What is up with the sheer amount of people who seem to think you "pay to win," or as TvTropes puts it, "Bribing Your Way To Victory"? I could understand if this was an RPG and they were offering more powerful items that could only be bought, but this is ridiculous.
Every single FREE, mind you, update has given either completely cosmetic items (hats, medals, whatever) or alternate weapons. What I don't understand is why people seem to think these alternate weapons are somehow "better." They're side-grades, not upgrades. Everything is playtested and balanced, and anything too over- or underpowered is tweaked fairly quickly in updates. The more important thing to remember is that 98% of the time someone is complaining about a weapon being overpowered, it's simply because they don't know how to counter it.
Yeah, I thought the direct hit was horribly unbalanced, and then I learned to dodge. I thought the backburner was like putting on God Mode (to be fair, when they put it out it gave you +50 hp and did insane damage), but then I learned to face people when I run away. I used to think the spy's new knife Your Eternal Reward was way too difficult to even spot, then I tried playing as it, and it's extremely tricky to use properly.
Point is, all these new items change up the game. Instead of falling into the same tired strategies of memorization and repetition, where the best players are those who've played the exact same thing more times than anyone else; instead you get all kinds of new things forcing you to shake things up, to stay on your toes. How is this a bad thing? I honestly think I'd have stopped playing a long time ago if it weren't for the constantly changing experience. I've been playing since the day it came out, more than 3 years ago, and they keep giving me reasons to stay.
Oh, and the thing about the items is, no one is forcing you to buy them. The crates are annoying, yeah, but after 3 years of Valve giving us free updates almost religiously, I have absolutely no problem supporting them. Plus, the community item- and map-makers get paid for their work. Again, how is this a bad thing? Also, if you're bothered by people disregarding the actual game to spam trade requests in chat, I'd suggest finding a different server. Try some of the major communities, they don't put up with that kind of shenanigans, and chances are the people you play with will be of a much better disposition than random pubbers.
Excuse the giant rant, I just really like this game and the communities around it, and I think it's kinda sad to see people turned off by something this minor.
Every single FREE, mind you, update has given either completely cosmetic items (hats, medals, whatever) or alternate weapons. What I don't understand is why people seem to think these alternate weapons are somehow "better." They're side-grades, not upgrades. Everything is playtested and balanced, and anything too over- or underpowered is tweaked fairly quickly in updates. The more important thing to remember is that 98% of the time someone is complaining about a weapon being overpowered, it's simply because they don't know how to counter it.
Yeah, I thought the direct hit was horribly unbalanced, and then I learned to dodge. I thought the backburner was like putting on God Mode (to be fair, when they put it out it gave you +50 hp and did insane damage), but then I learned to face people when I run away. I used to think the spy's new knife Your Eternal Reward was way too difficult to even spot, then I tried playing as it, and it's extremely tricky to use properly.
Point is, all these new items change up the game. Instead of falling into the same tired strategies of memorization and repetition, where the best players are those who've played the exact same thing more times than anyone else; instead you get all kinds of new things forcing you to shake things up, to stay on your toes. How is this a bad thing? I honestly think I'd have stopped playing a long time ago if it weren't for the constantly changing experience. I've been playing since the day it came out, more than 3 years ago, and they keep giving me reasons to stay.
Oh, and the thing about the items is, no one is forcing you to buy them. The crates are annoying, yeah, but after 3 years of Valve giving us free updates almost religiously, I have absolutely no problem supporting them. Plus, the community item- and map-makers get paid for their work. Again, how is this a bad thing? Also, if you're bothered by people disregarding the actual game to spam trade requests in chat, I'd suggest finding a different server. Try some of the major communities, they don't put up with that kind of shenanigans, and chances are the people you play with will be of a much better disposition than random pubbers.
Excuse the giant rant, I just really like this game and the communities around it, and I think it's kinda sad to see people turned off by something this minor.
