I'm a big fan of Team Fortress 2. I've been playing it on a semi-regular basis ever since it launched back in 2007. Over the years I've seen it undergo many changes, some of which I didn't care for. Sometimes I wish I could go back to TF2's early days, before the deluge of hats and fps-draining particle effects brought down the game's distinctive art style and system-friendly performance.
Enter TF2 1.0.0.9:
http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2pzehm/come_play_tf2_1009_from_2007_with_us/
Basically, it's a build of the game circa November 15th, 2007. It's old-school TF2 warts and all, with no unlockables and bugs/exploits galore! In some ways it feels like a completely different game, one that had vanished long ago. It can be hard to find a populated server, but when I did the memories came flooding back.
Perhaps what surprised me the most is how much smoother the game runs. My old computer struggles to maintain over 20 fps on minimum settings with "modern" TF2, but I can crank 1.0.0.9's settings up to high and it's smooth as silk. I knew all those hats and particle effects negatively impacted performance, but I didn't realize the full extent of it until now. I had forgotten how pretty TF2 can look.
It got me thinking; Jagex made legions of old-school Runescape fans happy with the release of Runescape 2007. Were they onto something? Is there an untapped market to be had for "vanilla" versions of online games? Back when I played WoW I ran across lots of players that waxed nostalgic for the "good old days" of 2004. Before that I remember many Jedi Outcast players running unpatched servers because they didn't like the changes the latest updates brought to the table.
Now obviously such an approach opens up potential issues, namely the splintering of the community and the logistics of running servers for two different versions of the game. Still, I would argue that the folks unhappy with the changes would have left the game anyway, and one could pay for the "vanilla" servers by offering discounted prices (only fair seeing as it offers less content).
What do you think? Am I onto something here, or am I just a crazy old man stuck in the past?
Enter TF2 1.0.0.9:
http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2pzehm/come_play_tf2_1009_from_2007_with_us/
Basically, it's a build of the game circa November 15th, 2007. It's old-school TF2 warts and all, with no unlockables and bugs/exploits galore! In some ways it feels like a completely different game, one that had vanished long ago. It can be hard to find a populated server, but when I did the memories came flooding back.
Perhaps what surprised me the most is how much smoother the game runs. My old computer struggles to maintain over 20 fps on minimum settings with "modern" TF2, but I can crank 1.0.0.9's settings up to high and it's smooth as silk. I knew all those hats and particle effects negatively impacted performance, but I didn't realize the full extent of it until now. I had forgotten how pretty TF2 can look.
It got me thinking; Jagex made legions of old-school Runescape fans happy with the release of Runescape 2007. Were they onto something? Is there an untapped market to be had for "vanilla" versions of online games? Back when I played WoW I ran across lots of players that waxed nostalgic for the "good old days" of 2004. Before that I remember many Jedi Outcast players running unpatched servers because they didn't like the changes the latest updates brought to the table.
Now obviously such an approach opens up potential issues, namely the splintering of the community and the logistics of running servers for two different versions of the game. Still, I would argue that the folks unhappy with the changes would have left the game anyway, and one could pay for the "vanilla" servers by offering discounted prices (only fair seeing as it offers less content).
What do you think? Am I onto something here, or am I just a crazy old man stuck in the past?