Team Fortress 2, at it's very core, was an absolute masterpiece.

Everything from the mechanics, movement, gunplay, artstyle, soundtrack, world-building and characters were all fundamentally perfect. An impeccable balance of casual and competitive gameplay. It had never done before, and will most likely never be done again. A product of it's time, and a relic of an age long gone.

The game now stands as a testament to the increasingly popular and eerily credible "Dead Internet Theory". From cheating and idling bots inflating player counts and shutting down public lobbies, to vitriolic groups of Neo-Nazis and sexual predators running rampant within all corners of the community at large. Nowadays it's almost impossible to have a genuine interaction with another player without being called a barrage of slurs or getting instantly shot through the head when trying to leave spawn.

What's worse are these community figureheads and Youtubers fumbling over themselves at every chance to create an opportunity for the game to thrive or even make a decent comeback. Community projects like The Invasion Update and Beyond The Summit TF2 fell flat on their face due to bad actors, which sowed the seeds of distrust from both the developers and potential investors and we're even outright cancelled before they ever came to fruition.

This newest "FixTF2" campaign is the result of detailed reports of botted accounts exceeding seventy percent of the games total player count on Steam Charts became common knowledge. The movement was put together by a Youtuber by the name of Weezy, and although backed by good intentions, his reluctance to support a boycott of the official in-game store and virtual marketplace feels half-hearted, and ultimately too lenient on such an enormously monopolistic corporation as Valve. Not to mention that his inability to respond to criticisms highlighting the holes in his plan doesn't spark that much confidence either.

To say that TF2 is on it's last leg is nothing short of a misnomer. This games golden age has been overshadowed by a never ending death spiral, and there is no sign that things will get better from here. The worst part of all of this is the fact that the modern climate of video game development now requires a game to be 'E-Sports ready' in order for it to succeed financially. Any semblance of personality, charm and mechanical depth is polished out before release, meaning that we will never see a game like Team Fortress 2 ever again.

Team Fortress 2, at it's very core, was an absolute masterpiece. Everything from the mechanics, movement, gunplay, artstyle, soundtrack, world-building and characters were all fundamentally perfect. An impeccable balance of casual and competitive gameplay. It had never done before, and will most likely never be done again. A product of it's time, and a relic of an age long gone. The game [i]now[/i] stands as a testament to the increasingly popular and eerily credible "Dead Internet Theory". From cheating and idling bots inflating player counts and shutting down public lobbies, to vitriolic groups of Neo-Nazis and sexual predators running rampant within all corners of the community at large. Nowadays it's almost impossible to have a genuine interaction with another player without being called a barrage of slurs or getting instantly shot through the head when trying to leave spawn. What's worse are these community figureheads and Youtubers fumbling over themselves at every chance to create an opportunity for the game to thrive or even make a decent comeback. Community projects like The Invasion Update and Beyond The Summit TF2 fell flat on their face due to bad actors, which sowed the seeds of distrust from both the developers and potential investors and we're even outright cancelled before they ever came to fruition. This newest "FixTF2" campaign is the result of detailed reports of botted accounts exceeding [i]seventy percent[/i] of the games total player count on Steam Charts became common knowledge. The movement was put together by a Youtuber by the name of Weezy, and although backed by good intentions, his reluctance to support a boycott of the official in-game store and virtual marketplace feels half-hearted, and ultimately too lenient on such an enormously monopolistic corporation as Valve. Not to mention that his inability to respond to criticisms highlighting the holes in his plan doesn't spark that much confidence either. To say that TF2 is on it's last leg is nothing short of a misnomer. This games golden age has been overshadowed by a never ending death spiral, and there is no sign that things will get better from here. The worst part of all of this is the fact that the modern climate of video game development now requires a game to be 'E-Sports ready' in order for it to succeed financially. Any semblance of personality, charm and mechanical depth is polished out before release, meaning that we will never see a game like Team Fortress 2 ever again.