ubercharged.net

In the hazy recollection of an evening of alcohol and marking the passing of the earth around the sun (again), its time to reflect on all the good intentions we all have for Team Fortress 2 in the new year. Hopefully for most in the world, the hangovers are lifting, and you’re feeling better than the TF2 crew after their wild night.

So here are my resolutions for Team Fortress 2 in the new year:

1. Give up random pointless taunting during warm up. “Put dispenser here!” is only funny for the first couple of thousand times you do it. After that its a little irritating, even for the person mashing the keys.
2. More pyro taunting. This never gets old though.
   
3. Actually try to play the game on 2fort. I usually end up going for the most crazy, experimental, offensive turret positions I can manage. I admit it, I just can’t take that map seriously. Whenever it comes up, I give up on actually playing and contributing to my team. I roll engineer and see how far up I can build turrets to piss off the enemy team. For real giggles, you want to aim for the enemy ramp room, or even outside their spawn. It’s fun, but not in a good way. Its fun in the same way that prodding the fat kid at school was fun - you have a few laughs, but you really just end up feeling mean and dislike yourself a little bit on the inside. Not that that stops you though.
4. On second thoughts, just give up playing 2fort altogether. Now I think about it, it’s a horrible map that just turns into a tiring spam fest on most servers. 2fort always feels like too much hard work. I’ve had a solid upbringing of tribes to give me a real taste of what capture the flag intel should be like. CTF should be about quick easy grabs, on an open and hard to defend stand, followed by intense chasing. The slow, pokey, frustrating basement you have to descend to in that map just slows down the gameplay. Most players just seem to give up even trying and start goofing around in various ways. I’ve bitched about snipers before, but to be honest, I’m really not much better when it comes to 2fort with my engineering shenanigans.
5. No more swearing at random people on voice comms. Even if they are dumb asses. In terms of absolute numbers, there aren’t that many stupid people in Team Fortress 2 (at least when compared to other games). However, the very nature of stupid people is that they stick out and appear more populous than they actually are. At the end of a long day, it can be all too easy to give them an earful on voice comms - especially when their imbecilic nature costs our team the game (seriously - even the most clueless newbie should realise something is up when that spy you just ubercharged starts backstabbing your own team). There may be kids around, and it just makes me feel angsty. Plus if anyone is around, I get funny looks and possibly get told off.
6. Sleep more. The problem with this game is that it can be quite difficult to stop for the evening when you get on a good team. It’s always “one more map…” and then one more, and then one more. Before you know it I’m yawning through the next day, and inhaling too much coffee (I’m trying to give that up too as a non TF2 resolution - not so much luck so far…). Being tired makes me cranky, which doesn’t help me stop swearing at people either. Gah, 12:30 am and I’m still writing this. So much for that one…
7. Play something other than dustbowl. This is by far my most favourite map. So much so that I’ve got my server filter set to display just dustbowl servers most of the time. You’ve got 6 long, hard stages to push through. A win on dustbowl really feels like an achievement. Theres nothing wrong with playing it, but its just that it can end up becoming a little stale after a while. The problem then, is that I’m out of practice on the other maps, and so I don’t feel like playing them either. Plus in this part of the world, there aren’t that many servers, and they often get full up at peak time. Waiting for a spot to free up on a 24/7 dustbowl server could be better spend getting some love out of some of the other fine maps in the game (except 2fort…).
8. Play more dustbowl. I know what I just said, but that map rocks.
9. Stop joining the team that is already winning. As ubercharged regulars already know, stackers unbalancing a game are a pet hate of mine. However, I’ve always figured “if you can’t beat em, join em” when its actually happening. See - I can be all judgemental about it outside of the game, but still make the situation worse in game. Mainly because I don’t see much point helping in getting my ass kicked if its inevitable that it’ll happen anyway, so why bother? This moral relativism is great. Its the same reason why I can laugh at Team Roomba with a clear conscience but still get pissed if that stuff ever happens to me - the actions end up being for the greater good, so any immediate indiscretions are excused… Hmm, I’m not even convincing myself with that one. Anyway, I’ll try to buff up the losing side in future when I join a game in progress.
10. Get out of the favorite class rut. Medic/engineer/pyro are my 3 most played classes in that order. I like them all in their own way (although I’m trying to minimise engineer as most of that time was spent goofing off on 2fort…), but its the same staleness issue I get with dustbowl. I know that I’d have more fun if I varied the classes I play when I get bored, but I’m so out of practice at them that I just get frustrated having my ass handled to me repeatedly on a plate, and go back to “creative sentry placement” as engie. I do enjoy a good demoman run, but I really have to be in the mood for it.
11. Play more TF2. Nuff said.

So what are your TF2 new years resolutions?

GameIndustry.biz has an interview with Moby Franke - the lead visual designer for Team Fortress 2 over at Valve.

The biggest killer advantage Team Fortress 2 has over other games is its amazingly distinctive and original visual style. The style and humour (through the meet the crew vids) were the things that really attracted me to this game - after that the kick ass game play kept me hooked. In that respect, Moby and Valve’s work has been a great success in hitting the mark.

I love the (lack of) artistic value he places on other games

When you talk about artistic influence for Team Fortress 2 I notice you never mention any videogames at all.

There’s no inspiration to pull from other videogames.

Why isn’t there inspirational art in videogames?

Because other games are too focused on realism. Everybody’s focused on the smaller treatments and they are not solving the global problem which is the marriage between game design and visual design. Once you put visual design and proper gameplay together both of them can compliment each other. It comes down to the fact that one hand washes the other – in order to make a complete and immersive product you have to have that.