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​Basically this. The game itself might not be "dead", there are plenty of people still playing it, but the core community is dwindling by the day, and one could argue much of it is already gone. The corpse might shamble forward and groan "Haaaaaatss..." every now and then, but the working brain and the soul of the game are dead and buried. I played TF2 from late 2008 to early 2014. From '08 to '11 I played it on the Xbox. Now, that game might have a fucking MINUSCULE community, but it exists. Most of the people who played it knew how to play it well, and I had tons of fun with it, and the majority of my Xbox friends list is populated by people I met playing TF2, some few I still keep up with (them having moved to Steam). I joined SPUF in August 2011, roughly the same day I first installed TF2 on my very first computer (yes, I never owned a computer before I turned 18), and despite all the assholes that populated that forum (which I quickly became one of, by many's estimation), you could tell there was a camaraderie there, a shared joy in a game everybody liked playing despite their individual gripes about the specifics of some of it. Here we are, four years later, and that just seems completely gone. I still lurk SPUF every now and then, but it's in a sad, pitiful state. Potato is even worse. I last played TF2 on January 1st...but only to log in long enough to get the Christmas gifts just in case I wanted to come back to it. Before that it was maybe June I had actually played it, and March before that when I first "quit playing" TF2. The game was just soulless. There was no excitement to it. Nearly a year of not really playing and the majority of the community was still worse than me, and I was garbage. There's no skill left anywhere but the comp scene, and most of the well known members of that have drifted off since late 2013 to 2014 as well, along with most of the prominent video makers like Stabby Stabby and STAR_ (I mean, I fucking hate STAR_ but at least he made videos of TF2 that people watched). Almost nobody talks any more. Not even text chat beyond "Hurr durr buy my shit". You may as well be playing with fucking bots. Valve doesn't talk to the community any more. The update that came out today is proof of that. Just *PFFFFT* here's a fucking update. No fanfare, no interesting teasers, just "Yeah, we got bored and actually made something, here ya go". So what's the point? There's no challenge, there's no community beyond small pockets of people worth playing with (like the FastCo. server), there's no real developer support...why play it?

Gonna jump in here; I really hate it when people complain about things costing money in tf2. Valve needs to make money, they are a company. And the way they have used tf2 to make money is, in my opinion, still one of the best pay models in any game. After the original premium upgrade (which people pay a whopping 5 bucks for mind you, I paid 20 back in the day) there is nothing you can't do in tf2 if you do not want to invest money further, all money goes to cosmetics. They have jumped over this line a few times like with impossible crafting recipes and that one christmas update where it took like a month before the new weapons became craftable, but as it is now you get everything in tf2 that actually influences the gameplay without ever having to pay more than those original five bucks. You want all the weapons? They cost a scrap to trade. You want to play MvM? Boot camp is the exact same thing, only you don't get a cosmetic at the end. Compare this to games like Tribes Ascend who had you grinding for hours if you wanted a single new weapon without buying it and who nerfed new weapons into the ground after them being broken overpowered for the early sales, or Quake Live who only lets you access specific servers and gamemodes if you buy Gold. TF2 has a crapton of gripes and I completely understand anyone who dropped it due to the community server drama, developers not communicating, or the artstyle being utterly ruined (although you'd be several years late with that one), but if you drop it because holy shit a company wants to make money? Grow up and get real.

The game started off real good - a pristine jewel of a game, something unique that felt wholesome and rounded. Updates were great - Added some stuff that expanded the game's core and made things fun/interesting. Hats were kinda weird, but they didn't feel that out of place, and they were few enough in variety and supply that they really were something special - the occasional cherry on top, rather than a thick discoloration throughout Starting around 2010, things got bumpy. Stuff like the Sam & Max promos, the Mac Update, the Engineer Update - They weren't bad, but they just felt wrong The Mann-conomy update is the turning point. The point at which Valve fucked their game over (But not their wallets!). Trading, real money exchange for in-game items, and focus on community effort for major updates. And, of course, crates and unusuals. Hats were now common and trite, so the only way to restore their status is to give them flashy effects. After the Mann-conomy update, the game gradually got worse and worse. There was still some good 'ol TF2 in there, but it was slowly getting harder and harder to find. To me, the Australian Christmas update was the last point at which Valve cared more about TF2 as a game than as an economic system. In 2011, the game transformed. I'm not sure at what point, but it was somewhere in there. All thoughout this year, Valve created updates to bring about massive loads of cosmetics, with some additions to the actual game here and there. It was clear that Valve cared more about the TF2 economy than the game itself. The Mann vs. Machine update was Valve's last chance to save the game. To create a gamemode that was compelling enough to revive the fire of passion that the community was losing. But they fucked it up, and traded it to the devil for some big bucks. Instead of killing robots for fun, the focus was buying tickets and getting fancy looking weapons with metal pieces of shit attached to them. Valve didn't even wait until after day one to turn something fun into something profitable. There was no going back. The death of TF2 was locked into motion. It was just a matter of time to see how long the community would still care and how much fucking junk they could cram into it before it blew. I don't know when exactly the game died; Robotic Boogaloo, Scream Fortress V, Love & War, take your pick. I just know that the steaming pile of bullshit called The End of the Line Update can only happen to a dead fucking game. By that time, we can say for sure that Team Fortress 2 is dead. Now, there's still small pocket communities & vanilla servers that maintain some sparks, but the main community itself is long gone. The community that made shit like the Pyromania Update exciting has dissolved. Off to other games, other trappings, I suppose. It was fun while it lasted. I'm just sad that the creative supernova of 2008 TF2 and the dogshit modern TF2 share the same name. It's like Spongebob - You can't speak of its genius, because its name encompasses both the brilliant beginnings and the degenerate alterations. It makes it a lot harder to archive these works for future inspiration, TF2 especially since updates displace older versions, whereas the first seasons of Spongebob are still around. Future generations may never experience the sensations and excitement that made Team Fortress 2 so successful in the first place. It's a goddamn fucking shame. TL;DR: Old TF2 Good, Money bad, Valve < Hitler

i sold my soul to the devil three years ago for a family business buff so now i have to suck his dick in hell for eternity

http://comp.retf2.org/retrospective2/ The registrations have been delayed after the update news, we have whitelists to edit and decissions to make.

I think this goes here. Fucking incredible in any case

​FastCo is good when we actually get together. I can probs get at least 10 people on most days of the week if I abused the event-notification system

http://www.sbnation.com/2015/7/1/8846793/tiger-woods-golf-information we have reached the internet singularity

Friendly Reminder that the class updates, at the time, "ruined the game forever" too. They're remembered fondly, but people forget that most of those things were busted, broken, or underpowered on release.

Only a tier two Hitler would make bubblepop no longer pop.

​I still fundamentally don't like the idea of being able to change your weapon mid-life like that. But oh well, it probably won't be as bad as I expect it to be. ​Well I think that if you have all items to start with you're just going to stick with what you picked beforehand and there's no reason to switch. I am a bit worried however about how reloads will work with this: if I shoot my four rockets can I pick up a nearby black box and shoot another three without reloading? Because that'd be bullshit ​Skial is actually pretty good nowadays but it does have a pinion ad. Star's server is good and has decent connection even from Europe. The Reddit EU server is still probably the best server out there but not always full.

It's been dead since the free to play update but luckily Im a necrophiliac

Pay six bucks to do achievements you probably already have so you can have a shitty gaudy weapon. Great!

 

The Big Gay Woobling Sound: I want their to be a marvel/dc villain who's only goal is to kick as many super heroes in the dick as possible The Big Gay Woobling Sound: His drive is so great that he builds spaceships to kick interstellar heroes in the dick and dimmensional gates to kick heroes that don't even exist in our realm in the dick The Big Gay Woobling Sound: he discovers the secret to immortality so that he can kick the dick of heroes long after he would normally dead The Big Gay Woobling Sound: he invented time travel so he could kick heroes before his time in the dick The Big Gay Woobling Sound: after he has kicked every hero in the dick he becomes destitude and insane The Big Gay Woobling Sound: then he invents a ray that gives heroines dicks so he can kick all the female super heroes in the dick The Big Gay Woobling Sound: once he finishes that he realizes the flaws of his ways and tries to amend his ways by starting a super hero academy The Big Gay Woobling Sound: or so it seems The Big Gay Woobling Sound: but he is actually creating an army of super heroes that he hasn't kicked in the dick The Big Gay Woobling Sound: then he kicks them all in the dick

We're doing it again! https://imgur.com/a/TkQGU The Gunlance from Monster Hunter is one of my favorite weapons because its just so novel. Between the constant explosions and its invulnerable shield, you feel like the one guy driving an MI Abrams tank in a group of foot soldiers.