There hasn’t been such a dedicated gaming community like “Team Fortress 2” in the past few years, but unlike other communities, it’s not because they’re happy. Fans of the team-based, first-person shooter are currently angry with the game’s developer, Valve, for not fixing the bot issue and have created the “#FixTF2” movement in protest. This movement hasn’t only affected “Team Fortress 2” but also Valve’s reputation overall.
The #FixTF2 community is at its most determined, almost like a final push before things get ugly. At the time of writing this article, over 339,819 people have signed a petition for Valve to fix “Team Fortress 2” and have resorted to a few other tactics to catch Valve’s attention since the community’s first protest was apparently misunderstood.
The first protest, “#SaveTF2,” was created to bring to Valve’s attention the bots that would join games, play as Sniper, and instantly lock onto players to kill them with a headshot. Bots would also play loud music over their mic, spam in the textual chat, and vote to kick real players. The game’s official X (formerly Twitter) account stated in May 2022, “We see how large this issue has become and are working to improve things.”
Afterward, barely anything was done to combat the issue. As a result, bot-hosters (individuals that spawn bots) have taken advantage of this free time to commit atrocious and illegal behavior, including bots saying slurs, doxxing players by scamming them with a false bot-immunity service, and even getting YouTuber MegaScatterBomb swatted for a false bomb threat made to his university after word spread about him developing an anti-bot measure.
Current protest tactics are split between peaceful and harmful. The peaceful tactics are means to spread awareness, such as users putting “#FixTF2” in their username and popular content creators making videos about the situation.
On the other hand, harmful tactics have also been used to show the seriousness of the situation. Some players have boycotted the in-game store to cut off Valve’s source of profit via microtransactions since the game is free-to-play. Others have given “Team Fortress 2” negative reviews on its Steam page en-masse.
As a player that has owned “Team Fortress 2” before it was free and had microtransactions, I believe it’s not great to review-bomb the game. After all, it’s Valve that we’re supposed to dislike and not the game we hope to repair. However, I recognize how noble these intentions are. The first protest didn’t get its desired response through peaceful means, meaning sooner or later something bigger would have to take place. It’s very unfortunate it had to be this.
However, there’s another question about Valve overall: What exactly has Valve been doing at all?
Valve constantly receives criticism for being one of the greatest video game companies that fell from grace due to making very great games infrequently and never making a third game for any of its series.
The very last game Valve released was “Counter Strike 2” in 2023, which was fun but disappointing when players realized it was “Counter Strike: Global Offensive” with better looks and less content. After three years between it and 2020’s “Half-Life: Alyx,” this is not what fans wanted at all, especially during the bot issue of “TF2” in its early stages.
Now, Valve is slightly under the radar. What’s known is that Valve is developing a new game named “Deadlock,” but nobody really cares mostly because of the “#FixTF2” movement. Considering how long it’s been since Valve made another landmark title, people would be more attached to what games they have.
That said, it would greatly assist if Valve were to fix “Team Fortress 2” before working on “Deadlock” to keep their player-base happy and garner up the hype it deserves. If Valve ignores “Team Fortress 2,” not only will there be less players, but Valve will attain the reputation of a creator that neglects its work. Thus, overwhelming issues like the “TF2” bot issue will be expected from Deadlock.
“Team Fortress 2” is a masterpiece that needs polishing now more than ever to retain its value. I have written about the apparent failure of #SaveTF2 in April 2023 and the seemingly promising Summer 2023 update, but it’s appalling that players like me have to even discuss the game’s current state after hope went awry.
Valve deserves some embarrassment for making a promise they didn’t keep. It’s likely that somebody in Valve has had a blip of #FixTF2 on their radar with the movement being as big as it is. The community doesn’t want another PR response or apology. If Valve cares about its community or its standing, all they have to do is #FixTF2.
You might want to boot up tf2 and see what happened. It’s pretty big.
Yeah, I’m seeing lots of reports regarding #FixTF2’s success as of lately- I wrote the article on June 22nd, but it was able to be published a week later. Thus, I will play some more TF2 for myself and write another article immediately.