Hobby Thread - November 1, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. A spin of the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) landed on online or video gaming.

Are you thinking "I don't even know what that means and I'm not wise in the ways of computer games but I'm eager to learn more. I can't wait to get into the content!" I knew it. Enjoy.

What are you hobbying?

As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Pants are optional. Puns are welcome and encouraged.

Play nice. Don't be a troll and do not feed the trolls.

Remember Pong? Computer games, online multiplayer games, and video games have all gotten much more sophisticated since the days of Pong. Are you wise in the ways of gaming?

TRex has short arms and a small brain, so I have little knowledge on this subject. I have a vague memory of Centipede, Galaga, Dig Dug, Pac Man and Outrun. If we're really ambitious, maybe we can talk Space Invaders and Donkey Kong. Fortunately, we have content from a guest blogger to help with the task at hand.

Are you wise in the ways of video games? Do you play solo or multi-player games? Do you have memories of pumping quarters at the video arcade?

Inspector Cussword asked for Hobby Thread space to talk about one corner of this big world. Feel free to comment on the content or pivot elsewhere for your hobbying commentary.

Today I'm going to talk about Massively Multiplayer Online games without the Role Playing element.

Specifically, tanks. Yes, tanks. And planes. And warships. Big ones. From WWII and later.

In January 2010, World of Tanks began their Russian closed beta test. This game is the first of the now-quite large market of WWII/Korean War lobby games.

The Belorussian developer, Wargaming, opened up the US beta test in July 2010.
In 2013, World of Tanks income exceeded that of World of Warcraft, earning the developers $372 million dollars - for a free to play game.

So what is it? It is a game of 2 sides where people line up with various tanks of various countries from WWII thru the Cold War, and shoot each other on different maps, capturing control points, and blowing the shit out of each other.

Each country's tank lines are distributed amongst "tiers" so that matchmaking can generally put people in roughly equivalent power ratings in matches. The matches last 15 minutes, just perfect for a bit of fun then log off. Furthermore, in WoT the war machines are divided further between Heavy, Medium, and Light tanks; Tank Destroyers (limited armor/aiming but higher concealability and heavier guns); and Self-Propelled Guns (artillery).

As I mentioned, World of Tanks is free to play. It does have a "premium time" catch where if you want to swiftly progress, you really should get premium time (subscription equivalent) which costs about 13 bucks or so for a month of time. It doubles your xp and credits. But you can have a great time playing free - it's not specifically required.

There are actually more of these types of games from two other developers. After seeing the success of the model, Gaijin Entertainment (a now-Hungarian company. Exited Russia after the invasion of Ukraine); decided to jump in with War Thunder (free to download on Steam or from their link here, with clients for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux). Gaijin had plentiful experience with combat flight sims in IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey (released in the US as "Wings of Prey", available on Steam for 20 bucks) (If you want free stuff on a new account, I'd recommend using this link as it gives you a couple of vehicles and some money.)

War Thunder began as "World of Planes," centered around 1930's aircraft thru the Korean War, but during development in 2012 decided on changing the name to War Thunder to keep from being confused with Wargaming's then-upcoming "World of Warplanes." Also, Gaijin decided on their main feature - War Thunder would have different vehicle types on the same map.

Have a trailer:

The first version of War Thunder was solely based on aircraft in three different play styles - Arcade, Realistic, and Simulator with increasing levels of realism and difficulty in the flight models and restricted national plane selection based on maps. Arcade is a forgiving flight model and has mixes of any nation's planes, based on Battle Rating (similar to tiers, but more granular).

Realistic has - yeah, realistic flight models (wings rip off in dives, compression can lock control surfaces, and the ever-fun "pilot blacks out because he shits his lungs out due to taking 9 g's"). Realistic has nation versus nation, so you can't fly a Mustang against a P-38 unless you have a captured one and you're playing as a German.

Simulator is even more restricted, more fragile control surfaces, engine overheating with historical performance ratings based on altitude, and you are stuck inside the cockpit - no 3rd person view.

I'm sure you're wondering - is it fun? Yes. The planes range from biplanes and 1932 era Peashooters to Gulf War jets and everything in between. There are fighters, heavy fighters, ground attack aircraft, and bombers. It also is "freemium" based, but it also has one more (excellent) feature:

It includes tanks on the same map.

Yes, they added ground forces to the game in 2014 and now you can grind up tiers of tanks while being bombed by assholes flying Stukas. You can also be an asshole with an Anti-Aircraft armored vehicle and shoot plane assholes out of the sky. If you get a lot of points/kills, you can drop a nuke and end the match.

Plus, the maps have weather effects (rain) and different times of day so sometimes you have the sun in your eyes while being shot by Stukas and rammed by Tigers.
There is also Naval, ranging from Torpedo Boats to Battleships. I'm not any good at those so I don't play them, but you can also use dive bombers and torpedo bombers on the same map as the ships.

Only some maps are combined forces but it is available in Arcade as well as Realistic, so even if you're just starting out, you can enjoy jumping into a plane and bombing your enemies while they light your tank on fire.

Compared to World of Tanks, the War Thunder tank game is much more gritty - you are locked to a very close view above your cupola and the maps are realistically detailed. The World of Tanks maps feel a little too clean, a bit too pristine in comparison to the rutted, muddy, messy, and realistic War Thunder maps. The ground isn't perfectly smooth, it had bumps, rocks, ruts, logs, and crap all over. You aren't removed from your tank, you're right there and it feels HUGE. The WoT tanks feel like toys compared to the War Thunder tanks. Both games are fun, free, and offer completely different experiences, packed into 15 to 20 minute matches.

Wargaming (World of Tanks) has to date come out with 2 other lobby games, all three separate - World of Tanks, Warplanes, and World of Warships.

The Warplanes game failed horribly, the controls were poorly written for mouse and keyboard and the flight models just weren't right. The maps were uninspired, combat was not very well paced, and the population never came to the game. I couldn't find a trailer that didn't have pre-rendered, false gameplay.

World of Warships is very popular (you can download and play here) and is pretty fun. The sizes of the ships versus the sizes of the islands and buildings is a bit wonky, but the shooty is fun..

The combat in WoWS is very satisfying, the sound work is excellent. You have Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships, and Aircraft Carriers - divided like in Wot, by tiers. (I even hear there might be subs.)

All of these games I enjoy due to the lowered need of participation - it's great in bite-sized chunks to get on, shoot tanks/aircraft/ships, then log off in 15 minutes or a half hour. The models are great in all the games and provide a lot of interesting historical tidbits, plus you shoot guns with barrels big enough to shove your leg inside.

The "World Of..." games are all hitpoint based, pretty simple to get into. War Thunder is module based - you see your shot (for example) richochet off the commander's hatch, splinter and spall fragments, that slice through your entire crew and detonate your overfull ammo rack.

I prefer the more graphic, hideous death of War Thunder. Plus, the planes are just better.

Things go boom.

What's not to like?

Here's a good history of Pong. 50 Years of Fun With Pong

Re-watch a game here.

Thanks to Hrothgar and Sharon (willow's apprentice) for the TRex halloween pics!

We saw lots of dino decorations for Halloween this year! The Hobby Thread applauds the showing of good taste and enthusiasm.

Iris sent this photo of a "dinosaur cakelette pan." I don't know what a "cakelette" is but I like cake and "cakelette" sounds pretty close. Thanks! Does anyone make "cakelettes," either dino shaped or otherwise?

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did a travel theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, contribute something from your personal hobbying. We will feature a different theme next time. What are you hobbying? We love showing off Horde hobbying. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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