Icrontic has a long history with the Valve game Team Fortress 2. Many of our community members have been playing since the beta back in 2007, and most of the core Icrontic community has come to be a part of our family through playing on our Team Fortress 2 server. So many lifelong friendships have been made because of this game, and here we are, almost four years later, still playing it regularly and having a riot of a good time. Recently, Valve announced that Team Fortress 2 was now free to play. Many people saw this as a bad thing, because it created an influx of “newbies”—people unfamiliar with the game who have been flooding servers and making it frustrating for veterans to deal with. However, we believe that the newbies are a great thing for the game AND for communities. Remember where we all came from…
Team Fortress 2 now free to play
Free to Play—a fantastic concept. It has invigorated the TF2 community, and for the most part, I’m really enjoying the update. Heck, I even purchased a little something from the Mann Company Store to do my part as someone who has gotten a couple hundred hours from the title.
This said, free to play will have some temporary drawbacks too. The quality of competition is suffering due to the newness of many players, and its also fairly apparent that many new players are not well equipped to game online.
As veterans of PC gaming I really believe this is a great opportunity to educate new players and help them to have a better experience so this concept can flourish and become successful. It is up to us, as a community, to help new players not only understand the game, but also understand the basics of online PC gaming etiquette, as well as to help them understand what they might need technically to ensure a better experience for the entire community.
First of all: High ping players—I’d say anything over 250 or so. Instead of kicking them outright, take a moment. Ask them if they are new to the community, and if they are, PM them over Steam, help them figure out where they might have some technical limitations—either in router, network card drivers, or ISP. PC gaming takes a little extra effort and know-how, and it’s obvious that some of the new guys pinging the servers at 400 are a little lost on why the experience sucks as bad as it does. I’ve already taken the time to chat with a couple people who were really appreciative. Instead of just saying “gtfo the server noob”, or kicking them, send them a PM and offer them a little help. Many of them are really nice people that just don’t understand what a ping is, and how it affects everyone’s experience, much less what they might be able to do to improve it. Help them out. Share what you know.
Next on the agenda: Please, help some of the younger players understand that PC gaming is a different environment than Xbox Live. Sure, we enjoy fart jokes as much as the next guy, but we make a reasonable attempt to treat each other with respect. Kicking may be necessary, but at the same time, it’s a really good opportunity to show people how PC is a different platform. If we treat them with some courtesy, we might help them grow into the hobby rather than running them off. It’s been apparent to me in the past week or so of play that a fair amount of “Xbox Live behavior” is finding its way onto the TF2 servers. Let’s help our new friends see that there is a better way to play, and that the constant hurling of insults and slurs over the mic really isn’t necessary to have fun.
Let me add: when you find new players, share advice with them on how to play better in a polite manner. Don’t berate them for being an awful team member. This only serves to make it a miserable experience for everyone. There are few things I can stand less than a fellow player shouting at everyone for poor play without offering anything constructive. Don’t assume others have played the couple hundred hours you have.
There is a lot of new blood here—they don’t know that the Pyro can Spy check, and that the first thing the Engineer should try and do on a payload map is to get up a well placed teleporter. They barely understand the basics, much less the incredible degree of nuance that makes up TF2. Give them a break, be polite, and help them to learn the ropes—it will make everyone’s experience better.
I’m really excited about the potential that free to play TF2 can have for the future of PC gaming. As veterans of the hobby, its our responsibility to nurture the newbies rather than treat them like digital lepers. If we do, I believe it will have a far reaching effect, not just for TF2, but for PC gaming as a whole.
Icrontic has a vibrant and hilarious Team Fortress 2 server that has been going strong for three years now. If you’ve never played with us, take the opportunity to jump on the server and say “Hi”. We’re a welcoming, mature group of gamers that embraces anyone who wants to have “the most fun you can have online”.
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