players want to play a run & gun game on a map where there's armor. So, Treyarch collapsed like a limp noodle and yanked the tanks out of the hardcore playlist based on... on... well, we really don't know. Maybe it was ESP. They called the Psychic Friends Network & found out a lot of their players are a bit dopey & non-cooperative, and so can't cope with the challenge of tanks. Maybe they read tea leaves, and the chai leaves formed the outline of a Panzer. Maybe the daily horoscope said it was a good day to get rid of tanks in hardcore...

The return of tanks, even if only to HC HQ, comes a bit late for me, tho. I'm not going back to World at War. If this decision had been reached earlier, I might have reconsidered, but I've already made the switch back to MW, and I can't be married to more than one game at a time. Modern Warfare 2 beckons...