Windows Planetside 2 Vs World of Tanks

Got to play WOT for the first time last night. As I also play primarily armor in Planetside 2, here are some comparisons. Overall, if you are looking for persistent world action on an epic scale, Planetside2 is the answer. If you are looking for short quick matches with smaller teams (15v15) in a non-persistent environment WOT is the choice. I can see many players liking to participate in both games!

PS2 vs WOT- Comments focused on tank combat:

• Larger Scale, More Realistic Combat Environment, Winner: PS2 PS2 is more epic, larger scope, overall, more going on, in a more realistic threat environment with a spectrum of armor, air, and infantry threats. However, (in armor) lots more sitting around waiting for a facility to cap.
• Fast, Quick, Intense Fights Winner: WOT WOT is more focused, quick fun matches, on smaller maps, where you'll hardly ever sit, and includes more consistently, intense tank fights. Less realistic combat environment where all there is, is tanks.
• Voice Comms: Tie Both have in-game comms. There is an advantage to having independant voice comms via (TeamSpeak, Ventrillo, Mumble) so you don't have to listen to the idiots, however in WOT due to the reality of consistent PUGs (Pickup Groups) there seems to be more incentive to get into in-game voice so you can coordinate with strangers if they are so inclined.
• Large Group Play Free Mode, Winner: PS2- For whatever reason, WOT makes it harder to function as a larger (known) group/outfit/guild in Random Battle Mode with out being a premium member. These are the 15v15 fights. There are Clan vs Clan battles and Team Company Battles available, but I am not familiar with those. But instead of go out in the world and find someone to fight, I believe these are pre-arranged matches.
  
  WOT Platoons- With Random Battles, if you are doing f2p, you can have a platoon with a total of 2 members (they call those platoons??). If you are a Premium member or know a premium member online, you can group into a platoon of 3. The advantage of platoons is that your platoon team mates will be on the same team, and will show up on the minimap as yellow instead of green. The trick is getting a group larger than 2 or 3 on the same team. I don't believe you can control that. Team Company Battles, are a premium account feature, but I don't know how many players can be invited to these.
  
  In contrast PS2 has all ready grouped players into factions so you know you'll always be on the same team and you don't have to be a premium member as you do in WOT to have a Team Company Battle.
  
• Tiered Matches Advantage: WOT- You'll never fight anyone more than 2 tiers above you. In PS2, you can face highly upgraded opponents, but this is consistent with PS2's the "outfit" persistent world concept.

Comparing PS2 to WOT for Free-to-play (f2p) micro-transaction models, each game has advantages.

• Not Allowing Wallet Warriors, Advantage: PS2 Yes you can buy upgraded guns, but all of hardware upgrades, performance, defensive, etc, must be earned. Gains in XP are VERY SLOW for a casual player. Equipment can be purchased and is extremely expensive from an earned cert standpoint. A casual player (1 session per week) depending on their effectiveness, let's say 50 certs for 3 hrs of play would take about 3 months to earn enough certs to buy an upgraded gun (700 cert) using certs. On the other hand you can purchase this gun for $7 and save your certs for items that can't be purchased, such as all of your equipment upgrades. This is relatively cheap compared to a World of Warcraft, pay $50 up front and then $15 a month subscription.
• Faster XP Gains, Advantage: WOT However, everything in WOT can be purchased. Being able to purchase everything is bad IMO. Faster XP allows for a more satisfying experience following the f2p model, but the downside is that the competition can buy themselves to the top if they so desire. If an item cost 1200 certs to purchase, it can be purchased for $6 in real money (knock off the zeros and divide by 2).
• Benefits of Premier/Premium Memberships: Tie- More of less, each game gives you accelerated XP, and other benefits if you are a premium member. PS2 costs $15 a month to subscribe ($12 for 6 month subscription, $10 for 1 year subscription and WOT runs about 2500 gold, about $13.50 a month or with a 6 month subscription, $9.50 a month.

Conclusion- I plan on participating in both of these games. Regarding coughing up cash, I'm more likely to subscribe to WOT for short term and make a gold purchase or two. With PS2, I'm, functional enough in the game that if I'm satisfied paying to upgrade to new weapon types with Station Cash (Sony's currency), and put up with low XP. The big plus in my opinion is that the F2P model allows me to keep playing casually and not worry about waisting a monthly subscription.

There is an inaccurate statement in my original post which I have updated in this WOT Guide.

It has to do my original assertion that you can buy everything in WOT. This is not true. Moving up the tank lines (upgrading from tank to tank, advancing in tiers) requires that you earn XP (experience) by playing the game. You can however buy elite tanks at all levels using real $$. The purpose of those tanks is to do well in Battles and farm silver, but they earn zero XP to apply to another tank. Here is an example of a tank for sale:


German Lowe 8th Tier Tank, purchase price: $51.95.

I have abandoned Planetside for the time being.

Reason? More efficient use of my time, fast fun, intense, strategy based fights every encounter. Once above tier 6, grind involved which should not be an issue, if you are are not in a rush and playing the game for the enjoyment of the battles. If gives you time to really figure out the maps, what works and does not work. The point is there is no 'end game' as in fantasy based MMORPGs, just never-ending battles on a relatively small group of maps, based on tier levels. So you are getting the same enjoyment at all levels of the game.