Radio TF2 was IMHO a promising concept.
A glimpse into an alternate reality in which technology has developed differently than in ours. Over there computers were introduced much earlier into everybody’s life and consequently computer games entered the public scene decades ago. Games have become part of mainstream entertainment (We might get there in 10 to 15 years). And have also influenced or even penetrated other media, like music and literature.
In a world like that successful gamers or key figures in the developing industry would easily become celebrities (we already see glimpses of that and to my knowledge it’s more prominent in Asia, but that’s still a long way from entering the mind of the general public the same way musicians or actors do).
In the world of Radio TF2 the computer game – invented in the late 50s, early 60s – has become hugely popular and made Valve a Google-like leader among game developers (under the leadership of Gabe Newell III. branching out into other areas like creating their own OS, etc.).
And in this technologically advanced world people started in the 80s to create a real-life counterpart to the computer game (think Paintball, just far more advanced) which from underground pastime developed into an organized sports form with national and international championships.
I always thought that this could act as a fascinating backdrop to create a variety of interesting and/or hilarious things, captured in all kind of fake contents ... news, gossip, advertisement, sport reports and references to other media inspired by TF2. And of course songs.
The songs were simply one form in which to represent this world (also quite ideal to occasionally reflect on the game or mindset of players in our world), but I’ve always considered it just one facet of that concept.
If that concept was indeed interesting or if it was just a stupid brainfart of little me is surely up for discussion. But it’s safe to say that I’ve never really developed the idea beyond a fraction of its potential. In fact I think I was never the right person to do it (at least not alone). I’m not exactly the most funny guy in the world; and humour would have been needed to make this concept spicy and interesting (and worth reading).
I did make some quarter-arsed attempts to attract other people to help with this project. Apparently I was not successful. My bad entirely, though.
However, I was able to coax the wonderful Ripsaw into creating a sports comment for a TF2 championship. He put a lot of effort into it, not only developing the text but also created the background music and edited all the sounds. The more I feel ashamed that it took me so long to present his hard work to my readership. While this is merely another facet of that conceptional idea of mine I think this is a splendid example of what could have been done with it.
Kudos and many (belated) thanks to Ripsaw for a job awesomely done!
I still have a couple of almost-finished Radio-TF2-songs in my virtual drawer. Perhaps I’ll give it a shot to see if I can make them finally work.
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