LogFAQs > #967527593

#29 Team Fortress 2

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/8/4/AABIPnAADmGU.jpg

Team Fortress 2 amazingly straddled this line of being high-skill competitive, but also extremely chill and carefree, simultaneously.

It was magic. In the 2008-2012 period, I spent thousands of hours relaxing on a handful of TF2 servers, having a blast screwing around with nice people. Everyone was trying to win, and yet nobody cared whatsoever if they lost. There was no toxicity. I've never experienced this in any other skillful online game (maybe Trackmania).

Overwatch, while being a better game on paper, does not have this magic it all. It's mega toxic. It's "maybe I don't like video games anymore" toxic.

I LOVE how experimental Valve got with TF2 in the first few years--they treated it as a science lab more than a product. It was so hard to get sick of the game, when it was constantly changing so much. This probably helped players take it less seriously too--we all felt like consumers, of an amazing show, not toxic competitors in a zero sum game.

BEST LEVEL: TF2 had a lot of all-time best shooter maps, but I will go with KOTH_HARVEST_EVENT (screenshot above), a koth map so simple and perfect I'm MAD I didn't make it. Also it's halloween themed. (Runner up: PL_UPWARD)