MassivelyOP’s Weirdest MMO Stories of 2024: Weirdest thing MMO gamers did to win an internet argument (yet again)

January 3, 2025 3:00 PM

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Today we’re continuing our traditional countdown of MassivelyOP’s weirdest MMORPG stories of the year, that year being 2024!

Coming in at #3 on our list is…

War Thunder fans leak Russian military secrets

So this designation has been a bit of a running gag on MOP for years now, to the point that even mainstream sites have picked it up to run with – that being the War Thunder community’s unfortunate recurring habit of “accidentally” leaking various levels of classified military secrets while trying to out-maneuver each other on forums when it comes to the game’s gear and vehicles. It literally has been happening for years now, and it happened multiple times this year. Once last week!

Generally, it’s it’s rarely truly serious stuff, which was true in July, when we reset the ol’ “it has been X days since” placard for War Thunder. This time, players posted classified user manuals for the T-90M, T-80BVM, and T-90S Russian main battle tanks – all of which are still actively used by the country’s military forces.

“To be clear, we do NOT want classified documents, we can’t use them, we don’t want to use them,” Gaijin devs posted exhaustedly. “At this point, it feel[s] like trying to explain what are ‘rules’ to a cat.”

But sometimes these incidents do result in serious criming with serious FAFO consequences, emphasis on the “finding out.” Last year, a Massachusetts Air National Guard member was caught leaking documents relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a right-wing conspiracy theory Discord server, having first originated in a War Thunder and Minecraft Discord server.

This year, we have an update on that situation: The airman pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to national defense and was sentenced to a whopping 15 years in prison. An additional 15 servicemembers, including the colonel who led the airman’s unit, were punished by the Air Force. So… maybe not such a joke after all.