Team Fortress 2 is healing. After years of vocal players calling on Valve to do something about the ongoing aimbot crisis, the Steam maker has finally started to take serious action. Bots are being banned, appeals against those bans are being rejected, and the accounts responsible are being wiped out. But the bot plight isn’t over yet, and now the community-driven petition demanding Valve fixes the FPS has one more move: boycott microtransactions.
After almost 350,000 signatures, the ‘#FixTF2’ petition is now closed. What started as unionized player outcry against the state of Team Fortress 2 is snowballing into something much bigger, with Valve finally banning aimbots en masse. These bots are insta-killing, spouting hate speech during games, kicking players, and even launching DDoS attacks. It’s been happening for years, and now that Valve is making big moves to combat the problem, the Save TF2 petition is putting even more pressure on the developer to improve the long-running FPS game.
“As of [Monday] July 1, Valve has taken extensive measures to alleviate Team Fortress 2’s botting crisis,” the creators of the petition write. “While we as a community are incredibly grateful for the actions being taken, many of us believe that further evidence is required to warrant a newfound sense of confidence in the game’s future.”
With the annual July summer update approaching, the team behind the petition suggests players boycott microtransaction spending, to put even more pressure on Valve to act.
“Team Fortress 2 consumers should be heavily encouraged to adjust their spending habits and/or review scores based on whether or not these anti-bot measures continue,” the petition’s website explains. “We recommend withholding all monetary investment from TF2 until the issue has been resolved. Team Fortress 2 deserves to be in a playable state before players resume supporting the product financially.”
Valve is already rejecting all Team Fortress 2 ban appeals with a resounding “no,” and with the news of these bans, many players are flocking back to the game. Since the end of June around 100,000 players have returned, but it’s unclear how many of these could be new bots aiming to cause chaos.
Between this petition and Team Fortress 2 falling to ‘mostly negative’ on Steam for the first time, Valve is taking notice. Players are fed up, and mobilizing to make their voices heard.
If you’re stepping away from TF2 for now there are plenty of amazing multiplayer games to try instead, and a plethora of upcoming PC games to get excited about in 2024 and beyond.
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