Letter from Robin!

[Ælement]

I sent an e-mail to Robin Walker concerning the possible problems of increased hacking and idling because of the fact that TF2 is now free.

To my surprise, he answered in only 20 minutes!
I'll quote the answer:

We have several features in place to tackle both of these. Some of them are preventative, and some are data gathering, to help us understand how to best tackle them better in the future. Rest assured we're as concerned about them as you are, and we'll keep banging away at them until we're happy.

Robin.

Discuss plox

 

[Rexy]

...or you could have read the FAQ on the TF2 page and read the same thing:

Q. Won’t going Free to Play mean more griefers and cheaters?
We’re increasing our focus on making sure that hostile players can’t ruin your fun. Specifically, we’ll be keeping a close eye on players exploiting the ability to make infinite free accounts to bypass bans. We’ve built systems that’ll allow us to measure and track what these players are doing, and respond quickly.

http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay/faq.php

 

[Fruity Snacks]

...or you could have read the FAQ on the TF2 page and read the same thing:



http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay/faq.php

When it was originally posted, it didn't say that.

 

[MangyCarface]

I haven't seen a hacker in 3 years now
not exactly concerned

 

[grazr]

Wouldn't it be simple and easy enough to only provide the game for free to people who already own a Valve game. I mean, portal for free is great but it doesn't suffer from the same online threats by being free than TF2. Valve are gambling the health of their biggest online community short of CSS.

At least then it's rewarding existing Valve fans for their patronage and will get them sales for older games that are dirt cheap anyway. i know you might say, well then they might as well sell it for the same price as their cheapest game, but i'd like to think that hackers would think twice if they had to put their credit details on the line, and buyers would still get 2 games out of it.

 

[Ælement]

Wouldn't it be simple and easy enough to only provide the game for free to people who already own a Valve game. I mean, portal for free is great but it doesn't suffer from the same online threats by being free than TF2. Valve are gambling the health of their biggest online community short of CSS.

At least then it's rewarding existing Valve fans for their patronage and will get them sales for older games that are dirt cheap anyway. i know you might say, well then they might as well sell it for the same price as their cheapest game, but i'd like to think that hackers would think twice if they had to put their credit details on the line, and buyers would still get 2 games out of it.

Actually that idea would work out great i think!

 

[grazr]

Yea, well presumably there are reasons as to why it's not that way. If it was that simple it would be, right. But it'd be nice to know why it's not.

I imagine it's been suggested a lot, and just like we have to explain to newbies that although models are more resource friendly than world geometry when making our maps, making an entire map out of 1 model is impractical (this gets suggested all the time and we have to bat it down every time); i'm sure Valve have their secret knowledge as to why they don't only give it to Valve game owners.

Unless they simply think they can cater for everyone and resolve the issues of hackers when and if it happens.

 

[Ælement]

My guess is that they think they can make more money by letting people in and tempt them to buy from the Mann Co store... I can't figure out any other reasons right now

 

[LeSwordfish]

Their decisions arent usually motivated by "What makes us most money?".

Well, not soley.

 

[A Boojum Snark]

http://www.develop-online.net/features/1325/Free-at-last

Another way we think of it is that there are a class of players who will never pay us a dime, for a variety of reasons. We're not upset by that, it's just a constraint we need to design around. The interesting problem to solve is how to make those freeloaders produce value for our paying customers. Obviously, getting those free players into the game is the first step to doing that.

That's why.

 

[REEJ]

I haven't seen a hacker in 3 years now
not exactly concerned

true that,
only the idlers could be an issue

Edit: nevermind, they can't even trade lol

 

[REEJ]

double post of doom

 

[Doctor Paprika]

SPUF is flooding with horror stories of wallhacking, aimbots, and all kinds of craziness, as well as noobs claiming vets are doing the same simply because they don't understand how the game works yet.

 

[REEJ]

SPUF is flooding with horror stories of wallhacking, aimbots, and all kinds of craziness, as well as noobs claiming vets are doing the same simply because they don't understand how the game works yet.

crit rocket in a face - most dreaded hax today

 

[HellJumper]

SPUF is flooding with horror stories of wallhacking, aimbots, and all kinds of craziness, as well as noobs claiming vets are doing the same simply because they don't understand how the game works yet.

I hate when people refer to SPUF as a collective entity. -.-
What you probably meant to say was the TF2 subforum, and even then there are some good users there (*cough* me).

 

[Doctor Paprika]

I hate when people refer to SPUF as a collective entity. -.-
What you probably meant to say was the TF2 subforum, and even then there are some good users there (*cough* me).

I wasn't referring to it as an entity, just as a place. The F does mean "forum", right?

Besides, I don't think I said anything bad about the posters on there. I just mentioned that a lot of people are posting about their bad experiences with the new F2P players.

EDIT: I guess I should clarify: When I said "noobs complaining about hacks", I meant that the SPUF users were posting about encounters with those noobs in game, not noobs on the forums. Same goes for the first thing - SPUF users are describing the cheating they've been seeing since the update after 3 1/2 years of basically none at all. Sorry if that was confusing.

 

[littleedge]

HellJumper, I hate when people don't read the obvious specifics in informal conversations. If we're at TF2Maps, and we're talking about TF2 being Free to Play and how Valve is tackling that issue, but how some people are still worried, and we say SPUF is talking about aimbotting and wall hacks and all that good junk, we are NOT talking about the Half Life 2: Episode 2 Subforum. Nor are we talking about the entire Steam Forums including the Support, VAC, and Translation Server forums. It is obvious that we speak of the TF2 subforum.

 

[Pocket]

SPUF is flooding with horror stories of wallhacking, aimbots, and all kinds of craziness, as well as noobs claiming vets are doing the same simply because they don't understand how the game works yet.

So, pretty much business as usual, eh wot?