If you've been gaming online for any length of time, you've probably joined at least one server that has some kind of arbitrary rule set. Bunny-hopping, for example, will get you kicked. Camping will earn you a punishment via the mod. Certain weapons are banned outright. My personal favorites are the "tactical" servers where you're forced to crouch while moving around, because the admin is utterly dedicated to his notion of "realism," and god forbid that someone sprints from one point of cover to another.
It's all about controlling the way other people play in order to give yourself (and like-minded players) a crutch. The beauty of having multiple venues, however, is that no one's forcing you to play on a particular server; there are plenty of other pubs out there that give you the freedom to play the game you bought. I've discovered, however, that the idea behind the various style-of-play limitations has evolved into something more ridiculous, and I'm compelled to call it out for being the bucket of rhinoceros shit that it is.
A sanctimonious little nazi calling himself msleeper has released a server plugin that's designed to prevent "achievement farming" in Team Fortress 2 (that is, earning achievements outside the context of normal gameplay, usually for the purpose of unlocking a weapon). He's apparently running that plugin on a "trap" server (with a custom map designed specifically for farming) that exists solely to catch those damned dirty achievement "cheaters" in the act. If you get even one achievement in his server, Mr. Sleeptard will add you to a blacklist of player names and Steam ID's (3560-strong so far), and send the SQL list to any server admin that wants to ban you.
What's his motivation, you ask?
By joining this server, and earning a single achievement, you show that you are willing to ruin the game for personal gain...
I have heard plenty of incessant bitching from farmers and people who think there is "nothing wrong with farming", and you are wrong. There is everything wrong with farming because it is ruining the integrity of the game, the purpose of achievements. My favorite argument is, 'It's better than people farming them in real games,' to which I say, why farm them at all? You shouldn't FARM them, you should EARN them.
And there you have it. It's not enough to enforce your rules on your server: now you have to enforce your rules on other servers, too. This guy has his own idea about how TF2 should be played, and he's out to punish people that don't agree with him. This, my friends, is what the great philosopher dubbed "epic douche-baggery," applied to a laughably futile endeavor.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI just want to say (wipes a tear from my eye) this was one of the most beautiful posts I have ever read. Thank you Messiah(You have rightfully earned your name). How much crap must we grow through, because all these people have to compensate for their shitty play. Why can't people just have fun while they suck. I do it everytime I play TF2. I love that game, but don't know what the hell I am doing most the time. Comon people DROP THE RULER and cope with your little penis!!!
ReplyDeleteFrom a foul mouth comes wisdom. Sometimes.
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say about this, you are using up alot of your juice on this game ... so I finally bought the goddamn thing just so I could see what all the weak minds are playing these days.
ReplyDeleteFARM WHAT ?
Makes no sense to me, but I'll repost after I've played the game.
I just wanted to come spam your blog ...
Achievements in TF2 are pretty much the same thing as challenges in CoD4. You don't get XP in TF2, but after you've completed a certain number of achievements you can unlock new weapons with certain classes.
ReplyDeleteRight now, the medic, pyro, heavy and scout classes have class-specific achievements, and can unlock new weapons. Demomen, engineers, soldiers, snipers and spies will get their own updates eventually. It's Valve's way of keeping people interested in the game. So far, it's working.
Hi IT()E, thanks for the blogroll link at gameslaw.net! You can follow us on twitter too at @SWATJester
ReplyDeleteWith regard to TF2 servers, well, my guess is that the vast majority of server admins won't employ this. Achievement farming has no practical effect on gameplay on servers that aren't being used for the farming. But, nobody wants to host an empty server. So what's the incentive for anyone to actually use this list?
Just another stupid idea.
Thanks for the comment, Jester. (As you can see, I spend a lot of time talking to myself :| )
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the disincentive for other admins to use the ban list. But, as they say, it's the thought that counts (as far as msleeper goes).