1. Upside: Laughter. There’s nothing quite like spending 10 minutes in a 3 person event on a server built for 18 to really appreciate how much of a sense of humor the other players have – particularly when we’re all doing daft taunt kills, stunts, and collaborating to have a whale of a time – without having to discuss it first. Numbers dropped, we shifted to melee weapons automatically, and played around having fun for a bit before departing to more crowded servers
2. Midside: Relatively Okay self policing
We’re a long way from a safe space in the sense that public servers come with the risk of sudden and unexpected triggers, idiots screaming slurs and obscenities, and other problems. What is pleasing to see is that calling out the behaviour as unacceptable gets support from the community. Only takes a couple of us to speak up, and it tends to tone down quickly, or it sparks rage quits from the people who we’d like to see leave anyway.
3. Downside: TF2′s Counterstrike Problem
I swear TF2 2Fort is the counterstrike magnet. Every tour of the dedicated 2Fort servers delivers the sort of rubbish I’d hope to leave in the Counterstrike servers. That said, the good thing from my perspective is that it’s captured, contained, and considerably more restrained in the 2Fort than it was anytime I was in Counterstrike. Shorter respawn leaves less time to be a douchebag it seems.
4. UpSide Story:A recent check of my stats revealed that I’m clocked 100 hours Pyro, 36 hours Engy, and 32 hours Medic. The problem being that when I’m Medic, I’m rarely on the losing team on a server, so the longer I play medic, the more I feel obligated to play medic. I like playing Medic. I’m going at play medic, but sometimes, I like to build things, and other times I like to set fire to things. Also, sometimes I like to not get killed. A lot. BY EVERYONE ON THE DAMN SERVER WANTING ME DEAD.
Or at least, I like to be Pyro when I inspire that sort of animosity. Still, nothing paints a target on your back like the Medic Pack and top scoring.
