World of Tanks launched in open beta for the US and EU regions in January 2011 this year, and has been officially released since April 2011, although it still hasn’t reached version 1, currently operating as version 0.6.4.
The WoT bug only recently bit at the MyGaming offices, and MyGaming editor Nic Simmonds and I found ourselves playing on the US and EU server respectively. The argument goes that the EU server will provide better ping for South African gamers, but the US server better value for money when buying in-game currency. These are the elements SA gamers typically weigh up when deciding which gaming server realms they will be playing on.
The latency issue is easy to prove with a ping test, as well as gamer common sense; it is well known that US servers will generally return higher pings than EU servers. If you would like to test for yourself, here are the current server IP addresses:
EU: 213.252.177.55
US: 174.34.231.132
We have been experiencing pings ranging anywhere between 210ms and 400ms on the EU server, with the US server returning from around 300ms to 500ms. Of course there are many variables in ping results, so its best to test from your personal connection during your typical gaming hours. Thankfully, the relatively slow pace of tank warfare means that these latencies aren’t too detrimental to the gameplay.
The value for money issue requires a bit more investigation.
World of Tanks is a ‘freemium’ game. This means that while it is free to download and play, you are offered the opportunity to spend real world currency to buy in-game World of Tanks Gold, which can be used to speed up the levelling process, buy special ammunition, and even buy premium tanks.
To start out, we have compared the basic value you get in World of Tanks Gold (WoT Gold) in the currencies of US Dollar and Euro. Since we doubt that any of our English speaking readers will be joining the Russian servers, we’ve left our gaming comrades out of this comparison.
| World of Tanks US and EU server pricing comparison table | ||||||
| US Pricing | WoT Gold amount | WoT Gold per US Dollar | EU Pricing | WoT Gold amount | WoT Gold per Euro | |
| US$ 6.95 | 1,250 | 179.86 | € 6.95 | 1,500 | 215.83 | |
| US$ 14.95 | 3,000 | 200.67 | € 9.95 | 2,500 | 251.26 | |
| US$ 29.95 | 6,500 | 217.03 | € 19.95 | 5,500 | 275.69 | |
| US$ 49.95 | 12,000 | 240.24 | € 49.95 | 14,500 | 290.29 | |
| US$ 99.95 | 25,000 | 250.13 | € 99.95 | 30,000 | 300.15 | |
For a comparison on which WoT Gold package provides the most value we have converted the Euro pricing to US Dollars to obtain a base currency to work with, using the following exchange rate taken from XE.com: Mid-market rates (2011-06-28 12:31 UTC) – 1.00 EUR = 1.42819 USD.
The USD to Euro conversion has hovered around the 1.4 mark since January 2011, the same month that World of Tanks went in to open beta, so this comparison should be fairly indicative of the value proposition.
From the Euro to US Dollar conversions we can order a table according to the best value for WoT Gold in either currency. We have also included the South African Rand conversion rates as follows: Mid-market rates (2011-06-28 12:47 UTC) – 1.00 USD = 6.85343 ZAR.
| World of Tanks Gold value for money comparison | |||||
| Server | WoT Gold amount | US Dollar Price | Rand price | WoT Gold per US$ | Original price |
| US | 25,000 | $ 99.95 | R 685.00 | 250.13 | $ 99.95 |
| US | 12,000 | $ 49.95 | R 342.33 | 240.24 | $ 49.95 |
| US | 6,500 | $ 29.95 | R 205.26 | 217.03 | $ 29.95 |
| EU | 30,000 | $ 142.75 | R 978.31 | 210.16 | € 99.95 |
| EU | 14,500 | $ 71.34 | R 488.91 | 203.26 | € 49.95 |
| US | 3,000 | $ 14.95 | R 102.46 | 200.67 | $ 14.95 |
| EU | 5,500 | $ 28.49 | R 195.27 | 193.03 | € 19.95 |
| US | 1,250 | $ 6.95 | R 47.63 | 179.86 | $ 6.95 |
| EU | 2,500 | $ 14.21 | R 97.39 | 175.93 | € 9.95 |
| EU | 1,500 | $ 9.93 | R 68.03 | 151.12 | € 6.95 |
| Euro to Dollar exchange rate: 1.42819 | |||||
| Dollar to Rand exchange rate: 6.85343 | |||||
Hopefully the above information will help you to decide which server suits your needs, should you decide to part with some hard-earned cash in return for WoT Gold and WoT premium user benefits. It looks as if the 12,000 WoT Gold package on the US server hits the gaming sweet spot at R342; a price one might expect to pay for a full retail or digital download title. 12,000 WoT Gold should have you well on your way to tank supremacy – just be sure to spend it wisely.
In a gaming world where hackers run amok, it may be worth noting that World of Tanks uses the following secure payment gateway systems if you would like to do some security research. The US server uses the payment partner PlaySpan. The EU servers have a user defined choice of either PlaySpan or Billing Partner. Although Sony was caught with their pants down, storing user credit card information on their own servers, such payment gateways as mentioned above are far more tight on security.
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