Bad enough you should work as a team, now I also expect you to think beyond that?
Most certainly!
Let me start by quoting a definition of sportsmanship (Wikipedia):
Sportsmanship is conformance to the rules, spirit, and etiquette of sport. More grandly, it may be considered the ethos of sport. It is interesting that the motivation for sport is often an elusive element. Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with one’s competitors. Being a "good sport" involves being a "good winner" as well as being a "good loser".
Does this apply to TF2? Is TF2 a “sport”?
I’m sure many clans will certainly say so in regard of leagues and ladders. However, some might be a bit reluctant to use this term so lightly for pub games, where the matches are in fact more “game-like” than sportslike.
But even if the definition is directed towards sports, the spirit of this definition can be applied to games as well, since the mechanisms are either the same or at least similar in nature. A card game might not be “sport”, but nonetheless you won’t accept cheating or bad attitude and just as well expect or even insist on fairness and appreciate a certain level of conduct between the participants.
So in that regard I would certainly state that sportsmanship as an attitude and a form of conduct does apply to TF2.
Let’s get the most blatant, yet fundamental points out of the way first:
• Don’t use cheats!
• Don’t use bugs or glitches of the game engine to get an unfair advantage or to play the game in a way which is in violation of the game’s principles!
• Don’t use glitches in the map design which allows access to places which were not intended to be accessible (e.g. spots outside the map) to get an unfair advantage!
Should be self-evident enough [1]. Any more questions? Okay, let’s move on ...
Similar to teamplay I think sportsmanship works (roughly) on two levels. I tried to condense this into one article, but I failed miserably, so once more you get a topic divided into two parts.
For the first level I would like to use the term “Fairness” to describe one important aspect of sportsmanship.
TF2 is, by design, a competitive game, with goals which usually expects one team to win. And that’s all very much right and well ... under the premise that both teams are approximately equal in skill and size! Otherwise winning (and losing!) doesn’t mean much.
It’s no accident that many games by now (TF2 just being one of those) feature mechanisms to create and keep teams evenly sized. It’s not an exact science and partially flawed, yet it prevents the worst gaffes.
On the entry-level-side TF2 achieves this by preventing people to join a team with already more players. A valuable supplement is the autojoin-feature, which will randomly assign players to a team [2]. This actually helps to scramble teams on each start of a map, which – of course – has its Pros and Cons (but let’s postpone that aspect for a moment).
In-game TF2 features an auto-balance mechanism which evens sides if one team has fewer players than the other (e.g. caused by players leaving).
Does the existence of such mechanisms mean you just don’t have to care about team-sizes anymore? No!
For one the auto-balance-feature can be very slow (by default 60+ seconds) and that time span might create enough of a lop side to have a lasting effect on the ongoing game. But also with an odd number of players the one-head-advantage can potentially be enough to make a distinct difference.
As far as the first point is concerned I can only encourage people to react on statements (and definitively on pleas) about uneven teams. Also, pointing out uneven teams has nothing to do with whining since even teams – as established – is an integral part of TF2. It’s not always an easy decision to switch and it’s even harder if the other team is losing. But then again, one person switching to the other team might be all that’s needed to turn the tide around, and actually it’s a very rewarding feeling if a team which was initially gotten steamrolled can successfully turn the tide around and defend that final point or cap that one deciding intel.
I realize that the second case (one-head-difference between teams) is vague and in itself does not justify any action. However, I consider it relevant under a different aspect, which leads us right into the other aspect of fairness: Even Skill.
Tough one. Skill is difficult to measure if you look beyond a silly kill-score. And even more difficult to judge when you try to evaluate the skill level of a team.
Yet ideally teams should be approximately equal in skill. A superior team pouncing a clearly weaker team is taking advantage of the skill difference (thus constituting an example of poor sportsmanship) and such a game should actually be no fun for both sides (the winning team might disagree, but in that case they are stupid assholes).
(And just to make this very clear: I’m speaking about pub games! Clan Matches are a totally different beast by nature, since clans make a conscious decision to play against teams of varying skill)
Since it’s quite natural for pub games to get lopsided skill-wise, with people coming and leaving, or friends or clan members wanting to play on the same team it is important to stay open-minded about the problem and should a game indeed get lopsided because skill is distributed too unequal the players should consider reacting on that.
In case of the stronger team having a one-head-advantage it might be enough if a (preferably skilled) player switches. But if teams are even (which would prevent switching unless you take detours via spectator) or the skill difference is too much scrambling the teams might be in order, if such an option is available.
I can imagine people wondering why they should care about the other team not getting their shit together and if they’re sucking they might deserve what they get. Of course I wouldn’t expect people like this to touch an editorial about sportsmanship with a 10ft-pole.
But perhaps I can offer a different point of view to those people:
What’s the point of playing a lopsided game as the stronger team? It’s clearly not a challenge. It fails to work as practice since the gameplay will be well below your standards. So is there really any other reason than the satisfaction to humiliate other people?
And to those who grin and say “Exactly”: Please remove yourself quietly from the gene pool!
I said this was only the first half on the topic of sportsmanship. This is covered in the second half ...
RSS 2.0