I often tease my wife about sale items – not sexist things like clothes shopping mind you, but in life in general – school stuff for the kids, or purchases we make together for the house, anything really. I tease her not because of the sale (which is good), but because sometimes I tell her I feel like we are just buying it because its on sale. And sometimes I get the response that its just too good of a deal to pass up.
Its that point where something is so cheap, even if its not something you wanted badly, you grab it up. Steam and GoG are really darn good at that, especially with their holiday sales.
So my third wheel game lately has been War Thunder’s Ground Forces. I just enjoy it, and after the awful grind fest that I had to endure Sunday in World of Tanks to get the free premium tank, I was ready for a change of pace. The mission was 25 kills (after having to complete easier missions for six consecutive days) and everyone was kill stealing, name calling, pushing, blocking…it was awful. It took me over 30 matches and I’m not a bad WoT player.
So I went over to War Thunder to cleanse my palate and remembered that it was their two year anniversary. They had some discounts earlier which had prompted me to spend all the free Gold currency I had gotten from tutorials and such. Their big offer was half off a year’s worth of premium subscription.
Now, War Thunder is fairly cheap as it is (roughly $10 a month) but since it was my third wheel and I’d had a hard time getting the hang of their flight model (which seems to favor joysticks), I’ve just stuck mostly to tanks and played the game for free). But I did some math and realized that $40 for a year of premium was a really, really good deal. Especially given that the boosts are higher than they are in Wargaming’s products. So I figured I might have to open my wallet.
But then I had an epiphany that turned an already good deal into a priceless one. Gaijin offers up some packs on Steam, including a big one for $40 that has a good bit of stuff in it – two mid level premiums, two months sub, and about $50 worth of Gold currency. Its a great hook and I realized that in War Thunder, you can’t buy time itself – you have to buy Gold outside the game and pay Gold in the game for the premium subscription time. And that Steam pack gave more than enough Gold…
So, long story short, I got the two premiums, about $10 in Gold currency, and 14 months of premium, for $40. My mind is still reeling from that.
On top of that, getting a measly five kills, without having to complete a week’s worth of missions, got you a random premium. I did that in short order, and suddenly I had three premium planes (along with the one they give you for completing the tutorials). So I figured I should give it a shot.
Maybe its because from time to time I do a Test Flight or a single player mission with the planes to work on learning the flight model, maybe its because I suddenly had incentive from having given them money, or maybe its because I had two epiphanies in one night…but all of a sudden, it clicked. I dominated my first match of the night, top of the scoreboards, multiple kills. And while I eventually lost a few, when the dust cleared late last night (much later than I had planned on), I was on cloud nine.
And I had managed to unlock an old favorite from my days playing Their Finest Hour, the Hurricane!
I don’t think this will affect my time in World of Warplanes, which I still love. But the population drop their has wrecked the matchmaker, and so one of my non-game complaints about War Thunder – the time to get into matches and then into battle once in the match, has been negated, because its now actually quicker than Warplanes is. So while I continue to enjoy the environment and playstyle available in WoWp, I’m glad to have a second option.
Harbinger Zero 