Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 is a first-person shooter for Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 created by Valve Corporation using the Source game engine. Originally packaged in the Orange Box, Team Fortress 2 became a standalone game on April 9, 2008 and free-to-play on June 23, 2011 . Presently, Team Fortress 2 is distributed online through the Steam platform.

The game was very well received, with scores of 92% on Metacritic, 95.8% on GameRankings, and an A on 1UP.

Gameplay

In each game, there are two teams with the colors red and blue, respectively. The red team is Reliable Excavation & Demolition (RED) and the blue team is Builders League United (BLU). In each round of a game, RED and BLU team switch back and forth between offense and defense. Players get their choice of class from a Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Medic, Engineer, Spy, and Sniper. Each class has its place in the game; for example, the Medic heals all the other classes and builds ubercharge, an ability that when used, grants him and person he is healing invincibility for a short amount of time. The Soldier shoots rockets at the enemy for long-range combat and the Pyro has a flamethrower for close-range combat.

There are many different maps available to players, with some types being capture point, payload race, and arena, among others. Community-made maps are also available for players, and several of them have been added to the regular Valve map rotation.

History

Team Fortress 2's earliest predecessor is Team Fortress, a multiplayer mod based on the first-person shooter Quake that was designed by John Cook, Ian Coughley, and Robin Walker in 1996. After the team was acquired by Valve Corporation in 1999, Team Fortress became Team Fortress Classic, which was a mod based on the Half-Life Software Development Kit. Valve then created the sequel known as Team Fortress 2 and released it in 2007. Team Fortress 2 came as a big shock to many Team Fortress Classic players, as the art style was drastically different. With simple cartoon figures instead of dirty military figures, players approved of the new Team Fortress and it quickly grew in popularity .

Ethical Concerns

Trading Scams

With its bustling virtual economy, Team Fortress 2 is highly prone to trading scams. This most often happens to players who are trading for the first time or are just starting to get into trading. Because there are no set prices for items, players must estimate for themselves, look up what other people recommend, or ask a trusted trader for the prices. New players do not usually know these practices, and they get baited into what seems like a good deal when in actuality they would be losing a lot of value. Another common mistake is when players put too much trust in the other trader. For example, a trader might tell the player that he doesn't currently have the item that the players wants right now, but that he can get it later. The player trusts the trader, trades him the item, and subsequently never hears from the trader again. Trading scams bring up the topic of whether or not the developers or administrators of Team Fortress 2 are responsible for these online crimes since they have the authority to ban players and delete items. Currently, Team Fortress 2 does not take any responsibility for trade scammers. Instead, the responsibility goes to the administrators of various trade sites and forums (such as TF2Outpost [1] and TF2-Trader [2]) to ban scammers from returning to their sites. However, this does not stop trade scammers from using other sources to find victims.

Real Money for Virtual Goods

Trading with physical currency between players is neither encouraged nor discouraged by Valve. For many players, using real money to trade takes out the middle step of buying items through the Team Fortress 2 Mann Co. Store and selling/trading those items for the item that they want. Instead of two transactions, players only have to go through one. Since Valve has not taken a solid stance on this issue, players are put at a very high amount of risk when trading using real money because in every cash transaction, one player must go first, with the other following. Oftentimes, the player paying with real money will pay the trader with Paypal, the trader will confirm receiving the money, and then the trader will send the item to the player through the Steam trading system. This is different from the Valve-endorsed trading system, where both players enter a window, put their items for display, and confirm at the same time that they would like to do the trade. Trust is of utmost importance in situations using real money, and there are several sites dedicated to tracking a person's reputation. Paying real money for virtual goods is controversial in that there is mixing of a real economy with an online economy, and thus a mixing of laws. Determining the right course of action for rules and punishments is hazy. There is also the question of whether virtual goods are worth physical currency or not, since loss of their items can occur at any moment through a hacker, a problem with the item database, or termination of the Team Fortress 2 game.

Intellectual Property

When a player buys an item using real money, ownership of that item becomes ambiguous. One viewpoint is that the developers or the designers of the game primarily take ownership of the items. The other viewpoint is that users who acquired the item through a drop, trade, or real money have some claim of ownership. The concept of intellectual property is especially important when regarding physical currency. When using real money for trading, a sub-market is produced that includes players, virtual items, and physical currency. Because Valve has not placed any specific restrictions on trading with real money, the issue of using real economy laws to manage a virtual economy comes to play.

See Also

• Valve
• Source
• Steam

External Links

• Team Fortress 2