Community servers and casual are the same.

[Fireschlong #2Broke4MannUp]

Yes, this is clickbait. of course they aren't, but to many players, they might as well be.

I don't feel like writing up an essay about this topic (maybe I will later, or I keep writing anyway like the unhinged rambling lunatic that I am), so I'll keep myself short.

Casual and community servers are so similar that the differences are negligible unless you care about them.

• Casual lets you play on any official map as opposed to community servers having a bunch of blind spots in their map pool.
  
• Casual is a one-click solution, while community servers require just a little bit more effort until you find a server you wanna play on. Favouriting a server certainly helps.
  
• Community servers have many settings and plugins allowing for everyone to find a server that fits their preferences, rather than just having the purely vanilla experience. Also, they have plenty of custom content, while casual is bound to only official maps.
  
• You meet regulars more often in community servers. You meet more, but random people in casual servers. Their personalities vary the same way.

These are the only differences that come to my mind. They are not objective fact, and I may have missed something I consider a significant difference. It just happens that casual has a bunch of bots roaming the place, which is why people suggest to go to community servers. There is no deeper scheme. It's just a workaround for the ongoing bot crisis, because if Valve cannot be motivated to fix this issue (or finding a solution really does take so long, benefit of the doubt and such), we can pick up the ball that Valve dropped.

Also, I was the one popularizing "community servers are a workaround", and I kinda regret it. I always meant it in context with the bots, but I felt it wasn't that clear. So here's my clarification: Casual and community servers are equally valid ways to play. One is convenient and vanilla, while the other offers more variety. We cannot solve the bot crisis, but we can avoid it for the time being. Hence the community servers are a workaround, not a solution.
That being said, community servers are not only a workaround. They are a unique option to play TF2, just like casual (and competitive, if it weren't so desolate). They used to be the only option, until we received much simpler ways to play TF2.

Even if I think the bot crisis is overblown, being able to queue up is a luxury that I don't want to have taken away, not by bots, Valve or the community. Community servers are something I want to see thriving too. Most importantly, I want this war to stop that is pettier than the feud between Blutarch and Redmond. It is a complete nothingburger.

This post is going nowhere, so what is my solution? An "I'm feeling lucky" button, which connects you with any random community server. I'm not gonna go over it now, but it might be a post for another day. Feel free to steal that idea though, so I don't have to post it.

This is also a worthy read that I love to link whenever I can:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/440/discussions/0/5540051992989878284/

[Mina]

I like the random various skill differences in casual and leveling up, most in community are competent and scramble a lot

[Dakaniva]

The causal experience is usually always more fun, at least for me.

[Night]

Not really, in the US it might be, but where i live you cannot get a casual experience it is either 2fort, high tower without carts, or x100 servers.
and if I join a US server i get 300+ ping and then get kicked for having too much ping.
So no community is not like casual for everyone.

[76561198161596995]

it says a lot about tf2 players and maybe the game itself that a significant factor in the enjoyment of the game comes from how bad your enemy is doing

[Banafrit™]

You know, I can't even hate you for this post, because of the brutal honesty you have in the very first sentence. I got respect for that, instead of just spewing excuses and its talking back to a brick wall constantly.

[Fireschlong #2Broke4MannUp]

Originally posted by Mina:

I like the random various skill differences in casual and leveling up most in community are competent and scramble a lot

I never found significant differences in skill between casual and community, although community servers often have higher skilled players.

[Fireschlong #2Broke4MannUp]

Originally posted by Tetrabrite:

The causal experience is usually always more fun, at least for me.

There is something beautiful about the one-click vanilla experience.

[Fireschlong #2Broke4MannUp]

Originally posted by Night:

Not really, in the US it might be, but where i live you cannot get a casual experience it is either 2fort, high tower without carts, or x100 servers.
and if I join a US server i get 300+ ping and then get kicked for having too much ping.
So no community is not like casual for everyone.

Proper matches are rather rare, in general. In EU, there should be a lot of variety too, although I assume you live somewhere else than EU or US. I can see how that's the case outside of there.

[Fireschlong #2Broke4MannUp]

Originally posted by aeon:

it says a lot about tf2 players and maybe the game itself that a significant factor in the enjoyment of the game comes from how bad your enemy is doing

I usually step down a bit to give weaker players a chance, such as letting them attack me first, but I prefer challenging matchups. It's fun to get your ass kicked.

Not sure how this relates to this post though. I might be misreading it.

[Fireschlong #2Broke4MannUp]

Originally posted by Banafrit™:

You know, I can't even hate you for this post, because of the brutal honesty you have in the very first sentence. I got respect for that, instead of just spewing excuses and its talking back to a brick wall constantly.

Thank you. I felt like you need such an outrageous title to gain attention, and also it shows how fed up I am with this unnecessary dispute.

[Night]

Ok I can respect that you are actually commenting to everyone on your idea and opinion, Glad to see someone with an actual opinion they are willing to discuss rather then just trying to bait and get steam points from badges.

[cat in box says a lot]

Community servers are better

[bw-jack]

I played on community servers, they are lame, custom server settings suck

[Fireschlong #2Broke4MannUp]

Originally posted by Night:

Ok I can respect that you are actually commenting to everyone on your idea and opinion, Glad to see someone with an actual opinion they are willing to discuss rather then just trying to bait and get steam points from badges.

I don't get much from baiting anyway. I put way too much effort into my stuff for that.

[Fireschlong #2Broke4MannUp]

Originally posted by Green pop:

Community servers are better

To you they are, and I would rather play on a community server, but I find neither to be objectively superior.