My thinking is that it was hot garbage that was trying to milk the TF2 name to grow their own fanbase. And valve didn't want to be associated with that.

My guess is that Black Mesa looks great, had passionate people who were really communicating and engaging with Valve/community, didn't infringe on the Half-Life trademark and it felt like a step forward, which is why it was allowed to continue AND even be brought to market.

Makes me wonder where their line is between this and Black Mesa, though.

Unfortunately it's not just well within their rights, it's their legal obligation. The stupid situation that is America means that for them to be able to maintain their claim of ownership on the IP trademark, they have to both actively use the trademark and actively police unauthorized use of the trademark by others. If they don't, they risk losing the right to claim the trademark, which wouldn't just mean independents running servers for the game, but also would mean unscrupulous entities could produce and sell merchandise featuring the trademark en masse without having to seek permission from or pay any commissions to Valve.

It's shitty, but it's more shitty because of the stupid system we've built than because of any intentional malevolence on Valve's part, imo.

Important caveat: I am not a legal professional and it is entirely possible my understanding of trademark law is flawed, but this is my earnest understanding of the situation.

It being within their rights doesnt make it less shitty. Fuck IP

We need to change IP and copyright law to add a "use it or lose it" clause for games that have been left to languish for eternity.

Not exactly. Plenty of CS mods give players knife skins and things while on the server for doing things in the server. They only work while in that server, but Valve doesn't care. Releasing a product that could be mistaken for an official product is not smart though. They just released Counter Strike 2 (which was called CS Source 2 for a long time) so they have to defend their IP from confusion. This isnt likely about money because this wouldn't hurt that in the slightest. Who had even heard of it before this post? It's just something they have to do legally.

If you can only have a good experience by installing malware, you don't have a good experience.

I really should finish building that nvidia jetson based hardware anticheat that'd allow anyone to cheat even in vanguard protected games with perfect accuracy for just ~150$. Ring 0 anticheat's only use is to spy on you and yet people will continue defending it until someone's proven just how useless it is.

I mean TF 2 is 16 years old. They just don't really support it anymore. I can't comprehend how it's still in or close to the top 10 steam games by player count when it's been dead for years.

Not all games need to be officially supported forever, tbh.

You can easily run your own server for it, so like UT99 or so, fans can form communities and play.

Basically, I'd rather them put effort into a Team Fortress 3, even though I know that's of course utopian given we never got an HL3 either.

why do peopoe bot?

They most certainly made a decision based on priorities and TF2 wasn't a big enough one for them to jump on. If there were enough users who would pay clamoring for it, they'd move.

Is tf2classic any good? I loved tf2, but the bots just made it unplayable

being a valve fan is fucking suffering.

They used to make great games, but they have no need to anymore cause steam brings in $$$$Texas.

This comment would only make sense if they were being indignant about it.

Yeah, how dare they make something enjoyable for the community! Everyone should suffer under valve's dragging of their feet over TF2 promises.

no I don't think so. they run steam instead.