Despite being 17 years old, Valve’s classic, personality-laden, multiplayer FPS Team Fortress 2 is still going strong. A community of fans continues to flock to the game in their tens of thousands, but there’s a major issue with the game at the moment that’s led to a new movement.
Over on Imgur, user randomkeyboardsmash has posted a link to a petition which is asking Valve – as the publisher and developer – to fix TF2. The post goes on to say that “malicious aimbots” have been a point of contention for “over five years,” and that it’s time to “give the problem the spotlight it needs.”
The link to the petition shows it’s already got some support behind it, with over 197,000 signatures at the time of writing. The post on Imgur ends by saying that cheating has been a significant drawback, and that the game has been “ignored by its publisher” for some time.
What’s the deal, yo?
This actually isn’t the first time a petition has been started with a view of getting Valve to fix Team Fortress 2. A similar movement was created a couple of years ago, with a response from the developer posted on Twitter/X saying the team was “working to improve things.”
However, cut to today and not much appears to have been done, but pressure may be building. If you take a look at the game’s Steam page, you can see it’s being review bombed by the community, where it’s currently showing as “Mostly Negative.”
The comments speak for themselves. Many are crestfallen at best and downright pissed off at worst. Fans are essentially calling on Valve to do something about the problem that’s been persistent for years, which has seen the game become swamped with spambots and aimbots, as well as players finding themselves doxxed by cheaters.
Whether Valve will step in this time remains to be seen, but the general feeling is that the studio does not appear to show much interest in rectifying any issues with Team Fortress 2.
Despite this, the game has been rising up Steam’s Top Sellers list since a recent update, with it now at the number 67 spot. That might not sound high, but given the game was released over a decade and a half ago and is still in the top 100, that’s some going. It’s at least above the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and Crusader Kings 3. But if the developer ignores the petition and the cries for help, it could spell disaster for the erstwhile loved FPS.
