Valve has let TF2 rot in the sun for years and they should feel deep shame as a company that it has gotten to this point. My blog for @aftermath.site.
aftermath.site/valve-team-f...
The people who operate bots in Valve's multiplayer shooter 'Team Fortress 2' have used AI to clone the voice of and defame a YouTuber who has been criticizing them.
www.404media.co/team-fortres...
Was making this exact argument with a friend the other day. You should not be able to sell microtransactions in a game that is just not maintained at all. Great article!
I used to respect Valve, but now I see them with the mentality of a cat. They're only interested in their newest game for so long before they turn their attention to the next shiny object, and then promptly forget it.
I put in over a thousand hours into the game. Every few years, I reinstall it to see if I can get it working again. Within 5 minutes of a match, another lootbox drops, which locks the game until I delete something.
Why does a FPS have inventory?
Why can't achievements just unlock things again?
i think peak TF2 was also the end of the dedicated server era for PC multiplayer. hard to describe what was lost when everything switched to matchmaking. logging on to grind for dumb bullshit instead of just like... hanging out on a server. still exists today, but much, much less common.
it made me incredibly mad when valve started burying the community servers in CSGO in weird sub menus. i recently looked at tf2 and found that they did the same for that game. i think competetive gaming is ruining many aspects of games, from souring players to kneecapping creativity in development.
if you give players agency and autonomy over how they want to play your game, then all the skinner box battle pass stuff suddenly isn’t as compelling because you’re not being funneled into it
I showed my kids the Meet The (Merc) series recently and they immediately fell in love with the world and characters and asked "Can we play this game?" and I had to break it to them.
Tried to play it a few years ago, the state of the game was so sad, like a friend that was let down by everyone and left to rot. Even OW2 plays better, that says something.
I didn’t imagine it could be worse than being instant shot by bots, my friend kicked and a bot replacing them, until I read your article. Yeah that s sad. And infuriating.
