Thursday Night Throwdown: 07/14/11

@Moonshadow101: Actually, Free to Play is the proper way to describe TF2 now; it denotes a game that you never need to pay for, ever, like Spiral Knights. By your definition Mortal Kombat or Counter-Strike would be Free to Play games, but they're really just a "games".

@buckybit: Why the hell are you here then?

I finally made it into a TNT. Got MVP once. Dominated Robin Walker. I'm satisfied.

You people don't know what "Free to Play" means.

FtP = No monthly fee, but you usually still have to buy the original game. TF2 has always been free to play. Now it's just "free."

Then Call of Duty, Uncharted, Batman and StarCraft is free to play. No, you are wrong.

Steam lists this game under "Free to play" and I guess they know what they are doing.

I'm Mona Lisa Overbite and I'm the best.

@Moonshadow101 said:

You people don't know what "Free to Play" means.

FtP = No monthly fee, but you usually still have to buy the original game. TF2 has always been free to play. Now it's just "free."

Then Call of Duty, Uncharted, Batman and StarCraft is free to play. No, you are wrong.

Steam lists this game under "Free to play" and I guess they know what they are doing.

@Ghostiet: "Free to play" has always quite specifically referred to MMOs that do not charge a monthly fee. That is the origin of the term. "Call of Duty, Uncharted, Batman and StarCraft" ARE all technically free-to-play, but those are trivial applications of the term, since there's no expectation of a fee in the first place.

Steam list TF2 under "Free to Play" because they decided that doing so would increase the publicity of the event, not because it actually applies.

It's weird calling TF2 "free-to-play" since it never had a monthly fee. Also the F2P players are not handicapped like in some MMOs (the restrictions are insignificant). Freeware would be a more appropriate term.

Sounds like the guys never made it to Dungeons and Raids in WoW, or seen any of the new areas which have a level of progression to them as you quest and your factions set up camp

It's actually interesting how well "Gary Whitta advice" seems to work here. I bet if you tested them side by side, high-level strategy talk in the short term would actually distract and worsen someone's gameplay, while "shoot that guy!" not only provides pressure and encouragement, but it's basically an extra set of reflexes behind the controls.

I wonder how well that would work with other kinds of games.

just ordered my new PC today! no longer will it take TF2 10 mins to load to the tittle screen.

That was one of the best TNTs I've watched so far. Cool guys and nice to see that the guys who are playing are good at the game. There have been a few TNTs with some mediocre gameplay from the GiantBom staff, and I personally get a better TNT experience when its, well... good gameplay. And Will Smith is hilarious as well - he should play a lot more TNTs. Thanks for a great show.

@gwhitta said:

@Guerrilla_Mason said:

Am I the only person on this site that finds Gary Whitta almost insufferable? His voice is so grating, he repeats himself, has a really pompous way about him.

I just asked my girlfriend, she says you're definitely not the only one.

I think it's because you have an accent of some sort of European origin. We Americans are completely frightened by that!

Although a lot of the comments on this TNT are rather stupid...

I didnt know about Gary Whitta before this. And now I'm glad I did. He's great!

Valve knows multiplayer weapon balance, the weapons that you can buy have both advantgaes and disadvantages. By the time you've been playing long enough to want to invest in getting these things (after several years of free, constantly updated and maintained multiplayer fun), you feel like you don't want to play ANOTHER 3/4 years just to get a snazzy new shooter. And if it gets any free 2 players in and paying for this game in any small way, that can only be a good thing.

HIS HAND LOOKS DEFORMED.

@buckybit: Get out you big annoying sperg

(ps: buckybit is actually serious, he has aspergers)

Fantastic TNT. I feel a little bad for Ryan during these things though. He tries his damnedest to say things, but he isn't knowledgable about the subject so he just seems like an ass. If this was a Laserdisc TNT he'd be hostmaster.

I thought it was funny how Gary Whitta was all "man, fuck paid content", then 15 minutes later was like, "I may have to go on a shopping spree..."

Also, there should be a TF2 mod that dispenses prerecorded Whitta-advice. "Shoot that guy!" "Now try not to die!" "Make your bullets hit the enemy players!!"

@buckybit:

Everyone was trying to get on that server and I somehow got into that last match on TNT luckily.

How the heck does Bad Company copy the TF2 art style mr. Whitta? BC isn't cartoony at all.

Either way I prefer the realism in BC2, this is like class based Quake. While BC2 is more like class based CS.

@StandStrong said:

That was one of the best TNTs I've watched so far. Cool guys and nice to see that the guys who are playing are good at the game. There have been a few TNTs with some mediocre gameplay from the GiantBom staff, and I personally get a better TNT experience when its, well... good gameplay. And Will Smith is hilarious as well - he should play a lot more TNTs. Thanks for a great show.

"good at the game"

lol

@MementoMori said:

@StandStrong said:

That was one of the best TNTs I've watched so far. Cool guys and nice to see that the guys who are playing are good at the game. There have been a few TNTs with some mediocre gameplay from the GiantBom staff, and I personally get a better TNT experience when its, well... good gameplay. And Will Smith is hilarious as well - he should play a lot more TNTs. Thanks for a great show.

"good at the game"

lol

No? :)

@dagas: He was probably (incorrectly) referring to Battlefield Heroes.

Fantastic!

Was anyone else yelling at the screen everytime Will/Ryan/Gary asked a TF2 question, Robin answered in ingame-chat and they didn't noticed it? :D

Else, great TNT, gotta love my TF2.

This was a great TNT! Thanks to Will and Mr. Garry Witta and - of course - everyone else, as usual!

A lot of talk about the lack of purpose in capturing bases in PlanetSide in this clip. I feel that's missing the point.

I played it at release and for a few years, and I always felt that PS was something you played because of the unrivaled scale of fps combat going on, along with all the logistics to push into enemy territories. _That_ was the fun and rewarding part. Capturing bases was just some secondary thing, and basically an excuse to get 150vs150vs150 players to face eachother on a continent. I could care less for the actual bases as long as there's a massive fight.

Jesus Christ, started playing today after only dabbling a little in the past and ended up spending about 20 bucks in the store. Fuck you Valve you devious geniuses.

Ha, this was the first and so far only TNT I got to play in. Fun to watch the game from a different perspective and see how often I was totally unaware of how close Will was to killing me.

Unsupervised Vinny is, again, Best Vinny

Away Team at a Ren Fair was hilarious too.

@Wandering_Idiot said:

I thought it was funny how Gary Whitta was all "man, fuck paid content", then 15 minutes later was like, "I may have to go on a shopping spree..."

Also, there should be a TF2 mod that dispenses prerecorded Whitta-advice. "Shoot that guy!" "Now try not to die!" "Make your bullets hit the enemy players!!"

@buckybit:

One of the good ones.

i played TF2 on the 360 til August 2012, and that was a small community