HEY TF2 CHEATERS! Valve will be taking your hats away!

primesuspect

HEY TF2 CHEATERS! Valve will be taking your hats away!

Koreish

You forgot Preacher too. Although I doubt he has any hats yet. I'm super stoked to be getting my very first very special hat too.

pigflipper

w00t! w00t! Take that idlers!

UPSLynx

Yes! That's what we get!

especially since I don't have a single hat yet :/

shwaip

I believe the "I didn't cheat hat" is a halo.

Idiot_Slayer

This does nothing to stop idle servers. I just want to point that out, and they can take their thirty sandviches back.
At least the drop rate went up.

Obsidian

They're not even taking hats away from people that did it before today. I wanted to rub it in all my friends' faces =[

shwaip

Obsidian wrote:

They're not even taking hats away from people that did it before today. I wanted to rub it in all my friends' faces =[

yes they are.

QuadyTheTurnip

They're going through it over the next few days, so don't be surprised if your friends loose theirs soon.

primesuspect

I already got my Cheater's Lament It's a halo that can be worn by any class. It rules.

Cliff_Forster

I know this is going to come off a mildly rude, but seriously guys? If you are the kind of guy that is worried about his TF2 hat collection immediately exit your front door, find the nearest girl and kiss her. Don't question it, just do it..... now!!!

ardichoke

but... derp... there's people out there. STRANGE people. What if they don't wash their hands? They could give me the bubonic plague. omgihavetogosanitizemyselfnowahhhhhhhhhhhhh

UPSLynx

Cliff_Forster wrote:

I know this is going to come off a mildly rude, but seriously guys? If you are the kind of guy that is worried about his TF2 hat collection immediately exit your front door, find the nearest girl and kiss her. Don't question it, just do it..... now!!!

bleh... she had a bit of a mustache! And then I remember where I live...

shwaip

Cliff_Forster wrote:

I know this is going to come off a mildly rude, but seriously guys? If you are the kind of guy that is worried about his TF2 hat collection immediately exit your front door, find the nearest girl and kiss her. Don't question it, just do it..... now!!!

Likewise, if you have a halo and think yourself better than someone without, do the same.

Cliff_Forster

shwaip wrote:

Likewise, if you have a halo and think yourself better than someone without, do the same.

Just to be clear, to the point that you would form some elaborate scheme so you can make sure you have the hats before everyone else. Just keepin it real, that is just lame. Valve apparently thinks so as well, and I believe the point of the article is to say that in a "nanny nanny boo boo" sort of way.

Its not like they cheat for an uber cool giant cannon that can spell doom for every opponent you come across, its a virtual 3D fashion accessory. I guess I was in the dark, I did not realize there were people that would even waste valuable life energy and precious CPU cycles on such a thing, but what do I know?

So Jeff Foxworthy style,

If you are the kind of guy that hacks a video game just so you can get a new outfit, you might need to go outside more often.....

_k

I still don't get why it even matters, especially when this is going to affect <5% of players. Who cares if someone idled their items? This would equate to resetting someone's TF2 account for farming achievements, a means which has arisen from the way that the TF2 team has decided to implement their changes.

Idiot_Slayer

Its 10,000 people that used the idling program, on any given night TF2 had 35,000 active players. The 4.5% number is for people who own TF2 or the Orange Box.

I just don't like that I'm being punished like I cheated. I didn't alter my game files or have a malicious intent.

primesuspect

NANNY NANNY BOO BOO

shwaip

Idiot_Slayer wrote:

Its 10,000 people that used the idling program, on any given night TF2 had 35,000 active players. The 4.5% number is for people who own TF2 or the Orange Box.

I just don't like that I'm being punished like I cheated. I didn't alter my game files or have a malicious intent.

You weren't punished like you cheated. They only took away your ill-gotten gains. If you deleted weapons to make backpack space, and those were taken away, they will be returned if you have the achievements to back them up. If VALVE thought you cheated, you would have been VAC banned. You are simply back to where you would be if you didn't use the idler.

Cliff_Forster wrote:

Just to be clear, to the point that you would form some elaborate scheme so you can make sure you have the hats before everyone else. Just keepin it real, that is just lame. Valve apparently thinks so as well, and I believe the point of the article is to say that in a "nanny nanny boo boo" sort of way.

Its like like an uber cool giant cannon that can spell doom for every opponent you come across, its a virtual 3D fashion accessory. I guess I was in the dark, I did not realize there were people that would even waste valuable life energy and precious CPU cycles on such a thing, but what do I know?

So Jeff Foxworthy style,

If you are the kind of guy that hacks a video game just so you can get a new outfit, you might need to go outside more often.....

I don't understand what this means. My point was that all they were doing was getting worthless fashion accessories for a character. They didn't change the game. If the hats had given bonuses, then I would be more understanding of this anti-idler sentiment.

I think both sides are taking it too seriously. I'll go enjoy my halo on my medic. It seems to go with the character.

UPSLynx

I read that there's been internal turmoil as a result of this on many pub servers. Like, medics refusing to heal a player without a halo, medics refusing to heal players with halos, snipers only shooting for people with halos, things like that.

I haven't been out there, so I don't know if this is indeed happening. I can certainly see players being dicks about it and doing stupid thingsl like this because NO ONE CARES ABOUT THEIR INTERNET WHINING.

Plus, steampowered forums were down yesterday as a result.

Thrax

I'll echo what I said elsewhere:

I don't play TF2, but I had an academic interest in the idling program, so I ran it. I picked up a few hats and a few weapons, and that was probably more interesting to me than playing the actual game. But you know what? There wasn't a single time when I wasn't thinking, "Wow, wonder how long it'll take for Valve to shut <i>this</i> one down."

It's so clearly an exploit, and I'm not sure how people can rationalize otherwise. Stop being butthurt and go play to get your achievements. Are idlers any better? No, they're not, but Valve is not yet able to deal with them, so get over it.

Snarkasm

There's no rage like net rage.

primesuspect

While I normally don't hold with Tim from Ctrl-Alt-Del, I will say that his thoughts on this whole "Hatgate" are spot on.

There is most certainly a sense of entitlement with gamers nowadays, and this nerdrage is a result of it.

_k

I don't understand why they took hats away and gave the HALO, when just giving the HALO would have the same general effect to show who idled.

fatcat

The only thing that matters is the scoreboard.

and yes I'm usually at the top, wearing my halo

primesuspect

They took the hats away because they were a reward gained by cheating...

CB

fatcat wrote:

The only thing that matters is the scoreboard.

and yes I'm usually at the top, wearing my halo

Actually, the only thing that matters is whether or not you have fun playing, but even if winning mattered, it still wouldn't be the scoreboard, it would be the team-points. I've seen plenty of people get the top of the scoreboard and be on a losing team at the same time.

Although, I might be biased, since I primarily play a class that scores low, even if he is instrumental to winning the round.

_k

"Over the next few days we'll be removing all TF2 items that were earned using external idling applications. We're going to adopt a zero tolerance policy for external applications used to manipulate the persistent item system. Due to us not having a policy in place prior to today, this time we're only removing the items earned through cheating the system."

They are nuking some people's accounts that never idled and taking everything from those that did even though they said only the items that were gotten using that method. But since there isn't anything in the TOS and its merely a loop-hole in the system they built it would kind of like doing a temp ban on someone that uses exploits on a map until valve fixes them. Honestly I think this has more to do with valve being butt hurt and raging than the community. It just also really bugs me when companies make ex post-facto rules, if its illegal for the government no one should do it.

CB

It's not illegal for the government. People do get punished for things that the law did not state clearly previously. That's one reason we have judges, so they can look at what someone did, even if it's not explicitly called out in the law, and say "Yeah, you're going to jail for that." People don't get a pass just because they did it before the government thought to make a law.

In fact, that's where most criminal laws start.

Your analogy is invalid.

_k

.....So if they change the speed limit to 35 and I drive 40 today I could still get a ticket. There is a difference between interpret and administration, judges have room to interpret the law thus when a jury is not used(even in those cases) you can appeal to a higher court to make sure THE LAW was followed and not bent.

fatcat

CB wrote:

Actually, the only thing that matters is whether or not you have fun playing, but even if winning mattered, it still wouldn't be the scoreboard, it would be the team-points. I've seen plenty of people get the top of the scoreboard and be on a losing team at the same time.

Although, I might be biased, since I primarily play a class that scores low, even if he is instrumental to winning the round.

The scoreboard ALSO shows the TEAMSCORE.