Logan Mualem
Staff Writer
Team Fortress 2. If you don’t recognize that name, that’s alright. It’s the name of a videogame released by Valve Corporation all the way back in 2007, back when computer gaming was still a relatively young medium. It was a time of lightning-fast innovation, where each year saw games getting better graphics, stories, and gameplay. But it was that same kind of lightning-fast innovation that killed off these games. One year, a game could be dominating the mind of every kid with a computer, and the next year, it could be resigned to the dumpster as newer and better games fight over its place in the sun. But Team Fortress 2, or TF2 for short, was different. It managed to create and popularize a niche for itself and was so successful in carving out its own place in the sun that it has managed to remain popular over its long lifespan. To this very day, a full 17 years later, it still regularly attracts over 50,000 players from all over the world. But how is it that it has managed to stay so popular over these 17 years?
To understand why the game has maintained its popularity, one must first understand the game itself. Released in 2007, Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter. Upon joining a match, players are sorted into either RED (Reliable Excavation Demolition) or BLU (Builder’s League United) team. From there they can select one of 9 playable characters, which they will use to either attack or defend various points located within the many maps in the game. If it sounds too simple to be true, that’s because it is. The game itself is an extremely complex one that I could talk about for hours, but those are the basics.
So why has TF2 remained popular? I spent weeks compiling all the data I could to find out. I read through past interviews with developers, interviewed players on Reddit and other forums to find what they thought, and called upon the 2,000 hours I had put into the game since 2020 to find out. In the end, I think this quote from developer Charlie Brown on the 9 playable characters sums it up quite nicely. “They allow us to cater to players with a variety of different skills and desires. Beginning and advanced players can have fun together; cautious cerebral thinkers, strategic defenders, and twitch firing adrenaline junkies can all find their niche. Team Fortress 2’s class design decisions enable us to have a larger number of player abilities in game, while still keeping a single player’s decisions down to a manageable level.” TF2 was meticulously designed to cater to every single person playing the game, right down to the weapons each character can select. Take the Demoman, for example. He is a character in the game that focuses primarily on explosives. A player with a decent level of skill can easily dominate the battlefield with his powerful grenade launcher. But if that player gets tired of that, they can trade the explosives for a sword and shield and charge their enemies head on like a medieval knight in battle. Each character has something like this, a way to completely change the way they were intended to be played while still making sure that it’s fun to play them. It ensures that every person has plenty of ways to play, which keeps them engaged and happy.
Of course, the abundance of ways to play means nothing if there’s no arena to play on, and TF2 has no shortage of those. There are 199 different maps that players can choose from, along with 19 different game-modes. So, if you get bored with one mode or map, you can bet your life savings that there will be some other mode or map that will catch your eye and keep you entertained.
I know it may seem like quite the minor thing to write a newspaper article about, but Team Fortress 2 is the most important and fun game I’ve ever played. I started playing in June of 2020, just as COVID-19 was shutting down schools and keeping me from the friends I loved the most. Like most people, I felt afraid and alone, isolated from the friends that kept me sane. It was Team Fortress 2 that kept my mind off the virus that locked me in my home and threatened my life. Since then, I’ve poured almost 2,000 hours (over 82 days) into it and plan to spend many more playing it. It really is the best game I have ever played, and I suppose this is just a small way of saying thanks to it. It’s a free game, so if you haven’t heard of it, I hope this article has convinced you to take a stab at it. Who knows, maybe you’ll end up loving it just as much as I do.
muall1@mail.broward.edu
