Valve’s free class-based shooter, TeamFortress2is over 16 years old and still one of the most played games on Steam. TF2Fed up with Valve’s inability or unwillingness to fix the game’s bot issues, the massive fanbase has launched a new, large-scale campaign to pressure the developer into action.
For years, Team Fortress 2—originally published in October 2007—had a serious bot problem. We reported on racist spam bots in 2020 which filled TF2‘s chat with terrible news. Then, in 2022we reported again about TF2‘s ongoing bot problems. This time, the robots filled the servers and used their AI abilities to destroy human players, which many long-time TF2 Fans. Players sent thousands of emails to Valve and outlets like My city And IGN, tried to draw attention to the problem. And it worked! Valve, the company behind Steam and Half-lifeacknowledged the bot problem and said they were working on a solution. That was about two years ago and um… well, the bots are still there and still make the game hard to play.
Fans want Valve to save TeamFortress2
On June 3rd, a new fan campaign started. And like last time, players are trying to get Valve to intervene and do something about all the annoying bots. This time, the “Fix TF2 campaign is asking for player signatures to be submitted to Valve in the future. So far, the site has collected over 210,000 signatures and the number is still growing.
“This cannot be taken lightly, TeamFortress2 is in an unacceptable state and Valve’s apathy in dealing with the problem is just appalling,” reads a message on the Fix TF2 website.
The campaign’s mission statement calls on Valve to provide updated anti-cheat measures for the aging TF2which still makes money every year through microtransactions. Fans also want an open channel of communication with Valve about the state of the game and the bot problem.
As someone who has spent years emailing Valve for comments and responses as part of my job and received very few responses, I wish you all the best of luck in getting them to communicate more. Speaking of which, My city has contacted Valve about TF2‘s Bots.
To get Valve’s attention, the website asks fans to post stories, screenshots and clips of bots in TF2 on social media. Fans are also asked to share the campaign website. Nowhere on the website are fans asked to post reviews. TF2, but that is also happeningprobably because angry players wanted Valve to do something.
Valve has not yet made an official response to the campaign as of June 4, 2024. TF2 The Twitter account’s last tweet was… the last time Valve responded Fans complaining about bots in 2022. So we will see if TF2The second tweet in nearly two years is another promise that fixes are coming. Last time, it reassured fans. This time… I’m not sure.
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