Team Fortress 2 Punishing Item Idlers, Rewarding the Rest

[Keane Ng]

Team Fortress 2 Punishing Item Idlers, Rewarding the Rest

Did you use an external program to help yourself earn items in Team Fortress 2? Prepare to have all of those items taken away.

Earning item drops in Team Fortress 2 hasn't always been an enjoyable experience for everyone, and I'm sure we've all heard tell of folks who have been dissatisfied to the point where they'll use an external program to help earn those drops. Though some folks might argue that the use of these programs is justified and doesn't [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=955426] necessarily constitute cheating, Valve has decided that it's time punish these people.

"Over the next few days we'll be removing all TF2 items that were earned using external idling applications," Valve's Erik Johnson said [http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2787]. "We're going to adopt a zero tolerance policy for external applications used to manipulate the persistent item system."

Everyone who has used an external program in the past will have the items they got through "cheating the system" removed. In the future, if you try to pull a fast one on the game again, you'll lose all the items you have.

"Meanwhile, everyone who took the moral high road will soon be finding a new hat in their inventory," Johnson said. "We've also significantly increased the chance of finding any of the existing hats."

The new hat is a halo. Since, according to Johnson, only 4.5% of TF2 players "cheated" in the first place, well, I'll bet you're going to be seeing a whole lot of halos in TF2 from here on out. Things might get a little weird.

Permalink

 

[Citrus]

Sucks to be 4.5% of the playerbase. The new item system is extremely lame, but I have no objections to the guys who cheated it getting a slap on the wrist (or rather, the face). It'll leave some people to flaunt my new hat to.

 

[Lord_Panzer]

How would they even find out if you used a external program?

Big Brother.

OT: Honestly, I was excited about the free hat, I really was. But then I found out it was a halo, and not a real hat, and then I wasn't as excited anymore.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

Haha, eat that PC users! I use the Xbox and don't... have... updates... *Cries*

 

[JRCB]

I don't understand why people would try cheating the system for a hat in a video game. Seriously, if you find one, awesome. If you don't, oh well. Not like you can see it that often. Or that it makes a difference.

 

[dthvirus]

I jsut had an update to TF2... so they might be going through with this now. Well, yay, I have only a Soldier's Stash plus one more incoming I guess. More than most, I know.

 

[The Political Gamer]

:/ I have the medal, I could care less that I did not get the Halo.

 

[LtFerret]

Haha, eat that PC users! I use the Xbox and don't... have... updates... *Cries*

Don't worry, you're not alone. *Hugs*

Mind if i join in ;_;

 

[ShadeOfRed]

Alright. Haven't been playing TF2 or caring about hats much, but it might finally stop all of the SteamStats threads at GameFAQS.

 

[Rednog]

Sadly the halo will probably be my first hat, I've play for days on end and nothing except the same weapons over and over...

 

[Satin6T]

Haha, eat that PC users! I use the Xbox and don't... have... updates... *Cries*

Don't worry, you're not alone. *Hugs*

Mind if i join in ;_;

gay


...tear...

 

[triorph]

this is lame, they should have just given the weapons at the start, or at least made the required achievements for the weapons waaay easier so that it requires only about 5 hours of casual playing on a particular class. I don't mind making people work/play for the hats, but since the weapons affect gameplay its lame to be excluding them from people. Thought this was the whole point of the addition of randomisation into the game, but they just made the randomisation too long.

 

[dekkarax]

:/ I have the medal, I could care less that I did not get the Halo.

...
could you turn around for maybe a second?

 

[Zayren]

Seems Valve has no idea what they're doing anymore. The shit storm from this could have been seen a mile away.

The 4.5% of the player base is more like 30% of the active players. I have no idea where they pulled that 4.5% from. 11,000 people were on the idler at one time, and who knows how many other people only used it for a minute or two? The amount of unique players on the idler is way higher than the 4.5% they give out, and just seems to be Valve trolling.

And then to give something to people for being "incorruptible"? Really? That's just a kick in the nuts. Honestly, Valve should have just made a blog post saying it was bad and it would have been shut down. Instead they wait for months (it's been around since the Sniper/Spy update) and drops cryptic little tidbits. I mean, last I heard they considered it cheating, but at the same time no action would be taken because it really didn't increase odds of getting anything as if you'd been playing during the same time.

Worst of all, if someone did decipher that and conclude Valve would punish them and stopped using the idler, too bad. Even if you stopped, all your stuff is gone.

I'm a bit fed up with Valve right now. Not because I lost Texas Slim's Dome Shine, the worst hat in the game and able to be worn without having it with a little glitch, but because of the way they handled this. It's like they're trying to piss off their active players.

 

[Kajin]

My friend just logged into TF2 only to find that about eight of his items had been removed for cheating. Thing is, he's never cheated.

 

[War Penguin]

Haha, eat that PC users! I use the Xbox and don't... have... updates... *Cries*

Don't worry, you're not alone. *Hugs*

Mind if i join in ;_;

Ditto.

I must say, though, my prediction of the halo will work like this:
*Blue kills Red*
*Red comes back with halo*
Blue: Holy crap! I just killed you and you must've come back as a ghost! AAAHHH!!!
*Blue flees*

I want that to happen.

 

[AceDiamond]

I'm a bit fed up with Valve right now. Not because I lost Texas Slim's Dome Shine, the worst hat in the game and able to be worn without having it with a little glitch, but because of the way they handled this. It's like they're trying to piss off their active players.

I'm an active player and I'm not pissed off. Maybe it's because, oh, I dunno, I'm not a filthy cheating idler

But seriously. only 4% of users affected, meaning only 4% of them cheated in this way, meaning that it's not a serious hit if they stop playing. Cause they already bought the game.

 

[guardian001]

How would they even find out if you used a external program?

It connects you to a fake server that simulates you being in game without you actually being there. They probably just did a check against the fake server.

OT: Good. If they care so much about getting a hat that they don't feel they even need to play the game to get them, they don't deserve the damn things. I'm going to be over here not caring about whether or not I have a hat and enjoying the game instead.