It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". This opening phrase from Charles Dickens’ classic novel of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities, can also be applied to describe the current state of the Team Fortress community.

It is the best of times in many ways. Hardware is available at decent prices, video technology is improving at an exponential rate, large hard drives are dirt cheap, cpu’s are getting faster and faster and there is no end in sight. The AMD Athlon™ (currently at 750 MHz) is now in production at 1 GHz. That’s 1,000 MHz. The NVIDIA™ GeForce 256™ chipset is capable of processing ten million polygons per second, motherboards are available that will support dual processors, major manufacturers are supplying systems loaded with Linux operating systems, and high-speed internet connections are becoming more readily available to the masses.

There are some excellent map makers who devote countless hours creating outstanding maps for us to play. HellFace, a personal friend of mine, is a good example of this. He has been making maps since the early TF days and is a prolific contributor to the scene. He also wrote a program (Vote) which permits the players to vote on the next map but unfortunately the latest release of TFC has a bug that doesn’t let Vote work properly. His popular map, Darkness is being updated to Darkness2, and the interesting thing about his maps is that he actively solicits player feedback on forums, via email, ICQ, or any other means. To download his Darkness and Betrayed (I love that name) and to check his progress, go to DARK/BETRAYAL, his map page.

One of, if not the most positive things that I see now is the evolution of a group of players who are dedicated to team play and helping others. TeamPF. The TeamPF stands for Team Play First. THAT is what TF/TFC is all about, isn’t it? I’ll talk about DMFortress (Death Match with classes) later, but these guys are walking the walk. I have nothing but respect and admiration for what they have accomplished. Before I had to take an involuntary hiatus from the game several months back I was doing my utmost to promote Honor, Sportsmanship and Team Play. Even though I often felt it was for naught, the seeds I helped to plant took hold and grew. Folks like Totentanz, Kinlord, Gudlyf, Cheat_H8tr, EricP and many others I don’t have room to mention here nurtured the ideal of Honor and Sportsmanship in an environment where wankers are the norm. I sincerely thank all of you for fighting The Good Fight™ in my absence. Upon my return, I found many references to something called "TPF" on the Planetfortress Forums. In fact, they have their own forum there. Make sure to go to the PF Forums and click on the TPF link. There you will find a great bunch of folks who are quite knowledgeable and are willing to help you with just about any problem you have. TPF are without a doubt the most helpful and accessible people in the game. Speaking of forums, the folks from Valve frequent the forums and answer questions. That shows their willingness and desire to see what the players think and to help them with their needs.

I can’t possibly talk about the good things without mentioning Pinhead. Pinhead is one of the smartest people I know. He is a wealth of knowledge on many subjects but the one that he is most noted for is his indepth testing in pursuit of a better ping and how to reduce lag. Unless you are running on an OC3 you definitely need to visit Pinhead’s page. Many thanks, Pinhead.

As you can see, there are the best of times in many ways. The community has grown a lot since the introduction of TFC and with this growth there are a lot of new players who have never played TF. Along with the new players there was a shift in the "identity" of the typical player. I, being an old school TF’er, welcome the influx of more mature players that have made a home with TPF and some of the clans. On the other hand, I can’t say that I’m enamored with the physics of the Half-Life engine when applied to TF. I never even accepted rocket jumping, much less all the conc jumping that is part of the game now. The game has been bastardized to the point it is barely recognizable now, even though the eye candy is great.

It’s time to segue into the second part of my post - that of being "The worst of times". Like I said in the above paragraph, the eye candy in TFC is outstanding, but it comes at a price. The bar has been raised in terms of baseline equipment requirements. I don’t have a problem with it since I a) have a job, and b) don’t mind spending the money to have good equipment. To paraphrase Scatterblak, another friend of mine, "Good players get good equipment". In other words, don’t expect an old Ford Pinto to keep up with a Porche. The Porche will win every time, all else being equal. This also applies to your internet connection, but there is less you can do about that part. Let’s face it - DSL and cable modems are not available to everyone. In fact, there are still a lot of places where 56K isn’t an option. As far as the hardware part goes, there are many players who don’t have the latest gear and have no way to get it. Since the public has become convinced they must get "the internet" for little Johnny, they have bought some pretty tacky units for their kids. These kids are quickly frustrated when they can’t keep up with the rest of the pack and often become wankers who do their best to spoil everyone else’s fun. I’m not saying that they are all that way, but come on - don’t tell me it isn’t a big part of the problem we have on public servers.

I see the equipment/connection problems getting worse as new games are introduced. Take TF2 for example. I, for one, am convinced that your basic P200 with 64 Meg just won’t hack it for TF2. It played just fine in TF, will barely work with TFC and probably won’t be a player with TF2. Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so. I don’t want to be unable to enjoy new things because someone else can’t keep up. Unfortunately, ol’ Dad probably won’t see the need in buying Junior a new box just to play a new game. So Junior becomes even more frustrated and either drops out or joins the Dark Side. The games of today DEMAND a decent system and a good internet connection, no matter what their minimum specs call for in their press releases. Game developers are in a quandary because they have to appeal to the broadest group they can. I believe Valve will to their best to maintain the playability vs. eye candy/features situation they can. I’m sure we’ll be pleasantly surprised.

TF is going through what may be called it’s death struggles now. It is the opinion of many old school TF’ers (and myself) that TF is packed with cheaters and is quite newbie intolerant. The new players are drawn to TFC and have no inclination to even try TF - after all, TFC is the latest Big Thing®, is it not? For the record, I much prefer TF over TFC. As I said earlier, I don’t care for the physics of the Half-Life engine when applied to TF. Additionally, the player models are larger (20% larger I think) and the maps "feel" smaller. This, when coupled with the different game engine physics, have enabled players to bastardize the classes to the point that defensive classes have become offensive classes. The Medic was NEVER intended to be an offensive class. Now he is a major part of any team’s offensive cadre. What happened to healing your team mates? It is rare to see it anymore. I brought this up on a forum one time and was told that if you needed healing on defense you should go to the resupply locker and grab a health pack. Excuse me? Well, call it what you will, but that wasn’t the intent of the class. Nor were Scouts intended to fly. The conc jumping mania that has become a stock-in-trade of Medics and Scouts have totally changed the makeup of the game. Soldiers use double rocket jump scripts to bypass the defenses on many maps while the Medics and Scouts simply fly over them. To my amazement, this is not only accepted but is condoned and encouraged!

My very favorite pet peeve is respawn "camping". You can visit nearly any forum and mention respawn "camping" and you’ll be able to identify the less-than-honorable and wankers. Throw a rock in a pack of dogs and you’re bound to hit one. heh. They come back with all the arguments about how it is a "valid tactic" and all that rubbish. Furthermore, they’ll tell you that it is so easy to kill the offending "camper" that you have no reason to complain. Well, I’ll tell you right now that the focus shouldn’t be on whether it is a "valid tactic" or not, but whether it is the right thing to do. I could care less what two clans agree to do in a match - I’m talking about playing on public servers. There is no excuse to do that on a pub server. If these respawn camping assholes as so good, why to they insist on preying on players who can’t defend themselves? If they are as "leet" as they would have you believe it seems to me they would "own ju" straight up without just getting cheap frags to make their kill/death ratio look good. Bah, I would ban them from the game for life if it were left to me. My isp is setting up game servers as we speak. I am likely to become the TF/TFC/TF2 admin for our server. Guess what? I’ll ban you for life in a heartbeat if you wank on my server. Don’t say you weren’t warned. Not only that, but I’ll publish your WON ID so other admins can ban you as well. heh.

I think this is the worst of times for our community because I don’t see a lot of people actively condemning wankers and their lame practices. Even the TPF folks, whom I consider the most honorable group around, don’t come out strong against wankers. Rather than condemn their actions, there is a general attitude of "tolerance" and mild disapproval. I say that you should call a spade a spade and be done with it. There is no doubt where I stand on this or any other issue and I’d like to see more people take stronger stands on issues that affect the community. Until wanking and respawn "camping" are deemed to be unacceptable they are here to stay. Until players stand up and speak out nothing will change. Until admins and rcon holders actually police their servers (yes, that was a deliberate choice of words), the assholes will have their way. I refuse to let them go unaccountable and so should you.

In summary, now is the time for us to get our act together for the next Big Thing® - TF2. Just like I said before TFC hit the streets, we really need to make a decision on how we want things to go and act on it. I guarantee you that there will be another mass influx of people who have never played an online game in their lives, people who are refugees from Death Match games, and people who are just curious. The community will evolve (devolve?) and many changes will take place. It is up to US to influence it and help it achieve the level of gameplay we desire. I am so sick of joining a game and finding it is only Death Match with classes. The respawn "campers" are a classic example of this, but it is not limited to them. Have you ever entered a game only to find NO organized defense or offense? Of course you have. Have you ever entered a game only to be told "no caps!"? Of course you have. Have you ever entered a game only to find a team that is all soldiers, medics or scouts? Probably. Do you think this is fun? I don’t. Do you think this is the way the game was intended to be played? I KNOW it isn’t.

Much like a very wise man said about government: "The people get the government they deserve" - I will say that you’ll get the gameplay you deserve. If you don’t do something about it, you have no right to complain. If I’ve said something that has made you think, then I’ve accomplished my goal. If I’ve said something that you agree with, that’s even better. If I’ve said something that has made you see things in a different light - well, that is great. I just hope that the Honorable folks who never participate on a forum, never write an editorial and who are letting someone else do the talking for them realize that it is also up to THEM to fight The Good Fight™.