It all dies in the end…
When was the last time you played something other than Payload, Attack/Defend, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill or Control Points? Was it a while go? Probably. You might not have touched some of the letter game modes in years. Not that I blame you, there’s a lot of excitement right now for matchmaking, everyone’s all geared up for it. The chosen maps are mostly 5CP, with the odd other random map thrown in. Apparently Viaduct is in there somewhere.
I like Viaduct, always been a fan of King of the Hill. Normal Viaduct isn’t the greatest map, the snowy terrain strains the eyes and can slow down older computers. The community has made many, many variations of the map to improve on it, but older versions end up withering and dying because they become outdated. Maybe official Viaduct will die because Valve adds a community version. Product, as people call it.
You know what I also like? Mann VS Machine. When was the last time any of you played that? Probably a very long time ago. Unlike most people, I find PVE entertaining, the idea of holding your own against a horde of ever-growing enemies who want to do nothing but kill you. I’m not the only person with this opinion, aabicus absolutely LOVES games like Left 4 Dead and Payday, which pit you against similar enemy hordes. Mann VS Machine though, like Left 4 Dead and the original Payday game, is not dead but it’s certainly not healthy. Why? Because the developers no longer maintain it.
With L4D1 and Payday: the Heist, that’s understandable. Payday 2 is a regularly updated sequel that is guaranteed to get all the attention, including some hate. The same could kinda be said about L4D2, but that game isn’t really maintained now, it’s just filled with billions of strange mods on the workshop. My L4D2 game consists of me being a Rahkshi shooting at Bohrok, Zesk and Glatorian. Great, eh? Still, the communities mean that you can still find a game if you want to.
A lot of things in TF2 though are sadly in a similar situation. Mann VS Machine had a community thing where people made maps, but unless we get very lucky and get something Invasion-y or End of the Line-y, we’ll probably never see them outside of custom MvM servers. They kinda missed their chance with the Robotic Boogaloo update. Or what about Medieval Mode? It exists mostly as a single console command and has one single, lonesome map for it that isn’t even very good gameplay-wise. Special Delivery is a variant of Capture the Flag and no matter how much aabicus enjoys it, the game mode has some flaws.
And then there’s Robot Destruction. Again, it only has one map to play the game mode on. It’s designed to be a better version of Capture the Flag, which allows people to win even if one team decides to build a billion sentries around the ‘intelligence’. This one map isn’t even finished. It may never actually be finished. Which is a shame because, like everything else, it HAS potential. Lots of it. The fact that it’s less stalemate-y than normal CTF alone is enough to carry it. At the very least finish the damn map, because what has been done so far is beautiful.
Hydro, Degroot Keep, Asteroid, Doomsday, Standin, Watergate, the MvM maps, all swept to one side.
Okay, maybe some of those were gimmicky or something. But what about PASS Time? Or Mannpower? What will happen to those when Valve gets bored of maintaining them too? They’ll be forgotten and left to rot.
You see, these things all die in the end, but some die before their time, because people can’t be bothered to look after them any more. Which is fine if a product has come to the end of its natural life, but a shame if it’s been left to die when the damn thing still has a pulse.