Okay, it’s probably safe to assume that Valve sold a few billion copies of TF2 during its Halloween promotion.
Which for the most part will result in a lot of new players testing out the game and populating the servers around the world.
Nothing wrong with being a newbie. We all started out that way once, and with every new game we try and play we always end up a little noobish ourselves. Of course with a new game coming out we all start at the same point, and it’s mainly our experience with other games and perhaps the knowledge about that particular game we acquired beforehand which may set us apart.
But in case of the people incoming to TF2 it’s a bit more complicated. Those people run up against a core of long time players with a (usually) pretty high skill level who know the game and the maps inside out. To learn the ropes in such an environment is probably not the easiest thing to do and I figure many of those new players will have the bad luck to encounter some abuse, ridicule and hostility which might not be serving to endear them to the game.
Sure, having noobs on a server can be difficult at times. Lack of experience and knowledge make them a liability for the team, and if that team is unlucky to have a couple of noobs while the opposing team may not it will surely result in a frustrating game. Personally I find those obviously trying to learn the game, asking questions and try their best to get the hang of the game rather acceptable. More problematic are those who – in apparent ignorance – just try to do something which serves nothing but to annoy their teammates and offer easy prey for the other team. And quite frankly what really annoys me the most are those who you can’t communicate with. No matter if you approach them by voice or text, you get no answer. Of course it is possible, that they simply don’t speak the language. But more often than not I’m under the impression they simply don’t know or don’t want to answer. Why the latter I wouldn’t know. Maybe people feel embarrassed to admit they’re new to the game. Though personally I would prefer people thought of me as a noob than a cretin who plays the game stupidly (and superficially both can leave the same impression). I’ll come back to that later.
But as far as not knowing how to type a message: I think it’s not asked too much that a player starting a new game takes note of the keys for team- and general messages while configuring the controls. And even if he didn’t remember than it’s a matter of seconds to quickly look it up in the options dialog. If that’s already too complicated for that person I figure he will be in a lot of trouble in this game 
But to come back to that other point:
How do we meet new players? How do we treat them? Do we help them? Do we abuse them as the new bottom of the food chain? Do we have our fun at their expanse? Do we ridicule and humiliate them?
Of course all of this can be true for a new player, depending on where he plays and what good or bad luck he might have with the people he encounters. And a lot of people are just too happy to ridicule and humiliate new players because they think it makes them look cool or feel it flatters their ego. Some will probably do that out of pure meanness, perhaps as a weirdly misconceived sense of initiation ritual everybody would have to go through.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that new players will rather try not to draw any attention to them and rather feign ignorance than admit inexperience. Sadly this also prevents them to get some help or tips from the more helpful population on a server.
But despite that fact that new players sometimes can be a little annoying (though there’s no shortage of annoying experienced players which don’t have any excuse) we should in fact appreciate and welcome the fresh blood.
TF2 is now more than two years old, and while the class(less) updates still manage to breathe new life into the game the novelty factor is long gone and even dedicated players are moving on. If the game should remain thriving and dynamic we need new people to make up for those leaving the scene.
So it may be a smart idea not to drive away every new player just because you arrogantly consider yourselves as the l33t bunch which constitutes the heart of TF2. When in a 6 months half your clan has decided to move to other games (or even leave gaming behind for the time being) you may be happy if you have a pool of skilled and experienced players you can recruit from. So helping new players and motivate them to learn the game and to stick with it is an investment into the future of TF2.
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And it would be impossible to write about newbies without offering you this excellent post from The Hal covering the topic at hand. While written in 2001 it’s (sadly) still valid.
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