12 ms·

Team Fortress 2 now free forever

423 points by cookiecaper 15y ago

http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay/

jbermudes 15y ago
Well, at least until the Steam authentication servers go offline if Valve ever shuts down. While Gabe Newell has been quoted as saying that if that were to happen they would unlock everyone's games, it bugs me that there has been no official offer of such. Until then, people can continue to point at Steam and say "but DRM == evil!"
- sukuriant 15y ago
  Game Newell sounds like a man that'll be good by his word. I may eat my own words, but I trust him for that.
  - wnight 15y ago
    You do understand that if anything happened to the company he'd be legally prohibited from releasing anti-DRM patches, right? It'd destroy the shareholders' value. Unless it's in writing as a condition of your purchase, and the code is in escrow somewhere, it ain't happening.
    - sid0 15y ago
      You mentioned "shareholders". Think about who owns Valve -- I understand Gabe owns 100% of the company.
      - papercrane 15y ago
        It's privately held, so the information on who owns it isn't public. Mike Harrington was a co-founder, he may still have some stake in the company.
      - wnight 15y ago
        Yeah, I should have said creditors. It's more to the point.
        sid0 15y ago
        I find it hard to believe Valve has any debt whatsoever.
        wnight 15y ago
        The point though is that these vague promises to unDRM products are probably not permitted even if they thought about it and had the patches ready. And this isn't just a Valve thing, id software said something similar when Quake3 first required an online auth check to play on registered servers. But considering how much you'd lose if Steam went away I can see why people are nervous of using them versus buying CDs.
- chc 15y ago
  How much more official does it get than the president of the company?
  - ugh 15y ago
    Well, it's not a contract. Valve isn't actually obligated to do that. (That said, aren't all contractual obligations up in the air when a company goes bankrupt? Can a company promise anything beyond its bankruptcy?)
aaronbrethorst 15y ago
I don't suppose anyone knows why Valve made TF2 free, do they? edit: Steam adoption+in-app purchases. Good call.
- fizx 15y ago
  Perhaps to promote Steam adoption?
- robryan 15y ago
  They have already made a heap of money off it, so they can get more people into steam and they have also had in game purchases.
- jasonallen 15y ago
  I suspect it's because of paid DLC. The ol' razor and blades model - give the game away for free and reap the profit on bought game content (e.g. 'hats'). The margins on those make gillette envious.
  - sid0 15y ago
    Except you need blades to shave -- most hats have no effect on gameplay.
    - merijnv 15y ago
      In my experience vanity items with no effect on gameplay attract droves of people with to much disposable income. When I was still playing WoW lots of people were buying things like pets and mounts with no benefit other then looking cool and showing off. I don't see how TF2 hats will be any different. Regardless, as people said the sales of TF2 have probably mostly dropped off, distributing the game for free costs nothing (well, it costs hosting and bandwidth but I don't suspect those costs make up any significant percentage of Steam's total costs, so effectively the hosting is free) so they have barely any income to lose and a massive fanbase and ingame transaction economy to gain.
- cookiecaper 15y ago
bprater 15y ago
League of Legends is a free game that has been making a big splash in monetizing through in-game purchases, which I believe TF2 is doing now? I'm wondering if Valve is making a similar big play in this area?
- angrycoder 15y ago
  Free to play has been huge for a while, see Farmville et all and all the f2p mmorpgs. Valve is actually late to the party.
  - ericd 15y ago
    Maybe, but they brought the keg compared to those typically lackluster and/or derivative games.
- ulvund 15y ago
  Valve has Steam from which they take 30% of any game sale. So they will never hurt for cash. They can give away every game they ever make and still make a killing from selling others' games because they have the most popular and best working platform. Valve is now in the content delivery network business and just happen to have a department that produce video games.
  - starwed 15y ago
    Heh, I remember how heavily Steam was derided back when they rolled out the beta. And people screamed bloody murder when they made it so you had to go through Steam to play CS online.
    - spindritf 15y ago
      To be fair, it failed completely then -- Steam servers crashed, downloads were slow and it offered virtually no benefit.
    - ulvund 15y ago
      It is funny CS enabled Valve to make a ton of money eventually
true_religion 15y ago
I'm curious if they're planning to fund the sever maintenance cost simply by selling hats. I knew that microtransactions were a viable money maker, but not to this extent.
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  It's probably a combination of loss-leader, declining server load, and impending TF3 or equivalent. That is to say, the server maintenance costs have been dropping, are soon to be dominated by another product, and they are willing to take a hit in the interests of their greater business. They've also certainly made plenty of money from TF2 already, perhaps enough to support the servers for the projected life of the game.
  - cookiecaper 15y ago
    I doubt it will be TF3 since there is really no need to do a major restructuring for TF2. It is excellent and very well balanced the way it is. The only thing I can think of that anyone would even want from TF3 would be a different graphical or techincal approach, which would have only limited interest. However, I also get an instinct that part of the motivation behind this will be a major new release from Valve, but maybe not. Maybe they are taking TF2 freemium because sales have declined anyway, it will allow greater microtransaction opportunity, and provide a broader userbase for Steam and the advertisements it displays on each boot.
    - jeffool 15y ago
      I agree with cookiecaper. I don't see Valve doing TF3 for some time. Whenever it does happen (and I think it will eventually) it will only be with large fundamental changes that the TF2 tech can't handle on reasonable machines. Valve has become genius in their new approach of "games as service" imo. I think we'll see them going GOIP (Gaming Over IP, that's right, I just coined that. And what?) by the end of next year, too.
      - StavrosK 15y ago
retlehs 15y ago
TF2 is an extremely fun game. Looks like there's a Hacker News group on Steam with a few members.. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/newsyc http://steamcommunity.com/groups/newsyc
- cookiecaper 15y ago
  I have played TF2 for several years now and I haven't gotten sick of it. I think TF2 is really the only game that I can say that about. The mechanics are extremely solid and Valve is constantly pumping new content to shake things up and keep people interested. TF2 should be the textbook example of doing a commercial multiplayer game right. The one caveat may be Steam DRM, but as far the actual game goes, it is head and shoulders above everything else in its field and should become the model for its genre.
  - InclinedPlane 15y ago
    I've been playing TF2 since beta and I'm still learning how to play! It's a very easy game to get into but it's also a very deep and rich game that rewards continued learning. There are also many, many different styles of play.
- brianwillis 15y ago
  Thanks for linking to that. I had no idea it existed. Judging from the group size, not many others did either.
- zemanel 15y ago
  just joined it
cookiecaper 15y ago
For the record, TF2 runs excellently on WINE and that's how I play it. Don't let the non-Linuxness of the game put you off.
- andrewflnr 15y ago
  Aw crap, there goes my weekend! I won't even have to boot Windows to try it.
  - andrewflnr 15y ago
    Steam runs, but I can't seem to get TF2 to work on Wine.
    - cookiecaper 15y ago
      What's the issue? Console log + any records of errors please. You can bring this up on the appdb comments page for TF2, where I am a moderator.
- reso 15y ago
  Uhoh. This will not be good for my productivity...
- primitur 15y ago
  How do you install it in Linux? Is there Steam for Linux that binds things up in WINE?
  - Bogdanp 15y ago
    The Windows Steam client works fine in the current version of WINE. To install Steam on Linux: 1) Download the Windows installer from http://store.steampowered.com/about/ 2) Open up a terminal and run `wine msiexec /i /path/to/SteamInstall.msi` 3) Install Steam as you would in Windows
brianwillis 15y ago
If you care about gaming in any way, you owe it to yourself to give TF2 a try. It's quite complex, with intricate levels and lots of weapons, but it's easy to learn and you don't need to have every concept fully understood before you dive in. I've also been surprised by the community that surrounds TF2. People are usually pretty nice about answering questions over chat, as opposed to Xbox Live where all communication comes in the form of racial slurs.
- w1ntermute 15y ago
  > I've also been surprised by the community that surrounds TF2. People are usually pretty nice about answering questions over chat, as opposed to Xbox Live where all communication comes in the form of racial slurs. I think this is a byproduct of the demographic differences between console gaming and PC gaming. Console gamers tend to be younger (and thus less mature) than PC gamers because consoles are cheaper (the parents are paying) and more locked down (parents again).
  - Klinky 15y ago
    Ehhh... There are a lot of dicks in PC pub servers too..
  - CrazedGeek 15y ago
    The graphic style also turns away the typical tough-guy attitude that seems to pervade most FPSs.
  - mestudent 15y ago
    It depends on the game, play competitive counterstrike and everyone is a dick (source or 1.6)
    - w1ntermute 15y ago
      That makes sense - unlike TF2, you can pirate CS and your computer's specs don't need to be that great to play it. So even children can easily get a copy of CS and a computer to play it with. I'm hoping that the fact that TF2 is free now isn't enough to cause a large enough demographic shift to ruin the online multiplayer experience.
natesm 15y ago
I wonder how they'll deal with cheaters, since you can now have infinite copies for free.
- jeffool 15y ago
  I think the question becomes "Will people really want to make a new Steam account every time they want to cheat?"
  - mestudent 15y ago
    You would be surprised by the amount of cheaters with multiple accounts in source games even though they weren't free.
- spcmnspff 15y ago
  Cheating through item drop mining with multiple accounts can't be done without paying for some in-game store item that makes the account a premium one, since free accounts can only be on the recieving end of a trade and have item restrictions (eg no hats). If you mean the much more serious VAC-evasion by creating new accounts, they mentioned they would be cracking down on those, but no so sure about the specifics.
- forrestthewoods 15y ago
  It's less of an issue than you'd think. People become incredibly vested in their accounts. Hundreds of hours of playtime earning items and real money to buy others. Not many players will risk their time and money investments by trying to cheat. Aimbot is still an issue as you can make throw away accounts. If a game supports the concept of "high player level" servers it's less problematic.
fuzionmonkey 15y ago
I think there's no doubt this is great for Valve. But as a player who dearly misses vanilla TF2, how is Valve going to combat the influx of greifers and hackers? What stops someone from running TF2 in a VM and continually making new accounts? I wish there was a way to bring back TF2 as it originally was (no hats, no gimmicks). But I guess the transition to gaming as a service was inevitable. Valve has been going in that direction for a long time. I hope they do make a proper Half-Life 3.
- mortenjorck 15y ago
  Ironically, you can probably get the purest TF2 experience today on its least-preferred platform, the PS3. I don't think that version was ever updated with even the earliest tweaks.
- mwilcox 15y ago
  There's nothing stopping anyone from running their own dedicated server and blacklisting all the non-standard weapons. In fact, a lot of the competitive communities do exactly that.
- Zakharov 15y ago
  I haven't tried it, but I think you can mod out hats. You can certainly host a server which restricts players to only the original weapons, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone's already done that.
amurmann 15y ago
I am really unhappy about the move towards premium-content, DLC, IAP or however you want call what's happening in the gaming industry right now. When I play a game I do not want to make financial real world decisions and I don't want my gaming experience to be altered by my real world wallet. Isn't it the point of gaming to get away from worries like that?! I also want to be able to experience the game as it was originally intended by the game designer. That last point is not so much of an issue with a game like TF2, but more so with RPGs like Dragon Age or Mass Effect. Is the game balanced right with the stronger bonus armor that I got for per-ordering or does this make the game too easy??
patio11 15y ago
I've been saying for years that US gamers have been voting for the Korean/Chinese economic model: free clients and paid content locked down on company-owned servers. Hug your local pirate; you won't be able to buy any major PC games in ten years because the notion of selling games will be quaint.
- ImperatorLunae 15y ago
  or the games of late have been without substance. TF2 was the last game I bought... until Minecraft, that is.
  - pnathan 15y ago
    I am not sure if games lately are without substance, or whether they simply are not innovative. Certainly I look at a game and think, "Oh yeah, this is a clone of X, modulo plot, setting, and graphics". Except for Minecraft. Which, of course, I've wasted good hacking hours on. Teaching Digital Design to kids via Minecraft might be fun, I was thinking. You really have to think about the physicality of chip designs in a way that VHDL and other HDLs hide from you.
    - ImperatorLunae 15y ago
      That is a good idea. I heard once that the younger generations of fighter pilots--those that grew up with flight simulator video games--made better pilots than when their elder counterparts were starting out. It would truly be awesome if kids playing Minecraft grow up to be better electrical engineers like the pilots.
- krashidov 15y ago
  While I do agree that the freemium model will be very popular in the upcoming years, games with very competitive multiplayer, where balance and equal competition are a necessity will still have the traditional model we see today. Unless of course they make those games free with a monthly subscription to play online.
Sheepol 15y ago
What if I don't want to install that trashy Steam app? If Steam is required, it's a gimmick and a joke.
- esrauch 15y ago
  Steam is completely integrated with the game. The server browser in-game is actually just steam, so it really would make no sense at all to have TF2 without steam. What exactly is your critique of Steam, just that you are fundamentally opposed to DRM? I do agree that it's something that I don't really want automatically starting up with my computer (even though I'm a pretty heavy gamer, I don't use the steam friend chat or anything) but as a platform and a piece of software it doesn't seem too trashy.
  - fragsworth 15y ago
    The first time I installed Steam was when it came with Half Life, and back then it was a steaming pile of crap. So bad, in fact, that I deleted it and didn't touch it again until 2 years ago. A lot has changed since then, but some folks might not yet be aware of it.
    - cmurdock 15y ago
      True, back in the days of Counter Strike 1.6 it was a terrible, buggy piece of DRM. It's improved by leaps and bounds since then.
teyc 15y ago
I've not heard of TF2, but the characters are quite unique in the sense that none of the them conform to our daily ideas of what heroes look like.
- oscilloscope 15y ago
  I wouldn't call the characters heroes. Demoman is a scottish drunk. Heavy loves massacres. The medic seems like a former nazi who delights in torture. They enjoy killing their enemies and celebrating the slaughter. The cartoon-y style definitely takes the edge off though.
  - andypants 15y ago
    All the characters are adorable though!
- dhugiaskmak 15y ago
  If you haven't seen them, the Meet the Team videos are absolutely worth watching: http://www.teamfortress.com/movies.htm http://www.teamfortress.com/movies.htm The Medic video just came out yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lSzUMBJnc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lSzUMBJnc
BrainScraps 15y ago
I just paid for this like 5 days ago! BLARG!
- jswanson 15y ago
  Not a total loss, you get a premium account automatically. Q. Who has a premium account? If you've ever spent money on TF2, you have a premium account. This includes purchasing the game before it was Free-to-Play, activating a retail version of the game, or making a purchase in the Mann Co. in-game store. Q. How is a free account different than a premium account? Premium accounts have a few extra features, including access to rare and cosmetic items through random item drops, the ability to store more items in your backpack, and more powerful trading and crafting abilities. Otherwise, the gameplay experience will be identical for both accounts. From:http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay/faq.php http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay/faq.php
- cmurdock 15y ago
  Contact Valve tech support, they might refund your money.
  - BrainScraps 15y ago
    Thanks for the tips, folks!
tobylane 15y ago
In case you're wondering (and you should) you can craft any item you can buy. I have pretty much the best loadout possible, without paying for anything, and it's all from items that you get when you die (which is a lot).
- seabee 15y ago
  The best loadout IMO is the one you get by default. I won't deny that the other weapons are tons of fun to play with, though. (Everyone has to play a Demoknight at least once!). But you will be competitive without a single drop. The guns are balanced well.
parenthesis 15y ago
Am I the only one who thought the headline meant Guy Steele's Fortress-the-programming-language team is leaving Oracle?
codabrink 15y ago
Wow, I just paid for this game a week ago. No big deal though, it's a good game I hear. I have yet to have a chance to play it.
- random42 15y ago
  Dont worry. Paid games have additional features.
baconner 15y ago
Confession: I still miss the original TF.
- vyrotek 15y ago
  Indeed, the old maps and the original Demoman with is bomb pack were awesome.
devmach 15y ago
Is there some other way download the game other than stream? With 16Mit connection, i can download only 17KB/second and it suspends all the time... Such times, i think that who designed and/or coded such a system/program should stop working on IT subject... I can understand low download speed (server load, too many downloads etc), but why suspend the download ? and why not f*ckin' auto-resume ?
- syaz1 15y ago
  It should resume the download. Something wrong in your case. I suggest you just copy from a friend who have downloaded it.
- cookiecaper 15y ago
  From Steam, go to View -> Settings -> Downloads + Cloud -> Download Region and choose a server located in off-peak hours right now. Downloads from Steam often are slow when big news like this comes out, but if you connect to a server in a place where its 2am, you usually still get pretty good download speed.
- devmach 15y ago
  I've installed Steam again changed download region. It looks like works now.
zemanel 15y ago
i've been using Steam for Mac and playing TF2 since it came out, and eventually bought other games (L4D2, Killing Floor, all of Half-Life series games + Portal 1+2). Till then i have never bought some many games. I just love Steam, the way it works ("stores" your [save] games on the cloud). It's an amazing system and i hope other industries can learn some lessons here (something i tried to talk about here http://zemanel.eu/on-filesharing-steampowered-and-the-film-indu http://zemanel.eu/on-filesharing-steampowered-and-the-film-i... ).
JL2010 15y ago
If anyone hasn't seen this yet, I highly recommend watching this interview with Gabe Newell conducted by a high school marketing/economics class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOMI0BxB0yA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOMI0BxB0yA Gabe Newell is a founder of Valve Software and I believe he is a true visionary in the industry. Steam would likely not be what it is today if it weren't for his leadership at Valve.
Groxx 15y ago
And now Steam gets even more customers. Brilliant move. Steam has consumed a lot more of my money than any other store like it, and TF2 is a fantastic hook.

423 points by cookiecaper 15y ago

http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay/

Well, at least until the Steam authentication servers go offline if Valve ever shuts down. While Gabe Newell has been quoted as saying that if that were to happen they would unlock everyone's games, it bugs me that there has been no official offer of such. Until then, people can continue to point at Steam and say "but DRM == evil!"

sukuriant 15y ago
Game Newell sounds like a man that'll be good by his word. I may eat my own words, but I trust him for that.
- wnight 15y ago
  You do understand that if anything happened to the company he'd be legally prohibited from releasing anti-DRM patches, right? It'd destroy the shareholders' value. Unless it's in writing as a condition of your purchase, and the code is in escrow somewhere, it ain't happening.
  - sid0 15y ago
    You mentioned "shareholders". Think about who owns Valve -- I understand Gabe owns 100% of the company.
    - papercrane 15y ago
      It's privately held, so the information on who owns it isn't public. Mike Harrington was a co-founder, he may still have some stake in the company.
    - wnight 15y ago
      Yeah, I should have said creditors. It's more to the point.
      - sid0 15y ago
        I find it hard to believe Valve has any debt whatsoever.
        wnight 15y ago
        The point though is that these vague promises to unDRM products are probably not permitted even if they thought about it and had the patches ready. And this isn't just a Valve thing, id software said something similar when Quake3 first required an online auth check to play on registered servers. But considering how much you'd lose if Steam went away I can see why people are nervous of using them versus buying CDs.
chc 15y ago
How much more official does it get than the president of the company?
- ugh 15y ago
  Well, it's not a contract. Valve isn't actually obligated to do that. (That said, aren't all contractual obligations up in the air when a company goes bankrupt? Can a company promise anything beyond its bankruptcy?)

aaronbrethorst 15y ago

I don't suppose anyone knows why Valve made TF2 free, do they? edit: Steam adoption+in-app purchases. Good call.

fizx 15y ago
Perhaps to promote Steam adoption?
robryan 15y ago
They have already made a heap of money off it, so they can get more people into steam and they have also had in game purchases.
jasonallen 15y ago
I suspect it's because of paid DLC. The ol' razor and blades model - give the game away for free and reap the profit on bought game content (e.g. 'hats'). The margins on those make gillette envious.
- sid0 15y ago
  Except you need blades to shave -- most hats have no effect on gameplay.
  - merijnv 15y ago
    In my experience vanity items with no effect on gameplay attract droves of people with to much disposable income. When I was still playing WoW lots of people were buying things like pets and mounts with no benefit other then looking cool and showing off. I don't see how TF2 hats will be any different. Regardless, as people said the sales of TF2 have probably mostly dropped off, distributing the game for free costs nothing (well, it costs hosting and bandwidth but I don't suspect those costs make up any significant percentage of Steam's total costs, so effectively the hosting is free) so they have barely any income to lose and a massive fanbase and ingame transaction economy to gain.
cookiecaper 15y ago

bprater 15y ago

League of Legends is a free game that has been making a big splash in monetizing through in-game purchases, which I believe TF2 is doing now? I'm wondering if Valve is making a similar big play in this area?

angrycoder 15y ago
Free to play has been huge for a while, see Farmville et all and all the f2p mmorpgs. Valve is actually late to the party.
- ericd 15y ago
  Maybe, but they brought the keg compared to those typically lackluster and/or derivative games.
ulvund 15y ago
Valve has Steam from which they take 30% of any game sale. So they will never hurt for cash. They can give away every game they ever make and still make a killing from selling others' games because they have the most popular and best working platform. Valve is now in the content delivery network business and just happen to have a department that produce video games.
- starwed 15y ago
  Heh, I remember how heavily Steam was derided back when they rolled out the beta. And people screamed bloody murder when they made it so you had to go through Steam to play CS online.
  - spindritf 15y ago
    To be fair, it failed completely then -- Steam servers crashed, downloads were slow and it offered virtually no benefit.
  - ulvund 15y ago
    It is funny CS enabled Valve to make a ton of money eventually

true_religion 15y ago

I'm curious if they're planning to fund the sever maintenance cost simply by selling hats. I knew that microtransactions were a viable money maker, but not to this extent.

sliverstorm 15y ago
It's probably a combination of loss-leader, declining server load, and impending TF3 or equivalent. That is to say, the server maintenance costs have been dropping, are soon to be dominated by another product, and they are willing to take a hit in the interests of their greater business. They've also certainly made plenty of money from TF2 already, perhaps enough to support the servers for the projected life of the game.
- cookiecaper 15y ago
  I doubt it will be TF3 since there is really no need to do a major restructuring for TF2. It is excellent and very well balanced the way it is. The only thing I can think of that anyone would even want from TF3 would be a different graphical or techincal approach, which would have only limited interest. However, I also get an instinct that part of the motivation behind this will be a major new release from Valve, but maybe not. Maybe they are taking TF2 freemium because sales have declined anyway, it will allow greater microtransaction opportunity, and provide a broader userbase for Steam and the advertisements it displays on each boot.
  - jeffool 15y ago
    I agree with cookiecaper. I don't see Valve doing TF3 for some time. Whenever it does happen (and I think it will eventually) it will only be with large fundamental changes that the TF2 tech can't handle on reasonable machines. Valve has become genius in their new approach of "games as service" imo. I think we'll see them going GOIP (Gaming Over IP, that's right, I just coined that. And what?) by the end of next year, too.
    - StavrosK 15y ago

retlehs 15y ago

TF2 is an extremely fun game. Looks like there's a Hacker News group on Steam with a few members.. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/newsyc http://steamcommunity.com/groups/newsyc

cookiecaper 15y ago
I have played TF2 for several years now and I haven't gotten sick of it. I think TF2 is really the only game that I can say that about. The mechanics are extremely solid and Valve is constantly pumping new content to shake things up and keep people interested. TF2 should be the textbook example of doing a commercial multiplayer game right. The one caveat may be Steam DRM, but as far the actual game goes, it is head and shoulders above everything else in its field and should become the model for its genre.
- InclinedPlane 15y ago
  I've been playing TF2 since beta and I'm still learning how to play! It's a very easy game to get into but it's also a very deep and rich game that rewards continued learning. There are also many, many different styles of play.
brianwillis 15y ago
Thanks for linking to that. I had no idea it existed. Judging from the group size, not many others did either.
zemanel 15y ago
just joined it

cookiecaper 15y ago

For the record, TF2 runs excellently on WINE and that's how I play it. Don't let the non-Linuxness of the game put you off.

andrewflnr 15y ago
Aw crap, there goes my weekend! I won't even have to boot Windows to try it.
- andrewflnr 15y ago
  Steam runs, but I can't seem to get TF2 to work on Wine.
  - cookiecaper 15y ago
    What's the issue? Console log + any records of errors please. You can bring this up on the appdb comments page for TF2, where I am a moderator.
reso 15y ago
Uhoh. This will not be good for my productivity...
primitur 15y ago
How do you install it in Linux? Is there Steam for Linux that binds things up in WINE?
- Bogdanp 15y ago
  The Windows Steam client works fine in the current version of WINE. To install Steam on Linux: 1) Download the Windows installer from http://store.steampowered.com/about/ 2) Open up a terminal and run `wine msiexec /i /path/to/SteamInstall.msi` 3) Install Steam as you would in Windows

brianwillis 15y ago

If you care about gaming in any way, you owe it to yourself to give TF2 a try. It's quite complex, with intricate levels and lots of weapons, but it's easy to learn and you don't need to have every concept fully understood before you dive in. I've also been surprised by the community that surrounds TF2. People are usually pretty nice about answering questions over chat, as opposed to Xbox Live where all communication comes in the form of racial slurs.

w1ntermute 15y ago
> I've also been surprised by the community that surrounds TF2. People are usually pretty nice about answering questions over chat, as opposed to Xbox Live where all communication comes in the form of racial slurs. I think this is a byproduct of the demographic differences between console gaming and PC gaming. Console gamers tend to be younger (and thus less mature) than PC gamers because consoles are cheaper (the parents are paying) and more locked down (parents again).
- Klinky 15y ago
  Ehhh... There are a lot of dicks in PC pub servers too..
- CrazedGeek 15y ago
  The graphic style also turns away the typical tough-guy attitude that seems to pervade most FPSs.
- mestudent 15y ago
  It depends on the game, play competitive counterstrike and everyone is a dick (source or 1.6)
  - w1ntermute 15y ago
    That makes sense - unlike TF2, you can pirate CS and your computer's specs don't need to be that great to play it. So even children can easily get a copy of CS and a computer to play it with. I'm hoping that the fact that TF2 is free now isn't enough to cause a large enough demographic shift to ruin the online multiplayer experience.

natesm 15y ago

I wonder how they'll deal with cheaters, since you can now have infinite copies for free.

jeffool 15y ago
I think the question becomes "Will people really want to make a new Steam account every time they want to cheat?"
- mestudent 15y ago
  You would be surprised by the amount of cheaters with multiple accounts in source games even though they weren't free.
spcmnspff 15y ago
Cheating through item drop mining with multiple accounts can't be done without paying for some in-game store item that makes the account a premium one, since free accounts can only be on the recieving end of a trade and have item restrictions (eg no hats). If you mean the much more serious VAC-evasion by creating new accounts, they mentioned they would be cracking down on those, but no so sure about the specifics.
forrestthewoods 15y ago
It's less of an issue than you'd think. People become incredibly vested in their accounts. Hundreds of hours of playtime earning items and real money to buy others. Not many players will risk their time and money investments by trying to cheat. Aimbot is still an issue as you can make throw away accounts. If a game supports the concept of "high player level" servers it's less problematic.

fuzionmonkey 15y ago

I think there's no doubt this is great for Valve. But as a player who dearly misses vanilla TF2, how is Valve going to combat the influx of greifers and hackers? What stops someone from running TF2 in a VM and continually making new accounts? I wish there was a way to bring back TF2 as it originally was (no hats, no gimmicks). But I guess the transition to gaming as a service was inevitable. Valve has been going in that direction for a long time. I hope they do make a proper Half-Life 3.

mortenjorck 15y ago
Ironically, you can probably get the purest TF2 experience today on its least-preferred platform, the PS3. I don't think that version was ever updated with even the earliest tweaks.
mwilcox 15y ago
There's nothing stopping anyone from running their own dedicated server and blacklisting all the non-standard weapons. In fact, a lot of the competitive communities do exactly that.
Zakharov 15y ago
I haven't tried it, but I think you can mod out hats. You can certainly host a server which restricts players to only the original weapons, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone's already done that.

amurmann 15y ago

I am really unhappy about the move towards premium-content, DLC, IAP or however you want call what's happening in the gaming industry right now. When I play a game I do not want to make financial real world decisions and I don't want my gaming experience to be altered by my real world wallet. Isn't it the point of gaming to get away from worries like that?! I also want to be able to experience the game as it was originally intended by the game designer. That last point is not so much of an issue with a game like TF2, but more so with RPGs like Dragon Age or Mass Effect. Is the game balanced right with the stronger bonus armor that I got for per-ordering or does this make the game too easy??

patio11 15y ago

I've been saying for years that US gamers have been voting for the Korean/Chinese economic model: free clients and paid content locked down on company-owned servers. Hug your local pirate; you won't be able to buy any major PC games in ten years because the notion of selling games will be quaint.

ImperatorLunae 15y ago
or the games of late have been without substance. TF2 was the last game I bought... until Minecraft, that is.
- pnathan 15y ago
  I am not sure if games lately are without substance, or whether they simply are not innovative. Certainly I look at a game and think, "Oh yeah, this is a clone of X, modulo plot, setting, and graphics". Except for Minecraft. Which, of course, I've wasted good hacking hours on. Teaching Digital Design to kids via Minecraft might be fun, I was thinking. You really have to think about the physicality of chip designs in a way that VHDL and other HDLs hide from you.
  - ImperatorLunae 15y ago
    That is a good idea. I heard once that the younger generations of fighter pilots--those that grew up with flight simulator video games--made better pilots than when their elder counterparts were starting out. It would truly be awesome if kids playing Minecraft grow up to be better electrical engineers like the pilots.
krashidov 15y ago
While I do agree that the freemium model will be very popular in the upcoming years, games with very competitive multiplayer, where balance and equal competition are a necessity will still have the traditional model we see today. Unless of course they make those games free with a monthly subscription to play online.

Sheepol 15y ago

What if I don't want to install that trashy Steam app? If Steam is required, it's a gimmick and a joke.

esrauch 15y ago
Steam is completely integrated with the game. The server browser in-game is actually just steam, so it really would make no sense at all to have TF2 without steam. What exactly is your critique of Steam, just that you are fundamentally opposed to DRM? I do agree that it's something that I don't really want automatically starting up with my computer (even though I'm a pretty heavy gamer, I don't use the steam friend chat or anything) but as a platform and a piece of software it doesn't seem too trashy.
- fragsworth 15y ago
  The first time I installed Steam was when it came with Half Life, and back then it was a steaming pile of crap. So bad, in fact, that I deleted it and didn't touch it again until 2 years ago. A lot has changed since then, but some folks might not yet be aware of it.
  - cmurdock 15y ago
    True, back in the days of Counter Strike 1.6 it was a terrible, buggy piece of DRM. It's improved by leaps and bounds since then.

teyc 15y ago

I've not heard of TF2, but the characters are quite unique in the sense that none of the them conform to our daily ideas of what heroes look like.

oscilloscope 15y ago
I wouldn't call the characters heroes. Demoman is a scottish drunk. Heavy loves massacres. The medic seems like a former nazi who delights in torture. They enjoy killing their enemies and celebrating the slaughter. The cartoon-y style definitely takes the edge off though.
- andypants 15y ago
  All the characters are adorable though!
dhugiaskmak 15y ago
If you haven't seen them, the Meet the Team videos are absolutely worth watching: http://www.teamfortress.com/movies.htm http://www.teamfortress.com/movies.htm The Medic video just came out yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lSzUMBJnc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lSzUMBJnc

BrainScraps 15y ago

I just paid for this like 5 days ago! BLARG!

jswanson 15y ago
Not a total loss, you get a premium account automatically. Q. Who has a premium account? If you've ever spent money on TF2, you have a premium account. This includes purchasing the game before it was Free-to-Play, activating a retail version of the game, or making a purchase in the Mann Co. in-game store. Q. How is a free account different than a premium account? Premium accounts have a few extra features, including access to rare and cosmetic items through random item drops, the ability to store more items in your backpack, and more powerful trading and crafting abilities. Otherwise, the gameplay experience will be identical for both accounts. From:http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay/faq.php http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay/faq.php
cmurdock 15y ago
Contact Valve tech support, they might refund your money.
- BrainScraps 15y ago
  Thanks for the tips, folks!

tobylane 15y ago

In case you're wondering (and you should) you can craft any item you can buy. I have pretty much the best loadout possible, without paying for anything, and it's all from items that you get when you die (which is a lot).

seabee 15y ago
The best loadout IMO is the one you get by default. I won't deny that the other weapons are tons of fun to play with, though. (Everyone has to play a Demoknight at least once!). But you will be competitive without a single drop. The guns are balanced well.

parenthesis 15y ago

Am I the only one who thought the headline meant Guy Steele's Fortress-the-programming-language team is leaving Oracle?

codabrink 15y ago

Wow, I just paid for this game a week ago. No big deal though, it's a good game I hear. I have yet to have a chance to play it.

random42 15y ago
Dont worry. Paid games have additional features.

baconner 15y ago

Confession: I still miss the original TF.

vyrotek 15y ago
Indeed, the old maps and the original Demoman with is bomb pack were awesome.

devmach 15y ago

Is there some other way download the game other than stream? With 16Mit connection, i can download only 17KB/second and it suspends all the time... Such times, i think that who designed and/or coded such a system/program should stop working on IT subject... I can understand low download speed (server load, too many downloads etc), but why suspend the download ? and why not f*ckin' auto-resume ?

syaz1 15y ago
It should resume the download. Something wrong in your case. I suggest you just copy from a friend who have downloaded it.
cookiecaper 15y ago
From Steam, go to View -> Settings -> Downloads + Cloud -> Download Region and choose a server located in off-peak hours right now. Downloads from Steam often are slow when big news like this comes out, but if you connect to a server in a place where its 2am, you usually still get pretty good download speed.
devmach 15y ago
I've installed Steam again changed download region. It looks like works now.

zemanel 15y ago

i've been using Steam for Mac and playing TF2 since it came out, and eventually bought other games (L4D2, Killing Floor, all of Half-Life series games + Portal 1+2). Till then i have never bought some many games. I just love Steam, the way it works ("stores" your [save] games on the cloud). It's an amazing system and i hope other industries can learn some lessons here (something i tried to talk about here http://zemanel.eu/on-filesharing-steampowered-and-the-film-indu http://zemanel.eu/on-filesharing-steampowered-and-the-film-i... ).

JL2010 15y ago

If anyone hasn't seen this yet, I highly recommend watching this interview with Gabe Newell conducted by a high school marketing/economics class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOMI0BxB0yA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOMI0BxB0yA Gabe Newell is a founder of Valve Software and I believe he is a true visionary in the industry. Steam would likely not be what it is today if it weren't for his leadership at Valve.

Groxx 15y ago

And now Steam gets even more customers. Brilliant move. Steam has consumed a lot more of my money than any other store like it, and TF2 is a fantastic hook.