19/2/24 - Just to preface, this is a rant, but read on if you wanna.
Watching Zesty's latest video (the 4 hours is well worth it btw, please watch it) awakened me to a world of TF2 I had mere glimpses of in my middle school days. A TF2 that was full of community, wackiness, and fun between players on both teams. Now, I see how far it's fallen. This game is not even a shell of its former, more community-oriented and carefree self, it just isn't itself anymore completely. And this COMPLETE degradation in every aspect of the game came from negligence and poor prioritization of what part of the playerbase matters most (the answer is NOT THE <10% WHO PLAYS COMP btw).

I've been betrayed by gaming companies numerous times, of course we all have, but Valve as an entity is truly despicable, and I hope that more people will realize this. Yeah, back in the day, Valve made Half-Life, Portal, and all those other cool games. They made TF2 too, and we all love(d) that game! But Valve now? It's an unresponsive monolith of the industry that will barely EVER listen to and act on community feedback, still holding on to the pristine reputation that the world has given them while making decisions that have butchered the fanbases of some of their largest games, stabbing those communities in the back while they reply with thousands of dollars in key and crate purchases. They have lost my trust and respect and honestly any positive sentiment I had for them. God, what hurts the most is that Steam really just has me at gunpoint. Literally the day before I watched this video that truly opened my eyes to all of this, I was buying cards to make badges so I could get a fancy new showcase on my steam profile. I feel so stupid doing that now, even if it was just pocket change. I will forever be tied to this app and the company that runs it, whether I like it or not. I'm prolly even gonna forget about my feelings towards Valve in a few months if I don't forcefully remind myself, due partly to the way short form content has rotted my attention-span/memory and also due to just how fun TF2 still is despite everything. I wanna hope that they're still listening, that Valve will one day bring more than just a part-time contractor to fix this game, maybe revert more of their terrible decisions, and maybe the dead art of hosting community servers will be revived once more. What a dream that is.

For those that decided to read this review and have not watched the vid, please do so. Valve has massacred what we hold dear. Even if you've only played post-MYM, post Jungle Inferno (which I did for 99% of my playtime), that doesn't change what they've taken from you. Please watch the video and find out for yourself why that is.

idk how to end this, except that I miss this period of TF2 that I had basically never experienced with my own two eyes. May we get back what was taken from us.


29/04/24
A haiku, from the community, to Valve.

Aimbots have to go.
Free-to-plays deserve better.
Please #FixTF2.