least a handful of characters that they
feel most comfortable with.
Team Fortress 2 doesn’t have this,
at least to the same extent. I use
Scout more than any other class, but
have no qualms about switching if
I’m staring down the barrel of a
sentry nest. It feels like an essential
part of play. You encounter problems
that your team composition can’t
handle, and make changes as needed.
That’s the ideal, at least.
Sometimes, you are going to be
matchmade onto a team with six
Spies. Some people are just beyond
help, no matter what game you play.
This is where Team Fortress 2’s
template can break down. Its round
times are longer than most hero-
shooters, which, if both teams are
rebalancing around each other, can
make for thrilling last-minute plays
that change the course of the match.
But if that cohesion doesn’t exist,
then you’re likely in for a bad time.
You can experience this for
yourself. Just queue up for a round of
2Fort and it will happen sooner
rather than later. And when it does...
it’s fine. Yes, Team Fortress 2 has
matchmaking now, but its heart is
still the server browser—a rare and
beautiful thing for a game with a
still-active playerbase. Matchmaking
is a performance, where you queue
up and get one shot to impress the
people that you’re grouped with.
More than that, the individual
tracking and reward structures that
were built to incentivize repeat
play—K/D ratios, XP and levels—give
a heightened meaning to both
individual and team performance.
While there are benefits to this, it can
be exhausting. You’re encouraged to
always be ‘on’; to perform at your
best and never mess up.HATS OFF
Team Fortress 2 also has levels and
XP now, but how players perceive a
game’s purpose is a harder thing to
shift. The existence of the server
browser invites players to take
individual matches less seriously,
because servers are a hangout rather
than an individually portionedVALVE USED TF2 AS A TESTING
BOARD FOR WHAT GAMES-AS-
A-SERVICE SHOULD BEmeasure of skill. Each server has its
own personality—it’s a place you visit
for a specific type of game, even if
that game is loaded with so many
custom rules, maps, and modes that it
barely resembles TF2 anymore.
Valve used TF2 as a testing board
for what games-as-a-service should
be—the hats, the crates, the
marketplace, the crafting. Outside of
play, the game can at times feel like a
13-year-long brainstorming session,
filled with different ideas—some
written over each other, others
hastily wiped off leaving just the
faintest trace of what remained. This
is what makes TF2 such a fascinating
game to reinstall. It’s simultaneously
old and new and experimental and
nostalgic. Its magic is weirdly
ephemeral, existing as a morass of
elements from throughout its history.
This is why anyone arguing that it
should have been preserved in amber
is missing the point. Even if you
could load up the version of the game
that existed in 2008, you couldn’t
recreate the specific servers and
memes and the ecosystem of PC
gaming and multiplayer shooters of
the time. Team Fortress 2 has
changed. But so have you.A face of pure indifference.NOW PLAYING (^) I UPDATE I MOD SPOTLIGHT I HOW TO (^) I WHY I LOVE I REINSTALL (^) I MUS T P L A Y
EXTRA LIFE