Coordinating Anger

Good day, everyone! Just thought I’d write a little something to try and calm down and reach out to you all.

Alright, the End of the Line update was meh. Apart from the short, it was the same old stuff that you’d expect from any minor patch which introduces a new crate. We got a bunch of cosmetics, a multi-class melee reskin that’s similar in size and shape to the Conscientious Objector minus the need for a decal tool and a pay-to-stat duck thing. Also a couple of maps got vandalized by Pyro. It was a lackluster update that wasn’t worth hyping for a year. The video was nice, but that’s about it.

Thing is, everyone’s so angry that we’re shouting at nothing and being wholly unproductive. The best complaint is a complaint with coordination, sent out by everyone. What we’re currently doing is whinging over bits and pieces. Because our complaints are currently unorganised, Valve just laughs and ignores us. We need to work together and make things right. Or at the very least, try.

Some people think you should put your money where your mouth is, but in this case, we need to use both our money and our mouths. On their own, money and words are fairly powerful, but together they are an unstoppable duo, stronger than even that Steel UGC Demoman/Medic combo stomping a Valve server. That’s why politicians use them so much. So let’s put that into action.

Step 1 – Complain together.
Alright, we’ve already been doing that, to the point that the 3 main communities all complained and, for a moment, formed a single entity powered by pure disappointment. We’ve done a really good job of complaining, despite maybe lacking in the email department. I’d like to pause and say that I’m proud of you all for realising that McVee wasn’t truly to blame. We often get carried away and blame the wrong people but this time we were in the right. For a change.

Step 2 – Stop giving Valve your money.
Complaining is pointless if we’re still willingly feeding Valve our hard-earned cash. We need to stop giving it to them. There are loads of other places where you can purchase video games, like Green Man Gaming or the Humble Bundle Store and literally everyone has sales both before and after Christmas. We also need to not buy or sell anything on the Steam Community Market. Everything you buy or sell, part of it goes to Valve. Even with crates. This extends to giving Valve money for other games, like CS:GO. Alright, there’s not a lot of us, but if we work together and all that…

Step 3 – If you want to donate…
McVee and his team worked hard on their video and it’d be a shame for all of that to go to waste. If you ARE going to spend some money, do everyone a favor and either buy EotL crate keys, which go almost directly to the makers of the video and the items, or just go and donate directly to them via PayPal. Do not in any circumstances buy that Duck Journal and make sure none of your friends buy one too. Heck, go one step further and steal ducks from people who HAVE bought Duck Journals. That’ll teach those idiots.

Step 4 – Show, don’t tell.
Now this is the big and important bit. You see, if you quit TF2 and go and play some other Valve game, ESPECIALLY CS:GO or DotA 2, you are letting Valve win. If you decide to play some other non-Valve game like Super Monday Night Combat or Overwatch (when it comes out) or Tribes: Ascend or whatever, you’re still kinda letting Valve win. You see, you ditch your support for one game and go to another game, you’re showing Valve that you’ll still be loyal to them and allow them to continue their mistakes no matter what game you’re in. You open yourself up to more disappointment and more spent money in the future.

What we need to do is show Valve in-game what TF2’s problems are. You know that Delphi guy who makes videos of exploits and posts them on Youtube? Well, those exploits always get patched relatively quickly. We need to do the same with everything else that’s wrong in this game. People understand pictures and videos far better than they understand words on a page. They can relate better to someone’s anger if they can hear it.

Step 5 – Keep on playing TF2 while not giving Valve any money.
In the end, if we all jump ship to CS:GO, Valve will just do the exact same thing when CS:GO has run its course. While the game is still alive, we can improve it. And improvements come from everyone, starting with the individual. So open up TF2 and start playing. Help the newbies learn and become better players. Laugh at those funny domination lines. HAVE FUN! TF2 is still a somewhat functional game. Don’t push it away while there’s still a slim chance of saving it.

And while you’re at it, come play some festive  TF2 with me.