Just one of fourteen historical Japanese tanks being added to World of Tanks next week.


In my line of work, I interview a lot of people. It becomes obvious when I am speaking to someone who doesn't really care about their product and is just reciting PR bullet points, or to someone who has a genuine love and enthusiasm for it.

Jasper Nicholas is in the latter category. It is rare to talk to someone in the upper management of a video game company who is so in love with the product he represents.

Nicholas is Wargaming's general manager for the Asia-Pacific region, a part of the world that Wargaming has only recently begun to make a serious attempt to crack open. His portfolio is diverse, covering Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and yes, Australia and New Zealand.

Wargaming's most famous product is the wildly popular World of Tanks, a free-to-play online tank battle game that delivers bite-sized morsels of heavy duty hardware and high explosive, with most battles running less than fifteen minutes. Recently out in some countries, but not yet in Australia, is its new sister product, World of Warplanes, and World of Warships is also on the horizon.

I talked to Jasper in the middle of a test session in an internet cafe, where I had a test run of the Japanese tanks about to be introduced in the game's new major patch, due in about a week. This is the current focus for the team, raising awareness of these little-known real world tanks that are about to start blowing each other up in online battles.

"About two years ago, Victor [Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming] came to Japan and he's been reading about the tank battles on the shores of Samar in the Philippines, which was one of the few deployments of the Japanese tanks. They also deployed in Guam and in other countries in the Pacific, but the most notable were in Samar," Nicholas explained.

"When he started digging deep into it, he discovered that there was actually a lot of development and ingenuity that went into building the Japanese tanks," he said. "When I visited a military museum here in Tokyo, I was blown away by the Type 10, just released in 2010, and it's one of the smartest tanks that I've ever seen in real life. On paper it's just so impressive that it's scary, the amount of capability that it has. The network hub, the infrared capabilities, the satellite positioning, touch-screen controls, auto-loader... The ammunition payload that it carries is just amazing."

Japan's line of tanks, which began in the decade before World War II as Japan was attempting to consolidate power in the East Asian region, are typically named after the year in which they are launched. In addition to 2010's Type 10, they also have the Type 90, the Type 74, the Type 61, and so forth.

The STB-1, which was a 1968 prototype of the Type 74, will be the newest tank included in the update, and will also be the most recent in the entire game, which generally focuses on tanks from World Wars I and II.

"They were developed within the mission framework that these tanks would be continuously used throughout a lengthy war," Nicholas went on. "Of course, because of how history played out, we all know that the war was abruptly stopped in 1945, but even after it ended they never really lost focus. Even in their modern tanks, the heritage is there in the diesel-powered engine platform, which Mitsubishi and Isuzu did a really good job of creating."

During World War II, Germany and Russia had to design petrol-powered tanks, as both countries were often too cold for diesel fuel, which would freeze at low temperatures. With Japan being a warmer country, and operating primarily in Asia and the Pacific region, they were free to enjoy the greater torque granted by diesel, which helped when lugging 40 tons of armour across a battlefield.

In all, fourteen Japanese tanks will be added to World of Tanks, including light and medium tanks and lightweight tank destroyers, across two tech trees that players will need to research. This is far from the end for new content in the game, though, and we may even see an Aussie machine in there one day.

"We've already studied an Australian tank, and we're considering a multinational tank release, not just a specific country," Nicholas said. "Australia only has one notable tank, but there are other countries with a few tanks, like Taiwan. Italian tanks didn't see a lot of action, and development was a bit scarce."

"We never stop developing for World of Tanks - we're one of the few developers who put an active focus on constant content development - and we're really excited about next year because you're going to see a lot more creative features and functionalities. We're really getting to the point where a balance betwen realism and fun can be realistically achieved, and I think that's one of the major selling points of World of Tanks: it's not just a game, but one that constantly evolves based on the feedback we get from players, as well as the dreams of our CEO and his team of developers."

Having recently dived into World of Tanks myself and finding it extremely challenging to get started, I asked Nicholas about how Wargaming has designed the experience for beginners. The game has a tutorial now, but there is still a steep learning curve.

"It was only recently that we released that forced tutorial for new people," he said, "and when you undergo that tutorial it lets you experience, with very specific directions, how to move the tank, rotate the turret, aim properly, and shoot properly."

"This system isn't like anything else that you've ever seen in an online game," he explained. "The way things are laid out is completely different from any other online game that you're used to. It's simple - WASD to move, mouse to control your turret - but for guys who are used to playing GTA and all those racing games, they get disconcerted because you're facing one direction and moving in another."

"When I started playing the game, it took me about thirty battles before I got to a level where I could say, okay, I'm no longer a newbie and I'm learning the dynamics of the game, but I can safely say it took me at least 500 battles before I could tell myself, okay, I know how this game plays."

"Once you get into it, it's a very deep game with a lot of content and a lot of things that you need to understand - which engines to use, which guns to use, because sometimes you won't need the most upgraded version in your tank, and you can upgrade your crew in different disciplines."

"The thing with this game, though, is that it's completely free to play and free to win, you just have to keep on battling," he concluded. "The more battles that you have, the more capability you get, in terms of consuming more content."

But how free is it really? Wargaming has become an extremely wealthy company because many players are willing to shell out real world money to purchase in-game content. Nicholas says that paying money is nearly always about saving time.

"If you're the kind of person who can't spend three hours to gain a certain number of experience points and you want to cut it in half, then you can pay for it. It doesn't really give you any other advantage."

But what about the high-powered premium ammunition that can only be bought with real money? "Premium ammo isn't really that great," he replied, which may shock some players. "I never spend my own gold on premium ammo - I only ever use it for things like high octane fuel or consumables like cola, that gives your tank crew an energy boost."

World of Tanks update 8.10, which will include the Japanese tanks, as well as a graphics upgrade, will be available on either 23 or 24 December (the date had not quite been nailed down at time of writing).

Disclosure: The writer travelled as a guest of Wargaming.

 - James "DexX" Dominguez

twitter Screen Play is on Twitter: @jamesjdominguez