Currently there is a genre that is becoming more popular every day, we are talking about the free to play tank games. Whether they are fans of the strategy, first person or third person MMOs, players love to pilot armoured death machines and used them to blow their opponents.
So what is it about tanks that gets MMO players gears turning? What do we as players want from a tank game? Finally, when thinking about creating a tank game do you focus or do you diversify?
It's true that there are no many games on the market that are truly tank games, but there’s an increasing number of MMOs where tanks play a very central role within the general theme of the game. Some games focus solely on tank battles, some have tanks playing an important role and others have tanks being almost an entirely separate meta type game within the MMO.
Taking such obvious games as World of Tanks, in which players embody a tank driver, and fight in endless battles against other players, and as they progress through the game unlocking new tanks and upgrading old ones where the tanks itself takes the role of a character like in a traditional MMORPG. It’s clear from the title that this is a game focused on tanks and it is a very specific type of game that almost sits in its own category, though realistically it could equally be a shooter game and the tank simply being the method by which you move around the map fighting other players.
There are also some futuristic-themed MMOs that also take on the idea of walking tanks, as Hawken or Mech Warrior Online, where you get to command huge mechs armed with all manner of lasers, machine guns and missiles; and although the idea is similar to the one of World of Tanks, they are not considered tank games by the majority of players.
Below you can find list of some of our favourite Tank games that we highly recommend you check out:
There are also other games which are also focused on wars and battles, but where you can do more things than only pilot tanks. We can find good examples of that in Heroes and Generals and Planetside 2, games where you can command tanks (or other vehicle of war) but which also offer other gameplay options. In Planetside 2 for example, players can choose to focus specifically on being a tank driver and putting all their levels, XP and time into kitting out their tank vehicles in the same way another player might level up their Medic or Engineer infantry.
The issue faced by those games that focus on solely being a tank game is that for some it can start to get a little boring, there’s only so many times you can add a new tank and it be a big deal. Regardless of the game genre players like choice, they like customization and they like to be able to fiddle with the inner workings of the system. A new “skin” that plays relatively similar than all the other “skins” before it can be slightly tedious and is often the slow death of many MMOs.
However, World of Tanks has managed to put an end to this trend, and has managed to have a huge and very active community. Interestingly though is that even World of Tanks will be diversifying slightly as with the addition of World of Warplanes and World of Warships, developers Wargaming have said that they intend to start linking the three titles and so the question begs as to whether the game will reach a point where the three games are merged to make one larger mega game? Whilst it would offer up some diversity and most definitely be an interesting game, the problem is that each individual title would then lose its focus and originally and sink into the a list of games that is already growing overcrowded.
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