TF2 Blog - Where Did All of Your Unlocks Go?

[kalabalana]

Re: TF2 Blog - Where Did All of Your Unlocks Go?

Exactly. Last thing I want is Valve giving in to these retards.

Although I think Valve is quite harsh now, I also know that everybody who didn't use the idler, but knew full well of its existence, was secretly hoping for this to happen.

Giving in?

These people all had the option of either using the idler program, or just minimizing an instance of the game. Both do the exact same thing. People just used the idler program because it didn't use up their extra cycles. So it isn't cheating. Especially since it didn't give any idler an advantage over any player. None. No better odds, no better items. Nothing. No difference. Also, the program does not violate any EULA or terms Valve had put fourth. Not only that, but the majority of the hardcore active community used the ilder.

So essentially Valve is punishing the hardcore players for no justifiable reason. Worse is that now the community is divided and half hates the other half. The forums are being flooded and flamed, and all this could've been easily avoided. In reality if Valve really wanted to move forward on this, it should've just simply given those who have never idled in a server, or those who used the idler app a halo.

Ironically, you'll all be seeing tons of pics of people wearing halo's in idle servers. So in reality Valve kinda screwed up. Made people pissed, divided the community to an extent, and segregated most of it's currently active hardcore tf2 community.

People are being banned from servers for not having a halo, or for having one. I see servers already too that the halo model replaced by a blinking "fag" one.

Great job by Valve.

[Dr.Worm]

Re: TF2 Blog - Where Did All of Your Unlocks Go?

Umm go Valve it's your fault for not playing you should just earn everything just like everyone else if you don't play that much then stfu YOU DON'T PLAY THAT MUCH so why would you care about it

GO VALVE they have balls

the others don't though anyone who is outraged out this grow the fuck up it's life you win some you lose some you don't get everything you want

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: TF2 Blog - Where Did All of Your Unlocks Go?

Giving in?

These people all had the option of either using the idler program, or just minimizing an instance of the game. Both do the exact same thing. People just used the idler program because it didn't use up their extra cycles. So it isn't cheating. Especially since it didn't give any idler an advantage over any player. None. No better odds, no better items. Nothing. No difference. Also, the program does not violate any EULA or terms Valve had put fourth. Not only that, but the majority of the hardcore active community used the ilder.

So essentially Valve is punishing the hardcore players for no justifiable reason. Worse is that now the community is divided and half hates the other half. The forums are being flooded and flamed, and all this could've been easily avoided. In reality if Valve really wanted to move forward on this, it should've just simply given those who have never idled in a server, or those who used the idler app a halo.

Ironically, you'll all be seeing tons of pics of people wearing halo's in idle servers. So in reality Valve kinda screwed up. Made people pissed, divided the community to an extent, and segregated most of it's currently active hardcore tf2 community.

People are being banned from servers for not having a halo, or for having one. I see servers already too that the halo model replaced by a blinking "fag" one.

Great job by Valve.

Sorry, but what the fuck is so "hardcore" about having a third party application running outside of Steam and the game? Yeah, that's really a hardcore player there, sitting and idling in a program that Valve never released nor endorsed.

It's extremely funny that you'd label people who aren't even playing the game as "hardcore players." That is a joke in and of itself.

Again, it isn't Valve that told people to use that program or do this method. Those in the idle servers are still somewhat legitimate in the fact that they are at least going through getting unlocks in a method supported by Valve, game time. They are in the game and not using a third-party app to circumvent the system.

The only problem are the whiny players/admins who are butthurt over having their wrongfully obtained items taken away from them. Maybe next time they won't be so stupid as to use a program that is questionable in nature.

The funniest part about all of this is the fact that players who did earn the Halo often opt not to wear it and are STILL discriminated against by idiotic server admins. Why? Because they feel as though if they don't have a Halo on, they must be one of the system cheaters. I agree that it's a mess, but it's a mess as a result of the users, not the developer.

[kalabalana]

Re: TF2 Blog - Where Did All of Your Unlocks Go?

Well of course it's going to be the die hard players who are going to use the little known mysterious application.
-Casual gamers aren't likely to even hear about a program like the idler. So they wouldn't be the ones running it.
-Regular gamers might hear of it, but of those who do, how many of them are really going to run it? Not so many considering common fears of getting VAC banned, and who's going to risk that over a game you only play so much?

-My thinking behind the majority of people using the idler being the players who pump out themost hours through simple logic.

The actual numbers were 10000 out of 35000 were idlers (Not to mention prob at least another 1000 in achievement servers), that's nearly a third, then we add in approx 2000->8000 who currently aren't using the idler and are actually playing. Now we're starting to see a much larger percentage.

So that's the reasoning I've used for my above posts, basically I still think Valve made a stupid mistake by punishing this many people, in reality, if they wanted to publicly show their disapproval of the idler, they should've rewarded the nonusers, and just told the current idlers to stop. BOOM, massive pubic wide discontent averted.

So yeah, again, stupid move Valve, not very well thought out.

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: TF2 Blog - Where Did All of Your Unlocks Go?

Well of course it's going to be the die hard players who are going to use the little known mysterious application.
-Casual gamers aren't likely to even hear about a program like the idler. So they wouldn't be the ones running it.

That's as dumb as saying only "hardcore" players use cheats because they're so few and hard to find working ones. No.

-Regular gamers might hear of it, but of those who do, how many of them are really going to run it? Not so many considering common fears of getting VAC banned, and who's going to risk that over a game you only play so much?

So your logic, instead, is to say that "hardcore" gamers throw caution to the wind and use a third party app while flipping the man the bird, or whatever stupid comparison works there. Haha, please! Then again, it also seems like you're saying the "hardcore" TF2 players are stupid in the fact that they can't rationalize that they might be banned or suffer some penalty while the regular players could.

-My thinking behind the majority of people using the idler being the players who pump out themost hours through simple logic.

The actual numbers were 10000 out of 35000 were idlers (Not to mention prob at least another 1000 in achievement servers), that's nearly a third, then we add in approx 2000->8000 who currently aren't using the idler and are actually playing. Now we're starting to see a much larger percentage.

So that's the reasoning I've used for my above posts, basically I still think Valve made a stupid mistake by punishing this many people, in reality, if they wanted to publicly show their disapproval of the idler, they should've rewarded the nonusers, and just told the current idlers to stop. BOOM, massive pubic wide discontent averted.

So yeah, again, stupid move Valve, not very well thought out.

Look, anybody can pull numbers out of their ass. You did an admirable job of it right there, but the fact remains that you, unless you somehow work for Valve now, do not have the figures. They do, and they released the percentage of morons who actually used that idler program.

Your "hardcore" argument is a joke. Don't bother continuing trying to support your statements with that unless you want me to die from laughter.

[Unregistered]

Re: TF2 Blog - Where Did All of Your Unlocks Go?

you can find the stats here

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

It's 20,000~ right now, add in people who are working, vacation, etc and you have a tf2 active community of around 30-35,000~. The idler program told you how many people were idling at the same moment you were, at one point breaking the 10,000 mark. Now as you said, we don't work for valve so these numbers are just rough estimations of what we have but 4.5% just doesn't make sense.

A gentleman on the steam forums emailed Robin Walker about his stance on idling 8/17

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=942963

If you look at the bold print, Robin acknowledges that the idler is cheating, but is harmless as they don't earn the items any faster then a player playing the game. From what I've read, the number of idlers jumped considerably after this letter and peaked at that 10k mark. I was one of these people as I assumed, as many did, that the idler program was at the very least tolerated by valve. If they didn't, they could have 1) sent a email to drunken f00l or 2) state outright that there would be consequences clarifying their stance.

To be honest, I think this is valve's fault. Before I'm flamed, hear me out. These programs sprang up in response to crappy implementation of new ideas. Achievement Unlocker came out after the notoriously hard medic achievements came out. The Idling program came out after the sniper/spy update where in order to get new weapons you had to either play all day or idle in a server. After Valve changed their system around did the idler become exclusively used for hats. However, the people that already started using it before the item/milestone system came out were already screwed. Weeks later, Valve didn't stop the idler program topics on their boards nor seem to care about the program as it took the load off people idling in 24/7 empty servers or achievement_idle servers. This screwed even more people that were on the fence and bit the bait.

The halo itself probably wasn't a good idea either. Now I'm all all for rewarding players who do good but through their criteria inactive members and members that used idling servers all received the hat as well. Now it can be argued that it's just a hat, but come on, everyone likes to horde content even if they don't need it.

I think Idlecaust could have been avoided, valve was just too slow to move.

[kalabalana]

Re: TF2 Blog - Where Did All of Your Unlocks Go?

Yep, those number weren't pulled from my ass zips.

Also, relax, no reason to get angry, call things stupid/dumb and in general look like a troll. Especially if your an admin of a site.

[Guest]

Re: TF2 Blog - Where Did All of Your Unlocks Go?

Someone emailed Robin Walker about the 4.5% stat, here is his response.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/150/tf2email.png

so as you can see the 4.5% is the (total # of accounts we removed items from) / (total # of accounts who have items). He goes into a bit more detail in the rest of the email.

[Sintra]

Re: TF2 Blog - Where Did All of Your Unlocks Go?

wow
You call these guys hardcore gamers?? More like hardcore NERDS. WTF, what's the fun in spending time idle just to unlock achievements? These guys have WAAAAY too much time on their hands.

"Hardcore" LOL
NERDCORE