errantsignal
patreon
Social Spaces & Payload Races
🕑 Added 2016-07-11 01:03:59 +0000 UTC New video is up! This time I look at TF2 and Overwatch and how they sculpt their individual communities.I don't know how common this sentiment in the video will be, though. For a while (this was probably five or six years ago) I was very much involved in a TF2 server - I ran trivia nights and made friends. We had custom mods that could play music to the whole server and we'd all sing along in a broken, laggy cacophony of doom. We played at a level that was just serious enough to be engaging, but just laid back enough that a bleary-eyed player at 3 AM could find it relaxing. It wasn't perfect, but it was my little corner of the internet in the same way an IRC channel or web forum can be. And if you've never had that, I think it becomes way harder to understand why some may argue for anything approaching the chaotic, offensive, and dangerous environments TF2 servers can offer.
That Overwatch plays so much like TF2 makes the comparison between the two unavoidable. And while Overwatch is undeniably more accessible, more safe, more friendly, and more inclusive - all of which are good things, and all of which are necessary to get more people into games - I still kind of lament the loss of the sort of community-focused play TF2 used to support. That said, without a community to root me I know which game I'd rather play - and it isn't the one with racist macros spamming the chat, random porno sprays, and constant friend requests for trades.
Comments
Adam McKinney Souza
That lack of a viable community of regulars was what killed Destiny for me, too. I got tired of trying to find randos to do raids with, and had to accept that a big part of that games appeal would be locked away forever. The fact that that game STILL doesn't have a built in matchmaking system for raid matchmaking boggles my mind.
Really good video, reminds me of playing TF2 with my 9 yo brother and having to alt f4 out after entering a server covered in pornographic sprays. Good times (even if coated with memories of anti-semitic servers :/)
Andrew Delaney
I have fond memories of playing in a small pool of servers back in Australia, but the same strength back home was a weakness when I moved. Suddenly all my regulars were too far away and it seemed too much work to try to find a new set in the new place, instead it was perhaps just time to move on to a new game.
