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World of Tanks


World of Tanks is a massively multiplayer online video game featuring the mid-20th century armored vehicles. The game has millions of fans all over the world. The award-winning game has not only become one of the most popular online gaming projects but also a new cybersport discipline.
 
The World of Tanks project was launched by the Minsk-based studio Game Stream, which is the resident of the Hi-Tech Park and one of the key software development centers of Wargaming Company. The Game Stream studio continues to develop and improve World of Tanks.

About Wargaming Company

Wargaming Company was founded in 1998. It is a worldwide known developer and publisher of online video games. It was started by a group of military strategy and RTS gaming enthusiasts from Minsk, who decided to try their hand at game developing.
 
The president and the key cofounder of Wargaming Company Viktor Kisly graduated from the Physics Department of the Belarusian State University.
 
It took 15 years for the little studio to grow into a video games giant with branches and offices on every continent. 

Wargaming’s first commercial project – a turn-based strategy DBA Online – was released in 2000.

Another strategic war game Massive Assault was published in 2003. The project reinforced the developer’s position on the video games market and matured into a full-value media franchise.

In 2007 the company released the game Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power, which had been inspired by the novel Inhabited Island (aka Prisoners of Power) by the Strugatsky brothers.

In 2008 the company tried its hand in a new genre by releasing the real-time strategy Operation Bagration. The action takes place in Belarus in summer 1944. It was named the best RTS of 2008 by the Russian video games developers conference KRI. The game was followed by two more – Order of War and Order of War: Challenge.

The MMO action game World of Tanks was presented in August 2010. It is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) action that boasts sophisticated graphics, captivating strategic gameplay and a huge choice of armored vehicles of the mid-20th century. World of Tanks went on a global release in 2011.
 
Today’s game tries to portray WWII events as precisely and as truthfully as possible. It features over 480 fighting vehicles from the Soviet Union, Germany, the United States, France, the UK and China. The World of Tank developers stay in touch with prominent historians. Models of the vehicles recreate the minutest details. The architecture of the buildings and bombed ruins is recreated using documentary photos and films from archives and museums.

The military saga, which World of Tanks began, continued with the air combat action World of Warplanes (2013) and the MMO navy battle game World of Warships (2015). People playing the three projects do so in unique common gaming space.

In 2014 World of Tanks was adapted for smartphones and tablets (iOS and Android), Windows 10 PCs and MacOS computers under the name of World of Tanks Blitz.

At present you can play World of Tanks virtually on any platform – personal computers, mobile devices, or videogame consoles.

World of Tanks: Awards and Achievements

The World of Tanks game has received a lot of prestigious awards and is even mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records.
 
Awards and Achievements:

  • Best Client-Based Online Game Award by the 2010 Russian Game Developers’ Conference (KRI)
  • The Guinness World Record for Most Players Online Simultaneously on One MMO Server (over 91,000 players on 23 January 2011 and over 190,000 on 21 January 2013)
  • KRI 2013 Best Game
  • KRI 2011 Audience Choice Award
  • People’s Leader Award of All-Russian online action "Popular Vote of the Runet 2011 Award"
  • Golden Bite 2011 Award from Belarus’ Hi-Tech Park
  • "Best Use of Online" Develop Award 2012
  • Best MMO at the Golden Joystick Awards 2012
  • D.I.C.E. Awards 2014: Online Game of the Year
  • Over 1,114,337 concurrent online users were registered on 19 January 2014
  • Golden Joystick Awards 2017: Still Playing

By late 2012 the game was represented in all the countries including the Vatican.

Since 2012 World of Tanks has been a new cybersport discipline as it has been included in many national cybersport championships all over the world. World of Tanks is also part of the World Cyber Games program.

In 2013 Wargaming Company launched a global initiative We Remember Everything, which includes various projects meant to revive interest in history and inspire people to study their country’s past. As part of the campaign Wargaming produces movies about the Great Patriotic War, helps military history museums all over the world to preserve unique specimens and legendary military hardware samples.

World of Tanks in Belarus

World of Tanks has hundreds of thousands of active users in Belarus.

Game Stream developers participate in both national and international cybersport events and partake in World Cyber Games qualifications in Belarus.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry supports a program on popularizing video games for the sake of patriotic education and for the sake of preparing young Belarusians ahead of their active army service. The first World of Tanks tournament was held in August 2011. Major cyber sport events have been held regularly in various parts of the country since then.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry and Wargaming Company have created classrooms where military personnel can practice the tactics and strategy of tank combat using World of Tanks and specialized simulators.

In 2016 World of Tanks received a complete Belarusian localization, including voices.

In summer 2016 World of Tanks and the air carrier Belavia presented an aircraft bearing the game’s official livery. "The game from Belarus enjoyed worldwide" is written on a side of the aircraft. In 2018 the companies unveiled the second World of Tanks-branded plane with its fuselage sporting the bison, one of Belarus’ main symbols.

Every year Wargaming Company celebrates Tankman’s Day in Belarus. The celebrations traditionally take place in the historical and cultural complex Stalin’s Line. In honor of Minsk’s 950th anniversary in 2017 the celebrations took place in Minsk’s Pobedy Park. A gaming zone with 120 computers was deployed there in addition to sport events and entertainment for adults and kids. The festivities ended with a concert and fireworks.

In August 2017 Yuri Belykh, a fan of World of Tanks from the Russian city of Krasnodar, used a tractor to "draw" a huge logo of the game in the field. The logo was as large as 216 meters by 158 meters. The Belarusian army followed suit when two T-72 tanks drew a picture 300 meters by 200 meters in an exercise area near Borisov. The picture can be seen by passengers leaving the Minsk National Airport on board of aircraft. Apart from celebrating the birthday of the popular game the Belarusian military did it to support the national tank team before the tank biathlon at International Army Games 2017.

Great Patriotic War monuments in Belarus