I love this game. I really do. But I can't in good conscience recommend it to any new players.

Valve servers are literally unplayable due to the bot problem (community servers are still playable, but I'd imagine no new player wants to use a 25 year old server browser), Valve DMCAs fan projects that help keep it alive, which is both completely out of character (half of Valve's IPs were originally mods, even their beloved CS and DOTA... and even TF itself!), but also just scummy since they don't do anything with the TF IP to begin with.

Communicating with Valve is like talking to a brick wall, but please, fix this game. I'm fine with it being in perpetual limbo (even if that's FAR from ideal); I just want it to be playable.

I love this game. I really do. But I can't in good conscience recommend it to any new players. Valve servers are literally unplayable due to the bot problem (community servers are still playable, but I'd imagine no new player wants to use a 25 year old server browser), Valve DMCAs fan projects that help keep it alive, which is both completely out of character (half of Valve's IPs were originally mods, even their beloved CS and DOTA... and even TF itself!), but also just scummy since they don't do anything with the TF IP to begin with. Communicating with Valve is like talking to a brick wall, but please, fix this game. I'm fine with it being in perpetual limbo (even if that's FAR from ideal); I just want it to be playable.