The appeal of Team Fortress 2

[LaBambaMan]

Maybe i'm just not enough of a video game junky these days to understand the mainstream, but something that always caught my eye was the overwhelming success of Team Fortress 2. You'll see the characters everywhere that video gaming is even mentioned, and it's a little confusing to me.

I remember playing the old Team Fortress when it was free, way back in the day. And it was fun for a few games after school and to kill time, but it seems like TF2 has taken off and isn't slowing down.

So what is it about this game that makes people into drooling obsessive fanboys? The formula hasn't really changed at all, has it? You run, you gun, maybe you die, if you die you wait 20 seconds and repeat steps 1 and 2 all while hoping to avoid steps 3 and 4 again. There's nothing else to it, really. It's your standard run-and-gun, and I just don't see the appeal. So maybe it has the same appeal, from a game play perspective at least, as the original in being just a fun way to kill 30 minutes or something after school, as a way to relax before getting back to the real world.

Or is it the graphics? Are people really praising it as this second coming of Christ like game because of the cartoony graphics? Alright, having a sense of humor in gaming is a good thing and i'm cool with that.

So please, my fellow escapists, tell me what it is, exactly, that makes this game so damn popular. Nothing about it has appealed to me, but yet everyone I know keeps telling me "you have to play it, it's so fucking awesome!" Am I really missing out on the greatest game ever, or are my friends all just raving lunatics?

 

[Eldarion]

You are kidding right?

Team fortress 2 has to be the most fun, best balanced shooting experience on the market right now.

No matter what kind of shooter you like there is a class for you, the maps are all awesome, the gameplay and teamwork are top notch and the community is the best I have ever seen.

Actually play the game dude. It is great.

 

[hazabaza1]

I dunno. There's something about it which is just... mystical.

 

[TPiddy]

I think that's exactly what it is, it's the balance. All of the classes are unique and offer something different, and having such varied classes encourages blending and teamwork. When it works well, it's a lot of fun. When it doesn't work well, like when some classes are overpowered or everyone chooses the same class, then it's not fun.

 

[Cargando]

It's the humorous edge methinks, it's very silly and very fun. The fact that it doesn't actually take itself seriously. Also all the classes are fun, varied and very evenly matched.

 

[Iron Mal]

You are kidding right?

Team fortress 2 has to be the most fun, best balanced shooting experience on the market right now.

No matter what kind of shooter you like there is a class for you, the maps are all awesome, the gameplay and teamwork are top notch and the community is the best I have ever seen.

I personally think that Team Fortress 2 owes it's huge success to the fanbase it has from Valve's previous games and the first Team Fortress.

It was an alright online shooter (nothing too special but it can waste an afternoon if you throw yourself into it) yet some people will be dumbstruck and stunned with disbelief if anyone dares say it is not the online equivilent of high quality heroin.

Sure, it has a degree of balance to it (which is easily undermined) and it has comedy (which never lasts forever and may easily be overlooked considering how it's a fast paced online shooter) but at the end of the day it's still just guys with different coloured uniforms trying to kill each other (see also, Halo, CoD, Quake/Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, Doom and many others).

 

[Mintycabbage]

I think a major part of team fortress's success is the constant free updates. Valve are really good to their fans and give free updates, where other companies would demand you to pay. This is true because if you look at L4D Microsoft forced Valve to make Xbox owners pay for the update, while PC owners got it for free. New maps, guns, modes and even hats keep people playing.

Another point is that it is extremely balanced. Not many games are this balanced, but still make all the classes unique and very different play styles.

Also this is my personal opinion, but i think the community is great and I am addicted to zombie fortress. There are a lot of mods and some community maps are better than Valve made, see Egypt.

Finally it is not a simple run and gun. Every class caters to a different play style. If you want to run and gun be a scout or pyro. If you want something slower and more purposeful be a engineer, heavy or spy.

Yes you are really missing out on ONE of the greatest games ever.

 

[Kollega]

Balance,variety,graphics... and utter hilarity of the characters.

 

[fix-the-spade]

It's fun
It's accessible
It's funny
It's well balanced
It rewards effort
It's teamwork based
It's skillful
But not so skill based that not being a pro is a death sentece
It's got interesting visual design
It's got a good community (mostly)
It's able to run on a wide variety of hardware

It's your standard run-and-gun, and I just don't see the appeal.

Then you have no soul!!!wtf1elventy(and so on and so forth)

That out of the way...
Of course it hasn't changed the formula, the formula hasn't changed since Wolfenstein. It's so popular because it's an appealing game that does what it says it will do very well. There doesn't really need to be anything deeper than that, although it's looks have at least something to do with it, they make a very good diversion from Space Marines and Special Forces.

But it's still nowhere near replacing Counter Strike/Source as PC's number 1 shooter.
current peak
75,270 87,659 Counter-Strike: Source
55,872 66,386 Counter-Strike
14,687 17,374 Team Fortress 2
(yoinked from Steamstats just now, top 3 games played today)

I think the success of it (and L4d and CS:S) also has a lot to do with the freedom given to it's players. I know other games offer devkits/modkits to players as well but the Valve ones seem to allow an enormous amount of freedom.
Just look at the game types that nobody would have expected when CS first came out (itself a mod too), surfing, dodgeball, gungame. They barely exist if at all in other games. they certainly don't have the ease of use you get with Source shooters.

That's always been a major draw for me.

 

[Antlink]

I would say because it has a class to suit just about anyones play style and skill level.

 

[AlphaOmega]

Its a good case of the sum being more that the parts added up.

 

[RanD00M]

The fun, the balance, the hilarious voice chat.

This and the excellent presentation.

 

[FightThePower]

It has a unique art style, is constantly being updated for free, has a lot of varied gameplay, it's balanced (mostly), has iconic voices and soundtrack and most importantly, it's fucking fun.

 

[Eldarion]

You are kidding right?

Team fortress 2 has to be the most fun, best balanced shooting experience on the market right now.

No matter what kind of shooter you like there is a class for you, the maps are all awesome, the gameplay and teamwork are top notch and the community is the best I have ever seen.

I personally think that Team Fortress 2 owes it's huge success to the fanbase it has from Valve's previous games and the first Team Fortress.

It was an alright online shooter (nothing too special but it can waste an afternoon if you throw yourself into it) yet some people will be dumbstruck and stunned with disbelief if anyone dares say it is not the online equivilent of high quality heroin.

Sure, it has a degree of balance to it (which is easily undermined) and it has comedy (which never lasts forever and may easily be overlooked considering how it's a fast paced online shooter) but at the end of the day it's still just guys with different coloured uniforms trying to kill each other (see also, Halo, CoD, Quake/Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, Doom and many others).

Is the teamwork and great community that are the biggest reasons its a great game.

The people on Halo are TERRIBLE in comparison.

 

[Spongebobdickpants]

every positive everyone else has said plus the ability to be a dick to the enemy and MVP.take this example you (a spy)disguise as an enemy soldier call a medic the enemy team medic comes over and gives you a health buff u notice a group of enemies rushing towards ur team u back stab all five of them tur around and stab the medic to death and u get a steam achievement.if u can find me a more fun and funnier gaming moment then u can say tf2 has no appeal but until then im gonna go sap sum poor engies defences... then kill him.

 

[Iron Mal]

Is the teamwork and great community that are the biggest reasons its a great game.

The people on Halo are TERRIBLE in comparison.

Clearly you haven't played the Xbox version of TF2 or the PC version of Halo with friends.

 

[Eldarion]

Is the teamwork and great community that are the biggest reasons its a great game.

The people on Halo are TERRIBLE in comparison.

Clearly you haven't played the Xbox version of TF2 or the PC version of Halo with friends.

Oh hell no, avoid the ports and play it on the PC.

You make a good point, let me rephrase myself.

Team fortress 2 is probably the best class based shooter for the PC.

In my opinion anyway.

 

[Mordwyl]

I can play a crazed destructive black scotsman with an eyepatch.

That is the only reason I need to love this game.