Back in in the early 2000's, multiplayer was large and widely recommended to those who love to compete. Gaming was strange back then: we mostly got games of strange stories, bloody, mindless shooters with a small plot and games that took history into virtual reality. Although gaming was big and just a modern classic now, it still was seen as an open opportunity for new genres of games. Hello Wandering Traveler and welcome to this brief history in the famously known game, TF2.
Online-Multiplayer gaming was a thing in the short span of a decade of the early 2000's, but was ignored mostly because of the new idea and how most wouldn't match the greatness of Quake 3's Arena style format. The only successors to make it bigger than it was, were game like Timesplitters that took the Couch Gaming of Golden Eye to an online perspective. Doom 3's made amends to it's younger brother's Arena style. And the only one that stood out from the rest was Team Fortress, a game that had nothing to offer, but a simple task to defend/capture as you choose a class of 9 characters.
The game had the same style as it's great grandfather, Quake, had. You guessed it, Arena style battles, but the gameplay was switched. SInce the release of the first Medal of Honor, the game made a new way to play: team-based. It was new and was some of the more prefered way to play: fight the opposite side and win. Although, the game had objectives: Capture the Flag, Cap the Point, King of the Hill. Although the game a classic mode that became the most played was the Team Death Match, which (as you may already know) has you kill the other team with no second thought or reason.
Surprisingly, the game's engine ran on the original Half-Life engine. Since then, the engine used was expanded and became the core engine that almost every FPS game used. Call of Duty uses it today, but only modified. Some would even go as far to say that Team Fortress Classic was the reason for the famous shooter, Counter Strike, which was made by two teenage developers designed and re-programmed the engine. Although, almost with the same player models, they made and designed their own weapons to be featured in the game that the military forces used during terrorist extraction.
The game skyrocketed as many other modders and home devs started to design their own personal maps around the very game. This got the full attention of Valve's directors and producers. Since the two devs used the engine without permission, if they ever got caught, they would be arrested and get legal charges put against them. Instead, they were impressed and asked to sell the game to Valve. Since then, the game has gotten better and better as game graphically, gamplay wise, and even in popularity. As time went, a new game was asked for, Team Fortress 2.
In 2007, the game was released and had over 40 thousand players actively playing. The game was great, but lackluster. Something was missing that most players couldn't stand to miss. Although, the gameplay was fun, but seemed to be the same, with only amped up graphics and in a different style. Most didn't know, but most of the classes were claimed to be boring. The engineer stood in the same spot with his turrets standing watch as he sees the players get out of spawn as they pursue the action ahead. Within a few months, the game had a timer, something forced the players to quickly fight for their object before time runs out. Something completely changed the game and made the engineer a more fun time for a troll.
As a year of playing the game past, there was an update that changed the classes completely. Better graphics and player models, a grunt and voice to the player's character, and even added this all up with a Meet the Team trailers to explain what they did and who they were as a character. This expanded the lore and story of the game, which spanned three comic book series of the game to talk more about who these characters were without having to animate it or to say it in the game.
Along with the vast character development, this raised more fandom of the game, drawing over thousands of players to play it for the first time along with the thousands who already played it. Since the cinematic update, the game had a hilarious charm to it that made the game so rare and fun.
The War Update, was something that expanded the game's atmosphere and community interactions, which had the player choose a side, either the Demoman or the Soldier. There was a reason for the pick, since it was a short comic series that began with the two being friends, but forced to fight for lies told by their bosses about how one thought the other was stupid, or the Soldier is not a real soldier. If you would like to read it, it's called War!, a comic that has a funny dramatic scene with some story behind each line. It's actually a fun read and has an interesting artstyle.
Anyways, this made the community vote for either side. As the last hour of the update struck, the votes were tallied and had the Soldier win, having a new item for him to be released, the Gun Boots.
The game was such a success, it has been played from the start to now, but as the industry of gaming came to be more and more independent with their work, a clone was released that would blow TF2 out of the water. Overwatch
Don't worry, I am not going to saying bad about the two, but will make some argument here and there. The game exploded into a massive cultural thing. The game was announced by Blizzard back in late 2014 and was long awaited game since then. As it released early this year, the game blew TF2 out of the water as we knew it. The game's were similar, but not quite. There were ultimates and abilities that were used with a single press of a button. TF2 had abilities, but they were more of a talent than an ability. Although, the two games had their differences, TF2 was still being left in the closet like our old SNES and Karate Kid costume.
The game is still being played today as we know it, with a small amount of players gone, the game is still being destroyed. As most fan would expect, Valve would try to find a way to beat Overwatch back, but instead, the game was left alone with a new, but exposing update called Meet Your Match, which came to unlocked a competitive mode. Sounded like a big step, but was something that most players would come to hate in the game. The update's release made a large hole for hackers and cheaters to crawl through to jinx players or expose them to be hacked or banned. The set up made players confused and had problems of server crashes or not being able to play Casual. It seemed as if they were beating themselves up instead of their competitor. Since the recent update, the game has been getting more and more hate from it's players, making the game heading towards it's end.
What do you think of Overwatch? Do you play it more than TF2 or did you not play TF2 at all or heard of it until now? You can tell me in the comments, but as usual...
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