Team Fortress 2 Punishing Item Idlers, Rewarding the Rest

[Abedeus]

I like how the halos (ie the rewards),
1) look horrible
2) make you easy sniper targets
3) make you visible when invisible as spy
4) make you "glow in the dark"

WOW NOW I REALLY WANT ONE.
*sarcasm*

About the 2, 3 and 4:

Holy Valve Fail, Gabe!

Yes because as creative director Gabe is the one in charge of coding all this stuff. No wait, that's wrong.

I don't see why people are so pissed off. You complain about not having hats, you complain about hats not serving any purpose, now one serves a purpose. I really am just finding all of this more reasons to praise Valve for not putting up with whiny bullshit and more reasons to just think the entire TF2 community has become jaded and has an undeserved sense of self-entitlement.

Also, the option is always there to not wear it. It doesn't even take up space in your backpack. Sheesh. I have one. I'm not wearing it. Because I don't see a reason to. I see it as a funny little gag gift that Valve handed out. Everyone else seems to see it as a backhanded compliment. Perhaps you're all doing it wrong, and need to stop being so damn serious about a game

I said "Gabe" because he's the CEO, no? His dev team, his game.

It's just that when they make an ugly hat that only harms you, as a way of saying "thank you for not cheating"... It feels kinda degrading, no? It's like their award for our honesty was us being an easier target to kill.

Not to mention that it was a really last-minute thing, considering how Spy's cloak doesn't work on the hat ;d

So basically you're pissed off that they created something really quickly and didn't have time to make sure it worked, just like everything else they've updated into the game (well aside from the quickly part). Maybe it's because I always expect this to happen but, yeah my point is things could've been a lot worse. They tried to do something nice and kinda had to hurl it out the door quickly. I don't exactly harbor ill will towards them for it.

And no, it is not his responsibility to make sure the code works. As I learned a while back the QA team can point out a bug but it ultimately is the programmers who have to make sure it's fixed. It'd be like blaming Kaz Hirai for everything wrong with any SCEA game.

Where did I ever say that it's his responsibility to make sure the code works?

His company's game's developement team's fail? His.

So in other words you are saying it's his responsibility. That is your line of thinking. Nevermind the fact that before you even reach Gabe you have at least one other person in charge of everyone working on TF2.

No, you are saying that!

How about you try to look past the joke line, because it was a joke refering to the Batman's Robin quotes. But who would you put instead of Gabe, eh? Everyone knows HIM.


Fact is - if you want to thank someone, don't do it in a cheap way. If you love someone, you don't give them 5 bucks for birthday. You know how they say "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything"? It should also mean "if you can't thank properly, don't thank at all". Or "if you want to do something, do it right or don't do it at all".

 

[G-Mang]

Here's a bit of clarification for people who don't know about it all:

1. Valve released cosmetic items in TF2 (hats) that were randomly acquired by being present in a TF2 server. Once every few hours, you had a fraction of a percent chance to get one of them, regardless of what you did in the server.

2. Server owners with low player counts decided they could fill their servers by just making them empty rooms so people could get hats by idling. Achievement_idle servers are born and become popular.

3. The TF2 community, which already had an achievement farming divide, was further divided by the idling debate.

4. A guy made a program that made the TF2 servers think you were logged in to a large server with nothing going on in it so that you could get a hat similarly to the way described in #2, but without actually running TF2. It had the same effect as sitting in an idle server except that it used less bandwidth and computer power.

5. Valve made no comment on this third-party program for a number of months. The maker of the idler said was never told anything by Valve, and said he would take it down if they requested. At one point (within the past week or two), Gabe Newell publicly said he would describe it as cheating but that there wouldn't be any action taken upon it.

6. Valve removed from all inventories any items gained from the idler program, but not from idler servers. Those who used the program, for any amount of time, even before Newell had said it was cheating, were implied in a blog post to be morally inferior cheaters, and all other players, including those who had not even played since the hat system was introduced, were given a glowing halo hat.

7. The community has divided further. Admins are banning people based on whether or not they wear the halo. Medics are healing people based on whether or not they wear the halo. Players are trolling each other based on whether they wear the halo.


I used the idler for one night cause I accidentally deleted a weapon. The idler didn't get me the weapon, and I pretty much didn't bother after that. I have never gotten a hat, and frankly, I don't care. I think most of them are just making spotting and headshotting you easier for enemies. I'm the kind of player who, in MMO's, would only buy things with actual game effects (7 level 20's in Guild Wars, 0 prestige armor). I couldn't care less about cosmetic crap.


What I DO care about is the livelihood of TF2 and the cohesiveness of the community, and right now, Valve is totally destroying it. I cannot imaging a worse way of handling this without taking away legitimate items or banning players. I'm just awestruck at how recklessly they divided the community that was already clearly unstable. I can't imagine what they were thinking when they went through that, particularly when they decided to start talking morals and refused to give any sort of warning or rule announcement during any of the months in which the idler was public.

 

[shMerker]

5. Valve made no comment on this third-party program for a number of months. The maker of the idler said was never told anything by Valve, and said he would take it down if they requested. At one point (within the past week or two), Gabe Newell publicly said he would describe it as cheating but that there wouldn't be any action taken upon it.

6. Valve removed from all inventories any items gained from the idler program, but not from idler servers. Those who used the program, for any amount of time, even before Newell had said it was cheating, were implied in a blog post to be morally inferior cheaters, and all other players, including those who had not even played since the hat system was introduced, were given a glowing halo hat.

I wasn't aware that Newell had actually addressed this before. Do you have a link to the relevant interview or article?

 

[spyder25000]

I have played tf2 for hours (non idle) then they introduced the new system of hats.
i only got 1 after 4 weeks of waiting play at least 4 hours each day.
I have played over 150 hours of tf2 since the new system AND HAVN'T GOT A SINGLE HAT, while my friend who has played less and is new has 4 hats!
Now wtf valve! you should reward your customers that have been with you since week 1.

i only lost 1 item in which i had another one which was a higher level...
also i dont remember being told idling was illegitimate.

 

[spinFX]

I accidently discarded my Halo. It was the only hat I had. I am in so much pain right now.

 

[Snotnarok]

I got the halo and it's cool but I'm going to wait for them to fix the bugs with it, I saw a spy run into my area given away by the halo when cloaked. Since I use the spy that's not something I want to risk haha

 

[Radelaide]

If Ng doesn't add this, I might just pop it in here now.

The people who cheated are being branded. People within your friends list who idled will have banners appear over their avatars that say "Cheater! (apparently)" EDIT: The Banners are user initiated. Ergo, done at the whim of the player. My mistake.

You can't blame Valve for anything. They tried something new and it didn't work. And because it didn't work, the dev team are fixing it because people broke the rules. Way to go guys, you got the change you wanted. Now stop bitching about how you're having hats you acquired against Valve rules taken away from you. Sheesh!

 

[Russian_Assassin]

All I hear in TF2 is people crying over hats in a game. HATS IN A GAME! You know what really is tragic? The fact that I can not find the hat I want in REAL LIFE. You know, that strange and frightening world outside of you windows.

...I want a fedora so badly ;_;

Oh and I love the Halo btw, although it's just a ring on some piece of wire.

PS: Life's not fair sometimes, shut up about the hats already!

 

[AceDiamond]

Yeah seriously can someone remind me why hats are such a big deal?

 

[Phenakist]

It sounds like people are complaining about getting something that they can rub in a minority of people's faces.

If you don't like the new hat, don't complain, don't wear it, they've still increased the drop rate for the other ones, and the cheaters get what they deserve... everyone wins, except for the loosers, because they are loosers.

 

[rasmusernst]

Hatgate... argh! Here come the nerd-rage. Seriously who cares enough about stupid digital hats, to go out of their way and use game exploits to get them?

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

See, guys? Valve's not so bad. Unfortunately for me, I'm not part of the PC gaming master race, so I guess I won't be able to access any of the TF2 updates, but still, I'm glad to hear this as it proves that Valve's not completely heartless.

 

[GrinningManiac]

Well'p, I'm wearnin' mah 'Alo wi'pride, Oi 'am

Well, I'm wearing my Halo with Pride, I am

Kvrat, Ny Ichlian'I "Halo" pra Ckeor, Ny'

 

[Raregolddragon]

Don't ware the halo if your a spy or sniper, gives away your position every time.

 

[Phyroxis]

I like my halo.

Though.. I haven't played in a while, so did I really /earn/ it by actively not cheating?

 

[thatstheguy]

My friend calls it the failo, because if you're a spy and you try to cloak, you can still see the halo. Plus, it's easier to notice the enemy and vice verca.

 

[thatstheguy]

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

Don't worry, most of the updates make the game unbalanced anyway. Still, it would be nice if the console versions had the new maps.

 

[Phyroxis]

Don't ware Wear the halo if your a spy or sniper, a lot gives away your position every time.

Corrected. :-D

 

[Ayres]

I haven't played in a few months, I wonder if I get the Halo too?

I'm pretty sure you should do, out of the few friends I know who have the game everyone who had not used the idle program got a halo doesn't matter when the last time you played was. I do feel bad for my friend though who got a hat while playing on a standard server but he had 2 other hats from the idle server, when he logged on the other day all of them were gone. For some reason a whole load of his other weapons were deleted as well including achievement acquired ones but at least valve said they would refund items lost but originally gained through achievements. The sad thing is I know someone else who idled to get weapons but not using the idle program so they kept almost all of their weapons, he had tried the idle program so he didn't get the halo, but the weapons are the important thing.