"Hire Date: September 18, 2007”, it says. That was when the beta was released for those pre-ordering the Orange Box. I remember I was very excited. I had seen the first trailer (which at that point even showed a game slightly different than what we got eventually, still featuring grenades and a 2Fort bridge without a roof) which promised a TFC with a much cooler design. Apparently Valve had discarded any plans for a more realistic military-oriented game as initially planned. Which after all the years gone by looked like a smart move, seeing that a lot of other games had covered that terrain already with much success. So Valve went back to the roots of the game, overhauled and revised the game mechanics and married it with one of the coolest designs ever (an even smarter choice because while the engine is not exactly the most cutting edge thing anymore the artificial design for maps and models still works perfectly fine and might still do so for the next years).
So yes, I went and pre-ordered the Orange Box primarily because I wanted to get access to the game as early as possible. And I was not disappointed. The game looked as amazing and funny as the trailer had promised, and the gameplay was a very well devised update of the old TFC mechanics with a few twists (most notably the new and improved medic and his ubers). Right out of the box I thought the class balance was surprisingly well established, with some of the flaws of TFC well addressed. The Pyro was more powerful and useful as its TFC counterpart, the medic no longer was the superior scout, which in return had gained some well needed strength. Okay, the soldier was still the least balanced class and could still kick your ass all over the place, but even that felt alright.
So today we are here, more than 2 ½ years later. We “Grizzled Veterans” have seen a lot of changes applied to the game during that time. 6 class updates, covering 8 classes. New game modes. Decorative items. Countless fixes and balance tweaks. A re-imagination of TF through the eyes of a competitive scene. And a Valve that obviously has learned from its early days, has improved its readiness to communicate with its community and on top of that has turned out to be really hilarious in the presentation of blog and updates [1].
Today TF2 has lost a bit of its shine and excitement. Which is quite natural for a game that old. But Valve is doing a lot to keep that game alive, to insert new impulses and twists to ease the effect of “same old same old”. Not always successfully; sometimes their ideas are even plain dumb. But even the worst critics will have to attest Valve at least an “A” for effort.
I still love the game. But after all these years I’m also a bit tired of the constant idiocy one encounters (and I’m sure I see much less of that than I would if I played random pubs). The new medals have an interesting side effect, though. When I see somebody with a silver or golden badge I will know that I’m not dealing with a newbie, and will rightfully have certain expectations. And when that player acts stupidly I know it’s unlikely to be caused by inexperience.
Valve gave us a public document of our seniority. Time to live up to that.
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