Man, what happened to you?

TF2 was once the GOAT of multiplayer class based FPS(s), I have terrific memories of the game centred around playing frequently with small communities on dedicated community servers.

Since its launch it has had a series of changes of focus which have almost entirely altered how the game plays, how people engage with it, and even what the purpose of playing is.

Been dropping into it over the last couple of days and damn, alot of those changes were not for the better. The move away from community hosted servers means you're almost constantly playing against randos and the population of bots - putting it generously - is not insignificant. What servers do exist, are sparcely populated playing heavily modified game mods or are just for farming items.

The changes to the gameplay through item updates actually added alot of dynamic changes to each class (sometimes making the higher skill focused classes like Scout more approachable), but has ultimately resulted in an item/economy based grinding loop that detracts from the actual gameplay. The changes also gradually began to erode the consistent aesthetic the game strived for.

It's a shame, because even now there is clearly a lot of love for the game in what remains of the community, in its peak for me; this was a 4+ star game. These days, it feels like a cheap abandonware FPS.

Some kind of TF2C would be very welcome.