#SAVETF2

MITCHELL MADAYAG - Editor-In-Chief, 2nd Year, Japanese and Economics

"If God had wanted you to live, he would not have created ME!" - Jane “Soldier” Doe

I still find it astonishing that, to this day, my most played video game ever is Valve’s Team Fortress 2 on PC. Having played the game religiously since I was a 5th grader in 2013, I currently clock in at exactly 1516.4 hours dedicated to this glorious first-person shooter game. This number isn’t entirely impressive compared to the more diehard fans, but the only other multiplayer games I’ve played that even come close to this number is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at ~1140 hours, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U at a combined time of ~950 hours, Overwatch at ~550 hours, and Paladins at ~360 hours. These statistics show that something special with TF2 clicked with me like no other game has. I could name a few things that first come to mind; there’s a silly cast of playable mercenaries oozing with personality, countless weapons that are all fun to use (including a freaking jar of piss), and diverse game modes that push the shooter genre to the limit. You can be rocket jumping around and stomping on heads for one moment, then doing a conga dance with the whole server the next. It’s stupidly addicting. In addition to the game itself, you can even check out the many awesome SFM and Gmod animations on YouTube, the official comic book that expands on the lore, and the community workshop where over 1400 fan-made weapons, hats, and taunts were added as in-game unlockables. These points still hold true, but the TF2 of today is sadly nowhere near as enjoyable as its peak in the early 2010’s.

To sum it up: TF2 has a serious outbreak of bots, even putting the game’s Mann vs. Machine mode to shame. Since 2020, public servers have been flooded with bots, either using hacks or standing idle in spawn. These non-human players used to spam racist and homophobic slurs, too, but Valve was quick to step in and remove chatting features for free to play accounts. The best bet to avoid these bots is to join smaller community servers, but it’s unfortunate that you can’t even use basic matchmaking features. Valve’s lack of action puzzles me as TF2 still has one of the most active player bases on Steam, even if it’s partially inflated by bots. Sure, Valve has been dedicating their resources lately on hardware and VR projects like the Steam Deck, but it just seems like a big waste to have one of their biggest games fall to ruin this way. The TF2 community has already accepted that there won’t be any more major updates coming at this point, since the latest one dates back to 2020 with a simple Scream Fortress update, but it’s a shame that the only changes the game gets these days are for the localization files.

However, on May 26th, an online movement began, meant to garner Valve’s attention and inform them that the TF2 community is still thriving 15 years after release. Over 250,000 tweets with the hashtag #savetf2 were posted, with fans expressing how much Team Fortress 2 meant to them, as well as asking Valve to fix the massive botting problem. This ended up becoming one of the largest and well-coordinated protests ever staged by a video game fandom. If anyone could pull it off, it would be this iconic weapon and hat simulator’s passionate fanbase. The pleas did not go unheard, either, as TF2’s official Twitter account acknowledged their concerns and promised to make some improvements. This one little tweet was enough to spark hope in the community, and the community’s efforts were rewarded with a patch that was released on June 21st. (I had to go back and update this article before it got published!) The changes revised the votekicking process so players can remove bots more quickly and efficiently, though many prominent bugs were fixed, too. It’s a good start, but I hope that this is a sign that Valve will be giving a bit more love to TF2 going forward. The game deserves it, being a timeless classic that has been a staple in many people’s childhoods, mine included. Whether you’re a former player or someone curious in the game, now is as good a time as any to give Team Fortress 2 a shot. It’s free to play, so all you really have to lose is time…and maybe your money if you decide to delve into the game’s hat economy. But that’s a complicated topic for a whole other day…