Hello, gentlemen.
If you don't play TF2, you might not know what I'm going to be talking about, so let me explain. A while back, Valve made an excellent game called Team Fortress 2. They proceeded to update it several times, adding new content such as maps and alternate weapons. Originally, these alternate weapons were unlocked only through getting a certain number of achievements for each character class. These achievements were a mixed bag, but in general you had to be pretty good at the game in order to unlock enough to get the last of the weapons for each class.
Alas, some people had a very hard time unlocking weapons, so Valve decided not-so-recently to change the system up a bit. In order to help out people who had a hard time getting achievements, they added an extra option to the mix: a randomized item drop system, that, after you died in a game, would have a small chance to give you one of the unlockable weapons. This system was added on the the achievement one to help the not-so-skilled in the TF2 player base to have a chance at some of the better guns, and it was welcomed by most of the community.
All was good with the game, for a short time. Then Valve decided to add something else: hats.
And thus, our story begins in earnest.
Hats were/are completely cosmetic pieces of headware bling, unlocked by the random item drop system. The chances of getting a hat were made remarkably low though, in order to reward those who played the game more. Hats were meant to be a status symbol: if you had one, you were either really lucky or had played the game a lot. They quickly became a subject of much fervor in the community, especially when people started discussing their drop rates.
Some decided that the drop rate was too low for their tastes. They wanted hats, and the game was not supplying. Thus the Idle Server was brought into being: a server made explicitly to collect hats and items. These severs were the younger brothers of the Achievement Box servers: servers made for the sole purpose of attaining achievements to unlock the alternate weapons back before the random drop system was introduced. So what did one do in an Idle server to get hats, exactly?
That's right, nothing. To earn hats in a idle server, what you did was log into the server, pick a team, pick a class, and leave your computer alone for a few hours. The server had a system where it would spawn you, and then shortly thereafter, kill you. After a while, this would guarantee that the random item generator would throw something your way. There were no random bursts of gunfire in these servers, no teammates chattering, no calls for a Medic: because no one was playing in these servers. They were AFK.
After a while, someone decided that they wanted to idle, but they didn't like TF2 hogging up their bandwidth while they were doing so. Thus the idler program was born: a shadowy program that tricked your game into thinking that you were playing (and dying) so that the game would give you items, even when the game wasn't on.
Valve, until recently, had not commented much on the idling situation. Then, they decided that they were against idling, and pulled out the stick. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.137110] They took away the items people had gained from using the idler program, and rewarded those who hadn't used it with a special hat: a halo named "Cheater's Lament." According to Valve, only about 4 percent of players used the idler program, so only these 4 percent would not get halos.
And then, there was chaos.
Idlers instantly sprang up with a fury, railing against Valve for their decision to punish them. Then the real madness began to set in. There were reports of people not healing people without halos, people being kicked from servers based on whether they had a halo or didn't have a halo, and a general clusterfuck of swearing that could match a high-level traffic jam in the middle of New York City.
All I have to say is: Lolwhut?
I was never a big fan of the hats in the first place. To me, most of them looked goofy somehow: I preferred the looks of the classes without the hats at all. But my opinions on the hats doesn't really matter: what I want to share with you all is my opinions on the idling fiasco. And what I have to say is not kind. I'm of the opinion that those who used the idler cheated, and attempting to say otherwise is just plain wrong.
The random unlock system was devised to reward people for playing the game. Those that used the idle program were attempting to cheat the system, yet they expected to not be punished for it. This is tantamount to finding an exploit in your tax laws, using it, and not expecting for the Feds to send your sorry butt to jail. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
Then there's the issue of what they were going after. The hats do not affect the gameplay: they, like the katana in Halo 3, are meant to symbolize your devotion to the game you've played so much. And these people used a third party program in order to unlock them, WHILE NOT PLAYING THE GAME AT ALL. By doing this, they automatically invalidated the MEANING behind the hats. Who should you be more impressed by, someone who spent hours playing the game in order to get their hat, or someone who let a program do all the work for them? And isn't the latter exactly like using an aimbot?
The idlers claim that they had every right to get the hats through idling, because the drop rate was so low. All I have to say to you is: never play an MMO, you'd probably kill yourself . Oh, and quit being so impatient. The hat drop system rewards those who play more: so instead of cheating, man up and PLAY THE GAME. Besides: hats, unlike those awesome (+25 Armor) Gauntlets Of K'vesh, don't change the gameplay: they're there for looks and nothing more. Hats, or the lack of hats, does not impede your ability to play the game, so quit whining and get back to the killing.
Oh, and if you're one of the people who is kicking/healing based off of whether someone has a halo, keep in mind that the new players don't have them, and some players out there got the shaft for no reason. One of my TF2 buddies (and a Escapist Forum member) Flying-Emu, is among the players who hasn't idled and has, for some reason, not received a halo. The halo distribution system is currently a little bonked, so there are still people without halos who should have received them. Not to mention some people don't want to wear the halo, myself included. The thing looks STUPID to me.
On an additional note: I recently checked to see how many people are still using idle servers. All the ones I could find were full.
So then, folks: what are your opinions on the idlers, the halos, and the general madness surrounding them?
If you don't play TF2, you might not know what I'm going to be talking about, so let me explain. A while back, Valve made an excellent game called Team Fortress 2. They proceeded to update it several times, adding new content such as maps and alternate weapons. Originally, these alternate weapons were unlocked only through getting a certain number of achievements for each character class. These achievements were a mixed bag, but in general you had to be pretty good at the game in order to unlock enough to get the last of the weapons for each class.
Alas, some people had a very hard time unlocking weapons, so Valve decided not-so-recently to change the system up a bit. In order to help out people who had a hard time getting achievements, they added an extra option to the mix: a randomized item drop system, that, after you died in a game, would have a small chance to give you one of the unlockable weapons. This system was added on the the achievement one to help the not-so-skilled in the TF2 player base to have a chance at some of the better guns, and it was welcomed by most of the community.
All was good with the game, for a short time. Then Valve decided to add something else: hats.
And thus, our story begins in earnest.
Hats were/are completely cosmetic pieces of headware bling, unlocked by the random item drop system. The chances of getting a hat were made remarkably low though, in order to reward those who played the game more. Hats were meant to be a status symbol: if you had one, you were either really lucky or had played the game a lot. They quickly became a subject of much fervor in the community, especially when people started discussing their drop rates.
Some decided that the drop rate was too low for their tastes. They wanted hats, and the game was not supplying. Thus the Idle Server was brought into being: a server made explicitly to collect hats and items. These severs were the younger brothers of the Achievement Box servers: servers made for the sole purpose of attaining achievements to unlock the alternate weapons back before the random drop system was introduced. So what did one do in an Idle server to get hats, exactly?
That's right, nothing. To earn hats in a idle server, what you did was log into the server, pick a team, pick a class, and leave your computer alone for a few hours. The server had a system where it would spawn you, and then shortly thereafter, kill you. After a while, this would guarantee that the random item generator would throw something your way. There were no random bursts of gunfire in these servers, no teammates chattering, no calls for a Medic: because no one was playing in these servers. They were AFK.
After a while, someone decided that they wanted to idle, but they didn't like TF2 hogging up their bandwidth while they were doing so. Thus the idler program was born: a shadowy program that tricked your game into thinking that you were playing (and dying) so that the game would give you items, even when the game wasn't on.
Valve, until recently, had not commented much on the idling situation. Then, they decided that they were against idling, and pulled out the stick. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.137110] They took away the items people had gained from using the idler program, and rewarded those who hadn't used it with a special hat: a halo named "Cheater's Lament." According to Valve, only about 4 percent of players used the idler program, so only these 4 percent would not get halos.
And then, there was chaos.
Idlers instantly sprang up with a fury, railing against Valve for their decision to punish them. Then the real madness began to set in. There were reports of people not healing people without halos, people being kicked from servers based on whether they had a halo or didn't have a halo, and a general clusterfuck of swearing that could match a high-level traffic jam in the middle of New York City.
All I have to say is: Lolwhut?
I was never a big fan of the hats in the first place. To me, most of them looked goofy somehow: I preferred the looks of the classes without the hats at all. But my opinions on the hats doesn't really matter: what I want to share with you all is my opinions on the idling fiasco. And what I have to say is not kind. I'm of the opinion that those who used the idler cheated, and attempting to say otherwise is just plain wrong.
The random unlock system was devised to reward people for playing the game. Those that used the idle program were attempting to cheat the system, yet they expected to not be punished for it. This is tantamount to finding an exploit in your tax laws, using it, and not expecting for the Feds to send your sorry butt to jail. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
Then there's the issue of what they were going after. The hats do not affect the gameplay: they, like the katana in Halo 3, are meant to symbolize your devotion to the game you've played so much. And these people used a third party program in order to unlock them, WHILE NOT PLAYING THE GAME AT ALL. By doing this, they automatically invalidated the MEANING behind the hats. Who should you be more impressed by, someone who spent hours playing the game in order to get their hat, or someone who let a program do all the work for them? And isn't the latter exactly like using an aimbot?
The idlers claim that they had every right to get the hats through idling, because the drop rate was so low. All I have to say to you is: never play an MMO, you'd probably kill yourself . Oh, and quit being so impatient. The hat drop system rewards those who play more: so instead of cheating, man up and PLAY THE GAME. Besides: hats, unlike those awesome (+25 Armor) Gauntlets Of K'vesh, don't change the gameplay: they're there for looks and nothing more. Hats, or the lack of hats, does not impede your ability to play the game, so quit whining and get back to the killing.
Oh, and if you're one of the people who is kicking/healing based off of whether someone has a halo, keep in mind that the new players don't have them, and some players out there got the shaft for no reason. One of my TF2 buddies (and a Escapist Forum member) Flying-Emu, is among the players who hasn't idled and has, for some reason, not received a halo. The halo distribution system is currently a little bonked, so there are still people without halos who should have received them. Not to mention some people don't want to wear the halo, myself included. The thing looks STUPID to me.
On an additional note: I recently checked to see how many people are still using idle servers. All the ones I could find were full.
So then, folks: what are your opinions on the idlers, the halos, and the general madness surrounding them?
