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Hello everyone, AnimeFanFTW here, with another brainstorm blog, and today's topic is the recent downfall of Team Fortress 2, why Valve don't care about the downfall, and what this could mean for TF2 and Valve in the future.
But before we begin, I'm now a Forum Moderator on PMC!!
I am absolutely over the moon. I never thought in a million billion years I would be a part of the site team. Over the past 3 years, I've had a great time on this site, and now being a moderator, I felt like all these years being on this site has led to something great for me. And now being a mod will be quite an experience. Now expect me to continue being on this site for years to come. I'll be patrolling the forums, so hope you guys behave. Thank you PMC. I won't let you down! :D
Now, to the blog! Hope you enjoy!
_________________________________________________________
Valve as a game company has become one of the most popular and successful game companies of all time. They've made Left 4 Dead, a successful multiplayer zombie FPS game. They've made Portal, one of the most unique and interesting puzzle games of all time. They made Half-Life, one of the most critically acclaimed game series ever made. They own the platform Steam, one of the most popular gaming platforms ever made.
And they own Team Fortress 2, an incredibly successful and charming FPS multiplayer game. While the gamemodes are what you expect from an FPS (Capture the Flag, Payload, Control Points, etc.), the reason people love TF2 is how charming and humorous it is, and how accessible the game is. All you need is to install the game (because it's free), pick a gamemode and map, and a minute later, you were in a server, having a blast. There's a reason some TF2 players have thousands of hours in the game: Because the game is easily accessible. Add the cosmetics, and various weapons, and it's not surprising Team Fortress 2 is one of the most popular games played on Steam.
However, over the past 2 years, TF2's updates have been a bit lacking, with the biggest example being the End of the Line update in late 2014. What was promised was new maps and weapons. What the players got was 1 new weapon, some new cosmetics and duck-related cosmetics.
I wish I wasn't making this up.
And then TF2's new update that released over a month ago, the "Meet your Match" update, completely divided the community, and just shows how little Valve care about Team Fortress and its fanbase. Since the update, TF2's positive rating has plummeted, with recent reviews currently sitting at 72% compared to the overall reviews of 94%, although recent reviews at some point were mixed, which is around 50%.
It's obvious the update has made alot of people angry. But what changes were there? Let me explain the changes.
Before MYM, to enter a game, you would click "Quickplay", then you would pick a gamemode, then a map. After a minute or so of loading, you are put into a server, no hassle, no worries. It was a fantastic system that would get you playing in a instant. But Valve changed that with "Casual Mode". Here's how Casual mode works: You click "Casual Mode", you pick what gamemodes you want in a checklist, you click what maps you want in a checklist, then you click search. Then you wait for 1-5 minutes if you clicked to search for anything, or 3-10 minutes if you picked anything specific. After that, it then chucks you into ANOTHER loading screen. So that's 1-2 minutes of more waiting. Then you're put into a server. This means instead of being put into a server after a little bit, the game takes way too long to put you in a server. Having to wait for 10+ minutes just to play a specific type of game is terrible. Not only that, it got rid of the Quickplay option entirely. Meaning you have no choice but to wait. And that's not even talking about the launch issues it had. At launch, I would wait for hours to join a game, and nothing would happen. Which is completely unacceptable.
Next were the rules implemented into Casual mode and TF2 in general that made so little sense, that Valve removed some the rules due to the backlash. Let me list just some of the awful rules that were in place:
- After a game was completed, instead of making a new game like before, it forces you to go back to the main menu, and search for another game. That means MORE waiting...
- You couldn't votekick people at all, because it was disabled. Meaning that if a hacker joined the server, you are literally powerless to kick him, so hackers could do whatever they wanted.
- If you left the server while in the middle of a Casual match, you were given a penalty, and were forced to wait for at least half an hour before playing again. Because apparently people have to take Casual mode seriously...
- The viewmodel FOV was set and locked to 54. Don't know what that means? Well, imagine playing an FPS, and seeing your character holding a gun extremely close to the screen in first person view. That's Viewmodel FOV 54.
- There is no auto-balancing in Casual. Meaning that if several of your team members leave, it turns into a unbalanced game where the team with the most members win very easily.
-Although not a rule, it needs to be pointed out. The medal system for Casual mode is completely WORTHLESS. You play matches, earn XP to level up your medal. And the rewards you get for leveling up the medal is........absolutely nothing. Isn't the whole point of casual matches to just pick up and play? For competitive mode, it makes sense, but not for Casual mode. People playing casually won't care about medals. They only care about just playing a game. Casual Mode in TF2 is basically nothing more but Competitive Mode, but under a different name.
Then you have some of the nerfs and buffs to the weapons. For the most part, some of the changes are great (Weapons like the Sun-On-A-Stick and the Overdose got much needed changes). But even then, some of the decisions completely baffle me. For example, there is a weapon for the Solider called the "Righteous Bison". Before the update, the weapon had a special projectile that would hit the same enemy multiple times if the enemy was still touching the slow moving projectile. It wasn't a powerful weapon, but it was decent. But when MYM arrived, Valve made one of the most confusing explanations as to why they nerfed it. Basically, the Bison can no longer hit the same enemy multiple times, because, and I quote "it was due to a bug." Except for one thing...on the loading screens where the game will tell you hints on how to use certain weapons, one of the hints that has existed ever since the weapon existed, clearly states to use the Bison to hit the same enemy multiple times. So either Valve completely lied to us, or the game lied to us. As a result, the Righteous Bison is completely and utterly useless.
Then you have buffs to every single one of the Pyro's flamethrowers, making all of his flamethrowers do more damage to targets being healed by Medics. The Pyro is already a class that has had ridiculous buffs in the past, and to see the Pyro get MORE buffs is just ludicrous.
Overall, the game is very user-unfriendly. It's new Casual Mode system is completely inferior to the Quickplay system, the rules in place to Casual Mode were completely unnecessary (and although these rules are gone, Casual Mode still has truckloads of problems), and judging from examples like the Rightious Bison nerf, it's clear that not even Valve themselves know what they are doing. Heck, there's been evidence suggesting that Valve don't even play-test their updates. Yes, you heard right, they DON'T play-test their game. It's also very clear that Valve also do not listen to their fanbase. All these problems I've mentioned, and other problems I didn't mentioned, were easily avoidable. All Valve had to do was not fix what wasn't broken. And yet, they did anyway. Why they did? I'm not sure, but they should have seen the backlash coming a mile away.
If you look at what Valve has been up recently, Valve are a company in a major crisis. They clearly do not show any quality control on Steam Greenlight, Steam Early Access and Steam in general, letting games that are basically asset flips, or just simply trash, onto the once proud storefront, and letting the community police the service. And then there was that whole CSGO lotto scandal, where popular Youtubers were caught scamming and lying to millions of people regarding the fact they own CSGO lottery sites, where people bet game skins and try to win big. And since that the site was basically a gambling service for a game mainly played by minors, the two Youtubers and Valve are in deep water now, with Valve being threatened with class action lawsuits for not regulating and controlling against sites like those CSGO lottery sites. It's very clear that Valve and Team Fortress 2 are in major trouble. But while Valve can most probably survive the trouble that is currently happening, I get the feeling that in the next couple of months, Team Fortress 2 will be abandoned by the community.
That's not to say that Team Fortress 2 itself will die. The game is free-to-play, and lots of people play F2P games, and even with all of these awful changes, gameplay wise, Team Fortress 2 is still a pretty fun game. But understand that Valve have changed things in the game that didn't need changing, the fanbase didn't like the changes and responded, and Valve have done little to fix it, to the point where they are simply ignoring their fanbase. And similar to what I said in my Ghostbusters 2016 blog, if you disrespect a fanbase, the fanbase will not think highly of you. So many people that have sunk thousands of hours into the game are leaving the TF2 community, sick and tired of being disrespected and tired of being ignored. TF2 has its daily players figures drop by the thousands over the course of the update's lifespan, you even have popular TF2 Youtubers, like Muselk, extremely worried about the state TF2 and Valve in general are going. The path TF2 is currently going is not looking good. It's looking bleak.
If Valve does nothing for the better over the course of at least 2 months, TF2 will officially be dead to me. I've invested 273 hours into the game at the time of me writing this, and those 273 hours have been a mixed bag. I've met alot of amazing people in the game, but also alot of people with no respect for anyone. I've had fun playing, but I've also had both my brothers steal hundreds of dollars off of me to pay for cosmetics for the game (Yes, you heard right, BOTH my brothers). I really like TF2, but after what has happened recently, my faith in Valve has been completely destroyed. This Meet Your Match update has proven to everyone that Valve simply don't care. Valve don't listen to their fanbase. Valve don't care to play-test their game. And it's hurting the game. Before, everyone predicted that Overwatch would kill Team Fortress 2, but the only thing to kill TF2, was the company that made it.
And that is such a shame. This game has been going for nearly a decade, and so many people over that decade have had a fantastic time playing and enjoying this game, me included. But Valve, in their haste to make the game competitive and compete with Overwatch, completely forgot the whole reason people love this game so much. They love it for the charm, for the humor, and for having a good time. But that charm and humor is long gone.
Valve, please. Stop ignoring your fanbase. Before it's too late
_______________________________________________________________
Until the next blog...
This is AnimeFanFTW, over and out!
And to end the blog, here is a negative Steam review I found, from user Jabonicus, who perfectly summarizes TF2's new update. Couldn't be said any better.
But before we begin, I'm now a Forum Moderator on PMC!!
I am absolutely over the moon. I never thought in a million billion years I would be a part of the site team. Over the past 3 years, I've had a great time on this site, and now being a moderator, I felt like all these years being on this site has led to something great for me. And now being a mod will be quite an experience. Now expect me to continue being on this site for years to come. I'll be patrolling the forums, so hope you guys behave. Thank you PMC. I won't let you down! :D
Now, to the blog! Hope you enjoy!
_________________________________________________________
Valve as a game company has become one of the most popular and successful game companies of all time. They've made Left 4 Dead, a successful multiplayer zombie FPS game. They've made Portal, one of the most unique and interesting puzzle games of all time. They made Half-Life, one of the most critically acclaimed game series ever made. They own the platform Steam, one of the most popular gaming platforms ever made.
And they own Team Fortress 2, an incredibly successful and charming FPS multiplayer game. While the gamemodes are what you expect from an FPS (Capture the Flag, Payload, Control Points, etc.), the reason people love TF2 is how charming and humorous it is, and how accessible the game is. All you need is to install the game (because it's free), pick a gamemode and map, and a minute later, you were in a server, having a blast. There's a reason some TF2 players have thousands of hours in the game: Because the game is easily accessible. Add the cosmetics, and various weapons, and it's not surprising Team Fortress 2 is one of the most popular games played on Steam.
However, over the past 2 years, TF2's updates have been a bit lacking, with the biggest example being the End of the Line update in late 2014. What was promised was new maps and weapons. What the players got was 1 new weapon, some new cosmetics and duck-related cosmetics.
I wish I wasn't making this up.
And then TF2's new update that released over a month ago, the "Meet your Match" update, completely divided the community, and just shows how little Valve care about Team Fortress and its fanbase. Since the update, TF2's positive rating has plummeted, with recent reviews currently sitting at 72% compared to the overall reviews of 94%, although recent reviews at some point were mixed, which is around 50%.
It's obvious the update has made alot of people angry. But what changes were there? Let me explain the changes.
Before MYM, to enter a game, you would click "Quickplay", then you would pick a gamemode, then a map. After a minute or so of loading, you are put into a server, no hassle, no worries. It was a fantastic system that would get you playing in a instant. But Valve changed that with "Casual Mode". Here's how Casual mode works: You click "Casual Mode", you pick what gamemodes you want in a checklist, you click what maps you want in a checklist, then you click search. Then you wait for 1-5 minutes if you clicked to search for anything, or 3-10 minutes if you picked anything specific. After that, it then chucks you into ANOTHER loading screen. So that's 1-2 minutes of more waiting. Then you're put into a server. This means instead of being put into a server after a little bit, the game takes way too long to put you in a server. Having to wait for 10+ minutes just to play a specific type of game is terrible. Not only that, it got rid of the Quickplay option entirely. Meaning you have no choice but to wait. And that's not even talking about the launch issues it had. At launch, I would wait for hours to join a game, and nothing would happen. Which is completely unacceptable.
Next were the rules implemented into Casual mode and TF2 in general that made so little sense, that Valve removed some the rules due to the backlash. Let me list just some of the awful rules that were in place:
- After a game was completed, instead of making a new game like before, it forces you to go back to the main menu, and search for another game. That means MORE waiting...
- You couldn't votekick people at all, because it was disabled. Meaning that if a hacker joined the server, you are literally powerless to kick him, so hackers could do whatever they wanted.
- If you left the server while in the middle of a Casual match, you were given a penalty, and were forced to wait for at least half an hour before playing again. Because apparently people have to take Casual mode seriously...
- The viewmodel FOV was set and locked to 54. Don't know what that means? Well, imagine playing an FPS, and seeing your character holding a gun extremely close to the screen in first person view. That's Viewmodel FOV 54.
- There is no auto-balancing in Casual. Meaning that if several of your team members leave, it turns into a unbalanced game where the team with the most members win very easily.
-Although not a rule, it needs to be pointed out. The medal system for Casual mode is completely WORTHLESS. You play matches, earn XP to level up your medal. And the rewards you get for leveling up the medal is........absolutely nothing. Isn't the whole point of casual matches to just pick up and play? For competitive mode, it makes sense, but not for Casual mode. People playing casually won't care about medals. They only care about just playing a game. Casual Mode in TF2 is basically nothing more but Competitive Mode, but under a different name.
Then you have some of the nerfs and buffs to the weapons. For the most part, some of the changes are great (Weapons like the Sun-On-A-Stick and the Overdose got much needed changes). But even then, some of the decisions completely baffle me. For example, there is a weapon for the Solider called the "Righteous Bison". Before the update, the weapon had a special projectile that would hit the same enemy multiple times if the enemy was still touching the slow moving projectile. It wasn't a powerful weapon, but it was decent. But when MYM arrived, Valve made one of the most confusing explanations as to why they nerfed it. Basically, the Bison can no longer hit the same enemy multiple times, because, and I quote "it was due to a bug." Except for one thing...on the loading screens where the game will tell you hints on how to use certain weapons, one of the hints that has existed ever since the weapon existed, clearly states to use the Bison to hit the same enemy multiple times. So either Valve completely lied to us, or the game lied to us. As a result, the Righteous Bison is completely and utterly useless.
Then you have buffs to every single one of the Pyro's flamethrowers, making all of his flamethrowers do more damage to targets being healed by Medics. The Pyro is already a class that has had ridiculous buffs in the past, and to see the Pyro get MORE buffs is just ludicrous.
Overall, the game is very user-unfriendly. It's new Casual Mode system is completely inferior to the Quickplay system, the rules in place to Casual Mode were completely unnecessary (and although these rules are gone, Casual Mode still has truckloads of problems), and judging from examples like the Rightious Bison nerf, it's clear that not even Valve themselves know what they are doing. Heck, there's been evidence suggesting that Valve don't even play-test their updates. Yes, you heard right, they DON'T play-test their game. It's also very clear that Valve also do not listen to their fanbase. All these problems I've mentioned, and other problems I didn't mentioned, were easily avoidable. All Valve had to do was not fix what wasn't broken. And yet, they did anyway. Why they did? I'm not sure, but they should have seen the backlash coming a mile away.
If you look at what Valve has been up recently, Valve are a company in a major crisis. They clearly do not show any quality control on Steam Greenlight, Steam Early Access and Steam in general, letting games that are basically asset flips, or just simply trash, onto the once proud storefront, and letting the community police the service. And then there was that whole CSGO lotto scandal, where popular Youtubers were caught scamming and lying to millions of people regarding the fact they own CSGO lottery sites, where people bet game skins and try to win big. And since that the site was basically a gambling service for a game mainly played by minors, the two Youtubers and Valve are in deep water now, with Valve being threatened with class action lawsuits for not regulating and controlling against sites like those CSGO lottery sites. It's very clear that Valve and Team Fortress 2 are in major trouble. But while Valve can most probably survive the trouble that is currently happening, I get the feeling that in the next couple of months, Team Fortress 2 will be abandoned by the community.
That's not to say that Team Fortress 2 itself will die. The game is free-to-play, and lots of people play F2P games, and even with all of these awful changes, gameplay wise, Team Fortress 2 is still a pretty fun game. But understand that Valve have changed things in the game that didn't need changing, the fanbase didn't like the changes and responded, and Valve have done little to fix it, to the point where they are simply ignoring their fanbase. And similar to what I said in my Ghostbusters 2016 blog, if you disrespect a fanbase, the fanbase will not think highly of you. So many people that have sunk thousands of hours into the game are leaving the TF2 community, sick and tired of being disrespected and tired of being ignored. TF2 has its daily players figures drop by the thousands over the course of the update's lifespan, you even have popular TF2 Youtubers, like Muselk, extremely worried about the state TF2 and Valve in general are going. The path TF2 is currently going is not looking good. It's looking bleak.
If Valve does nothing for the better over the course of at least 2 months, TF2 will officially be dead to me. I've invested 273 hours into the game at the time of me writing this, and those 273 hours have been a mixed bag. I've met alot of amazing people in the game, but also alot of people with no respect for anyone. I've had fun playing, but I've also had both my brothers steal hundreds of dollars off of me to pay for cosmetics for the game (Yes, you heard right, BOTH my brothers). I really like TF2, but after what has happened recently, my faith in Valve has been completely destroyed. This Meet Your Match update has proven to everyone that Valve simply don't care. Valve don't listen to their fanbase. Valve don't care to play-test their game. And it's hurting the game. Before, everyone predicted that Overwatch would kill Team Fortress 2, but the only thing to kill TF2, was the company that made it.
And that is such a shame. This game has been going for nearly a decade, and so many people over that decade have had a fantastic time playing and enjoying this game, me included. But Valve, in their haste to make the game competitive and compete with Overwatch, completely forgot the whole reason people love this game so much. They love it for the charm, for the humor, and for having a good time. But that charm and humor is long gone.
Valve, please. Stop ignoring your fanbase. Before it's too late
_______________________________________________________________
Until the next blog...
This is AnimeFanFTW, over and out!
And to end the blog, here is a negative Steam review I found, from user Jabonicus, who perfectly summarizes TF2's new update. Couldn't be said any better.
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Next Valve is a Company meaning that they will care most about what gives them the most Money (Half life 2, Gary's mod, Ect) so they really arnt focused of tf2 right now Trust me like any good company they listen, they just do the money things first before they focus on the FTP stuff, Also because you couldn't care less about reading the install messages VALVE OWNS STEAM so they have a ALOT AND I MEAN ALOT OF STUFF ON THEIR HANDS.
and last of all.... Just be patient >:( ! Valve does care and they WILL listen to the community Eventually so just wait untill they do, ok? my case is closed
pls