That Point
Hello boys and girls. Welcome to another edition of defining words and phrases from our collective TF2 gaming. This time, the phrase is simple, but carries volumes of meaning. Some of you may of heard of it, some don’t know what to call it, but all of you have experienced it. Gentlemen, I am talking about “that point”.
Half of the Ubercharged community yells “What are you talking about? Surely someone such as I, who plays Team Fortress 2 countless hours, would know this ‘point’ and not have to hear an explanation!” The other half of the community skips over this article because of it’s lack of a video. Well, to the first half, this is not an article teaching you something new. As stated before, anyone who has played TF2 has expirenced this. Nay, anyone who has played a video game has expirenced this. I am just telling you this sensation has a name (or phrase).
“That point”, sometimes causes or is directly related to, ragequiting. Although often paired together, these are two very seperate phenomenons. “That point” is the time when playing TF2 and you tell yourself “I’ve had enough of this.” It’s when the opposite team has built up so much steam that their running over everyone else with their pwnitude. It’s the moment that you realize that you’ve been backstabbed for the 12th time. When pyros ruin your cloak with their revealing flames every single time you go spy. When you think you’re safe from a sniper, the deathcam tells you of an impossible headshot. When you ubercharge another player to take out a sentry, and you fail miserably. The list can go on depending on the number of things that set you off.
Spys are the biggest helping hand to reaching that point. It doesn’t matter if you are one or if your team has only one. All classes are victim to his insta-kill, and just about every class can kill him in one hit. When you are approaching that point, the chances of you killing a spy with a critical go to 0. The chances of them stabbing you and destroying all of your work becomes close to 100%. There won’t be any allies nearby to kill him, or save your stuff from slowly dieing, or help you rebuild it. This will repeat over and over, until you learn that no one on your team is going to help you. No one will warn you of the slowly uncloaking spy right behind you. No one will wack sappers off of your sentry while you wait to respawn. The enemy will win.
Now you’re on offense. “Maybe it was only that round.” You tell yourself. Now that you’re on offense, you can dish out some pain, instead of just taking it. Under normal circumstances, you’d be right. But you’re reaching that point. You will not win this fight. You may not even get past the first control point. There will either be a team of engineers with a batalion of level 3 sentrys, shotguns full, and super Cloaked Spy X-ray Goggles (copyright), or a group of flame resistant pyros spewing fire of death that will injure you long after he’s died. These pyros also wear the super Cloaked Spy X-ray Goggles under their masks. Finally, as if to throw salt on the wound, there will be one proficient Sniper, and one Ghost.
I say Ghost, and not Spy, because there is a difference in the level of skill for Spys and Ghosts. Ghosts have mastered the class. They never die. They are dominating everyone on the opposite team. They are never seen more than once, not counting the deathcam, and even then, they might already be cloaked. The deathcam will show you nothing, and you wonder if maybe the game gliched. And when you are close to that point, his only target will be you.
“But Lojo!” you cry. “You havn’t given us any definition yet!” If you havn’t figured it out by now, it’s the point when you are so pissed with TF2 that you feel like doing something else. Some will post comments or write on the forums that they have never expirenced “that point”. That there are times when they finish playing Team Fortress 2 and say to themselves “That was fun.” Do not belittle them. They are just trying to keep the hope alive. To make us feel like it was worth it, even though we lose ourselves in anger.
I am not telling you to stop playing TF2. By all means, enjoy your time as much as possible, even with that point looming over the horizon. If you think about it, all forms of fun require some sacrifice. I am just here to enlighten you.
Until next time, boys and girls. Until next time.
Stumble it!
goosemonger responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 8:22 am #
When I reach ‘that point’ I decide I won’t quit until I get revenge on my nemesis(es) or nemisi, if you will. Ragequitting is like going to bed angry. It just feels bad.
Although if I fail at killing nemesi, I usually just try and get taunt kills or try and start some fisticuff battles with another heavy.
Either way, I try never to quit TF2 on a bad note.
Hawat responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 8:51 am #
“or nemisi, if you will”
No, I won’t.
One nemesis, two nemeses. Like crisis.
Sypheros responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 9:13 am #
If I get tired of TF2 I just play COD4, shank some people to get all that “Backstab Anxiety” out of my system.
Or run around with the KGB’s and try to get chain kills, which usually fails, but is oh so satisfying when I knock someone’s soul from their rag doll corpse.
And if it still doesn’t give me any sexual gratification, I just go back to COD4, swap to my 3x Frag/Sonic Boom/Martyrdom class and run around spamming like an obnoxious idiot.
I need a towel….
Sypheros responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 9:16 am #
Is that picture of that German kid who loses his friggen mind while playing Unreal?
Pyrit responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 9:19 am #
Lie detector reading zero, sir!
This article is the horrible truth about times when you’re playing TF2. You either become a steamroller or become steamrolled. It’s just we remember the times we get steamrolled better than when we aren’t…
nalfang responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 9:51 am #
I do ragequit ocassionally. But, When confronted by spies, I do not get angry. I get smart. I spycheck, I turn around every 30 seconds, and yes, I am the sniper who will no scope you just as you sneak up on me.
I only ragequit, well, when a sniper (I’m talking to you General Balls.) Constantly kills me. Thats probably the most irksome thing for me.
Guile responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 10:00 am #
Only one word:
Agreed
Cubic_C responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 10:36 am #
“Some will post comments or write on the forums that they have never expirenced “that point”. That there are times when they finish playing Team Fortress 2 and say to themselves “That was fun.””
That would be me. I’ve come very close though, and I’ve had it plenty of times on other games. I’ve even ragequitted. but I’ve never *quite* gotten there on TF2. This may be because there’s always another server around without pyro spam, sentries as far as the eye can see, and ninja spies. And if there are, I just go pyro and burn their mongrel hides.*
(*obscure halo 3 cutscene reference)
Headwoünd responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 11:04 am #
why yes it is @Sypheros
Headwoünd responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 11:05 am #
oh but it’s staged btw
UberOgden responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 11:19 am #
Does Murphy know that you readjusted his law to better fit a Video game?
Stick responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 11:20 am #
Most of the time I reach “That Point” because of the lag killing me
Sypheros responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 11:23 am #
Stick responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 11:20 am #
“Most of the time I reach “That Point” because of the lag killing me
”
Suuuuuure, blame the lag
ThatGuy responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 11:27 am #
And what would you call the moment at which you realize you’ve just pushed someone to “That Point” through your expert use of spy tactics/pyro antics/sniper fanatics?
Sypheros responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 11:37 am #
Climax? Satisfaction?
gRUMBLES responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 12:31 pm #
You know, its funny you post this because after the server crashed and burned to 2Fort, it seemed like no matter what I did as a scout, first shot out of anyones gun was crit that somehow managed to find its way towards me….instant death EVERYTIME
When you get TFrustrated2©, Train God knows and will adjust the game accordingly, i.e. against your favor. Take a breather, change class and play style for a bit and come back. After going defensive pyro, I did better (who doesnt?) and went back to scout for 2 flag captures ^_^
Lojo responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 1:46 pm #
ThatGuy posted:
“And what would you call the moment at which you realize you’ve just pushed someone to “That Point” through your expert use of spy tactics/pyro antics/sniper fanatics?”
Oblivious.
Because you’re having too much fun to care about some guy you keep dominating.
saix responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 2:46 pm #
damn i hate pro spies, i mean ghost. theres 1 wen im playin n it just seems that nobody ever could kill that stupid particular spy..
minespatch responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 4:38 pm #
You made me just go bonkers when you said that this report has no video! You were so right! I’m agreeing with you, you made me have a laugh.
Mooman responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 6:07 pm #
I don’t ragequit. I unlocked the ragemeter ages ago. If one guy keeps dominating me, I go spy in my boubt of anger and target him. This is so much sweeter if they’re on defense, as you know they have to wait 20 minutes each time you kill them.
Totally agree with you though. I’ve found that daytime servers tend to be more vulnerable to the-point reaching.
Please don’t call good spies anything other than good. I’m so sick of SPY IS SKILLED CLASS ALL OTHER AM NOOB being repeated by career spy wankers. Much <3 to modest skilled players. What’s terrible is when you catch a spy (let alone th guy who’s been dominating you for 5 minutes) and they just blast you away with the revolver. YOU FAILED TO BACKSTAB ME, YOU SHOULD BE CANNONFODDER D:. Funny as hell when spies get a lucky crit barrage and take down heavies, I once saw this happen to one particularly unlucky heavy-med combo and proceeded to laugh myself to tears.
Mooman responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 6:10 pm #
Boubt is a word created by a man from Atlanta in 9001. It means ‘It’s been a big day, don’t complain if I misspell a word nobody but boxing announcers use’.
Gerkuman responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 7:12 pm #
I let out my frustration on the team chat generally. You know, urging/pleading with them to play better and alerting them to things. (Sometimes with a healthy dose of sarcasm! :3)
But I can only do this on servers I know like the UC one. Which is why I don’t change servers very much anymore. XD Otherwise I might reach ‘That Point’.
Lizard Hips responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 8:52 pm #
Nice article. It’s true, when you reach ‘that point’ all skill seems to dissolve and you’re better off letting your cat play. Like goosemonger, I try and get revenge on the person who’s dominating me if things are going down the pan. It acts as a wonderful calming effect in cooling the ragequit meter, knowing you’ve just iced the soldier that was constantly blowing you up with that cirtical rocket, every shot.
SirMax responded on 17 Oct 2008 at 3:18 am #
@gRUMBLED: Or when you can’t hit a 200 ping Pyro?
@the actually article: Over all though, this is a pretty good point- the occurrence is half real and half perceived- You do play weaker as you get more angry and frustrated, and spies see that you’re the engineer they can stop and kill and remove, so they DO go for you more. And as it goes on, you also FEEL every bad thing that ever happens to you more.
Although I have to say the last bit seemed a tad dismal. It made it sound like every TF2 session ends with a ragequit. I don’t know about you, but that’s certainly not the case for me.
Spindrift responded on 17 Oct 2008 at 8:46 pm #
I did reach That Point the other night, and spies had a direct hand in it.
However, none of them were killing me; no, a skilled enemy soldier, sniper, demo and pyro were seeing well enough to making sure there was one less BLU operative in the world. Nor was I the spy in question- I’d donned my doctoral duds and was tending to a brave, but ultimately incompetent heavy. He tried, tried, tried to blast a path for us out of the trench at the beginning of Dustbowl 2, but we were tragically undersupported- a lone Demoman assisted us.
No, I blame the three spies we had on our team. They were either incompetent, lazy, or spiteful- I’m gonna that between the three of them they accomplished all three- and weren’t getting anything done. They weren’t stabbing anybody. They weren’t sapping anything. They would have been more use blitzing the front lines with revolvers blazing, but for all I know they were busy doing invisible jumprope on the second cap point, assuming the brave, doomed trio on the front lines was enough to get business done.
But it wasn’t! And they were useless! And I quit, I quit, I quit! It wasn’t a ragequit, it was an exasperationquit- but either way I’d gone past That Point! You damn spies! You damn, dirty spies- it’s all your fault!
RJ-Pilot responded on 18 Oct 2008 at 5:59 am #
I usually wait until the end of the map before ragequitting, it seems polite.
Eygen responded on 04 Feb 2009 at 5:08 am #
“ragequitting feels like going to bed angry”
I have exactly the same feeling! Lucky for me, I’m a ghost so I usually get my revenge, but I hate it when the round ends and I’m still dominated. I try not to dominate because other people will go specially after you trying to get their revenge.
(I just bought TF2 after playing on my brothers steam account since the beginning of tf2. Can’t wait to try it out on my own account!)