Sigh... I miss Team Fortress 2... that game was so wonderful... once upon a time...
What happened to it?
Valve dumbed down the gameplay and then drowned it in a fashion industry.
In what ways did they dumb down the gameplay? Did they make it easier or less violent?
I haven't frequented the game in a year or more, so I'll just describe my breaking point.
I loved the first couple major additions to the vanilla game. The first couple class updates were incredible. I was one of very few people who didn't bitch when the very first one came out for the medic. The main complaint was the achievements required to obtain the new weapons were way too hard to get. I actually thought this was a great thing.
Team Fortress was unique among FPS games because it a truly team-based game that accommodated a large variety of play styles. Anybody could find at least one class they were able to shine with. Even my wife, who is normally horrible at FPS games, could play heavy, medic, or engineer and be more than just dead weight to the team.
The first couple class updates brought a round of very difficult achievements for those classes. Most of them were based on success on unusual situations. The reward was new weapons for that class. These weapons were designed not to buff the class, but only to alter the play style. "Sidegrades"
So this was an amazing opportunity to expand on the #1 design strength that Team Fortress had, which is rewarding everyone for being good at different play styles. All they would need to do to make it truly elegant is tweak the style of achievement design and match up specific types of achievements with specific types of rewards linked to the play style required to get those achievements. Then you would have a system that recognizes what unique qualities a person brings to the game and actually gives them gameplay feedback to recognize and accentuate those strengths. Truly fucking brilliant.
Of course, the majority of the game community completely missed the point. The outcries of "IT'S TOO HARD TO GET THIS NEW STUFF!" were deafening. People designed maps and ran them on grinding servers to get those achievements and unlock the new weapons. Everybody fucking ruined it with their childish sense of entitlement.
Valve didn't cave until... I think it was the fourth class update... and it was for Sniper. My favorite class since I began playing the very first release of Team Fortress on Quake 10 years prior. I was so goddamn excited. But that was the patch where Valve decided to start ruining it.
That patch, they made all the new achievements really really really fucking dumbed down and stupid. Things like "headshot a demoman" were achievements. I got all of them within a few hours of play without intentionally pursuing any of them. But that was the least of my disappointments. After doing that, I had to wait four more days before I got any of the new sniper stuff, even though I knew I deserved it.... because Valve decided to scrap the achievement unlock system in favor of....
random drops.
I was appalled. Many other career snipers were as well. So Valve decided to address the complaints by implementing a trading system. Next patch saw the implementation of a backpack and promises for a crafting system and.... hats....
I couldn't take it. I quit.
Last I checked, the game is flooded with stupid accessories, including many that are straight buffs rather than "sidegrades" or cosmetics. People are constantly trading or crafting or paying extra money to Valve to get more items directly. The feel of the game is completely lost to me. I truly loved that game. The first year or so after release, it was my favorite online game ever. If they had changed nothing past the first couple patches, which only addressed some balance issues, I would still be playing the game happily today. And occasionally (like tonight) I'll still glance at it and just want to cry.