TF2: A Distinctive Lack of Team Recognition

Man, I'm seeing some beautifully asinine and reductive counter-arguments floating around. I'll address them here as they come. inb4 "I ain't reading all that," My favorite thus far: 1) "Who cares, if it moves, I shoot. Just shoot everyone." Alright, if color isn't that important, put the game into greyscale, and try this argument again. Someone's position alone isn't enough to tell you if they're friend or foe. Once both teams collide, you'll be wasting half your time and shots shooting people that are on your team (not to mention, not all maps contain fully team-colored environments, Lakeside for example). The entire point of the game, being a team-based shooter, becomes moot. Reductive? Yes. But pointing out the extreme end-member case is important. Because what follows are arguments like this: 2) "You spycheck anyways, just spycheck everyone." Effectively the same argument as before, but twisted to make it seem as if though shooting everyone that looks like they're on your team is something you already do. You don't. Spychecking is common practice, yes, but you shoot suspicious players trying to get close, typically after a Spy has made his presence known (post death, failed stab, sappers, callout, etc.), or after obvious visual queues take place when he's disguised (i.e. a slow scout, bugged weapons or cosmetics [which shouldn't happen but they do], someone not actively engaging the enemy team even though they're right in front of them, etc.). If someone looks like they're on your team and aren't playing as Spy, they're acting like the class they're playing. Shooting their weapons. Moving at their speed. Non-Spy aggressors don't act like Spies, and don't exhibit the aforementioned gameplay queues, aside from the lattermost on rare occasion. Also, paranoia caused by a Spy's presence is MEANT to be a bad thing, because you now waste your time looking for him, shooting your own team mates, and not the other team, which is what team colors are meant to prevent. That's the point! That must remain exclusive to Spy, and not everyone else, lest it negatively impact the flow of the game. You expect, 1, maybe 2 spies at most in your typical game, cycling through respawn times. Not everyone on your team, all the time. 3) "Use nameplates to figure out who is on your team." This goes back to the greyscale argument. Have fun doing that in the heat of a fight through all of the game's visual noise. The game trains you to look for color in a split second, not for nameplates. Not to mention, with all the player models overlapping each other in the midst of a team fight, good luck telling who the nameplate was for. This is a serious gameplay clarity problem many modern games suffer from, TF2 players shouldn't be encouraged to rely on that. 4) "Colorblind people play the game just fine." No they don't, especially not for those who's colorblindness isn't aided by colorblind mode. Just thumb through the comments on this video. They have to go to extra lengths to compensate for their disability, for which not a lot can be done in a team-based shooter beyond ideal color choice (which TF2 already uses, red and blue, since most forms of color blindness only affect one color or the other) or changing how teams are distinguished entirely (i.e. using shapes rather than colors). In TF2, they're forced to use nameplates or other indicators that weren't intentionally placed to distinguish friend from foe. From those who've reached out to me, they HAVE to shoot everyone, and it frustrates them, because it detracts from their experience. Additional colors introduced by paints don't help them either, as some can look red/blue even if they're not. As harsh of a reality as this is, we should accommodate those with disabilities, but not at the expense of the majority without said disability. For example, adding shape-based team indicators would add more distracting visual noise to a game that was designed to mitigate that as much as possible.

people never shut the fuck about how special TF2 is but when you try to protect the things that make it special they seethe in anger

You know shits gotten absolutely out of hand when a Pyro can play Spy better than Spy.

I feel like any sensible person would be convinced by the clip at 13:11 alone. A poor gibus medic taking a one-way plunge with his medigun out, no hesitation, down into a point that has ONLY ENEMIES in it, in a vain attempt to save a player that was never on his team. And this player was not a spy.

Zesty, why don't you make your own TF2 emporioum to defeat the workshop elites? Imagine how chaotic will become... the fun of beating them in their own game, and all because you and many gave them good and helpful criticism

Any creator that outright mocks the games original art style should be blacklisted as a matter of principle.

the worst part of this video wasn't the problems with team recognition, it was realizing Zesty can walk around as a RED Pyro dressed as a BLU one, but I can't take two steps without getting spy checked

Preface: I'm colorblind, and boy am I glad for the clear and distinct lines that the original art style has taken. It took awhile to get used to, and it's harder to tell at range for some of the more indistinct classes, but close up, where I'm fighting, I have no issues. And then there's Jarate. I can not tell you how many times I've been killed by someone who I thought was my teamate because they'd recently been hit by a jarate. The light yellow and pale orange are waaaay too close for my eyes to tell at a glance

I always appreciated that the map was red and blue too. Not only did they have separate colors, but they also had distinct material differences too. Red is more rustic, blu is more industrial.

They hated Jesus because he told them the truth.

Imagine being given the opportunity to have your own creative work be immortalized in one of the greatest games of all time and GET PAID for it, and then having the audacity to believe you're too good to adhere to the original laws of the game's visual design simply because Valve stopped caring.

Pyro got bored of spy checking, decided to be spy himself

all it takes for bad designers to win is for good designers to do nothing

23:13 "what do you want me to do about it" my brother in christ you're making the fucking items

Seeing the entire team ignore you on the point gave me whiplash

As a game designer who's worked with (less experienced) artists on development projects before, I can say it's no surprise how many of TF2's community artists prioritize art over gameplay without understanding the issue. They're artists, not designers. In a professional environment, they'd have to submit their work to a creative/design lead before it'd be accepted. Traditionally, that was Valve's job in this community contribution relationship. Nowadays, I cannot stress enough how LITTLE Valve's acceptance of an item means in terms of its validity. Whoever they've had making decisions for this game looked at WUTVILLE and somehow thought that was in-line with the game's identity. That's a degree of negligence so comical, I can only assume it was made by someone who knows next to nothing about the visual side of game development and design. Likely a low-level programmer who had nothing better to do. I repeat, Valve accepting your cosmetic makes it no more "appropriate" to TF2 than Wutville. THAT'S the bar.

Thankfully, according to Shounic, you can blacklist any item with tournament mode, including cosmetics. So it'd be up to community servers to remove the crap cosmetics in case it gets even worse

can't wait for more fully paintable body cosmetics for the pyro

I like how the entire video is about team recognition and then you super casually drop a nuclear bomb "most accepted items go through this literal monopoly mafia first. moving on - vote with your clicks but don't be an asshole"

Why do all TF2 YouTubers have such immaculate graphic design and animation talents? I've even noticed it myself in my gravitation towards the game.