Do hats REALLY affect gameplay?

[napkin.]

The answer that mostly everyone will give you is

"lolnu u dun ned nu hatz ter be gerd"

But lets look at this here, mostly again everyone will think that you're a f2p, even if you're not, when you have no hats, instantly thinking you're a noob, and soforth.

What can this affect?

Medics.

If a medic thinks that you're a noob, then may not heal you or pocket you, just thinking that you're not worth pocketing.

This can also affect the other team.

Some people on the team will see you as a straight up target for killing, thinking that you won't fight back, so all will probably target you (especially spies), putting you in bigger danger.

But this all falls down to how smart your teammates are, how smart the enemy team is, and how smart you are, so this may not happen all the time.

So the lesson learned today is:

Don't play on valve servers.

[A Salt Raifu]

Truer words were never said. We need a rep system to record when people do awesome stuff like this.

+100 internets

[AlmyriganHero]

Of course they effect gameplay. The better and more rare
your hat, the more people will interupt your game with trade requests.
I imagine that people who own burning Team Captains rarely ever get
any actual playing in.

[Octavia]

The only hats that arguably affect gameplay are The Attendant, The Milkman, Ol' Snaggletooth, The Familiar Fez and The Grenadier's Softcap, assuming that the player is using all other items in those sets to receive the bonuses. Those are the only items which directly influence performance, and this assumes one is using their equivalent item sets.

I play Medic a lot, and honestly, I don't pay attention to cosmetics; if someone who has a Gibus is going to toss me a Sandvich, I'll pay special attention to him, and if some Scout with an Unusual isn't going to bother trying to protect me from that Pyro who's flaming me down, even if he's nearby and I give him Overheal, then I'd show him less favor.

If someone has no hat, then I don't hunt them down if they've creamed me before; likewise, I'll get in someone's face even if they have an Unusual, especially if I know they can't aim at all. Hats tend to come with game time, but it's a flawed concept to judge anyone by how many hats they have; if anything, you should judge the hours they have in Team Fortress 2, some of the achievements that directly relate to the jobs a class has, such as the achievements for Lifetime Healing as a Medic, and perhaps the quality of weapons they have, but the last one is a stretch.

You can only judge someone by the skill they've displayed; if not, then some players are just setting themselves up to get smashed by those who don't judge instantly. I've seen a lot of Scouts, Spies and sometimes even Heavies fall to me as a Medic, with the Gibus, because they don't realize I carry the Solemn Vow and can see their health; they have little Health and try to pick me off, and I punish them for it. Same concept for other classes and players; judge someone not by how long they've played or the hats they wear, but by how well they play the game.

[Zyroxeon]

Oprindeligt skrevet af The Crit-Magnet Brony:

Truer words were never said.

"Truer words"-Archimedes

I'm cheap



but in all honesty, yes.

I tend to go for those who wear unusuals over gibus players or even standard hatters despite the skill they've displayed is greater than usual

[Wowie]

Hates affect gameplay.

Direct effect: set hats.

Indirect effect: Everything else.

Stereotype: If you ware a gibus then you are a noob.
Truth: Only ran into one gibus wearer who was a true noob. A soldier with an equalizer that would instead run past me back to our spawn even after I went out of my way to chase him down and spam the E key in his face to remind him that medics are playing. Then he looks at me and wonders why I'm not healing him. Seriously, did you even read the weapon description?

Stereotype: If you wear an unusual then you are a pro.
Truth: Many, many examples of bad players with good hats. Too many to list.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Faster spy-checking if you're playing a class of which your team has at least one other. If you see a teammate with the same class and the same hat as you wear, and no other same-class teammate uses the same hat (easier to notice with bright garish colors), you immediately know that he's a spy the moment you see him -- i.e. before you name-check.

Likewise, any other teammate who sees the both of you can guess that one is a spy even before any name-checking, let alone actual spy-checking w/ friendly fire.

[DurranSD]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Octavia:

if someone who has a Gibus is going to toss me a Sandvich, I'll pay special attention to him, and if some Scout with an Unusual isn't going to bother trying to protect me from that Pyro who's flaming me down, even if he's nearby and I give him Overheal, then I'd show him less favor.

Pretty much this. I've seen plenty of inexperienced hatless/gibus players, and I've also seen many people with unusuals who have never set foot outside a trading server. I just pay attention to the person. Do they move efficiently? Do they know the routes? Can they predict and/or hit well? Do they help teammates? Do they go for the objective? etc.

[smash]

Yes hat's do affect gameplay for me. As a medic they leave a first impression on how well someone plays. If I saw 2 demo's without looking at the scoreboard, one with a scorching unusual hat and the other with a gibus. I'll heal the one with the unusual hat. As I make the assumption that the one with unusual has put more time into the game than the gibus one and the gibus tends to be a new player hat. However this is only a first impression, If the guy with the gibus plays well and the unusual guy sucks I'll probably pocket the gibus player.

Nearly all the time these assumptions have worked for me, most people who I've pocketed who have a high tier unusual usually play really well.

[Lucifer ★✬]

i sometimes go stock items and no hats to to mess with people, its allways funny refleting rockets and kill sollys as a "naked" pyro (and seeing the rage is allso a +)

[Drag0n]

gibus = scrub. It just the law of the land; the unwritten, unbreakable rule.

[Zyroxeon]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Drag0n92 #sexysingle:

gibus = scrub. It just the law of the land; the unwritten, unbreakable rule.

I have Team Spirit Gibus and I have nigh 700 hours in this game ujellymad

[< blank >]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Zyroxeon:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Drag0n92 #sexysingle:

gibus = scrub. It just the law of the land; the unwritten, unbreakable rule.

I have Team Spirit Gibus and I have nigh 700 hours in this game ujellymad

700
rofl
only 700

I wear my salmon gibus with 1.6k

[Darkghost]

lets be honest....you rather heal a heavy whit the alf-father then a heavy whit a ghostly gibus.

[Lloyd, The Ember'd Vulpix]

Hell i wear a gibus some times to trick ppl that im a good player and not a noob lol

[Clear Vision]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Gent Soopakoopa:

Of course they effect gameplay. The better and more rare
your hat, the more people will interupt your game with trade requests.
I imagine that people who own burning Team Captains rarely ever get
any actual playing in.

This.