To be honest, I was stunned for a while when I saw the news about the eighth anniversary celebration of "Tank Front" yesterday. Eight years, from 2014 to 2022, this number makes me a little confused. Think about it, eight years ago I was using Nokia N8 to play Symbian games, and now I have switched to several Android phones. 😅
I'm not going to brag about it, but the mobile game industry has been turned upside down in the past eight years. From the initial card turn-based system, to the pinnacle of MOBA, to battle royale and open world, the technology has become more and more dazzling, and the graphics are getting closer and closer to the console. But to be honest, many games get boring after playing them. They have a fast-food style rhythm. Recharging money will make you stronger. If you don't recharge, you will get stuck. In the end, there are only a bunch of card drawing animations and data expansion.
But an old strategy development game like "Tank Front" makes me feel at ease. It doesn't have the impetuousness of becoming popular overnight. Over the past eight years, the core gameplay has not changed much – build tanks, build bases, and engage in team battles. But precisely because it has been settled for a long time, the brotherhood between players is real. There was a time in the past when I was busy with work and less online. As a result, my comrades directly called me "Don't fall behind" in the WeChat group and gathered at nine o'clock in the evening to fight the world boss. That feeling, to be honest, is warmer than many social apps today. 🤝
I thought about it and found that the development trend of mobile games in recent years is actually a return to "social attributes". In the past, everyone focused on image quality and special effects, but now more emphasis is placed on whether players can truly stick together. Like "Tank Frontline", there are no fancy automatic pathfinding or forced plots. Instead, it relies on a mature legion system and PVP mechanism to unite players. Going online late at night, someone on the public channel shouted "The northwest defense line holds up", and the entire server was preparing for war. That kind of atmosphere can't be bought with krypton gold.
But then again, the industry is changing too. Many of the new games released now are MMOs or open worlds, but their retention rates are low. I guess it's because I'm too tired - I have to complete a long list of tasks every day to keep up with the large army, which is more tiring than going to work. Older games like "Tank Front" are actually more relaxing, and you can make money even if you hang up. Important activities are concentrated on weekends, and you can still chat with your brothers on weekdays. This may be what middle-aged players just need. 😎
Finally, let me express some emotion. Eight years is enough for a teenager to become an experienced player. Many people who came from the Symbian era no longer play games. But when I open "Tank Frontline" occasionally and see the familiar interface and those old IDs that are still hanging on, I feel that time is not passing quickly. No matter how the mobile game industry changes, some things will not change, such as the friendship between brothers who shoulder the gun together. I hope we can still see old faces in this game in the next eight years. 💪