Big 'Team Fortress 2' update blends commercial and crowdsourcing
A major revision to free-for-all action game "Team Fortress 2" leans on fan-produced content, paid-for cosmetic upgrades, and time-limited campaigns that are accessible for a modest fee.
A caricatured cartoon look, plus a tweak that turns on a low-violence mode, help make "Team Fortress 2" one of the friendlier shooters on the market. It doesn't hurt that it's free to play on Mac, Windows and Linux PCs.
Compared to stablemates "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" and "Dota 2," which have intense competitive scenes in addition to sophisticated in-game economies, "Team Fortress 2" has tended towards more vanilla flavors in terms of underlying financial systems as well as both skill-based and technical barriers to entry.
It does have trading, whereby players can sell or swap virtual "TF2" items, but that has largely been powered by random in-game drops or the successful completion of a $1-a-pop "Mann vs. Machine" mode.
And while it does have community-created levels and arenas, the last major integration of brand new maps was late in 2013.
That could be changing, as a July 2 update named Gun Mettle pushed out several large-scale changes to the "Team Fortress 2" formula.
A significant raft of tweaks have been implemented across the board, altering the way that game's nine different characters combine and interact in combat, adding four more maps (three of which were sourced from the community, with a portion of Gun Mettle revenue directed back to the creators), and allowing various other new behaviors -- downed players' weapons can be retrieved and used by surviving team members, for instance.
And starting now, just like in "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," there will be seasonal updates that introduce new, temporary campaigns. The July update introduces the first of these, a $5.99 three-month event which rewards players for completing skill-based challenges.
The prize? Again, like "CS:GO," a uniquely decorated weapon or unlockable weapon case -- both of which hold value on the trading market.
In comparison, the "Team Fortress" refresh does not appear to be exclusively or predominantly focused towards stimulating a virtual economy.
