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Is Wargaming destroying World of Tanks?

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World of Tanks is my go-to game since Closed Beta way back in September 2010. I have never played a game for such a long time and the reasons for that are because I love tanks, the game was fun, challenging and Wargaming seemed to care about the game.  During these eight long years I was able to see World of Tanks rising from a “white logo branded t-shirt game at Tankfest” to the marketing monster it is today, but two questions keep hovering my head for the last two years: Has the game improved or did it get worse? And if it got worse, who is to blame?

How I feel about World of Tanks.

Ever since I’ve become a Community Contributor, I had the opportunity on many occasions to talk with the developers, and I tried to explain what I thought the game was becoming, what my pains as a player were, what EU and NA communities complain about and why there is a general feeling World of Tanks isn’t going in the right direction for a long time.

Unfortunately, nothing much happens from any feedback, being mine or from any other Community Contributors. Of course, I’m not just talking about the feedback we give when we have to review a new Premium tank, but all feedback we give when we have meetings at Tankfest or other events when we go to visit their offices or even at the online Q&A we used to do. We all understand the game isn’t ours, that ultimately Wargaming is who decides what its best for the game and they can’t just give in to all our feedback/demands, but there’s a constant not listening feeling we get or as Wargaming recently told us: “You don’t see the whole picture.

These words made me take a step back and start looking to the game with contempt, a game I’m supposed to be passionate about. I used to love playing World of Tanks, but now I have this hatred feeling for it, I have no fun at all grinding any new tank or even playing any tank in general and there is only one responsible for it – Wargaming, the creator of World of Tanks is, in my opinion, destroying its own game.

Time for a change.

Jordan Peterson wrote in his latest book, “12 Rules for Life – An Antidote to Chaos”, something I always believed and my grandfather taught to me when I was young: Rule 9: Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t. Now you might ask, what can a book from a Canadian clinical psychologist and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto and my grandfather have to do with all this?

Well, if you look at Peterson words, you will see Wargaming developers are not following Rule 9. Wargaming developers assume they know everything as if they have the whole picture in front of them and anyone who makes a comment about their work, is either wrong or against them. But are we? Maybe, just maybe, we all gave clear signs that we already know more about the game than the Developers think we do, and there are plenty of examples to give.

For example, let’s us just have a look precisely twelve months ago, when Object 268 v4 was already being tested behind closed doors and many, if not all, Community Contributors took to Wargaming and said: the tank is broken and overpowered. Their response was as expected: “You have never played the vehicle, you do not know how it will do on the live server.”. But shortly after it was released, the tank was dominating the battlefields wreaking havoc everywhere it would be and a lot of players just decided to take a break from the game. As usual, it took six months to get it sorted and by then the damage was done.

Let’s take it a step further, Type 5 Heavy, how long has this specific vehicle been tormenting the lives of so many players? Let’s take it another one, SPG reworks, how did Wargaming fix the issue? They tested one, let that number sink in, one new mechanic/version of the SPG’s and released it to the live server. I could go on, but I think you now understand my point.

The reason why I’ve decided to write this article it’s because I wanted to share a video with you from Will “Quickbaby” Frampton, the number one Community Contributor in World of Tanks EU. Even if you aren’t a fan of his content, give it a view because he hit the nail with this video.

In short, Wargaming has made the last two years a disaster for World of Tanks, the game is far worse than it was before and if the community doesn’t take a stand for it, I fear we won’t have a game to play in a few years and it will just get worse and worse.

Let me know your thoughts, what you dislike the most about the game and what would you do to fix it?

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15,466 thoughts on “Is Wargaming destroying World of Tanks?

  1. 3-5-7 was an unmitigated disaster. It ruined tier 8 in particular and it ruined light tank/scouts as a cl***. A lot of fun tanks were simply lobotomized to fit the template, a template designed to increase gold ammo spam. Tier 8 was a very busy tier and so they decided that 3-5-7 would squeeze more cash out of those players as well.
    Any game without arty is more FUN. But they don’t get that, they were afraid they’d lose arty players. So they kept Arty and lost players anyway, a LOT of players. Hint: it’s no fun being constantly smashed and stunned by an opponent you can’t hit back at. If you do happen to win that arty guy is going to drown himself to deny you the satisfaction.
    After Paris map went in they stopped releasing maps for almost two years. TWO YEARS.
    1.0 was really nice but the effect wore off fast as all the stale maps were still there and the other pay to win elements.
    It was obvious that OP premiums and over buffing tech tree tanks were just ploys to get money spent. Consumers, at least in the West, know when they are being exploited, gouged, milked.
    They should have listened to Sir Foch, instead they tried to ruin him. That’s the Minsk approach in a nutshell and the reason that selling more and more premiums is their only strategy going forward. They’re out of ideas and aren’t interested in listening to outsiders.

  2. They did 2 testing of the stun mechanic. It was first tested a while back, the same sandbox where they changed up tank roles completely along with even worse AP/APCR penetration drop off. The stun in that test was really bad – it crippled your tank to utter useless pile of metal. I remember watching a few streams of that sandbox. Light tanks could spot things with ease but they couldn’t deal any damage because of the AP drop off.

    Then they decided to try another go at the stun mechanic on a later sandbox test. That’s the one we got.

  3. until how many years the players pleaded normal MM and better RNG but WG did not give a damn about the players,I got tired of him simply 2-3 minute ones into battles,not me it would be repaired on him nothing,I would let it get ruined smoothly only.

  4. The current 3/5/7, 5/10, all the same tier system needs to change to same tier, 5/10, 3/5/7 in order of preference.

    TDs like the 268-4 are just broken, high armour HE lobbers are broken.

    Premiums better than some same tier tanks are fine, as long as they are still balanced to their tier, but there are some tier 8 prems which would be fine in tier 9!

    Also limit prem ammo to 10-15% ammo capacity.

  5. To be honest I’ve been making my stand for the game since the introduction of Defender and 3-5-7 MM I’ve been typing thousands and thousands of words in the forum. I am tired of it. The game that I once loved and most of the people who made me love it are long gone. The only thing I keep on doing is reading the news blogs like yours and the forums. But Wargamings ego is to big to admit their failures. I’ve lost hope a year ago and do not see a bright future.

  6. I consider myself a casual player. I have been around for almost the whole time the game has been out, and just the other day got my 11,000th win. I play all of the tank cl***es. What I hate most about the game? I think MM/current tiers are horrible. I have never seen so many one sided games as in the last year or so. Gold spam would be my second. Then being at tier 8 or so and people don’t know the flow of battle and use there maps. And I really miss arty being able to carry a game if they had too. I miss the days of shotgunning defending the cap for the win. How to fix some of this stuff. Close up the tiers or run all the same tiers in a match. Eliminate gold. I don’t think you can fix people. Bring arty back to full power within close combat quarters.

  7. The RNG of shot damage and pen; how long has it been requested to reduce the +/-25% to a more reasonable +/-15%? More consistency in you gun is always a good thing.

    How long have people been asking for premium ammo to be changed? Wouldn't reducing the base shell damage by 20% work? Yer some tanks would have to have individual adjustments but premium ammo wouldn't be a go to wonder drug and would lose out to the DPM offered by standard ammo.

    Historical accuracy - I understand that it can't always be used because of balance reasons, but what they hell do they call the stunt they pulled with the Swedish HT's? That ****'s so far unhistorical that they don't even play like they were designed to.
    Lord have mercy on SP15's soul with the **** WG have pulled with the Swedish. An then they decide to make the Emil 1951 into a premium when it's been in-game incorrectly modelled and named the Emil 1 for 2 years now. I can't wait to see how WG will **** up the Lansen, maybe another premium tank for a MT line that doesn't exist?

    Then there's the **** with the Obj 268-4. I will admit that the SU-122-54 didn't fit the line being front casement, but WG could have easily just swapped the it out with a historically armoured Obj 268-4 and given it the IS-7's 130mm gun as a top gun. Give some small armour buffs to the tier 7 and 8 and you're done. But now we have a tank at tier 9 that doesn't fit into the line visually; a very long, open topped tank, the Obj 263. I admit that it actually does play better at tier 9 but why not just go the whole hog and add the Obj 268-2 at tier 9? The line would be far more visually consistent.You tell me
    Line with Obj 263 - https://i.imgur.com/i3jwPVc.png
    Line with Obj 268-2 - https://i.imgur.com/5hkNBli.png

    The Japanese HT's; "We see that the Type 4 and 5 aren't performing well with their 14cm guns... so rather then buffing it like people asked, we're adding a 15cm HE only pay to win cannon to it"... I'm sorry, ****ing what?

    Artillery honestly would have felt better if they just reduced the damage and splash radius of the shells (and removal of AP and premium shells) Seriously, what's more annoying; taking damage or taking damage and being stunned? Hell, they could remove the stun effect on arty as they are right now and they would be liked more then they ever have been.

    Honestly could be here a whole day listing out issues/complaints and it still would only touch the tip of the iceberg

  8. I’ve also played less the past year and I have WOT in the task bar right now. The problem is that I keep it more in the task bar than actually playing it. No tier seems fun anymore, no purpose in playing. What am I achieving?

    The mission goals are too chance dependent and too much of a grind and the rewarded tanks nothing special, especially in the current meta. Arty still annoying as ever and once I reach tier x in a line I rarely play it. Tier X has no extra fun or extra purpose for me and I just get punished for playing.

    I know this was always the case for tier X, but at least the lower tiers were fun to play.

    In the last couple of years I just feel less and less motivated to play, it might be because of what QB said was happening to the game or that after 6 years I naturally get bored more easily with WOT. It might be a combination. After such a long time, long time defects in the game become harder to accept and ignore.

  9. I’d rather abandon the game than have arty like that again. Current arty sucks too. They’d do much better to get it out of the game and refund you.

  10. Volio bi da se spoje sva tri servera . Ili da budu spojene sve tri igre od WG u jednoj video igri. Kao što su govorili d a?e to biti u mogu?nosti. Zašto tog nema da se igra u jednom klanu sve tri igre. To bi trebalo što prije da naprave ili neka spje sva tri servera zajedno.

  11. Even though host all these Q&A’s they never do anything with the info shared with them even though most of that info would greatly improve their game.

  12. We need more open maps. Newer maps like Paris or Minsk (bliahhh) suck, really suck. Half the map is buildings, LTs feel useless, Arties feel Useless, anything but superheavys HE feel useless.
    Malinkova and Prokarovka are my best maps, i have the more fun in them.

    I want similar maps.

    Also limit prem ammo to certain capacity. It doesnt fix all the problem (some tanks carry a HUGE potential dmg-ammo so… even if only 1/6 of ammo can be premium still they have advantage) but at least its a step.

    Or make it, cost-limited. Multiply the basic ammo cost for the tank-ammo capacity, and then make that the top-limit.
    You want full gold ammo? Fine, but you gonna take only 7 rounds instead of 30. Each prem round will cost you 4-5 normal rounds.

    I’ve never spend more money on a game, (yes the hours i have played have payed back) yet i feel, the powercreep and my credit card are now the easy way.
    Some grinds are unacceptable without free XP. Make the new players have a decent experience. Yes, put bots if you have too, no problem.
    Grand Battles are a disaster.
    Remove Credit boosters, game becomes more P2W. Dont get greedy!
    Having a prem account-prem tank-credit reserves means using prem consumables, food, and full gold-ammo setup and still not lose money! This is unacceptable and PURE p2w! It is really discouraging to get into a credit card fight, instead of actual gameplay. Even if this is not completely true, even the hint or idea that other players have some advantage is outrageous.
    Revisit missions, and add more campaigns and more missions. And reward tanks should also give some credits bonus. Right now they are just decorating our garage. Why not? Its not that we get tons of them each month. Only 1-2 of the first campaign where hi-tier, and so goes for the second. Let players enjoy their hard earnings.

  13. I have already decided to not play anymore WOT in 2019. I have some gold to spent. When I finished that, by the end on this year, I will stop. I feel like having being cheated by WG. I playd since december 2014. At beginning this game was fun, but it is not anymore. I have done too many efforts and spent to many money without any consideration from WG. I stop.

  14. i didnt voted on them, so to me i did my part to try and avoid them from getting a undeserved award

  15. ive been saying this all along but wen it came to the comunity i was a poor salty fu... and even after fochgate i knew it would get worst and it did whit theyre loot box craze straight out of EA rule book

  16. Back to basics, WG. Remember that this is effectively a sport. And just like in sport, fair play is essential.
    Think of it like the Olympics. Drugs and cheating are unacceptable.

  17. King Arthur one of the wisest men of all time and is my Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great well you get the Idea Grand father one said ” I must ride with my knights to defend what was, and the dream of what could be”

  18. Here are the biggest problems, specifically in the order they are listed;

    Premium ammunition; it makes armored tanks less fun to play and adds a pay-to-win aspect to the game that turns away existing and new players. It needs to be rebalanced ASAP so it isn’t a purely superior ammo type.
    Matchmaking; Incorrect preferences to tier spreads in battle and the fact that they forgot to implement a feature that tracks how many top/bottom tier games you get makes grinding not fun. The plans Wargaming has revealed for changes look promising, but are taking way too long to be implemented.
    Artillery; is the most annoying it has ever been, lacks any skill to play, and stun has too great of an effect on your tank. Make different shell types for damage and stun though, and maybe you could have more balanced arty.
    RNG; having 25% on damage is a little much, but also having 25% on penetration is utterly ridiculous. Needs to toned down to 15-20% for damage and 5-10% for penetration.
    Overpowered premiums; simply put, being able to buy a tank that outperforms any/most others at the same tier, or even higher tiers, is unacceptable. Wargaming needs to get over the lawsuit for the T26E4 and nerf premiums again so we can finally have good game balance.
    Game development in general; Wargaming lacks, or simply doesn’t care about any sort of communication with their community when it comes to testing new ideas or fixing problems in the game. It takes way too long for them to realize that there is a problem, and even when they do, they take way too long to fix it, despite ultimately making the same changes suggested by many players months/years prior to implementation.

  19. sorry wargaming the days of ACE is over my tier x tanks will be rotten into rust not because of me its because of your cancer developer. You upgraded the other vehicles and make it OP but sad to Say my lovely IS-7 is not.so why should i stick to load prem. accounts every month if you dont want to hear our claims

  20. Nope. Game is way better than it was last year. Still having tons of fun. CCs just making big deals over nothing because they need them views.

  21. Lol who got banned from the Olympics for cheating. The Russians so this an acceptable behavior in their society.

  22. Guys! Please do not loose hope… WG does listen to us now, the evidence is that WG is testing -1/+1 MM in ASIA, no more 3/5/7 or 5/10 but 7/8 instead, you won’t have to face with tanks that 2 tiers higher than you… i know WG have gone to a wrong way, but i think WG did realize and fixing it now, so once again, don’t loose hope guys…

  23. I play tier 9 medium tanks almost exclusively. Teir 8 gets screwed over constantly by the match maker. The tier 10 economy is a black hole that can only be filled with your credit card. Heavy tanks can be fun when arty isn’t constantly griefing you. Light tanks are so weak at the high tiers, you are better off in a medium tank. Arty is cancer and if you play arty, you are part of the problem.

  24. Honestly,

    Everyone who says the game is dying is wrong and they are
    Seeing success from the game and are envious of its success.

    The reason developers don’t Lisson to players is the fact that players by there nature are bad game designers and even worse at game delvement.

    In the case of a game or a service once a update is committed to a game or a service there is no going back the front end and back end well you would think it would be easy to revert is irresponsiblely changed to the point that there is no going back and there is no code retention beyond test branches and live server/client version…

    Well I don’t fully know that the one time jingles tried to get a old client for world of warships (the version before the current one at the time) wargaming did not even have a copy that they could locate (well this may have been at the eu office there is no resin to think that is not true every other location)

    Even if they lissoned we are talking a minimal of 6 mouths+ to a year + to make changes and there are no simple fixes looking back to the past is not the answer.

    The game is in the best place it has ever been in I honestly think that
    The issues are with the players, there limited knowledge of the game (in general) in all aspects of the game and being reminded of that by a swift kick to the tank by a shell.

  25. I uninstalled the game 4 months ago… I just don’t enjoy playing anymore

  26. Players obviously know best what they like and dislike about a game they play. Who else could know better than the people playing a game, what they like and dislike? Telling them that they don’t know what they want was a clear sign of WG completely having lost touch with reality and you are regurgitating that sentiment. You are a joke.

  27. They don’t care about your or anybody else opinion because they are right about that “You don’t see whole picture!”. And the main thing you all don’t see is MONEY FLOW. For example, you can make the game more fun for playing and add more players to it, but terms “players” and “costumers” are different from financial point of view. Now do you understand me, why they put overpowered tanks hard to be penetrate for usual “players” but not so annoying for “costumers” with premium tanks and regular use of “gold” ammo. They make this overpowered thanks usually slow and rigid to attract noobs “players” to them and knowing that old “players” like dynamic and fast machines will not use them. Their strategy is very simple and brutal. They want to kick out all old players and stuck to the game Kids with parent cards,I.e. to filtering out only real “costumers”. You are not welcome to wargame servers anymore because you are not bringing enough money to it. I was playing on Xbox server to recently. I have one Kv1 and I played manly with it. On the end all my crew skills and tank development become no matter. It behave like tank without any development and crew on 50% skills. They **** me, because I was stuck on one tank and as I said they like only people that stuck with credit card in bends. Their behavior is normal.

  28. Frontlines was their big chance to revamp, everyone I know loved it and people came back just for. But ofcourse in true Wargaming style they ruined it making defence impossible. And now the mode is gone, likely because they didn’t develop the mode themselves

  29. First question is: for whom is WG developing the game for? In the video QB did show the numbers of players in the different regions, except Asia. So if on the russian server play more people than on the rest combined – whom will they be looking at and listen to?
    And together with the video from QB is a video from Claus Kellerman “Cheating, Pay to Win & ESports” were he adresses why the NA-server is so little played. It all comes down to pay-to-win and all these mods, even the “officially” allowed by WG.
    Example? WG incorporated their version of the Battle ***istant but that thing sucks! So on “wgmods.net” you find the “original” Battle ***istant” – which gives you a big advantage. What about the penetration marker who shows you at your aimpoint the armor thickness and your actual penetration in numbers?

    All points already written here are true: MM sucks starting at tier 4, premium ammo, arty stun, RNG…
    BUT in my opinion something WG MUST adress are the mods. cosmetics ok, hangar mods for more info ok, in-game-mods NOT ok. All mods in gameplay should be banned so that ALL PLAYERS ARE EQUAL.

    Yes, they have this bad joke of “fair-play policy”. But still I encounter enough players who are more than just suspicious. And reporting them isn´t even possible.

    Make it impossible to play battles with mods and you make it much more fair for everyone.

  30. @thegrippinchannel
    It’s not because of the video.
    It’s because of the things IN the video

  31. If the game is better in your experience, either we aren’t playing the same game or you really don’t care much of what WG does.

  32. So all the Unicum etc that either complain the game is bad atm or that left the game… dont know how to play… ok.

  33. Object 264 v4 showed what is their big picture: release an OP tank (regular or premium), let it rule the field, profit from people trying to reach or buying it (and other players having to using gold ammo to survive), and when the money flows decline you nerf it a little. Release another beast after that. Rinse and repeat.

    Now and then, make a “rebalance”, buffing some tanks to don’t kill the game too fast (and making some tanks more desirable, for people spend money to grind them), and repeat the above formula.

    Did not look at the Wargaming financial balances, but looking at the number of the su-130s in the field this week, it should be working.

    6 years player here, mu premium account expires in 28 days, will not renew it. Stopped to buy premiums too. Will continue to play, but no more money to a game that probably will not last more 4 years. NA server population is declining, the Latam server is a zombie land.

  34. I dont think limit prem ammo capacity is going to cut it. I think using APCR or HEAT is fine, but when you win somthing, you lose something. You have more pen but less damage and the same reload.

    By example: when you have a 105 mm gun and your AP round is 390 dmg per shot with 6 sec reload, and lets say 260 mm pen. You have a dpm of 3900. When you switch to APCR or HEAT your penetration increases, but the damage drops to let’s say 300 or 270. Since the core of the APCR shell is not 105 mm but a lot smaller (90 mm or less) it should deal the damage of the core, with still the same reload. With HEAT it should be the same thing, the jet of molten copper is not 105 mm in diameter and should deal less damage. HEAT is considered to be a crew killer, so it’s possible to increase the chance of crew and module damage by 5% or less (or more). But knowing WG, I think it’s best no to add anything special on HEAT rounds since it could make it OP and unbalanced again.

    I think that the type of ammo you use is a tactical choice and you should be able to research a better AP round and be able to research the “premium” round. Maybe it’s a good idead to completely remove rng (with aiming) and add shell drop to the game, so you have to aim higher to be able to hit a target over distance. If your aim is good , you will be rewarded.

  35. As a beta tester, so many frendships made and years of battles in random, tb and cw, I took a vacation for relaxation without WG trash updates and rules for last 2 years, after so many chatbanns (I was really honest to WG stuff), shi_ty RNG, MM and other stupid stuff they made. In my option everything thay do for last 4 years they do on their own demage. So many really good players left WoT, guess why!? They wont get even a penny from me, thats my reward for their efforts to ruin a game with really good perspective. Let “the kids” enjoy in WoT, WG need them not a players who wants only good for all, and of course YOUR credit cards!!!

  36. Arty arty arty. Get rid of these skycancers. Also premium time should be by hour, not by days. Nobody plays 24 hours to benefit from 24 hours of premium, most of us play 3-4 hours in a day

  37. I started playing this game back when it looked like a late 1990s era console game and some tanks had +5MM, when tanks like the Hellcat and KV-1S were running around mid tiers. When premium ammo was actually bought purely with gold.

    This game is straight up better than it was when I started playing in 2012, and its better than it was 3 years ago.

    This drama stirred up by QB is just that and nothing more, clickbait drama where players whinge over things that arent actually problems.

  38. Players clearly don’t know what’s best though, see all the prem ammo whines in the comments when high tiers is full of tank formally immune to standard ammo.

  39. @Avalon 304

    If you think that is drama stirred up by QB, then you missed the last two years of community development.

  40. I’ve played the game since the beginning, and you don’t see me saying the game was way better back then. No, yes, it has improved a lot since 2010, but let’s face it: last two years have been bad decision after bad decision. I also never said they didn’t make good decisions, no, there were a few good ones, Marathons where players can get free stuff and either free or m***ive discounts on Tier VIII Premium tanks, the complete removal of Gold prices from ammo and consumables, etc. Main issue is: WG takes to long to fix anything. It’s almost like when they do something, it’s to little to late. Crew system for example, for how long have we been saying it needs rework? New player experience of the game is AWFUL, and nothing is done about it. MM, m***ive changes with 9.18, but turns out they just made a template… because MM never actually looked at tank balance when making the teams… WG policy for a long time has been “patch a hole and carry on”, instead of fixing the issue straight away. I understand your point of view, when I see players complaining about Premium ammo, etc, but remember one thing: still costs loads of credits, forcing these players to grind even more what is already painfull to grind. The famous video of Vitor in 2011 saying the M6 Mutant wouldn’t be sold again, he says there it was expected for players who are above Tier 8 to pay for Premium, that anyone who didn’t pay for it it would have a great deal of difficulty to be able to reach Tier X. This is actually worse ATM than it was when the game was released, and I saw this happening when I looked how my father (not a great player) had so much difficulty to get to that T110E5 that he wanted so much… The credit and XP grind for him was like he was sentenced to a labour prison lol

  41. Oh they do know. They might not come up with the best solution for the problem, as they usually think inside the box or have unrealistic expectations of what the program at their hands can realistically do, but they know quite well what the problems are.

    In your specific mentioned case, players complained about armor not really having had a sensible role, as tanks that were supposedly tough to penetrate (and consequentially had other drawbacks hardcoded into them to make them balanced), weren’t really tough to penetrate. Usually this was caused by a mix of too high accuracy and ease of hitting weakspots even at longer ranges or tanks being placed in historically sensible spots in the tiers, but at the same time giving the tanks in the same tier ahistorically strong guns.
    WG reacted by toughening up those tanks, resulting in the Maus- and Type 5 disasters, while completely disregarding a different broken mechanic that byp***es the entire theme completely, namely premium ammo. Now you faced tanks that had no weakspots or almost impossibly to exploit weakspots and a game-mechanic that completely byp***ed this change. Doesn’t need an academic degree to see what’s wrong there and complaints about premium ammo are way older than this happening in the first place.

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