Team Fortress 2 is no longer the game it was back in 2007~2010 and ultimately it no longer follows the same design philosophy it set out to bring forward from the prior titles it derived itself from. Over the years a lot of questionable changes were made but due to the sheer quantity it was difficult to see what effects these changes would lead to. From visual changes to the meta for classes, the game has received a lot over the years.

Unfortunately, more content does not make for a better game.



2011 was the big turning point for the game. It was apparent by the way things were being introduced that Valve wanted to standardize the way new players experienced the game. By going Free-to-Play, we understood the player base was in need of revitalization; if we wanted to keep these new players things needed to change.

The Quick-Play feature was the first of many major "anti-community" features to be implemented. Despite the nature of giving players a simple and quick-access method to join both Valve and Community servers, it over simplified one of the most important aspects of Team Fortress 2; finding and connecting to a server for the first time. It also began consolidating the majority of the traffic into servers that were setup to conform to the algorithm.

While the list of requirements for a Server's eligibility to be matched into by the Quick-Play system isn't entirely known, and does contain some favorable requirements, some were outright detrimental to the community.

• The map must be one of the approved quickplay maps.
  
• Random crits must be enabled.
  
• The maxplayers setting must be 24, the default setting. 32 always makes the server ineligible, while values in between apply a gradual penalty.

This meant that servers that preferred to run custom maps, disabled random crits, or increased the server player count, were all ineligible to receive traffic from players using this new and easy method of joining servers. As time went on, a lot of Community servers started seeing their player-base dwindle. Regulars began to favor using the Quick-Play feature instead of waiting for a slot to open on their favorite servers, which gradually turned into waiting for players to join.

The Free-to-play update also had its negatives which became evident pretty quickly.

But the convenience wasn't the only thing luring players away from Community servers into the official Valve servers. Holiday events that were rewarding players with items became locked behind Valve servers to prevent item farming. The same for the paid Campaign Passes implemented later on.



2016 was a year to be excited about for the dedicated TF2 players. 9 Years after the release and we were finally being teased with the idea that Valve would officially support the community with a competitive mode. We were wrong.

What we really got was a Match Maker ripped from Counter Strike:GO which replaced the Quick-Play system. The community was no longer subject to a filter... Rather, it was shoved into the corners of the menus for newcomers to stumble on. But whats worse is that the Match Maker will not place players into Community servers at all, and instead limits them to official Valve Servers only.

The badge on your main menu that can be ranked up with XP is nothing more than a distraction to newer players. It shifts the focus from playing with friends and learning through experiences, to that of a difficult win/loss grind. It attempts to quantify your experience and does nothing to help you on the long journey that is learning the mechanics of the game. What ever happened to Achievements? The unobtrusive guide

With the focus shifting from the community altogether in favor of a 2 click "Find Match" button which quickly appealed to the newer generation that grew up on mobile phone games, the decline of quality, hard-fought matches began to overwhelm.

"Trying in casual?", "It's just casual dude...", "Tryhard..."
What happened to: "OH MY GOD YOU'RE A SPY."?


I personally found Team Fortress 2 to be an exhilarating and challenging class-based FPS. The pacing of the games and the community that gathered to play were unique and kept me coming back for more. I wanted to reach what seemed to be an impossibly high skill-ceiling. Progress was visual and gave an immeasurable amount of pleasure as I continued to improve. Being able to pogo jump consecutively 3-4 times before grand slamming a shovel into someones face is an experience unique to Team Fortress 2, but only one of the hundreds of things you can learn to pull off. The mechanics are not something you can learn within the first week of playing. To master this game you need dedication and hundreds of --if not thousands-- of hours to grasp most but not nearly all of the mechanics and knowledge about the different classes and their weapons.

But...

The skill floor has been dropping over the years with the release of new weapons and balance changes to the classes across the board. What used to be achieved by mechanical prowess and hard earned knowledge is now provided to you in a package that can achieve such with
significantly less effort.

Originally posted by some gamer:

A skill-ceiling refers to the maximum height you can achieve with skill. A skill-floor denotes the minimum amount of skill you need to be effective and start to play well.

And..

The following is a list of the weapons I find obnoxious and not so fun to play against: (ordered by class)

Force-A-Nature
Shortstop
Soda Popper
Black Box
Reserve Shooter
Backburner
Phlogistinator
Dragon's Fury
Scorch Shot
Axtinguisher
Loch-n-Load
Loose Cannon
The entirety of Demoknight's weapons. Shields, Swords, Movement control from boots.
The Gunslinger
The Short Circuit
Vaccinator
Huntsman
Sydney Sleeper (although not as bad as it was)
Diamondback
Red-Tape Recorder

There are a fair amount of weapons that take the base concept, give a direct upgrade, and reduce overall efficiency as its main drawback.

Take a mechanic, make it easier to do, sacrifice its efficiency.

The problem is... This drawback isn't hard to overcome. But more so it gives you an advantage in 1v1 scenarios, often deciding the outcome sooner than it should.

I don't have anything against implementing different ways to kill people but when weapons reduce the difficulty I have a problem with it.

Some mechanics I find frustrating or broken as well:

Random Crits...
Airblast (Airblasting soldiers from the back shouldn't 180 the rocket into their face, happens in comp too...)
Flame Particles (Still broken!, Momentum is still wonky, Damage is inconsistent)
Stun Lock; Loose Cannon, Scorch Shot, Force-of-Nature
Knockback bonuses
Damage Resistances



I can no longer recommend this game. The experiences it has to offer today are no longer of the caliber they once were. It has nothing to do with failing to meet a nostalgic requirement and everything to do with the barrage of questionable updates and changes. The anti-community features are just a few of many, and the issues with the weapons and mechanic balancing are without the significant amount of detail I'd like to back them up with.

I hope to have a link to a video or text based opinion piece in the near future, where I'll have the room to share a more in-depth review.

I don't want to hate the state the game is in. I want to see its continued development and success for the future... But I'm left to sit here wondering why Valve would rather pander to its non-existent card game fan base.

My adventure with Valve began with Half Life. I don't want it to end with Team Fortress. It can't end here.