Team Fortress 2: In Order For #FixTF2 To Actually Accomplish Something

For those who don’t know, #FixTF2 is a movement made by Team Fortress 2’s fanbase to get Valve to fix the botting and cheating epidemic that TF2 has been facing for the last several years. This isn’t the first time a movement like this has happened, either, as back in 2022, a similar movement called “SaveTF2.” This movement was a very identical peaceful protest asking Valve to fix their game. The response? A half-assed twitter post and a summer update that did not address the problem.

Source: Valve’s Official Tweet[x.com]

That was two years ago. Ever since that tweet, there has been no other info from Valve, and there certainly hasn’t been a fix for the bots.

Bots in TF2, commonly called “Aimbots” or “Spinbots,” are artificial intelligence created by bored, unemployed basement dwellers for malicious purposes that are identical of that to your average middle school bully: getting a reaction out of people for their own entertainment. The bots (commonly seen as snipers) go around a Valve server instant killing anyone with inhuman reaction time and accuracy.
Sometimes you cannot even leave the spawn doors, as the bots prefer to sit right outside of them, instantly killing anyone who walks out.

Picture from How to kill sniper bots by Loaf

The main problem that these bots present is the inability to play the game. This doesn’t mean “not able to play the game comfortably,” or “not able to play the game while getting instantly killed every now and then.”

This means a complete inability to play the game AT ALL.
That is our main problem.

You would think since TF2 makes Valve millions of dollars a year from in-game cosmetics and items that they would at least try to save their cash cow, right? Unfortunately for TF2’s fanbase, Valve has been nearly completely silent on the matter, save for the tweet previously mentioned, and a “blog post.” In fact, they’ve been silent about TF2 for a long, long time, just after the Jungle Inferno update was released.

This silence is both frustrating and confusing to the TF2 community, as they don’t know what lies in store for the game’s future. Valve refuses to speak about whether they won’t be working on it anymore, or if they have more plans for it. All the community can do is guess.

One thing is for certain, however. Whenever Valve does finally speak up about TF2, they never address the botting problem, at least not directly. In their tweet, they said “issue,” without specifying which one. The bots? The cheaters? The horrific amount of reclaimed metal that only seems to be rising?

When they teased the summer update, they ALSO didn’t address the main problem. All they said was a “update-sized update,” and left it at that. In fact, they even later changed the title to a “holiday-sized update,” creating even more confusion.

Valve’s inaction to do anything about the bot problem is the leading cause as to why the bots are flooding the servers in the first place. Valve’s Anti-Cheat (or VAC, for short) does NOTHING about these bots, even though fresh installs can tell when a bot has been killing them instantly every time they round a corner.

The reason behind this inaction is scummy. Valve just keeps milking the money out of TF2, and doesn’t put any effort towards fixing the problems it faces. Why would they? The game keeps making ludicrous amounts of money each and every year, so just pump out another Scream Fortress or Smissmas hat case and call it a day.
As long as TF2 keeps being profitable (which it will be for a VERY long time), Valve will keep putting out small updates that don’t fix the bots to keep making money.

For a while now, it seems like a lot of people within TF2 community have been content being spoon-fed small, pathetic updates that are just another way to make a buck. One of the main things they seem to say in response to any negativity targeting Valve is “just be happy with what you have.”

What we do have is a massive bot problem that makes it literally impossible to play the game. I know there are plenty of people who come to TF2 just to make money, but majority come to play Team Fortress 2. Valve needs to focus on the bots and get rid of them. This brings us to the next excuse that Valve defenders have been using.

“Valve is focusing on other projects and can’t afford to have a team work on TF2.”

This is the most BS reason I have personally heard. Valve is a 7.7 BILLION dollar company. There is no feasible way that they don’t have the resources to get a team to work on and fix Team Fortress 2. It’s just lazy business practice after lazy business practice.

“If you want to avoid bots, just go play on community servers!”

That shouldn’t be the normal experience of TF2. The normal experience is Valve’s Casual servers, where everyone of any amount of experience can just join in the fray. You shouldn’t have to go through an outdated and confusing search menu just to find a community server full of people who have 10,000 hours in the game. It shouldn’t be the standard, and as stated before, shouldn’t be the standard.

Picture of TF2’s Community Server’s browser. Source: How to Navigate the TF2 Server Search Browser/Find Servers[dontneedadictionary.tumblr.com]

The community shouldn’t accept this as a standard, as it WASN’T the standard before. Before, Valve frequently updated TF2 with new weapons, items, maps, features, and, most importantly, fixes. This included bug fixes, anticheat fixes, map fixes (which still happens, but not as frequently), and even item/weapon fixes and/or balances!

The main goal of #FixTF2 is to hopefully get Valve to start working on the game again and get them to forever get rid of the bots. However, they will not do this on their own. They need a push from the community.

Unfortunately, the #SaveTF2 movement of 2022 did absolutely nothing for the bot situation, and their is a reason for that. The main reason is because once the community finally got a half-assed response from Valve, they dropped the whole movement altogether. This led to Valve once again going into radio silence and not communicating with the player base.

So, come June 3rd, when people collectively get together on the internet and pester Valve about the situation, what happens next?

Otherwise, nothing is going to change.

I encourage and I plead to everyone who reads this, if you do participate actively in the movement, keep pestering Valve even after June 3rd! Keep pestering them until the problem is fixed. Don’t stop annoying them, emailing them, making videos, posts, whatever until the problems are addressed and fixed.

If all else fails, boycott them! Don’t purchase any TF2 items from Steam or the TF Store. It could get their attention that their precious cash cow isn’t doing as well as it could be, and they would be encouraged to fix it.

Once again, TF2 has a massive bot and cheater problem. Since Valve has refused to fix or even say anything about it, it’s up to us, the TF2 Community, to step in and tell them to fix their game. Valve has the resources and money to employ even a medium sized team of people to work on the game instead of only two devs (along with Valve’s office custodian and a potted plant).

There are plenty of videos online regarding #FixTF2. While you can educate yourself there, I will also give advice: make posts similar to this one, make a video explaining why Valve should fix their game, make memes, email and spam Valve about it, get in TF2’s discord and rally people!

But most importantly,

Because if we do stop, Valve is just going to go right back to radio silence and more inaction.

I would love to hear your comments and your thoughts about the crisis at hand.
As of currently, there is a petition going on for people to sign showing that they care about the game and its future, linked here.[save.tf]