[2020] A painful reminder that WGC's to come ...

Folks,

Contrary to what some people state we have been VERY transparent of our change to using the WGC, it is a launcher that checks your game client to ensure there are no files that are broken or unstable, it updates for you, it allows you to throttle downloads or stop them, it allows you to launch multiple WG titles if you have them. The old legacy launcher was NOT stable and that is why we no longer support it.

There is NOTHING malicious going on. I have been using the WGC since WELL before my employment with WG on multiple computers and have not had a single issue with something "malicious" occurring on my PCs.

We gather system information to see across the board what the average system is that people play our game on is so we can better support and optimize the game. This is an industry standard now, and TBH I don't know of too many MODERN games that even allow you to download and install them without a launcher. If we just decide to build the game with the specs we feel everyone "should have" which MOST game publishers do, many would not be able to play our game.

The WGC will help to ensure your game is more stable, up to date and help US help YOU if there is an issue with the load you have installed on your computer (WGCheck). If people do not wish to use the WGC, unfortunately, you probably won't be able to play World of Warships anymore, and if you find a work around, it may make your game unstable. That being said, you can launch the game from the WGC and then actually exit the WGC believe it or not.

-Hapa

The issues with the PTS install that people have had, is because players have not installed the PTS before, and it is a different build of the game itself. Do not compare apples and oranges. EVERYONE that I have helped to get onto the PTS has had 100% functionality once I chatted with them and helped them out. And then they never have to worry about anything with the PTS again, because it updates and runs fine.

Also, I have talked to people that have had nothing but problems with the legacy launcher and switched to the WGC and had no issue. So for every example I am sure you can come up with a counter example. But the truth is, the data we have GLOBALLY shows more functionality and stability WITH the WGC than without, we wouldn't make this the standard if this wasn't the case.

Again, you can make the choice not to use it. That is yours to make.

-Hapa

People do not like change.

-Hapa

Here is the problem, we have literally been discussing this move to the WGC for almost 9 months now, we have been giving information about it, we have been transparent as to why. We aren't just "dismissing" your comments.

As far as I know, the game will only function in the WGC as this is our primary means to get a WGCheck or ensure that the game build is properly supported.

-Hapa

The reason the WGCheck scans your entire hard drive is to find mods, to see if there are any conflict or issues with them. And to check your hardware and drivers to ensure that everything is functional. You CAN look at the report by opening it in a notepad, but most people will not be able to understand the code that being displayed. I am unsure who has told you the incorrect information but I have, I think always put this out that you will need the WGC to launch the game.

You can launch the game in WGC and then close the WGC out, as far as I know, it doesn't have to be running the entire time, I can double check this though.

-Hapa

So several of your questions I have answered actually.

Being able to chose the directory things get installed in (I agree 100% with this) the feedback was given to the devs and I am waiting on a response, same as the Steam migration if people want to move their accounts to Steam. It's not as simple as people think (also believe it or not Steam is FAR FAR more invasive than our launcher).

As far as I know, if a game is loaded using the legacy launcher the WGC will want you to remove it to reload the game. This is because the files connected to the legacy game are not always the same.

-Hapa

I answered that above, I'm waiting on information back from the Devs.

Unless you know a work around that I don't know....

-Hapa

Well I can't really answer your questions if I do not know what the work around even is...

-Hapa

Aloha,

1: WGC and the legacy launcher are different software pieces. Supporting them both takes resources, even on maintenance. What's worse, it takes pretty precious and critical resources of Release and Release QA teams to deploy every update to the Legacy Launcher and WGC. Less update instances to deploy = less chance of issues slipping through.

2: When we first introduced WGC as an option, it was pretty buggy, it lacked some good functions etc - it was in Alpha/Beta actually. And a lot of people used the legacy because it WAS better. But that was YEARS ago. Before we announced forced migration (a few months ago) there was only a few percentage of users on legacy launcher - the overwhelming majority of players migrated already.

3: If you don't want to play other WG titles, that's fine, sure, you play only WoWs. But even then in WGC you have things like multi-account support and automatic WGCheck gathering (very good for reporting tech issues to CS). Doing those things manually and having to put that in a legacy Launcher for only 3-4% of players? Sorry, it's super inefficient and would not be the right thing to do. Moreover, as WGC is the WG platform at the moment it's the uniform way to deliver our games company wide, there are much higher chances for new features to appear there. And until the migration WoWs, to my knowledge is the ONLY WG title that is on the legacy launcher.

As for some, that have more interesting thoughts on the WGC about big brother spying on you or WG mining bit coins. Seriously?

WG is a big international company. We are fully compliant with ALL local and international laws and regulations where we operate, including EU and NA. Even if you for some reason (which I find personally offensive) think that we, WoWs team or WG as a whole want to spy on you or hack your PC, don't you think the risks of facing international courts and ban of our products in all big game markets and the huge scandal in the industry would stop it before anything like this was remotely thought of? With all the GDPR and other privacy laws being enforced even on giants like Google? We share all our compliant and legal information on the WGC publicly - it says what it does and does not. And let me assure you, the company makes revenue by making games, NOT by spying on you or placing malicious code on your computer. We do not care about your browser history.

Bypassing and "working around" using the launcher may work for now, but when your client has issues, you crash or have other problems, this will only be your fault.

-Hapa