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Quoted from Starkie

[…]
Don’t listen to anything Arx says, he just wants his FaN back

I want my huntsman back :(

Arx, you are delusional if you truly think allowing more unlocks will suddenly give rise to a premier division filled with 8 new teams. Trust me, nothing will happen. Apart maybe from some sick rocket jumpers that can finally do something with the gunboats.

Quoted from Koeitje

Arx, you are delusional if you truly think allowing more unlocks will suddenly give rise to a premier division filled with 8 new teams. Trust me, nothing will happen. Apart maybe from some sick rocket jumpers that can finally do something with the gunboats.

I don’t think this will happen no. I don’t think that allowing all unlocks will suddenly make the TF2 scene grow, and the competitive community thrive.

I do however think that competitive TF2 player retention will be higher. More players will stick around for longer as the game will feel fresh. I think the likelihood of new casual players trying competitive TF2 for the first time, and actually enjoying it will increase, as there are more options than ‘pick a class and then use only two weapons for all your games’. This might encourage them to stick around, find friends, make teams and so on.

I think Valve would pay more attention to us. Suddenly we are playing their game, rather than giving all their updates and weapons a big ‘fuck you’. They might even find that some weapon sales increase in the steam store because of it. Who knows, somewhere down the line, we might get some direct sponsorship… a kind of, mutually beneficial agreement, where by we support their game (and their money making system), and they support us with some cash prizes. Maybe not, but they sure as hell aren’t doing anything now, and tbh, if I was a game developer, putting tonnes of work into new updates, only to get shunned by the competitive community… I’d probably just focus on pleasing the public crowd too.

The games would be much more exciting and interesting to watch. We might get larger spectator numbers. At the moment, all I ever read in the twitch chats during casts are, “Why do they never use this class??”, or “Why do they not just use this gun??”. As soon as someone replies with, “Because it’s not allowed in the rules”, there’s just 20 people saying how stupid that is. Larger audiences mean greater sponsorship. Greater sponsorship means more competitive players hoping to compete.

As for the actual gameplay / meta changes. I think very little would change. Maybe for a couple of months, things would be hectic and actually quite unenjoyable, as people get used to TDH soldiers, FaN scouts, buff banners, fast heavies, fake death spies etc… Shortly after, players would be more aware of the game play style… less and less unlocks would be used, as their effectiveness gets countered (or the surprise factor is no longer a surprise), and a new meta game begins to evolve. I actually think that a new meta would be almost identical to the current one, except a different role out, more use of utility classes during a last CP hold / push, more options for ‘surprise plays’, and slightly less emphasis on ubercharges.

Summary, I think the competitive game would play out pretty much the same as it already does, only it would be more exciting to watch, more fresh to play, more relate-able for aspiring competitive players to make the switch, and to have a higher (though still slight) chance for some developer support… all at the expense of being annoying for a short duration while the game evolves (for everyone, including unlock enthusiasts like myself), and maybe the loss of a few whiny prem players who simply refuse / can’t adapt to change. Once the dust settles, everything would be pretty sweet. Valve might actually listen to recommendations on their existing unlocks in terms of balance, like they did with the FaN and TDH, only this time we would have a lot more proof and data on the unlocks, and well, we would actually be using them. TF2 can be shaped into the game we want, and what Valve want us to play.

But yeah. Never going to happen. My views are apparently different to everyone who ‘matters’ in this community. I’d be cool with it if I was in the minority (which I might very well be), but I know I’m not alone, and meh, these are only ‘views’ anyway. They don’t do no harm, so I’ll keep on expressing them :)

“more use of an utility class during last hold”

i think i havent played a single game this season without pyros heavies spys snipers engis on defense or even on attack

Quoted from TviQ

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Not everyone can play in a team with me sam !<3

nobody else can cope with such a bad case of trisomy

Arx stop going on and on with this. Allowing a lot of unlocks (like copying the NA whitelist) would piss a lot of people off. It seems though, that allowing the 4 that’s been discussed will not at all piss as many people off, and would probably not make anyone quit. Just a while back people hated all the unlocks, so it’s obviously changing. The world would be a great place if everyone considered everyone’s opinion and people actually argued for their own, but usually people are just gonna look at your wall of text, realize they disagree, and consider it whine. It’s tiring to have these discussion, and it seems we’re actually heading in the right direction, prem players seem to be a bit more open to it. Realize that it’s heading in the right direction and just give it a rest for a while.

give me the escaple plan! so much fun

Hah, this again.