Making TF2 Open-Source would've easily saved this game.

[Barney, from Black Mesa.]

I—like most people—would have mixed signals at best because of this lack of commitment to their promises, and also because, in recent years, they haven't reacted positively towards people modifying the source game in an effort to create something fresh out of it (like 'Team Fortress 2 Classic'). I don't know what the future holds for this game, but it appears somewhat bleak yet with a solution that is entirely within out grasp if only Valve will allow us to help address this problem as a community that is more than dedicated and capable of solving these problems ourselves.

One can only hope that there will be some sort of breakthrough to help save this game if Valve doesn't trust us enough to fix it ourselves. I think the majority of these problems are entirely avoidable and could've been fixed in a matter of weeks (or even days) if Valve didn't shy away too much from turning Team Fortress 2 into an open-source project, as the community already practically provided everything from maps to content to running the 'playable' community servers. We are already the backbone of what is keeping this game alive, so what is stopping them from allowing us to take on this commitment to also start patching the game?

(Valve can regulate the patches that come through if they're so concerned about people changing the code to make the cosmetics entirely free within the game. Open-source doesn't imply unregulated updates).

What is your take on this? Would open-source save this game? Where do you see this game in the years to come?

[Mina]

It could take longer, more issues might arise. I believe it stays in its current state for a time longer.

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)󠀰 󠀰]

bad fear-mongering attempt

[rocketgreentea]

Not even close

[Barney, from Black Mesa.]

Originally posted by rocketgreentea:

Not even close

Why so?

[rocketgreentea]

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡:

Originally posted by rocketgreentea:

Not even close

Why so?

Look at TF2 Classic and tell me again that making the game open source would save it.

[Barney, from Black Mesa.]

Originally posted by rocketgreentea:

Look at TF2 Classic and tell me again that making the game open source would save it.

That could be a fair point; however, that game was killed right as it started to get off the ground, as Valve had forced it into a limbo as it had to be shut down for a long period of time due to Valve's threats of a lawsuit. People just ended up returning to the original game because of that stagnation.

I think that Valve making an already popular game open-source would only steer it towards further growth rather than to leave it—for the most part—abandoned.

[rocketgreentea]

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡:

Originally posted by rocketgreentea:

Look at TF2 Classic and tell me again that making the game open source would save it.

That game was killed right as it started to get off the ground; Valve had forced it into a limbo for a long period of time and people began to just return to the original game.

I think that Valve making an already popular game open-source would only steer it towards further growth rather than the threat of complete stagnation that it is currently facing.

The only thing that would come out of making the game open source would be unnecessary patches, unnecessary changes, more bloat, etc. You can already see what this community has done to this game’s art style with the added community cosmetics, they don’t care about it anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if we straight up got a fursuit for Pyro with this game under the control of the community. TF2 Classic proved that handing this game over would be a horrible idea as they have zero idea how to balance a video game while also making unnecessary changes to the base game. But hey, the community leading the game could be just what this game needs to put that last nail in the coffin and send it off for good instead of leaving it in the animated zombie state it’s in now.

[libadwaita (she/her)]

Originally posted by rocketgreentea:

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡:

That game was killed right as it started to get off the ground; Valve had forced it into a limbo for a long period of time and people began to just return to the original game.

I think that Valve making an already popular game open-source would only steer it towards further growth rather than the threat of complete stagnation that it is currently facing.

The only thing that would come out of making the game open source would be unnecessary patches, unnecessary changes, more bloat, etc. You can already see what this community has done to this game’s art style with the added community cosmetics, they don’t care about it anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if we straight up got a fursuit for Pyro with this game under the control of the community. TF2 Classic proved that handing this game over would be a horrible idea as they have zero idea how to balance a video game while also making unnecessary changes to the base game. But hey, the community leading the game could be just what this game needs to put that last nail in the coffin and send it off for good instead of leaving it in the animated zombie state it’s in now.

To be honest, an open source community would probably make better choices than Valve. Keep in mind that TF2C would have a tiny fraction of the community that the real TF2 would have

You'd get a community of people working to fix the issues that TF2 currently faces. Our only ticket out of the bot crisis would be making TF2 FOSS. Our only ticket to solving the adjacent cheater crisis would be the same. TF2 becoming free software under a copyleft licence like the GPL is our only way of saving TF2. No amount of Valve employees could even come close to matching the power that the open source community could.

It doesn't mean that Valve wouldn't be involved in any way whatsoever. You could have Valve employees be the primary gatekeepers of certain code. It would put much less strain on the existing developer for TF2 while allowing them to get more done. It doesn't have to be done like that, but as far as a compromise goes it could be something that would realistically allow Valve to keep control over their IP while leveraging the benefits of free and open source software.

Also, for OP I don't think that making TF2 FOSS is enough, the source engine must also become FOSS too.

[Smidge <3]

This is already a thing thanks to the source code being leaked and people like mastercoms working on Team Comtress 2.

So no, it wouldn't save this game.

[ilt]

It would be aids I think

[Guilion]

It already is open source lol.

Just because Valve doesn't allow for the code to be used in anything other than cheats it doesn't mean that it's not available to download and modify, it's how shounic makes most of his videos.

The most popular cheat client for bots uses the source code as a base and it's still available on github, Valve just doesn't give a ♥♥♥♥.

[Spartykins]

wouldn't really need to tbh

vscript support opened a lot of doors when it comes to content creation, it's just up to level designers to utilize it to create new stuff while staying within edicit (however it's spelt) limits

I'm all for community ran stuff but valve wouldn't push anything to the live build they don't have complete control over so any sort of changes made would have to be a sourcemod and you already see how many people are playing tf2c

[Engineer_ZY]

finally open sauce! Yappie!

[Bevo]

About time.

[WE are in the beam.]

Originally posted by Engineer_ZY:

finally open sauce! Yappie! :Anyippie:

Non Commercial Use Only =/= Open Source