[AlphaWhale]

Originally Posted by noobinater

1If the game cost money the level of play would be higher

Please elaborate. TF2 is a FPS, they are not incredibly complicated. There's like a handful of knowledge and then the rest is up to your mouse hand dexterity. Perhaps people who are more likely to use their wallet (thus using their hands) are better at games?

TFC was free. Fortress Forever was free. TF2 is now free. The cycle is complete.

[noobinater]

Originally Posted by AlphaWhale

Please elaborate. TF2 is a FPS, they are not incredibly complicated. There's like a handful of knowledge and then the rest is up to your mouse hand dexterity. Perhaps people who are more likely to use their wallet (thus using their hands) are better at games?

TFC was free. Fortress Forever was free. TF2 is now free. The cycle is complete.

Not what I said but sure, I'll run with it.

The now constant influx of new players "giving it a try" would suggest a constant net decrease in player skill. Its still early days to say whether the retention rate of these newer players will have a long term benefits (more people staying long enough to get good than leaving). I'd wait till at least BF3 and COD8 come out, then see how the player volume is fairing.

Still, in the meantime there's no way to filter these scrubs so the decent players have to put up with their rubbish. Again; diamonds don't want to play with bronzers.

TFC isn't free, FF is a mod so it will always have a marginal playerbase (It will never be a DOTA or CS) and TF2 is a widely known free studio quality (eh..) FPS. Already the game has overtaken Counter Strike 1.6 as the most played game on steam (something I can't remember seeing in the last 4.5 years I've used the service).

I'd like to re-iterate a part of my post earlier a few people missed, as to why I'm not a fan of modern TF2:

Again, this all comes back to the purity and brilliance of the original TF2 (and early updates) and the way the newer content has pissed all over it.

If it's been a while or for what ever reason you haven't yet watched the developers commentary, please go do so. Go through all of it and listen to how they talk about the pains they went to to ensure TF2 was at release, the beautiful game it was. It was in development for so many years and went through so many revisions until they reached the final look and feel of the game. How they chose to remove grenades and other sub-par weapon designs because they cluttered the experience and detracted from the overall feel. Now they pile on ugly redundant shit every other week.