For any of you who haven’t gotten Team Fortress 2 there is no excuse now.
TF2 has gone free-to-play (not kiddding).
Um. Did you put this in the Pit on purpose (I know how some people feel about Free to Play), or was it a mistake?
Whoops. Mean to post in Game Room.
Mods please move.
Wow, they must really sell a lot of hats.
Moving thread from The BBQ Pit to The Game Room.
I checked the game room, and there was no thread there, so I started my own…
Guess they’ll get merged.
…okay, not only free to play online, but free to download as well?
Valve are awesome, Steam is awesome, this is just awesome!!! The download is probably too big for my current bandwidth to handle, however that won’t stop me from singing Valve and Steam’s praises!
Ya, free to play is a bit of a misnomer. It’s always been F2P, but now it’s free to download as well.
Also those of us who weren’t cheap bastards* get a natty hat 
*this is a joke son, a joke I say.
Yeah, it’s free to download and install like a normal game, everything free.
Oddly you’re the first person I’ve seen happy about it. No matter what Valve does inspires complete rage by everyone. I’ve heard “WHAT I PAID FOR THIS GAME NOW PEOPLE GET IT FOR FREE I WANT A REFUND” which makes all sorts of sense - yeah I’m sure the 400 hours you’ve played the game in the last 3 years wasn’t worth the $10-20 you paid for it. I also just heard “wow I never thought Valve would be so greedy” - apparently now giving away your high quality game for free is super greedy.
You can see on the tf2 steam forums that it’s the apocalypse. OMG TF2 IS DEAD THIS IS WORSE THAN RAPING MY MOTHER VALVE WTF etc etc
I am a little concerned myself - I do wonder who are the people who want to play this game but couldn’t be bothered to pay $5 for it in the various sales it’s been on. I’m guessing the quality of these people in terms of who you’d want to play with will be lower than average, hence, worsening the player base of the game. Another concern is that with unlimited instances of tf2, hackers could just create a new account, get banned, and repeat. Although there’s almost no hacking in tf2 and valve can probably ban on a per-computer or per-IP basis so I don’t know how much of a concern that is.
…I’m broke. I haven’t bought a new game for my computer since Company of Heroes years ago. For a guy like me who has had to forgo any entertainment on my computer just to make sure I’ve got petrol in my car, this is a wonderful thing for any company to do.
Half Life 1 was my favorite game ever, and Half Life 2 (on the X Box) was my second favourite. When I’ve got a bit of money in the next couple of years, I can guarantee you that Valve and Steam will be getting my dollars.
What Banquet Bear said. Also, I’m not an online FPS-type girl, because I get pwned more often than not and they’re just not fun when that happens. If I hadn’t’ve gotten TF2 for free in the Orange Box, I never would have paid for it up until this point. But now it’s gone free I would give it a go, because there’s nothing to lose in this instance.
But yeah. I’m having conniptions about whether or not to spend $10 on Terraria, and even $5 is outside my budget some weeks.
I think it’s a great idea. Valve long ago made back all of their costs for making TF2, and can enjoy the revenue stream from the in-game store, which is pleasantly optional.
And if this gets a few more copies of Steam installed, giving Valve an opportunity to put their store with other games in front of some new people, it’s a win.
I think there’s a kernel of truth to the greed theory - this is obviously not a purely altruistic move; they’re just shifting to the razor & cartridge model and lowering the initial entry barrier so more people can buy overpriced Mann Co. Crate keys. And let’s also not forget that you can’t put less than $5 in your Steam wallet, so that’s the least you’ll spend, if you do buy something.
If someone who’s broke can now fully enjoy the game, more power to him/her. But it’s worth mentioning that even getting a particular standard weapon upgrade with a crippled trade account is not going to be that easy.
I fear that this is a free-to-play testbed for DotA 2. I really don’t want Valve to emulate that game, but they probably will since it’s been wildly successful.
Could you explain that in more detail for someone who doesn’t play the game at the moment, but might well download it and give it a shot because, hey, free? Will I be wandering around with a crappy pea-shooter unless I sink $50 into awesome premium upgrades or something?
Even if they barred all the weaponry, it wouldn’t put you at a gameplay disadvantage. The default loadouts are what the game was designed around. Even after the cornucopia of weapons they’ve added, the defaults remain the most broadly useful/effective and plenty of people stick with them despite having the whole armory unlocked. The extras add variety and flavor, mostly. My favorite, for example, is the bow & arrow - I just like the style of sniper gameplay it brings to the game, even though the default rifle would be better most of the time.
Regardless, the FAQ says:
It’s my guess that the “nearly” is there just because of the temporary promotional items that aren’t available anymore to anyone.
Oh, I apologize, I didn’t mean to imply that your character would be crippled. Valve does a really good job of balancing the weapons so that the stock weapons are not weaker than their alternates. They’re just…different. For example, an alt weapon might give you increased damage, but at a cost of reduced move speed, that sort of thing. Well, except for the Amputator, that one was a pure upgrade over the stock Bonesaw.
What I meant to say was that if you, for whatever reason, wanted a particular weapon (or class set) and your free account can’t trade, you either have to wait for it to drop or craft it. Like if you wanted a Polycount set and you couldn’t trade, it would take you like two years to put it together.
Plus, I like hats.
I’m embarrassed to say that I just never got around to buying the game before, even when it did cost only $5. I’ve been playing entirely too much Call of Duty: Black Ops lately, but I did see that TF2 was free this morning, so I’m going to go ahead and download it.
I’ve never played it before, but I hope to see you guys online!
I’ll repost the link to SenorBeef’s SDMB TF2 server. Regular games are on (I think) Tuesday and Saturday @ 8 pm Eastern. Come on in and join us. We’re a really friendly bunch and always willing to help out a newcomer.