by this i am referring to the latest update by Valve for its Team Fortress 2 game.
the title on its blog implies that it means to eradicate a threat posed by what is known as 'idling'. time for some context. Team Fortress 2 since its massive update which brought the supposed scourge of hats into the game, a drop system was implemented to distribute the hats and other nice things to the players. the drop system works on a chance system much like slots or dice tosses and depending on your luck you could randomly receive a lovely hat, a not so lovely hat or a weapon you already have or will have soon.
this drop system also has a rather deviously clever economic move in that it drops "Mann Co. Supply crates". these crates form the backbone of the this new TF2 economy for Valve. each crate can only be opened by a "Mann Co. Supply Crate Key" or for USD 2.50. players are drawn to fancy objects in general and each would wish to have their virtual avatars decked out in all the niceties the game can provide. this ensures that even if it is a small percentage of players, there will be those who will buy the keys simply to open the crates to get at their supposedly valuable contents. the presence of hats with certain visual attributes imbued onto them also make it worthwhile for some players to open as many crates as possible due to the tiny percentage of obtaining such a hat.
the normal way of obtaining hats, weapons and by extension crates, would be to play the game itself. previously a very talented coder crafted a 3rd party software that made the game think it was being played and thus allowed item drops to occur for players anyway. this was the first instance of 'idling', whereby a player need not do anything much and still gain items. this in a way breached certain parameters and not just legal ones. with that, an effective item removal went about, thus removing the illicitly gained items whilst rewarding the players who did no such thing with (guess what it is) a hat. the resulting rift in the player camps as a result of who got the hat and who didn't lasted for a bit but has since been forgotten by many new players.
today, the term idling is similar but no longer malevolent in nature. idling now involves the players actually being in the game, but they do nothing. in essence, the players are still playing the game by merely turning it on and allowing the game to kill them. this still clocks up game time and in certain specialty built maps that kill the players slowly, item drops still occur though in a natural sort of way. no parameters have been breached and the people are still in a manner of speaking, playing the game even when they aren't actually at their desks. so, is it malevolent in nature? only if you consider the fact that the players aren't helping out in an actual game then, yes.
from the time the first instance of idling appeared and supposedly reared its ugly head, people have scorned idlers for not actually playing. but consider this. the term idling in fact means, literally not doing anything. most idlers in fact, do not go onto normal servers to idle. most create their own local server and clock in time from there while also clocking up a massive electrical bill. think of this other perspective. how disheartening it must be to play the game and actually be at your computer for 12 days straight without gaining a much vaunted hat or weapon for that matter. pretty dreary i'd say. idling then allows players to clock in and gain the items and they will still be pleasantly surprised even if there isn't technically anyone to show it off to till they get into an actual game.
this recent update by the new Team Fortress 2 team essentially stops all this 'non-sense' by ensuring that the item drop will only occur in valve sanctioned servers, where normal games are playing. the question being though. what problem is actually being solved by this measure?
idlers pretty much stay away from mainstream servers. thus, they would not normally interfere in a game. let's say there's a normal game going on and an idler appears in the game. by idling within that game server and not helping the team he's assigned to, then the idler is being malicious. but if the idler is in his own local server, there's no team to annoy, so everyone technically still wins.
from an economical perspective, valve doesn't lose out either. all the crates are still being dropped equally to every player whether or not they are idling. some players i know possess idling accounts specifically for item farming. not a bad idea in essence and also benefits valve too because for each item farming account made, valve can be certain that money has been transferred to them. a Free account is unable to trade anything to anyone and only allows the F2P (free 2 play) player to 'beg' for items from premium or paid for players. so, for an item farming account to work, it must be paid for to become premium. no issues there either then.
this begets the question, why then has the new Team Fortress 2 team taken this 'idling' issue so seriously? i've asked another player for his views and one thing we did come up with was the gaming experience. a fair point, in a way. the argued point entails that the player must be playing a game and then when he least expects it, he gets an item. never mind that its probably a weapon he already has or a hat of dubious value. the player has got an ITEM! he should be overjoyed, elated and brimming with happiness that the game's chance system has allowed him to get an item for FREE. this experience is then what is being sought after. then again, one must consider that all experiences eventually wear thin. ask yourself why is it then that fads like Aaron Carter or perhaps even Bieber, come and go and yet most of their contributions last even less than their own lifetime? the experience. this is especially true for avid gamers who frequent TF2.
players who play any game for long enough would become weary of a gimmick, especially one as small as the first joys of obtaining an item. but if not for the experience and joys of getting an item whilst slaughtering enemies or erstwhile team mates, what then could be the reason for this update being as it is? my hunch is that it could be a response of the ego or shoe-filling.
bear in mind, that Team Fortress 2's community has evolved from simply being players to facilitators of other players. its community has a strong creative side that genuinely surprises the game's creators time and again with their brilliance and dedication. this is the same community that launched its very own 'Robotics' update with the actual devs doing little apart from marketing work. in essence then, what the original Team Fortress 2 team has created is a perpetual motion engine that constantly goes forwards on its own after some input from its creators. the new team that administers the game essentially become caretakers, ensuring that there are still regular update, bugs are sorted and errant players dealt with.
unfortunately, idling comes under the latter scope of errant players and have been dealt with by being unable to idle any longer. but how is dealing with idlers an ego boost for this new team? the answer is simple. they must appear to look like they are doing something of great significance, and as such attack and rectify a relatively simple problem which nobody really cares about or is actually malignant any longer, the best case of beating a dead horse while making a mountain of a molehill if you will.
i'd personally, rather see more effort from the this very same team being put into stopping actual hackers who, in fact do mess up normal games or even addressing weapons balancing issues properly. but surely, idling is a far greater threat than a speed-hacker who can not only see through walls but also make every shot count then, isn't it?
the title on its blog implies that it means to eradicate a threat posed by what is known as 'idling'. time for some context. Team Fortress 2 since its massive update which brought the supposed scourge of hats into the game, a drop system was implemented to distribute the hats and other nice things to the players. the drop system works on a chance system much like slots or dice tosses and depending on your luck you could randomly receive a lovely hat, a not so lovely hat or a weapon you already have or will have soon.
this drop system also has a rather deviously clever economic move in that it drops "Mann Co. Supply crates". these crates form the backbone of the this new TF2 economy for Valve. each crate can only be opened by a "Mann Co. Supply Crate Key" or for USD 2.50. players are drawn to fancy objects in general and each would wish to have their virtual avatars decked out in all the niceties the game can provide. this ensures that even if it is a small percentage of players, there will be those who will buy the keys simply to open the crates to get at their supposedly valuable contents. the presence of hats with certain visual attributes imbued onto them also make it worthwhile for some players to open as many crates as possible due to the tiny percentage of obtaining such a hat.
the normal way of obtaining hats, weapons and by extension crates, would be to play the game itself. previously a very talented coder crafted a 3rd party software that made the game think it was being played and thus allowed item drops to occur for players anyway. this was the first instance of 'idling', whereby a player need not do anything much and still gain items. this in a way breached certain parameters and not just legal ones. with that, an effective item removal went about, thus removing the illicitly gained items whilst rewarding the players who did no such thing with (guess what it is) a hat. the resulting rift in the player camps as a result of who got the hat and who didn't lasted for a bit but has since been forgotten by many new players.
today, the term idling is similar but no longer malevolent in nature. idling now involves the players actually being in the game, but they do nothing. in essence, the players are still playing the game by merely turning it on and allowing the game to kill them. this still clocks up game time and in certain specialty built maps that kill the players slowly, item drops still occur though in a natural sort of way. no parameters have been breached and the people are still in a manner of speaking, playing the game even when they aren't actually at their desks. so, is it malevolent in nature? only if you consider the fact that the players aren't helping out in an actual game then, yes.
from the time the first instance of idling appeared and supposedly reared its ugly head, people have scorned idlers for not actually playing. but consider this. the term idling in fact means, literally not doing anything. most idlers in fact, do not go onto normal servers to idle. most create their own local server and clock in time from there while also clocking up a massive electrical bill. think of this other perspective. how disheartening it must be to play the game and actually be at your computer for 12 days straight without gaining a much vaunted hat or weapon for that matter. pretty dreary i'd say. idling then allows players to clock in and gain the items and they will still be pleasantly surprised even if there isn't technically anyone to show it off to till they get into an actual game.
this recent update by the new Team Fortress 2 team essentially stops all this 'non-sense' by ensuring that the item drop will only occur in valve sanctioned servers, where normal games are playing. the question being though. what problem is actually being solved by this measure?
idlers pretty much stay away from mainstream servers. thus, they would not normally interfere in a game. let's say there's a normal game going on and an idler appears in the game. by idling within that game server and not helping the team he's assigned to, then the idler is being malicious. but if the idler is in his own local server, there's no team to annoy, so everyone technically still wins.
from an economical perspective, valve doesn't lose out either. all the crates are still being dropped equally to every player whether or not they are idling. some players i know possess idling accounts specifically for item farming. not a bad idea in essence and also benefits valve too because for each item farming account made, valve can be certain that money has been transferred to them. a Free account is unable to trade anything to anyone and only allows the F2P (free 2 play) player to 'beg' for items from premium or paid for players. so, for an item farming account to work, it must be paid for to become premium. no issues there either then.
this begets the question, why then has the new Team Fortress 2 team taken this 'idling' issue so seriously? i've asked another player for his views and one thing we did come up with was the gaming experience. a fair point, in a way. the argued point entails that the player must be playing a game and then when he least expects it, he gets an item. never mind that its probably a weapon he already has or a hat of dubious value. the player has got an ITEM! he should be overjoyed, elated and brimming with happiness that the game's chance system has allowed him to get an item for FREE. this experience is then what is being sought after. then again, one must consider that all experiences eventually wear thin. ask yourself why is it then that fads like Aaron Carter or perhaps even Bieber, come and go and yet most of their contributions last even less than their own lifetime? the experience. this is especially true for avid gamers who frequent TF2.
players who play any game for long enough would become weary of a gimmick, especially one as small as the first joys of obtaining an item. but if not for the experience and joys of getting an item whilst slaughtering enemies or erstwhile team mates, what then could be the reason for this update being as it is? my hunch is that it could be a response of the ego or shoe-filling.
bear in mind, that Team Fortress 2's community has evolved from simply being players to facilitators of other players. its community has a strong creative side that genuinely surprises the game's creators time and again with their brilliance and dedication. this is the same community that launched its very own 'Robotics' update with the actual devs doing little apart from marketing work. in essence then, what the original Team Fortress 2 team has created is a perpetual motion engine that constantly goes forwards on its own after some input from its creators. the new team that administers the game essentially become caretakers, ensuring that there are still regular update, bugs are sorted and errant players dealt with.
unfortunately, idling comes under the latter scope of errant players and have been dealt with by being unable to idle any longer. but how is dealing with idlers an ego boost for this new team? the answer is simple. they must appear to look like they are doing something of great significance, and as such attack and rectify a relatively simple problem which nobody really cares about or is actually malignant any longer, the best case of beating a dead horse while making a mountain of a molehill if you will.
i'd personally, rather see more effort from the this very same team being put into stopping actual hackers who, in fact do mess up normal games or even addressing weapons balancing issues properly. but surely, idling is a far greater threat than a speed-hacker who can not only see through walls but also make every shot count then, isn't it?
