I'm specifically referring to how they balance tanks. The whole reason we have all these odd changes to tanks where we have a tank that we perceive to be either average or underpowered being nerfed or a particularly strong tank being buffed is due to Wargaming using data over player perception as their source of reasoning for changes to vehicles. This is inherently flawed at the end of the day for one reason; The only thing that matters is the player's perception of how powerful something is, not how it actually performs. If we think that X vehicle is underpowered and that it needs a buff, and you nerf it because of whatever reason, it will do nothing positive and only add negativity to the current climate. All we saw is that you've nerfed an underperforming vehicle. It really doesn't matter a lick if it actually was overperforming or not, and this is increasingly evident.

Recent example would be the WZ-132-1. I bet almost nobody thought this tank was overpowered yet it was made significantly worse than it already was. Now even less people are going to play an already hard to find class and tank because of the idea that this rare vehicle is overperforming when in reality the public perception (and therefore, it is, because again this is all that matters) is that it was either fine or underperforming relative to the rest of the tanks.

An older example would be the FV215b 183. This tank was ridiculous from as soon as it hit the game. It can one shot most tanks it faces, obviously, we all know this. Nobody thought it was underperforming, it had merit to be used, and it was fun to play (if not so much play against), so why is it that the developers thought it necessary to massively buff the tank by making the turret very hard to pen whereas before it was not hard at all? You made an already viable but also very controversial tank even more powerful because of what? That its data was slightly lower than average because of whatever reason?

I think the developers need to think real hard on what the consequences of their decisions in regards to balance is in terms of player perception and player enjoyment before they just blindly trust the face value of whatever statistic they are referring to constantly.

To summarize, player perception is all that matters in regards to balance. If the playerbase thinks something is underpowered than by all intents and purposes it is. Nerfing a vehicle that people already think is underpowered or buffing a vehicle that people already think is overpowered does nothing but reinforce that stance and promote negativity towards the game.

Edited by Turboclicker, 03 January 2019 - 02:51 PM.