The Fort 2

The Fort: Year One

Zardoz — 2010-04-18T22:20:51Z

Up-to-date news. Exclusive information. High quality journalism. Competent commentary from within the heart of the community.

Oh wait, we are talking about the Fort here. Strike the above and replace that with „Just another blog by a bloke with delusions of thinking his opinions were in any way relevant (or even interesting)“.

That's the consequential development of the internet in general and the phenomenon labeled web 2.0 in specific: Everybody inclined to offer his opinion is given countless opportunities to do so. Blogs, forums, community sites, twitter and what-not, usually combined with the inevitable commentary function to multiply the chatter. We have become a global cracker-barrel, with tons of cackle flung back and forth, with a highly variable signal-to-noise ratio.

Opinions are like assholes, and so on ..

Not that it was ever any different, but today anybody with a high-enough intelligence to actually type words (not regarding spelling, grammar or even resemblance to normal language) can do that on a global scale. The world as potential audience.

So let's be honest: The Fort is simply another expression of the web 2.0 culture. A dude who thinks he has some pearls of wisdom to offer to a world which has just waited for another blog to clog the net.

And what's worse, this guy isn't even so much rooted in the community. He doesn't regularly visit other TF-sites, he isn't part of a clan, heck, he's not even a decent player. His knowledge is inferior to that of any halfway ambitious gamer, but he pretends to have it all worked out.

Conveniently he writes about some highbrow stuff which almost nobody interests anyway, so it doesn't stand out so much. As such he's pretty much sabotaging his own agenda, therefore his own site. One could say it's natural selection at work, but sadly that law of nature far too little applies to blogs.

So let's just hope that he realizes soon that in fact he has little interesting to tell and stops wasting time and energy.

Honor, Sportsmanship and Teamplay: An Interview

Zardoz — 2009-08-22T20:42:46Z

With the conclusion of the editorial series about “Honor, Sportsmanship and Teamplay” we sat down with the author of the series, Teatime, to ask him a few questions about this particular matter.

The Fort: Teatime, what spawned the idea of creating this lengthy series of editorials about “Honor, Sportsmanship and Teamplay”?

Teatime: Well, those are the values the Fort is dedicated to. This dedication goes back to the old Fort, for a long time called “Fort Bundy”, from which I inherited the dedication. I still believe in those values as something worth promoting, but I also realize that at least sportsmanship and of course especially honor are terms which might not be immediately understandable in context of an online game, and so I decided to write a few explaining words which would also help to shed some light of the sprit and attitude driving the Fort.

The Fort: Of course “a few explaining words” is a bit of an understatement ...

Teatime: Guilty as charged. When I approached the series I was expecting to end up with three editorials with decreasing length going from “Teamplay” over “Sportsmanship” to “Honor”, also expecting the last one to be rather short). But digging into the matter I found each of the topics too complex to be treated in a single editorial without exceeding any reasonable length. All six are TL'DR candidates anyhow. And interestingly all three topics very much lent themselves to be divided into two parts which would cover different aspects of the respective topic.

The Fort: In the spirit of TL'DR: Can you tell in a few words why “Honor, Sportsmanship and Teamplay” is important?

Teatime: “Teamplay” should be pretty much self-explanatory. TF2 is a teamgame and increased quality in teamplay can only lead to more interesting and challenging games, which hopefully provide to be satisfying. “Sportsmanship” – in a nutshell - helps to improve the atmosphere and attitude of game and players, consequently offering the chance of a better and more wholesome gaming experience. “Honor” is more of a side issue, dealing with the idea of self-improvement on a personal level, but also with an improvement of the community as a social entity.
Short enough?

The Fort: Splendid, and I assume a number of people would have taken that happily over the lengthy editorials.

Teatime: Low blow ...

The Fort: I never really was on your side.
But let's move on. In your editorials you promote “Honor, Sportsmanship and Teamplay”, often in quite an arrogant manner. Reading it one is led to assume you would be the perfect embodiment of these values. Is this true? Are you a Saint?

Teatime: Hmm ... St. Teatime. It does sound nice, doesn't it?
But no, of course I'm far from being a saint. While I strongly believe in the values of sportsmanship, try to be a good teamplayer and try to act in ways which I described as honorable I'm not so much different from most other people. I'm not a very patient man and I'm known to have quite a temper, which sometimes gets the better of me.

The Fort: So you're a fluke.

Teatime: No, hopefully not. As I already mentioned in the last editorial of the series I think nobody can live up to these values in a perfect manner. Everybody who tries that will eventually fall short in one way or another. But not being perfect is human. The important part is to strive to act that way as much as possible. If you behaved unsportsmanlike because of thoughtlessness or because you were in a bad mood you should accept this moment of weakness and try to do better next time. Though even that experience isn't completely lost because those are the things which keep you humble.

The Fort: “Moment of weakness”. Going all religious on us, are you?

Teatime: That's an uncomfortable thought. “Honor, Sportsmanship and Teamplay” as an online gaming religion. I mean, there are far worse things to believe in, but I would prefer if we could agree that many of these values are rather common sense and can be accepted as useful without having to resort to blind belief.

The Fort: Well, we won't let you off the hook that easily. So you're a good teamplayer?

Teatime: I'm trying. Though, truth to be told, I could try harder sometimes. I'm a good teamplayer in that regard that I'm trying to play classes which are useful for the current situation, often also trying to fill gaps in the class layout. I have a few favourite classes, but I will rather be a mediocre medic so our team has at least one than being the 3rd soldier or engy.
What could need improvement is teamwork. You know, more coordination with my teammates and so on. I tend to be a lone wolf.

The Fort: Okay, next: Sportsmanship?

Teatime: Oh, I think I'm doing better in that area. I strongly believe in fairness and I think I'm doing quite well in acting in a sportsmanlike manner.

The Fort: Are you an honorable person?

Teatime: In real life? Not nearly as much as I'd like to be.
In the game? As I said, it's a striving thing. Trying, failing, trying again. I have a low threshold for stupidity and lack of common sense, which tests my patience quite a lot. Usually my frustration starts to show in sarcastic remarks and snippy comments, which is of course not helping at all and rather alienate people than getting them to reflect what might be wrong. In other words: Failure on my part.

The Fort: So you are preaching ideals you don't even yourself are able to uphold. Doesn't that make you a hypocrite?

Teatime: No, it just makes me the perfect target for my own “preaching”. A hypocrite usually represents positions which he doesn't believe in and doesn't act upon. I do believe in my statements and I try to act on those, but I don't quite live up to my own expectations.
Still, the fact that I might fail as a role model doesn't negate the validity and – hopefully - importance of my expositions.

The Fort: In your editorials you presume, even almost demand, a pretty mature attitude to online gaming and interaction with other people. How realistic is such a presumption, given the fact that a large number of gamers are in their teens?

Teatime: I don't think the presumption is unrealistic, but I'm the first to admit that my presentation will probably hold little incentive to younger players to think about the values I've discussed in those editorials and reflect on their attitude.
But on the other hand it's a rather universal phenomenon that the more mature members of social groups, like for example sport groups, try to coach or mediate younger people to adapt a more mature manner. Of course in real life those people have a bigger chance for success because they can approach the kids directly and in a personal manner, which is much more difficult on the internet.
Younger people have a different approach to social interaction. Many of them have no particular interest in respect or sportsmanship, sometimes even don't have a clear imagination what those words mean and why it should be important. Instead there's often a temptation to show off, to act cool and to catch the attention of others. This is usually multiplied when younger players move in groups. But again: That is the same as in real life. The bad thing is that some of these kids are craving for attention so desperately that if they can't catch attention by acting cool or impress by their skill they will rather take into account to receive this attention by provoking or angering other players or even fall back in grieving.

The Fort: What's the solution?

Teatime: There is no easy one. This kind of behaviour might be more prevalent with younger people, but it's by no way restricted to them. The most important thing we older (and hopefully more reasonable) players can do is to lead by example. Of course the highest chance in succeeding there are those who are able to bridge the gap by being skilled and/or cool themselves (which usually gets the attention and admiration of younger players) which makes it easier to act as role models.

The Fort: Do you really think the (online-) world would be a better place if everybody would take to heart the values of Honor, Sportsmanship and Teamplay?

Teatime: I can't imagine why not. I truly don't see a single disadvantage.

The Fort: So why do you think those values aren't any popular?

Teatime: For one, those values don't have a lobby. Teamplay as aspect of tactical considerations is covered, but usually strictly in that context, not as something worth pursuing as an attitude. This sadly is quite obvious when playing the pubs.
Also many people simply don't see the advantages. Many players either want attention, reputation or entertainment. No aspect of honor or sportsmanship ostensibly advances that in any immediate way. So why bother? Quite the contrary: The way today's society and economics promotes pursuit of success and aggressive pressing ahead gives behaviour like fairness, respect, humbleness etc. the appearance of weakness and a lack of decisiveness and determination to do what it takes to get ahead. Which in general is bullshit, but this kind of preconception prevails.
On top of all that: It has the flair of being uncool. Meeting people with respect, being humble after a victory, trying to act civil, all this sounds to young players like things their parents or teachers might preach. Which makes it uncool by definition and only tempts to behave in the opposite way. The challenge is to remove that stigma and to reclaim these values as a contemporary positive attitude. This, of course, could be achieved best by role models in the community. Sadly what is the greatest obstacle in that are the older players who should know better and simply don't care or even shy away from voicing their opinion in face of potential controversy or humiliation.

The Fort: Okay, before this leads into another editorial I'd like to thank for the talk and I'm looking forward to your next articles. Perhaps a little shorter next time?

Teatime: Don't count on it ...

Who is the Fort? (pt.1): Teatime

Zardoz — 2009-05-03T15:00:56Z

● Early Gaming Roots

While Teatime played a bit of games on earlier platforms his first encounter with PC games was DOOM back in 1994, which founded his preference for FPS. So yes, he is old.
Games which followed included: Duke3D, Quake 1+2, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, Wing Commander, TIE-Fighter, System Shock 1+2, Heretic, Hexen, Unreal, Medal of Honor, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Half-Life 1+2, CS, BF1942, BF2, Stalker, L4D.

Multiplayer experiences were limited primarily to occasional private LAN parties. Online gaming entered his life rather late. Teatime played some Quake online, but it was Half-Life's multiplayer mode, HLDM, which motivated him to play online more regularly.

● The Road to TFC

Playing deathmatch failed to grant a lasting interest. But HLDM featured an interesting variation by playing DM with teams. That kind of gameplay proved to be far more appealing, even in its limited form. So it was pretty much inevitable that the announcement of TFC caught Teatime's attention.
He downloaded the pre-release version which was available a few days prior to the official release (April 1999) and started playing this strange, yet exciting new game with teams, classes and flags.

● PlanetFortress

Back from his days playing Quake Teatime knew PlanetQuake, which - at that time - was a very good site for all kind of information and customization related to Quake (he even had downloaded an early version of TF but didn't quite knew what to make of it at that time).
So it was quite natural that during his ventures into HL and HLDM he consulted PlanetHalf-Life for HL-gameplay-info. And there he discovered that there was another Planet-site exclusively devoted to covering TF and the newly released TFC, called PlanetFortress (previously TF Newswire). He started visiting PF and its forums. Since PF reached back to the days of TF it had a community comprised of new players as well as a lot of experienced TF players which either were sticking with TF or were making the transition to TFC. The mature, good natured and helpful environment led Teatime to become a part of that community.

● TPF

Very soon (mid 1999) people on the PF forums (Teatime being one of them) decided to form a group which by help of the group's tag TPF (TeamPlayFirst) enabled people to find each other on the servers and play with each other (this was years before steam and friends lists). This group – much supported by the mature nature of the rest of the PF community - quickly developed a sense of game ethics, discussing and promoting topics like fairplay, sportsmanship and unethical tactics on pub games. Teatime was one of the more engaged and outspoken proponent of such values.
With TPF quickly growing from a community group into kind of a movement some aspects became more controversial, but the core of teamplay and fairness remained. Later TPF even spilled over into other games, and to the author's knowledge some remnants are still around today.

● Beta-Testing TFC

Due to some fortunate events a group of people from the PF community was invited by Valve to participate on the beta-tests for the upcoming 1.5 Patch in 2000. Teatime was part of that group and though the patch itself turned out to be very controversial it was an exciting and interesting experience.
The Playtests started in late December 1999 and took place every few weeks up to the release of the patch in June 2000.

This patch not only applied a new netcode, but it also executed changes on the gameplay and it introduced three new maps (one of these maps was called Dustbowl )

● The Fort

The Fort, at that time still Fort Bundy, was inactive during the first months of TFC, so it hadn't caught Teatime's attention. But with Bundy's return to the community and the reactivation of The Fort Teatime suddenly was confronted with another person who promoted the same values as Teatime did in TPF. What started with talks and discussions turned into mutual respect and friendship.
Teatime was invited to join The Fort mid 2000, just in time to witness Bundy leaving the community and the Fort in the wake of some nasty incidents with by-then PF-owner GSI. Bundy's friend and co-writer Totentanz took over the site, which was renamed to The Fort in accordance to Bundy's wishes.
Teatime continued writing for the Fort for 2 years, before he – eventually being the only remaining writer – also left the scene and the community.

More details on The Fort and its history can be found here

● TF2

With the release of TF2 Teatime has started playing TF again. During the first year playing was more casual and there were periods were he hardly played.
Having found a new community around Clan WDG, which is fun and interesting to spend time and to play with, has caused his TF2 gaming to intensify. It also prompted him to finally go through with his half-hearted attempts to revive The Fort. Well, you can see the result.

● Playing TF2

Teatime's main classes are Soldier, Heavy and Engineer, with some occasional Medic thrown in for good measure, and when times are getting desperate you might even see him playing some Demo or Scout – both rather pathetically.
It is unlikely that you will catch him playing Spy or Sniper, because he sucks on both

So, does Teatime have mad skillz? Well, the “mad”-part might be arguable. However, skill-wise he's a rather mediocre player who tries to compensate his lack of skills with persistence and tactical knowledge. Sometimes it even works …

● Clans

Teatime has never been a member of a clan.
This has various reasons.

For one Teatime is not an ambitious person and not overly competitive as a player. His prospect in gaming is to have an enjoyable and entertaining time, preferably without having to sacrifice a certain level of quality.

He also dislikes any kind of hierarchic structure, which isn't helping.

But Teatime also thinks that at least two thirds of all clan members are pompous, self-centered, arrogant jerks who are trying to compensate their pathetic real-life with l33t gaming skillz. That pretty much lowers the general attraction.

If Teatime should ever lose his virginity and join a clan it will be a good-natured and laid back clan like WDG or 30+ (from his days of TFC).

● Future

Well, time will tell how long TF2 will keep him interested.
Teatime is actually quite enjoying the way Valve keeps tweaking the game and experimenting with new weapons and items (which makes him a minority). He figures it must have been a bit like that back in the days of TF, when the original game was evolving.

He also hopes that he is able to make the Fort a place worth visiting and reading. He knows that it will probably never be as popular as its previous incarnations were, but that won't keep him from trying