Source (kind of late post, my apologies for that)

I did promise you that I would bring you the results of the survey. That promise is now being kept. When I first set out with the idea for this survey, I was honestly expecting maybe 400-500 responses. That is normally average in the information gathering attempts I have done before (though admittedly, most of those have been NA only). Yet, here I am, with a resultant response that completely dwarfs that expectation. The NA response in itself tripled my expectations, let alone the response from the other clusters/regions.

Note 1 – due to much lower responses from ANZAC, China, and RU regions, please take their results with a grain of salt, as all it could take to sway ratings massively for them is just a handful of responses added to this survey.

Note 2 – Due to the heavy weight of the EU’s response, the overalls will match what EU thinks. That is why I am including the responses by Region/Cluster so that you can see how our views on the maps are different, as we grew our metas completely separately over the years.

UNIQUE RESPONSES PER REGION

Server cluster	Unique Responses
OVERALL	5883
EU	4320
NA	1317
ANZAC	209
CHINA	20
RU	17

The turnout and response count was humbling for me. I had no idea that so many of you felt so passionately about the maps in this game. The mass amount of your written opinions was also intriguing. Skimming through your written opinions, I could feel your passion for the game, as well as your frustrations with certain elements of it.

YOUR FAVORITE MAPS

Server cluster	#1 Liked Rated Map	#2 Liked Rated Map	#3 Liked Rated Map	#4 Liked Rated Map	#5 Liked Rated Map
OVERALL	Prokhorovka	Malinovka	Redshire	Murovanka	Westfield
EU	Prokhorovka	Malinovka	Redshire	Murovanka	Westfield
NA	Redshire	Steppes	Westfield	Murovanka	Sand River
ANZAC	Sand River	Steppes	Murovanka	Westfield	El Halluf
CHINA	Westfield	Himmelsdorf	Karelia	Prokhorovka	Malinovka
RU	Himmelsdorf	Murovanka	Prokhorovka	Redshire	Westfield

Here was the part that both surprised and yet at the same time, did not surprise me. I knew going into this that each region views the tanks in the game and the maps differently – all just purely because of how play styles developed separately on each server. However, I still was a bit surprised to see how differently the maps are viewed overall. For example, where the US cluster ranked Steppes as our 2nd most liked map, on the EU cluster, it was rated 6th best. The stunning part to me was China and RU, whose players seem to love Himmelsdorf, whereas the other clusters view it more as a middle-of-the-road map.

YOUR MOST DESPISED MAPS

Server cluster	#1 Most Hated Map	#2 Most Hated Map	#3 Most Hated Map	#4 Most Hated Map	#5 Most Hated Map
OVERALL	Empire’s Border	Paris	Minsk	Ensk	Province
EU	Empire’s Border	Paris	Minsk	Ensk	Province
NA	Paris	Empire’s Border	Minsk	Province	Mines
ANZAC	Empire’s Border	Paris	Minsk	Province	Airfield
CHINA	Widepark	Empire’s Border	Province	Minsk	Airfield
RU	Empire’s Border	Paris	Widepark	Minsk	Klondike

Here, I expected no real surprises, though I did end up being a little surprised. Once again, the conclusion I have to draw from these results is that via a combination of tank and/or play style ‘meta’ differences between the servers, that the player base on each cluster have developed differing viewpoints on what constitutes a ‘bad’ map. The big surprise here for me, is that away from EU and NA (who rated it in the ‘average’ category), the other 3 servers all seemed to dislike Airfield a lot. However, one thing is perfectly clear from all 5 regions: Empire’s Border, Paris, Minsk, and Province are all in the top most hated maps, even if slightly out of order with each other.

FUN INFO

Well, what would a survey be without being able to have some fun with the data? Thanks to /u/ThePizar, I was able to extract some really neat information out of your responses – especially with help of THE DATA I put together from a recent post I made on the history of map changes in World of Tanks.

Would it surprise you to know that there is verifiable evidence of recency bias against certain maps? The newer the map to the game, the lower in rating it tends to be on average. The 10 newest maps (going back nearly 5.5 years) introduced/re-introduced to WoT all have lower ratings, with only one map out of this group of maps reaching a rating of at least 5.6 overall. It isn’t until you go to the maps introduced over 6 years ago, that any maps start jumping up above 5.6 rating, with all 12 maps that are rated 6.0 or higher being older than 6 years old.

On the surface of it, it looks like something changed with how maps were developed, starting sometime in 2014. It could be some sort of design philosophy, or change in personnel, or who knows what. Honestly, all I can do is speculate at this point in time. However, I believe I am still able to conclude that something happened to and/or changed with the Map Devs during the time period between patches 0.8.4 and 0.9.0. As a result, the WoT Community does not have as much fondness for the maps made since then. Anything else said by me at this point would be complete speculation, and have no basis in actual fact.

Speaking of facts, the next neat fact involves the average ratings of the maps. Would it surprise you to know that only 7 of the 15 v 15 maps currently in the game are rated as ‘below average’? 17 of the 15 v 15 maps are considered ‘average’ by the WoT Community. 12 of the 15 v 15 maps are considered above average.

Oh, and for the 86 of you – whoever and wherever you are – that voted a 10 overall rating for Paris, please be advised that “You are the 1%”.

THOUGHTS ON THE WORST RATED MAPS

Now, let us look at those 7 worst rated maps (below 5.0 rating). In no particular order: Empire’s Border, Paris, Minsk, Ensk, Province, Mines, Widepark.

5 of them are smaller than 1K x 1K. 2 of them – Widepark and Province – are tier limited with many responders to the survey calling for 2 more to also receive this treatment – Ensk and Mines. One is relatively new to the game (Minsk) and one was a China Server exclusive for years that was only recently released to the other server clusters. 6 of them completely fit into the ‘heavy corridor’ stereotype. Remember, corridor maps are not necessarily bad, as maps like Airfield, El Halluf, Ruinberg, and Himmelsdorf, are all well thought of by sizable portion of players. So it has to be something else about these 7 maps that sets them apart as disliked or outright hated by the WoT community.

When it comes to disliked maps as a whole, certain themes kept recurring over and over in your written opinions.

“corridors/funneling/choke points”

“small/tiny/size”

“arty/spg”

“camp/camping/slow pace”

“light/lights/light tanks/LT”

“TD”

“Tier/Tier Limits”

THOUGHTS ON BEST RATED MAPS

Now, it is time to consider the 12 best rated maps (above 6.0 rating). In no particular order: Prokhorovka, Malinovka, Redshire, Westfield, Murovanka, Steppes, Sand River, El Halluf, Karelia, Live Oaks, Lakeville, Serene Coast, Cliff, Mannerheim Line, Ruinberg, Siegfried Line.

These really run the gamut of styles. Some are 1K x 1K. Some are much smaller. Some are wide open, some are closed off corridors. Some have engagement areas all over, some have all the action concentrated in only a couple of spots. Some of them have seen major changes over the years (Redshire, El Halluf for example), and some have seen only small changes (Lakeville, Cliff, for example). Yet it is quite clear – you all like these maps above their peers.

When it comes to maps you folks love playing on, I found the following themes over and over in your written opinions.

“all classes/every class”

“light/lights/LT/light tanks”

“arty/spg”

“open/flank/support/relocate/space”

“cover/protect/protection/safe/armor”

“balance/fair/equal”

CONCLUSION

Well, this is the part where I am supposed to say something that sounds smart and sums up the survey results. When it comes to this, I want you to have a chance to make your own conclusion. When I posted the survey, I promised that I would post the full results for you to go over. I have the data pulled out into all sorts of configurations so that you can get a very easy understanding of it. Every sheet has at least one chart (a couple have multiple charts) to help you visualize the raw information.

The information you will be able to view is as follows (name of sheet and what it’s purpose is if the name is kind of obscure):

Responses by Server Cluster	Map Information (overall responses/averages for every map)	Map Rating Rankings (Overall for all maps)
No GB Map Information (overall responses/averages for every map excluding GB maps)	No GB Map Rating Rankings (overall for all maps excluding GB maps)	EU Cluster Only Map Ratings
NA Cluster Only Map Ratings	ANZAC Cluster Only Map Ratings	China Cluster Only Map Ratings
RU Cluster Only Map Ratings	Age and Rating (rating of maps compared to how long they have been in game)	Rating Frequency
Disliked Map Reasons	Liked Map Reasons	Map Inclusion Dates

​Some pages I do have set for “hidden”, but that is just the actual raw input from the survey, and where we filtered that material to make our formulas easier to work with.As for separating out the ratings without GB maps, you have to keep in mind that a likely very sizable chunk of the population has disabled GB mode from being a possibility for them to see in random match rotation. Add in that when it comes to actually playing Tier 10, that out of the entire population on all of the servers – less than 1.46% on NA, 1.71% on EU, less than 2.32% on RU, and less than 1.1% on ANZAC have even played at Tier 10 recently (in the past month). Considering this, there is quite likely a vast majority of the population who have not seen the GB maps outside of possibly in a training room . Also, yes, Hinterlands (the newest GB map) was not added in to this survey. However, it is so new (live less than 1 month at the time the survey started), for a mode that is so rarely seen by the vast majority of the population, that it really would have been unfair to ask anyone to give it a rating at this time.

Hopefully during the August-September time period this year, I will run a very similar variation of this poll again, and include at that time Hinterland, Lost City (aka Ghost Town), and possibly any other maps released by WG between now and then. Well, as long as they have been in the game longer than a month at the time of the survey (needed to give players a chance to actually see the new map and play on it a few times).

There is some good news, though! Aside from the NA offices receiving a copy of this information (with no hidden sheets, so they can do numbers stuff on their own if they want), /u/WG_eekeeboo from the EU offices contacted me, interested in the survey results. As for the reason behind why Eekeeboo reached out, the EU offices have apparently done a similar information gathering survey recently, and there was curiosity to see if the results achieved through this survey lined up similarly to the results achieved directly by their survey. So, not only is this information and your written opinions now in the hands of WG NA, but WG EU has a copy as well.

Believe it or not, at the WG EU offices, they are just as interested as the NA offices in your feedback, trying to improve communication, improving the game, and rebuilding/regrowing the player base. Now, both offices will be able to use and present all of this additional information based on your viewpoints, thoughts, and opinions, to the Devs in Minsk when the appropriate time comes for feedback from each region.

THE RAW DATA I did promise it, so there it is!

Once again, I want to thank everyone who responded and made gathering this data possible. You all have been very awesome, and I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Link to previous post asking for your opinion on maps