A fun game that has been purposefully and scientifically optimized to be as unfun as humanly possible in order to maximize possible revenue.

This is not an exaggeration. The game is purposefully designed so that vehicles from the tech trees (acquired without paying) will eventually return negative profits in silver lions (the primary free currency of war thunder), meaning that you can and inevitably will join a game, get a 2:1 or higher k/d ratio and end up losing more money than you made to repair costs. This can get to ridiculous extremes with specific vehicles, as Gaijin will 'conveniently' use repair cost as a balancing choice to nerf vehicles which are either powerful or profitable.

What is repair cost? Effectively when whatever vehicle you are controlling gets destroyed, it will cost X amount of silver lions to repair the vehicle so that it can be played again. This cost increases as you unlock upgrades for the vehicle (since non-paid tech three vehicles require you to grind in order to get the full performance of the vehicle). Vehicles have a % modifier for how many silver lions they make from regular actions, such as kills, assists etc. Premium (paid) vehicles have a usually significantly higher % to this gain, with the game being purposefully balanced so that at a certain point, it will become significantly more difficult to break even on repair cost without purchasing premium subscriptions or vehicles, sometimes both. The intent is for free players to barely or never break even at all, Gaijin have literally stated this in their own developer posts.

In order to circumvent this, a free player could also just maintain a high k/d ratio. This is important. In order for a free player to progress at higher levels of play, they will need not only to be skilled but also prevent others from progressing. Repair costs punish the losers, which means that if the game requires a 2 or 3:1 k/d ratio for a free player to progress, then that means 2 to 3 other players must be eating the cost to repair their own vehicles, setting them back in progression. By playing the game better, you make the game worse for everyone else.

That's not to list the numerous ways in which the game is also designed to take your progression (in silver lions) away from you. Vehicle purchase costs, crew train costs to swap to that new vehicle (which exists for no purpose other than to serve as a hidden cost, imagine buying something from amazon and paying a 30% 'convenience' fee), ammunition restocks (admittedly minor most of the time), buying part upgrades that need to be unlocked by playing with that vehicle (which is weaker without those upgrades), crew slots, a teamkill penalty which is purposefully designed to cost both parties (the perpetrator and the victim) to pay the repair cost (the perpetrator is hit with negative sl to cover the cost of repair, but the victim still has to pay for their repair out of their own sl) and the fact that they have consistently nerfed rewards again,

and again,
and again,
and again,

over the course of the games lifespan, culminating in the most recent which saw some vehicles (including paid for premiums) see their reward modifiers halved. Although recently reverted, this change will likely just be snuck into the game in some form or another later down the line. Their consistent behaviour just reinforces the point. As of right now I would be just around the end of tier four of the german air tree, and I already feel as though I have hit that progression wall, where everything slows to a crawl. For reference, there are four more tiers to go till I could reach the top.

War Thunder is a fun game. I have had fun playing it with friends, and I might have fun playing it again in the future. There is nothing wrong with liking War Thunder, or playing it yourself. If you are playing War Thunder and having fun without paying, just know that Gaijin literally considers that unintended / a problem and will do anything in their power to try and frustrate you into forking over money.

Do not give these people money.

A fun game that has been purposefully and scientifically optimized to be as unfun as humanly possible in order to maximize possible revenue. This is not an exaggeration. The game is purposefully designed so that vehicles from the tech trees (acquired without paying) will eventually return negative profits in silver lions (the primary free currency of war thunder), meaning that you can and inevitably will join a game, get a 2:1 or higher k/d ratio and end up losing more money than you made to repair costs. This can get to ridiculous extremes with specific vehicles, as Gaijin will 'conveniently' use repair cost as a balancing choice to nerf vehicles which are either powerful or profitable. What is repair cost? Effectively when whatever vehicle you are controlling gets destroyed, it will cost X amount of silver lions to repair the vehicle so that it can be played again. This cost increases as you unlock upgrades for the vehicle (since non-paid tech three vehicles require you to grind in order to get the full performance of the vehicle). Vehicles have a % modifier for how many silver lions they make from regular actions, such as kills, assists etc. Premium (paid) vehicles have a usually significantly higher % to this gain, with the game being purposefully balanced so that at a certain point, it will become significantly more difficult to break even on repair cost without purchasing premium subscriptions or vehicles, sometimes both. The intent is for free players to barely or never break even at all, Gaijin have literally stated this in their own developer posts. In order to circumvent this, a free player could also just maintain a high k/d ratio. This is important. In order for a free player to progress at higher levels of play, they will need not only to be skilled but also prevent others from progressing. Repair costs punish the losers, which means that if the game requires a 2 or 3:1 k/d ratio for a free player to progress, then that means 2 to 3 other players must be eating the cost to repair their own vehicles, setting them back in progression. By playing the game better, you make the game worse for everyone else. That's not to list the numerous ways in which the game is also designed to take your progression (in silver lions) away from you. Vehicle purchase costs, crew train costs to swap to that new vehicle (which exists for no purpose other than to serve as a hidden cost, imagine buying something from amazon and paying a 30% 'convenience' fee), ammunition restocks (admittedly minor most of the time), buying part upgrades that need to be unlocked by playing with that vehicle (which is weaker without those upgrades), crew slots, a teamkill penalty which is purposefully designed to cost both parties (the perpetrator and the victim) to pay the repair cost (the perpetrator is hit with negative sl to cover the cost of repair, but the victim still has to pay for their repair out of their own sl) and the fact that they have consistently nerfed rewards again, and again, and again, and again, over the course of the games lifespan, culminating in the most recent which saw some vehicles (including paid for premiums) see their reward modifiers halved. Although recently reverted, this change will likely just be snuck into the game in some form or another later down the line. Their consistent behaviour just reinforces the point. As of right now I would be just around the end of tier four of the german air tree, and I already feel as though I have hit that progression wall, where everything slows to a crawl. For reference, there are four more tiers to go till I could reach the top. War Thunder is a fun game. I have had fun playing it with friends, and I might have fun playing it again in the future. There is nothing wrong with liking War Thunder, or playing it yourself. If you are playing War Thunder and having fun without paying, just know that Gaijin literally considers that unintended / a problem and will do anything in their power to try and frustrate you into forking over money. Do not give these people money.