MrFingers

"They have lost the war, twice, and thus need to shut up" -Serb (EDIT; this is sarcasm from my side, and needs to be taken with a grain of salt ;) )

That was indeed quite harsh. My Campbeltown is still standing on my desk though...

That's very harsh... But in the fundamentals, you hit the nail on the head.

I know, and it's nice... But compare that to the NA-version... 1 ship, with 3 runner-ups, compared to 3 ships, slots, gold, premium and 9 runner ups (which extrapolated to the EU-population size would mean: 6 ships, slots, gold, premium and 18 runner ups)... For basically the same effort required. It ain't too hard to see why EU contests are failing, and NA-contests aren't.

Then why are they being held in the first place, if they're not serving their main purpose? Anyway Brynd, I'm glad this is now being clarified. I still have hopes for the future (having contests is undeniably a good thing for, and a way to cater, the community. And they don't need to be of the "in-game competitive"-kind, since that is very RNG-related (you have to play well AND be lucky the rest of your team doesn't, and the enemy is somewhat braindead), on the NA are plenty of ideas to be reaped in the creative department. A thing like Project-R (which is a totally different thing, I know, but still), really lightened the spirits (after the blatant inequality between the RU/SEA version was corrected), and made the community act as a whole, with in the end a "yeah, WE've accomplished this"-feeling to top it off. And what Xerkics says: "winable ingame content" (like unique camo's, ships,...) really does work. In WarThunder, before they went berserk with the requirements, I ground out every plane that I owned, in order to unlock all the historical camo's. It's a very potent way to keep your customers hooked to the game (while waiting for major new content ), and it's very rewarding for the players.

I see. Thanks for the swift and elaborate reply Brynd, much appreciated. However, I still have a remark. Couldn't it be that the total lack of interest of the community for the contests could also lay in the fact that the rewards for them aren't worth the effort required? As in: the prize-pool is fairly small (top-5, top-10 max), and the prizes aren't that big (quite often a low tier ship, OR some doubloons). If you compare that to the NA-specials, you can see that their prizes are substantially larger (mid/high tier ship, quite often combined with doubloons AND Premium Time), and their winners-bracket is way larger (they often have top-25 or top-50 contests), which with the NA being half the size, makes it way more enticing to participate in those contests, in twofold: because you know there is a chance that you actually might win, since there are enough prizes to be given away, AND because the prizes are worth it to jump through the hoops required. That's how I see it. Maybe WG-EU should give it a try, and hold a contest with a large prize pool (if you extrapolate from the NA server size, that requires at least a Top-50 contest), and with bigger prizes to be given away. You won't know it until you try it. And it would surely light the spirits of the forums a bit. Personally, I always tried to participate in the contests that were held, but I made me no illusions to actually win something, because I'm too mediocre of a player to be competitive for it. But by having a bigger chance on a reward, or by having more appealing rewards, one might elevate itself from mediocrity when it comes to gameplay.

Still patiently waiting on some CM input...

Yeah, the salt is real there, but I don't care.

On the EU?

NA will have them tomorrow: https://na.wargaming.net/support/kb/articles/639

As a redditor, I can say: they're not. Ectar jumps in every once in a month, and so does Mr.Conway (but not as a CM, only in personal title). Also-Robots and Niko-Power from the NA are way more frequently to be found on Reddit (once a week). The EU contests are only for the happy few (Top 5), NA often has Top-50. On a population half the size of ours. That changes stuff quite a bit.

There is also not a single incentive from the WG staff to lighten the mood. Whether by holding contests (to boost the forums a bit), nor by participating in discussions in a non-"we are from wg" way, like is being done on the NA (the CM's there have their function, but apart from that, they also participate in discussions in a non-CM way).

No idea, the plan is to restore her to her Jutland-configuration, so that would mean with the 2 6" guns on the aft and the 8 4" guns on the side.

The house will come off... and about the guns... don't worry ;)

Actually the UK is doing fairly well at preserving (naval) heritage. There are countless other nations who have nothing left of their fleets of yesteryear. As of the scrapping of historically significant ships. You have to see that in the light of those days. When Warspite was paid off, it was considered to make her a memorial/museum. But the UK just got out of WW2, and albeit victorious, it was in huge debt. The government couldn't spare the cash to save her. But this is also happened in other countries as well. USS Enterprise (CV6) is the prime example. Belgium had the same issue with the Charlesville, a unique mixed-cargo ship (and the only one left of her kind in the world). She was registered as a monument, yet sold for scrap (despite numerous protests), and she sunk to be used as an insurance fraud.

they will do something, I guess...

If you took the effort to look a bit further, you'd notice that I suggested this ship is that this is the only ship that still exists today that took part in that battle. And she is currently being restored into her wartime configuration. That's one huge argument in her favour, that she is still afloat and can be visited.

"There's no such thing as a German fleet." -Serb I hope so, but there is absolutely no news on that. As it stands now, there are no representatives in the current techtree that took part in Jutland. The closest we have is the SMS Painboat Karslruhe. Closest, because it closely resembles the Koningsberg-class (not to be confused with our TierV Koningsberg, which is the successor of this class), and of which 2 ships (Stettin & Stutgart) were present.

For people with plenty of time. The Royal Museums of Greenwich are digitalising their plans (of Royal Navy and other ships, from the 18th to the 20th century), and put them out on their website.

We're about 1.5 months away from Jutland, and the rerevelation of the HMS Caroline in Belfast. To get you all giddy, here is the original plan for the 1913-1914 "Light Cruiser Program", of which the Caroline-class was the lead class. And in ultra-size. Also here the cross-section. Still no news from WG though, but I sincerely hope they're coming up with something in the (near) future.

Here in way better quality (and clickable for ultra-large size)

But those ships sailed in the Australian Navy (HMAS), so maybe that's why they're not included, this is just about the British fleet, not the Crown Colonies. Also many of the smaller ships (and submarines) are represented by one example. The V & W class destroyers are shown here as 1 ship, but consisted of 67 individual ships

Are you by any chance a descendant of Mad Jack Churchill? anyway, I like the Mikasa, although I don't have her. Sadly enough the EU server is the only one in the WG universe in which it was only sold (in an atrocious bundle), the other servers had it for free (as a reward for participation in a contest on the NA, and as a gift-ship when buying a premium bundle on the RU and SEA (SEA also had it for sale for 7$))

That was for in 2015... I can't say we're being left out in 2016 in terms of premium shop... In terms of specials and events, we do. It's been since January we had a contest, the NA hosts several per week.EU: http://forum.worldofwarships.eu/index.php?/forum/490-contests/ NA: http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/forum/53-contests-and-in-game-competitions/ (the prizes are also way bigger on the NA than the EU) And further I have to agree with what Vanhal says... The Mikasa (and Tachibana) won't be forgotten.