Kireatic

Recently, Valve killed TF2. They might not have noticed yet, but the most recent update of Team Fortress 2 sealed it’s fate for several communities and clans which I know – including a large portion of the community of which I am a part. They did it quite simply – they took something generally hated, the random drop system, and added some more weapons only obtainable via that system, as well as more completely pointless hats.

For me at least, this was the signal Valve had lost it, and I shut off TF2 until the Engineer update (where I hope for sweet heaven that they fix the drop system). As I do so enjoy my multiplayer games, I instantly latched onto Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

On the whole, BC2 is a solid multiplayer game, provided you have a squad full of team members. It is a good game, of this there is no doubt, barring the few niggling balance issues that DICE have promised to fix (the M60 soon, apparently). However, it has a very high skill ceiling, unlike TF2.

Let me explain. Team Fortress 2 clearly has excellent skill ceilings in the form of airshots, movement prediction, sticky carpets, and so on and so forth. However, most of these skills are tactical and not physical. Once you can aim, you can, in theory, learn the other skills, the most important of which is being able to work in a team. Because these skills are tactical, the physical skill ceilings for TF2 are actually very low. Take the Pyro. It might be my favourite class, but I’ll be the first to admit, it comes down to flaming everything that you can, and shotgunning or flaring the things you can’t flame. The reflects are one of the rare ‘skills’ in TF2, akin to aiming, but the Pyro can be played by anyone, and you’ll eventually kill anyone without too much difficulty. This is the same with all the TF2 classes – they are all very easy to pick up.

Bad Company 2 is different. Because of the lack of hit points, and the high weapon variations and damage outputs, physical skill in the form of aiming, jumping and movement in-game becomes an extreme indicator of how quickly you are going to die. This hasn’t been much of a problem up to now, as the game has been new; so players have been adapting. Now all the weapons are unlocked however, and people are settling into certain roles, players are beginning to pull rapidly away from public server skill levels.

This is great for competitive play. But it will make the game extremely newbie unfriendly. Counterstrike, anyone? And it’s already begun – I personally can’t aim for shit, when compared to the gamers I typically end up playing with. Yes, I’ll outshoot the majority of gamers, but this is just because I’m at the very bottom of the top. I’m good at games in comparison only to those who aren’t good. I’m terrible at games compared to almost anyone on my Steam Friends list.

Because of my personal lack of ability, BC2 is already dying for me – it can’t hold onto me when I die every 30 seconds. And it’ll be interesting to see if it manages to keep drawing new players to it when they join a server full of rank 40 players only to get fragged almost instantly.

In the end, it’s inevitable; TF2 held people by adding new content, and now it’s gone too far for the original playerset. Bad Company 2 will hold the hardcore players with its range of tactics and it’s high skill ceiling, but without fresh blood, all games die. But I can’t predict either of the games lifetimes, I can only say that every game dies for someone eventually. It’s just a matter of holding the majority.