Oct 26, 2010

Team Fortress 2

We've been fairly busy around the office this week after it was mandated that browsing International Stately Hats of Nationals was not a good use of time and there was work to be done on the next update.

Are you prepared to make your mother proud? We've joined up with Kritzkast to determine what the Demoman really said during his diatribe in Meet the Demoman. Our sensitive ears are incapable of determining exactly what was said so it's best left to the experts. The funniest clean entry, funniest not so clean entry, and most accurate will all receive prizes. Recording your brother being dominated in Dustbowl is not a valid entry.

Oct 22, 2010

Team Fortress 2 modders make a fortune

Team Fortress 2

Valve's recent Mann-conomy update for Team Fortress 2 added a crate-full of user made items and weapons to the game, along with the ability for players to buy those items. We're divided on whether that's a good thing or not, but 25% of the money earned from every sale goes to the modders who created the item. Now we know how much those modellers and artists have made so far, and holy moly, it's a lot.

The five Polycount Pack creators earned between $39,000 and $47,000 in the first two weeks of the items going on sale. Shaylyn Hamm, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern and Rob Laro were due to receive payment via Paypal, but for two of them the amount was so high that the payments ran into Paypal's transfer restrictions. Valve solved the problem by flying Kern and Skidmore to their headquarters in Kirkland, Washington to pay them in person.

Kern had this to say about the deal: "It's astounding that so many people want to purchase the items that came out of the community. The response exceeded my wildest expectations. There really is no doubt at this point that there's a huge demand for community-created content in TF2 and, hopefully, more games will start to tap into this demand."

Speaking to Gamasutra about the success of the introduction of the Mann Co. Store, Gabe Newell said "It benefits us because it grows the community, right? These benefit, but we benefit too. Team Fortress 2 is a better product because we have community contributions in it. They're going to go off and listen to what the community says about how they can do that better, and we can draft along, as we both benefit."

Creators of older community items for Team Fortress 2 haven't been forgotten, either, they'll be paid for their contributions at some point in the future. Looking forwards, Valve say that their plan is to get the community involved with other aspects of the game as well, the ultimate aim being to let map makers, animators, custom UI creators and guide makers sell their wares through TF2. Before any of that comes into play, Team Fortress 2 creator Robin Walker told us that we can look forward to more Polycount items, which will be released with the next update, along with a brand new game mode.

For an insight into the thinking behind the introduction of the Mann-conomy, check out our other interview with Robin Walker. If you fancy submitting your own items to Valve, check out the official TF2 contributor site.

Oct 22, 2010

Team Fortress 2 made modders $$$$$s

Team Fortress 2

In two weeks five modders from the Team Fortress 2 community made between $39,000 and $47,000 selling items through the game's new Mann Co. Store.

The royalty figures were so high they exceeded PayPal deposit restrictions, so Valve flew the highest earners - Spencer Kern and Steven Skidmore - to its door to hand the cheques over in person.

"It was completely mind-blowing, the size of the return that we're getting on these things," Kern gushed to Gamasutra.

The Mann Co. Store was added to Team Fortress 2 (PC) at the very end of September. It enables player-to-player trading and provides a storefront for modders to sell their TF2 content. Creators keep 25 per cent of the money made.

"It benefits us because it grows the community, right? These [content creators] benefit, but we benefit too," reasoned Valve brain Gabe Newell.

"Team Fortress 2 is a better product because we have community contributions in it. They're going to go off and listen to what the community says about how they can do that better, and we can draft along, as we both benefit."

Newell reckons the idea will eventually catch on: "Once people ... realise this is about their community, and that the right people are getting the benefits, ... after a while, they'll say, 'This is really how these kinds of communities need to work.'"

Team Fortress 2, a caricature-styled multiplayer shooter, was released to wide acclaim in the autumn of 2007. Three years on, the PC TF2 community is as healthy and enthusiastic as it ever was, thanks to devoted support from Valve. The same isn't true of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, as the closed nature of Xbox Live and PlayStation Network has made it impossible for Valve to unleash the same amount of downloadable support.

Tom Bramwell reviewed Team Fortress 2 for Eurogamer.

Video: The characters of Team Fortress 2.

Oct 22, 2010

TF2 Community Hats = Money Hats

Team Fortress 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Jim Rossignol)

Virtual millinery proves to pay off. Valve sent us this on the roaring hat-trade in Team Fortress 2, and the benefits for the community creators:

Five Steam community members participated in the initial round of content creation. Rob Laro, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern, and Shaylyn Hamm created items for Team Fortress 2 which were then made available to other community members for purchase from the in-game Mann Co. Store. Today they received checks for the first two weeks of sales, with royalties ranging from $39,000 to $47,000 per person.

“It’s astounding that so many people want to purchase the items that came out of the community,” said Spencer Kern, TF2 community content creator. “The response exceeded my wildest expectations. There really is no doubt at this point that there’s a huge demand for community-created content in TF2 and, hopefully, more games will start to tap into this demand.”

Yep. Astounding is the word.

Oct 21, 2010

Making Team Fortress 2 Hats Turns Out To Be Very Profitable

Team Fortress 2

The recently launched "Mann-conomy" for Team Fortress 2 has quickly become a profitable venture for the community modelers who cranked out new weapons, hats and accessories for Valve's game. Valve just sent out royalty check to creators... and they're big.

Five TF2 community members—Rob Laro, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern, and Shaylyn Hamm—created new items for the game ranging from crocodile hats to jars of milk to sleek black rocket launchers, which players can purchase in-game. Two weeks later, some of these guys are sitting on royalties of up to $47,000 USD.

Not bad for a mackerel wrapped in newsprint.

Valve says that royalty payments exceeded PayPal's maximum deposit size, leading two community content creators to fly to Seattle to pick up checks in person.

Unsurprisingly, Valve says we should expect more regular updates on the community created side in Team Fortress 2. Everybody wins... with money!

Oct 20, 2010

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

Team Fortress 2 - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2

Trading changes
- Added some anti-scam advice to the chat window.
- Increased trading slots to 8 slots per person.
- Added item rarity colors.
- Added the item’s original name to the item description.
- Made most tools tradable.
- Fixed Ellis’ Cap and the Frying Pan not being tradable

Oct 20, 2010

Garry's Mod Update Released

Garry's Mod - Valve

Updates to Garry's Mod have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Garry's Mod

Fixed dropdowns and menus not showing on menu screen
Fixed FOV getting locked
Toybox content downloading retries 3 times before failing
Changed the way toybox authentication works
[TTT] Added Decoy equipment for Traitors.
[TTT] Added credit transferring for Traitors and Detectives.
[TTT] Changed C4 disarming to involve wire cutting rather than codes.
[TTT] Changed Traitor starting credits to 2.
[TTT] Changed balance on most Traitor equipment to make it less noisy and more powerful

Oct 20, 2010

PC Gamer UK Podcast 45: Deja Vu

Team Fortress 2

Tim, Tom, Graham and Craig take a second stab at a podcast that was destroyed in a fire. We weigh in on whether Dota 2 can make Defense of the Ancients fun for the masses, how big a deal Fallout: New Vegas is, the philosophy behind BioShock Infinite, the ability to use feces as a writing implement in Duke Nukem Forever, the wisdom or otherwise of scaling difficulty in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the prospects for Civ 5's AI, and our ever-changing opinions of Team Fortress 2 selling items for real money. Tom also does an impression of the police baton from Deus Ex 1.

This is an extra-long bonus ultra podcast, bonusly ultra-soon after the last one, to make up for our unexpectedly long hiatus. And as a special favour to anyone sick of hearing about them, we barely mention StarCraft 2 or Minecraft. In two week's time, we'll be countering this with a favour to anyone who isn't: a Minecraft special about why the game has taken such a firm hold of so many people.

Download the MP3, subscribe, or find our older podcasts here.