- Jul 14, 2009
- 1,195
- 1,045
Posted this in the most recent promo news thread but any discussion there is apparently forbidden by Wilson, so here:
A lot of competitive players quit too, and the ones that haven't don't play on pubs anymore at all. They can only tolerate "the game" because they are not playing the game as it is at all but using plugins and rulesets to ban the vast majority of weapons and I know that at least ETF2L also only allows teams to wear cosmetics when both teams explicitly allow and want it.
It should be pretty obvious that's no solution. On top of that the hundreds of bugs and the performance issues still affect them even though they do their best to ban all the crap. The client is still bloated and falling apart at the seams due to all the unnecessary clutter. Even if all cosmetics are banned it still has to preload everything and their hackjob "solution" to the precache being too small was to just increase the variable size which caused a plethora of problems as that was obviously never intended. The engine is 4-5 years old after all. It should run on every modern PC without any problems but we all know that's far from true.
But hey, low FPS are not the problem. Constant (server) crashes or entire maps not working anymore like cp_steel a while ago or cp_gravelpit now (along with a lot of other a/d maps, I just know Gravelpit had to be removed from the comp map list as it kept breaking) is simply not acceptable.
A lot of competitive players that still stick around are sick of the "real" game, and since there have been nothing but bugs, crashes and clutter "added" to their 6v6/Highlander sub-game in years they're getting bored quick too. Yes new unlocks would have had the potential to really make TF2 a great competitive game. No the vast majority of unlocks they did end up adding were definitely not helping. It's come so far now even the "casual" pubbers are disapproving of the shitty weapons the TF2 Team (all 0.5 of them) spends no time designing properly. Not to mention the huge power and complexity creep.
But that could have been okay. Last year they started the TF2 Beta that many hoped would finally start some sort of revolution and start fixing old bugs and issues. ETF2L had a big Beta Subforum where the players posted big productive essays and debated about the weapons that could use tweaks, what their role is/should be and how to fix them.
So they never actually fixed anything. And never actually used the beta for anything constructive. None of the newest weapons were put in the beta first, not even their attributes (and obvious exploits and bugs were instantly found in the "real" game). What they did test were the two Misc slots. The two Misc slots that would make the performance problems even worse but required a big reworking of the equipment system.
Because they do work on features as long as they bring money. They just don't work on anything else. So the ETF2L beta subforum was removed again after months of no progress or developer response, and it became blindingly obvious to the players that the TF2 Team in fact is not going to fix anything relevant. It's just going to get worse and worse.
Many players only stick around because of all the time they invested, and the community, so they play a handful of matches a month. There's no point investing more time than that in a game that is only getting worse and worse by the week. The lack of similar games like TF2 does keep a few people around but make no mistake - as soon as another decent class-based multiplayer FPS comes around they'll switch in an instant.
TF2 is a special case, a tragic case. A classic minimalist game that its developers needlessly and excessively experimented with and exploited for years, constantly updating even if all they did was detract from the game. The original game, the class-based simplistic multiplayer classic, is totally gone. And it was so good people rightfully want it back. It's just never going to happen.
What it is now is a money machine, specifically designed to make players addicted through the use of Skinner Box mechanics. They do keep programming in new features like the ingame store, Steam Trading, "strange" weapons, new unusual effects, two Misc slots. Those obviously keep players addicted and generate more money. That's the focus, and only focus, now. New weapons are upgrades? Yeah, that's the point. More people will buy those (once enough have been sold you can just slap a random nerf on it, like say -max health, and since your gameplay updates are deliberately kept lethargic the fanboys will give you the benefit of the doubt and say "they've always been working on it" or "they didn't realize it would be this strong").
If it were just a case of a bunch of developers not knowing better I might have tolerated it. They're doing it on purpose though, for money. They knowingly make people addicted, make people gamble, for money. While turning one of the greatest and truly unique multiplayer games of the last few years to utter shit. On purpose. I'm sorry but I just can't "tolerate" or "just ignore" that.
Oh by the way? There is zero indication Dota 2 will be any better. If anything they will pull the same shit again as it worked so well. It did, they made a lot of money without putting in any effort. Unfortunately for them many people aren't oblivious to what happened to TF2 plus Dota 2 has very strong competition with already established communities. Yes I sincerely hope Dota 2 will bomb.
A lot of competitive players quit too, and the ones that haven't don't play on pubs anymore at all. They can only tolerate "the game" because they are not playing the game as it is at all but using plugins and rulesets to ban the vast majority of weapons and I know that at least ETF2L also only allows teams to wear cosmetics when both teams explicitly allow and want it.
It should be pretty obvious that's no solution. On top of that the hundreds of bugs and the performance issues still affect them even though they do their best to ban all the crap. The client is still bloated and falling apart at the seams due to all the unnecessary clutter. Even if all cosmetics are banned it still has to preload everything and their hackjob "solution" to the precache being too small was to just increase the variable size which caused a plethora of problems as that was obviously never intended. The engine is 4-5 years old after all. It should run on every modern PC without any problems but we all know that's far from true.
But hey, low FPS are not the problem. Constant (server) crashes or entire maps not working anymore like cp_steel a while ago or cp_gravelpit now (along with a lot of other a/d maps, I just know Gravelpit had to be removed from the comp map list as it kept breaking) is simply not acceptable.
A lot of competitive players that still stick around are sick of the "real" game, and since there have been nothing but bugs, crashes and clutter "added" to their 6v6/Highlander sub-game in years they're getting bored quick too. Yes new unlocks would have had the potential to really make TF2 a great competitive game. No the vast majority of unlocks they did end up adding were definitely not helping. It's come so far now even the "casual" pubbers are disapproving of the shitty weapons the TF2 Team (all 0.5 of them) spends no time designing properly. Not to mention the huge power and complexity creep.
But that could have been okay. Last year they started the TF2 Beta that many hoped would finally start some sort of revolution and start fixing old bugs and issues. ETF2L had a big Beta Subforum where the players posted big productive essays and debated about the weapons that could use tweaks, what their role is/should be and how to fix them.
So they never actually fixed anything. And never actually used the beta for anything constructive. None of the newest weapons were put in the beta first, not even their attributes (and obvious exploits and bugs were instantly found in the "real" game). What they did test were the two Misc slots. The two Misc slots that would make the performance problems even worse but required a big reworking of the equipment system.
Because they do work on features as long as they bring money. They just don't work on anything else. So the ETF2L beta subforum was removed again after months of no progress or developer response, and it became blindingly obvious to the players that the TF2 Team in fact is not going to fix anything relevant. It's just going to get worse and worse.
Many players only stick around because of all the time they invested, and the community, so they play a handful of matches a month. There's no point investing more time than that in a game that is only getting worse and worse by the week. The lack of similar games like TF2 does keep a few people around but make no mistake - as soon as another decent class-based multiplayer FPS comes around they'll switch in an instant.
TF2 is a special case, a tragic case. A classic minimalist game that its developers needlessly and excessively experimented with and exploited for years, constantly updating even if all they did was detract from the game. The original game, the class-based simplistic multiplayer classic, is totally gone. And it was so good people rightfully want it back. It's just never going to happen.
What it is now is a money machine, specifically designed to make players addicted through the use of Skinner Box mechanics. They do keep programming in new features like the ingame store, Steam Trading, "strange" weapons, new unusual effects, two Misc slots. Those obviously keep players addicted and generate more money. That's the focus, and only focus, now. New weapons are upgrades? Yeah, that's the point. More people will buy those (once enough have been sold you can just slap a random nerf on it, like say -max health, and since your gameplay updates are deliberately kept lethargic the fanboys will give you the benefit of the doubt and say "they've always been working on it" or "they didn't realize it would be this strong").
If it were just a case of a bunch of developers not knowing better I might have tolerated it. They're doing it on purpose though, for money. They knowingly make people addicted, make people gamble, for money. While turning one of the greatest and truly unique multiplayer games of the last few years to utter shit. On purpose. I'm sorry but I just can't "tolerate" or "just ignore" that.
Oh by the way? There is zero indication Dota 2 will be any better. If anything they will pull the same shit again as it worked so well. It did, they made a lot of money without putting in any effort. Unfortunately for them many people aren't oblivious to what happened to TF2 plus Dota 2 has very strong competition with already established communities. Yes I sincerely hope Dota 2 will bomb.
