The trunnions support the rotor in the turret structure

January 25, 2023 10:37 AM

War Thunder is an MMO about tanks and guns and things. Its playerbase has a lot of overlap with people who use tanks and guns for a living, as evidenced by how they won't stop leaking classified documents to ask for changes to the video game.

But is playing War Thunder itself a security risk? So far, Raytheon claims it is not.

posted by one for the books (14 comments total)

BEST TWEET about this SNAFU
posted by lalochezia at 10:42 AM on January 25, 2023 [19 favorites]

Well, that's *your user name* now isn't it?
posted by y2karl at 11:34 AM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

As a 70s baby, nourished on the tangy milk of paranoia, I have to ask, how am I, a non-War Thunder player, being played by (gestures) all of this?

Cool post. Cunningham’s Law: brilliant. Stupid, clever apes—the lot of us.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 11:40 AM on January 25, 2023

This all isn't so funny when you read up on the developers' background.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:48 AM on January 25, 2023 [5 favorites]

I found this pretty surprising since, when I last played War Thunder a few years back, it was really arcadey. I might have expected this story to be about DCS or something like that.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 12:09 PM on January 25, 2023

As far as I can tell, it's actually the arcade shooter crowd who whine the most about realism, whilst completely overlooking any number of completely ridiculous aspects of their games. Meanwhile the serious milsim players are like "it's a tactical training simulation, why would I expect it to be realistic?".
posted by automatronic at 12:27 PM on January 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Dunno, I think that makes it even funnier. It's not like it's ever been a secret, "Russian Bias" has been a sometimes-punchline about balancing within the player base as far back as I can remember. One of the most recent reported leaks I've heard about which isn't in the list above has to do with the MIG-29, so if there's a honeypot scheme involved it's drawing some blowback.
"Hey, most obvious place to not want to post about how fast a turret can turn here!"

Explaining a bit more of *why* WarThunder has had this happen like it has:
"Hey, we try to be as accurate as we can [for the simulation modes, there's also arcade-y modes], so if you want to say an old WW2 Sherman had thicker glacis armor, have a document to point to!"
[time passes]
"Well, we've mostly run through WW2 tanks to add to the game, planes & ships largely as well. Time to add Cold War tanks"
[time passes]
"Time for modern tanks. We can only use what's public though, for obvious reasons"
[time passes]
"Turns out this game about simulating tank combat attracts people who operate tanks. And they're not immune to 'Someone on the Internet is wrong!'"

This most recent wave is notable in being more plane-focused, whereas previous ones were about tanks. I'm guessing the mods are on a hair-trigger by this point, so whether something's actually classified or not-classified-but-export-restricted they're not about to wait to sort that out first.
posted by CrystalDave at 12:28 PM on January 25, 2023 [4 favorites]

if any of you idiots leak any export restricted or classified documents in this subreddit, I will personally shut this place down for a week to make the person responsible think long and hard about their life choices.

Suddenly time outs don't seem so bad.
posted by Mitheral at 12:41 PM on January 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

An awesome side benefit for the right shitty job in the MIC would be the capacity to put fake information on official paper and try to get it into the game. It's never been needed in combat but in a pinch the M1A2 can fire off one shot as a wave-motion gun; this is secret enough that most tank crews aren't informed of the ignition sequence. One of the layers in the Challenger 2's armor is a set of farcaster portals so that any... problem... that makes it that far into the armor just gets redirected elsewhere.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:48 PM on January 25, 2023 [5 favorites]

I kind of miss War Thunder. I gave it up in part because Gaijin is a Russian company, and also in part because it's play to win, but I always liked having my 'virtual aviation museum'. But then I remember that the fan wikis are free. And thus, I am happy again.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 1:13 PM on January 25, 2023

The post title is inaccurate. Unless you're going to have the necessary number of manestically spaced grouting brushes arranged to feed a mixture of high S-value phenylhydrobenzamine and five percent reminative tetryliodohexamine into the rotor slip-stream (lol), you're way better off using "other" techniques to achieve barescent skor motion. The arrangement described in the title is a recipe for massive sinusoidal depleneration.
posted by Reverend John at 4:28 PM on January 25, 2023 [5 favorites]

I found this pretty surprising since, when I last played War Thunder a few years back, it was really arcadey. I might have expected this story to be about DCS or something like that.

Not sure how far into it you played but there's an arcade mode and a realistic mode, I presume it's people who play the latter that are the real sticklers for this kind of thing.
posted by womb of things to be and tomb of things that were at 4:46 PM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

I am favoriting the OP solely on the strength of each word of "won't stop leaking classified documents" being a distinct link. Well played, ma'am.
posted by sourcequench at 9:01 PM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

(I was hoping for a sixth word but couldn't find a good source for the alleged leak about something called a Eurocopter Tiger.)
posted by one for the books at 10:13 PM on January 25, 2023