Tarkov Wouldn't Be Popular if it Never Wiped

(Intro)

One of the few unanimous successes with Tarkov was that this game being the first whether intentional or not, to dial in the idea of constantly restarting your game and the communities' progress with wipes that are associated with major updates and patches. As annoying as it felt sometimes to have to start all over again and perform the same tasks in the same exact order, how you went about getting started was very different with each wipe. Because content was always added, there were either new maps, mechanics, or reasons to try and do things different each time, which helped somewhat with the monotony of getting the pocket watch, delivering the documents to Factory and all the other introductory tasks Tarkov has to offer. People love the early game of Tarkov; the scrappy fights, the risk and reward with fighting bosses you come across for their loot and general unpredictability that comes with people desperately just trying to get their flash drive out of the raid, means that wipes allow people to experience a time, a short moment in every wipe cycle where it feels like anyone can take out anyone. Sure, that is always true no matter how many days into a wipe we might be, but it’s never more apparent that right after a restart. So today, I wanted to go over wipe cycles in extraction shooters; how they kind of came to be in Tarkov, how battle state might’ve unintentionally got the formula right from the start, how this simple mechanic carried battle state all the way to the finish line and why this genre needs a forced reset every now and again. Things can get mundane when you have nothing to do, or when you have everything, you could ever want right at your fingertips.

(Wipes in the alpha/beta days)

Wipes back in the day were for a specific reason. It wasn’t to reset the economy or just for the heck of it. Wipes were not only more important when big features were being added into the game, but they were also significantly more apparent than they were in the latter half of the game’s life. It was more of a way to always ensure that the features they were adding could be tested in a somewhat consistent environment. Granted, back then there were way less people playing, way less items in the game, and less communication from the community as a whole. Places like the subreddit were much smaller, and there was generally less content talking about Tarkov as a whole. So, they were kind of free to really try and build the game with the initial vision they had in mind. Obviously, the game took off after 2019 and once that happened, priorities had to change. But the goal of wipes before that was to just reset the game and add new features. Sometimes wipes were as common as every three weeks. I remember when I was still really new at the game, managing to collect a bunch of guns and gear and then the next day I booted Tarkov up and it was all gone. I was so confused but kind of just went along with it because I didn’t know the game was reset. But for those that were invested in the game and were more intimately aware of how and why Tarkov wiped, those moments were celebrated because it meant new stuff had arrived and was ready to be played and tested. Again, as time went on and the game got more popular, the number of times Tarkov wiped slowly went down. Eventually, we got two wipes a year, which was rough because it felt like huge droughts of content and attention that Tarkov was severely lacking. Granted, later wipes were much more impactful because of the sheer content updates, but it didn’t feel good to go almost two hundred days without a reset. Most people by that point had checked out of the game. Which is probably the biggest side effect of having a game that reset; eventually people will leave on their own accord to play other games because they know it’ll reset once more with new stuff. But that’s one of the reasons why people loved wipes in the first place.

(Why people loved wipes and the early game)

The community for Tarkov for the most part was okay with it resetting because that just meant we all go back to level one, with crappy gear, trying to just get our introductory tasks done. It’s a time in Tarkov’s life where everyone gets sent back to the start with an even playing field. And this was especially apparent before battle state changed the starting gear of all the different editions of Tarkov. Remember when the best gun you got with the standard edition of the game was the little AK? Remember how it was that, a couple of pacas and some Makarovs? Like I said, that was a long time ago. But with it came consistent wipes that constantly added things that were vital to get the game where it is today. And while abrasive at first, eventually you come to love when the game starts over. Because Tarkov as awesome as it can be, can also get stale without any significant changes after a prolonged period of time. It boils down to the late game being either working through the difficult and tedious end game quests that have been added over the years or just looking for fights against other players. Which don’t get me wrong, fighting in Tarkov can still be thrilling no matter which part of the wipe it occurs in. And while late game fights can really get you scratching your head as to how you approach combat, it does get a bit repetitive without any events or reasons to engage the game in unique or interesting ways. People are so stuck in their own ways of playing, either with the best in slot items across the board, or with using what they are comfortable with. Wipes take some of that agency away by always resetting us back to weapons with basically nothing on them; not being able to attack targets from hundreds of meters away freely and forcing people to prioritize function or form. There’s something special about being able to find weapon modifications that fit on your gun, and you can upgrade it as you move throughout a raid. It’s very difficult because there are so many parts that may not work, but even when you find a scope or suppressor, that alone is a game changer. But all this talk about wipes had me thinking, would Tarkov be as popular or as successful without any wipe cycles? Would it have even made it this far?

(Tarkov wouldn’t be popular without wipes)

I think most of us can agree that if Tarkov never had the idea of wipes from the inception of the game, the direction of it across the board would have been drastically different. It feels kind of obvious, but if we think about it, no wipes means there is no opportunity to reset whenever new content gets dropped. Things like new locations, new bosses, weapons, people would have instant access to them instead of seeing them through socials and feeling inspired to progress through the game and check it out for themselves. It’s why Tarkov benefited from wiping whenever major content drops happened because this way the only thing separating you from playing with the new stuff is time. Obviously, some people have more time to experience the game than others, but never having to start over, I don’t think Tarkov would’ve survived this long. I wonder if it even would’ve gotten as popular as it has. Maybe patches like 0.12 which added Reserve might have gotten enough pull in combination with Twitch drops for free loot to have tons of people check out the game, but if there were players at super high levels with millions of rubles and the ability to run trains on the new maps without reprieve, yeah I don’t see Tarkov getting that far in the long run. But it’s why genres like extraction shooters need not only a reset point, but a forced reset point. Everyone, eventually needs to start over. It's the only way these games flourish; otherwise, the lack of updates across a game's life really takes its toll. At least if the game starts over, you have a reason to hop on and at least get back to where you were previously. And it’ll happen differently from last time. It's about the journey, not the destination.

(Extraction shooters need a reset)

I truly do believe that this genre benefits from resets happening every so often. It doesn’t need to be weekly, or even monthly, but at least once a year, the game should say hey we are dropping a huge update that is going to change how you play and navigate your way through this game. So, in order to make sure you and everyone else have the best experience possible, we need to wipe everyone and start over. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Does it suck to lose progress and all the gear you’ve been hoarding in your stash? Yeah, but let’s be honest with ourselves and we’ve all done this at least once: anything powerful you had in your stash you were never really going to use it. You were afraid of dying with it and that’s fair. Gear fear as a concept is very real, and tons of people myself included have found something so cool they never end up using it because they’re worried about losing it. But then the wipe happens, and you never get the chance to even try. Who knows? You might’ve popped off with that cool weapon, or that high tiered armor might’ve saved your life in a critical moment. At least with Tarkov, before 1.0, there were tons of pre wipe events that were basically for fun and just allowed people to go crazy and use all the gear in their stash before it reset. At least this way you were given an opportunity to mess around with something you may have not used before. But if an extraction shooter never wipes, the desire to chase after something new and different that you haven’t experienced before goes away until the developers add something new. And depending on the game, who knows how many times that’s going to happen. Again, Tarkov for a while only wiped when the game brought an update large enough to warrant a reset. And eventually, that ended up being twice a year, which was rough. Sure, you can go and just play something else until the update drops, but what happens when those updates are once a year, or keep getting delayed for one reason or another? At least if the game resets, there is a tangible reason to go back in and try again. With or without new content, resets in an extraction shooter are time to test how much you’ve improved as a player. Each wipe, the start gets a little easier; you work through it more efficiently, and your ability to survive goes up. And who doesn’t like seeing tangible progress in a genre that has been defined by its difficulty for so many years.

(Outro)

Tarkov was arguably the game that defined the idea of wipes. Resetting all your players back to the start together when new content comes to the game hot and fresh. At least in the world of EFT, the community for the most part always celebrated the wipe because the balance of the game had been reset, the playing field was made even, and there was usually a whole host of stuff to check out for the first time. It makes sense then to think that Tarkov would’ve most likely never have gotten as popular as it has become if this idea of resetting wasn’t a thing. The stagnation of gameplay would’ve been its own demise way sooner than we think. And other new games in this genre would not have been able to take inspiration and also include new and unique ways of allowing players to start over, but more on their own terms. Either way, Tarkov was really the first major extraction shooter to get wipes right for the most part, and now that we are beyond 1.0, and with seasonal characters coming to replace that gameplay loop from your main character, it’ll be interesting to see where the idea of wipes goes, the new permutations that came along with it, and what other games take this idea of starting over and how they can iterate on it with their own ideas. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on wipes throughout Tarkov’s life, if you think the game would have survived this long without them, if there are any other games that really nail this mechanic down correctly and be sure to subscribe for more videos about important and integral mechanics in a game that is kind of the cornerstone reason why it’s even popular in the first place. I hope to see you in future ones.