TF2 was a masterstroke for Valve in PR. I paid $40 for TF2 and I felt like the value that it gave over the past 5 years has more than exceeded what I paid for it. It has generated a huge amount of goodwill towards Valve and Steam that will help anchor them in the PC gaming industry for years to come. It will be interesting to see where they're taking Steam and the PC platform in the near future, especially given all the talk about a possible console.
I thought the way they used the "Meet the Team" teasers was really clever:<p>"Each content update started with a teaser trailer that hinted at several possible new items or features, and Valve developers would monitor the community reaction in the forums to determine which aspects caught the players' attention."<p>I had seen these, and had always thought Valve <i>already</i> planned out what was going to be included. Like magicians, they set themselves up for victory - no matter what the player ends up wanting.
One of the most interesting things about the TF2 story is that they opened up custom item creation to the community, and allowed players to actually profit from designing and uploading objects to the store. I remember reading a quote from Gabe Newell mentioning that some of the top player sellers were making over $30,000 / month from their creations.<p>edit: If in game, player driven markets are the sort of thing that interests you: keep an eye out for Diablo 3's real money auction house.<p>Also: hats.
TF2 is probably the last video game I'll ever put significant time into. For being a multiplayer, non-story driven game, it is still one of the best games I've ever played.<p>I am a little miffed that they never upgraded the console versions and I've never really played it on PC. But I'm glad they're still able to get life out of the game, considering they've been upgrading it (the PC/Mac versions) well past its shelf life. It's an inspiring example for other developers with games that aren't commercially viable yet still have a well-knit community.
I feel like everything that's happened to TF2 is just a sneak peek into what will happen once Valve ships Defense of the Ancients 2.<p>The question is, how will they balance a hardcore gaming community which hates paying to get better (stats-wise) items vs monetizing F2P? Will they charge only for cosmetic items, or will they drive away their core Dota fanbase?
I used to be semi-addicted to TF2, until it became free to play.<p>The massive increase in poorly balanced weapons and items and the flood of newbie players who were not that interested in the 'team' aspect of 'team fortress' really killed the fun for me.<p>There was a similar effect with major releases before it became free to play. I particularly remember the engineer update - for about a week that's the only class 1/2 the team would want to play, so good luck being Blue (attacking) on a pipeline map (for example).<p>I'll try it again one day soon so see if things have settled down, but I think that the commercial success came at the cost of game quality.