What Happened To TF2 YouTube?

I miss when TF2 videos were focused on the fun elements of the game rather than specific challenges do you remember the good old days of TF2 YouTube watching your favorite content creators take on the new update because I do not I got the tail end of it but still it's Legacy is eted not only in TF2 but YouTube as a whole hello everybody how's the day going because it's about to get better my name's Dr derp gamer and we've all seen the videos on how TF2 will never die and I don't want to bore you with that same Spiel instead I want to talk about the content creation surrounding the game as it's really unique and quite fascinating we'll be going over tf2's history where it's currently at and what I think its fate will be so strap in one at all for an awe inspiring story about a half B shooter game that's nearly old enough to vote this is what happened to TF2 [Music] YouTube Team Fortress released 2 years after YouTube did with the earliest video that I can find being 17 years old as of 2023 and the early days of content really show how simple the game used to be with neither TF2 or YouTube having established itself it really shows there was hardly any commentary or editing most of the videos were just people showcasing the new valve game until Meet The Heavy came out and it didn't actually change a whole lot see this was a time where there were numerous updates made by Valve but not a lot of content was made about them as mechanically they were interesting updates but the world was just starting to be developed and to be fair it's not like there was a bustling audience for it it was still locked behind a $20 pay wall and YouTube was at the part of its life where nion cat was its most viewed video most computers look like this and content creation tools were far harder to come by but all of that was set to change in one year [Music] here [Music] mag TF2 was now free to play which yeah we now take this for granted but this single decision launched TF2 out of this world with it being such a big deal the video announcing it meet the medic is Val's most viewed video by far with nearly the population of Germany as its view count the next most viewed video is meet the Spy which has 30 million less views and speaking of the other meet the team series they all top valves YouTube with the only thing competing being the trailer for CS go one of the most famous games of all time this marketing change completely shifted the audience opening the gates for much more fun casual laidback approach to the game and bring the audience along with it with YouTube as well having a considerably stronger footing with gaming in particular really starting to take off tf2's broad audience from being valve's Premier online game that was now free to play as well as like goofy nature was fertile ground for someone to show up and make an audience with and well hello everybody uh I'm going to introduce myself right here my name is germa 985 made his first ever video playing TF2 in 2012 quickly defining himself with wacky goofy commentaries and I know that star and sin both made content before him but I'd be willing to say that germo was the quintessential TF2 YouTuber he wasn't flashy he didn't have great editing and he was no God gamer but that was kind of standard for YouTube at the time series like male Mondays dominated the platform with everybody making their own Cod commentaries from Mr Beast to PewDiePie to moist critical and Jad everybody wanted in on it but oh boy did Val give this new audience a whole lot to Feast on from multiple major updates that happen every single year that kept the game mechanically diverse as well as animations and Comics that deepen the character and world not to mention the multiple new game modes most notably of which MVM which would eventually see the introduction of Australians that boosted the economy tremendously but out of everything everything that happened in 2012 the most important thing was the release of Meet the Pyro as it marked the end of the meat the team series and with it valve decided to release the animation software that they used to make the animations Source Filmmaker and of course it was free it cannot be overstated how important this was for the community I mean even now very few games can compete with tf2's mechanics but when you throw on an animation software that's free to use decently easy to learn and completely based in TF2 now you're simply on another level before sfm released considerably less animations were made as the next best thing was blender which no or Gary's Mod which while being an incredibly versatile sandbox game it's also noticeably not an animation software that's not saying people didn't make TF2 animations with Gary's mod as a matter of fact one of the most famous TF2 animations was made predominantly in Gary's Mod I'm talking of course of the Beloved Team Fabulous 2 made February 22nd by the legendary KY 0706 this G's mod animation was stupid illogical really random and crude but so much fun I'd be willing to say despite not being the first Gmod animation or you know the biggest this was the quintessential 2012 godmod animation and with the release of sfm animations were not only made more but at a higher quality too with valve encouraging it by hosting an award show called The saxis where you were able to put in submissions for different categories and get votes and if you won you'd get this super sick trophy but if you won the overall valve would fly you to the valve headquarters to meet with the official animation team and for the next four years this was life you'd pick your favorite commentary channel to watch and then once a year you'd get your own private catalog of Pixar grade animations with all of this coming to a head in 2015 what happened in 2015 what didn't happened in 2015 I mean you know what why tell you when I could just show you ches to [Music] the [Music] what is your profession hello everybody it's Daniel here bring te Fortress 2 gameplay [Music] commentary but for all the ups there were some pretty major Downs as well with the content sphere shifting so much germa and stur both decided to take a break from TF2 indefinitely as Not only was TF2 changing but so is YouTube and the days of simplistic commentary were no more and the animation sphere wasn't safe either um January 25th of 2015 the grandfather of Gary's mod animation kitty0706 lost his fight to cancer k76 is lost left a crater in the community that is still being felt and to this day people still honor and pay homage to this legend that we lost too soon and as far as the impact of germa one of the nine playable characters Scout that guy his official name is jery that's right one of the only nine playable characters from one of the most iconic and influential games of all time from one of the most successful video game companies worth 7.7 billion yes billion with a B dollars named one of their characters after the sus face Patrick baitman Sims stroke of a streamer but after being virtually uncontested for so long TF2 was about to meet it [Music] match as of 2015 TF2 was kind of overpowered for the reasons I just and so to be fair to their competitors valve thought it would be a grand old idea to Nerf their game they delivered an update so historically bad that even now it's talked about the metor match update was trying to make the game more accessible to competitive which it failed to do and it failed at the worst possible time as a shiny new competitive game was just released by a rival company that's right we're getting into TF2 versus OverWatch in recent years this debate is often seen as stupid and really pointless because it was but you have to keep in mind whenever OverWatch was first announced people thought that it would be the TF2 killer with it being such a Hot Topic people that clearly had no idea what they were talking about not made videos on it trying to talk about the debate TF2 versus OverWatch seemed to be so divisive because of how similar the game seemed yet OverWatch seemed better where TF2 was weak namely competitive with blizzard actively trying to have an Esports team right out the gate people weren't only afraid that Gamers would stop playing TF2 they were also afraid that viewers would stop watching it with a common fear being that if a YouTuber leaves it will take the audience with it and the more that the audience leaves the more YouTubers that will leave and the more YouTubers that will leave the more audience that will leave until eventually there will be no more TF2 YouTube ERS and no more TF2 content and this did happen with many YouTubers leaving the most notorious of which being the Beloved Australian Soldier man newk and I know I didn't talk about this earlier but the TF2 Community has this tendency to make leaving the community as painful as physically possible being so Extreme as to send death only reason I value is because I can and it wasn't much better for musilk with him being seen as a hack and a sellout but something that I think people failed to really think about was the fact that TF2 creators like to make content for TF2 and TF2 viewers like to watch content for TF2 OverWatch being introduced to the scene sure it might skirt a little bit of viewers but still there is a core audience for Team Fortress 2 and so it did not die but time heals all wounds okay not really it was more so people ran out of steam to hate on the game as the two fan bases became more and more distant as OverWatch developed itself more quirks but the one cool thing that Meer match did do was introduce the content for the next update we could either vote for the next update to be about the Pyro or about the heavy and this had been done many times in the past but it was a nice refreshing thing to do and in 2017 we got the Pyro update with jungle Inferno and content was made as standard but not as usual see content was made more around the mechanics of the game being considerably higher production quality with decent editing at the very least and and really good editing at the very best you have videos by Uncle Dane describing the tactics about engineer as well as array 7 talking about how to not instantly die as a medic or even old creators that reinvented themselves like Funk which had animations in it I mean there was some really premier stuff in this time and in the animation scene things were still going strong with people like hovy tube and winglet still continuing to make content 10 with the seventh consecutive year of saxi awards and with it the final saxi award which was another huge Nerf to the community it was an event that had brought a platform to so many great animations which for seemingly no reason they pulled the plug on 2017 didn't only see the end of the saxi awards though with jungle Inferno being the final ever official valve update for TF2 sure we've had Community updates and localization updates since then but it's pretty set in stone that jungle Inferno is going to be the final update but content for a while stayed at PACE because it's not like we knew that that was the final update people didn't really change a whole lot at least not for the first couple years as most of the content was based around valve but but that was all right we just had to wait a couple more years and wait a couple more years and wait a couple more years cinematics trading the community the OD the videos there's a lot to love when it comes to this masterpiece it's safe to say that T2 holds a really important place in my heart in 2019 YouTube was going through some pretty serious Paradigm shifts with rewind 2018 being seen as soulless and comedically corporate to SNL and other late night television dominating the trending Tab and most notably PewDiePie was locked in a vicious subwar against T-Series over who was the most subscribed channel on the platform a war that was functionally a pigeon versus a tank and sure PewDiePie did far better than most suspected but still t- series came out on top as they were a major Media company from the second biggest country in the world and what where was TF2 during all of this a staple of small content creation since practically YouTube's conception was nowhere to be seen the reason for this is because TF2 YouTube was actually going through a really similar thing at the time with valve becoming noticeably more corporate shifting all of their attention to steam and more alluring games this was such a big deal because up until this point for more or less a lot of content was dictated by Valve a a lot of attention came in from the fact that valve released consistent updates to TF2 and creators relied on that influx to not only increase audience engagement but their own engagement as well so what were they to do now that valve Abandoned Ship well there were a couple of things either you can leave going to greener pastures or quitting YouTube Al together or you can stick around innovating and pushing through for this amazing game and I'm not saying one way is better than another both ways have their reasons and are completely valid but TF2 is clearly on a downward spiral and it's not like content creators were the only ones that were suffering because Bots as well were making it miserable for casual players and valve did nothing this game that they put so much character so much heart and soul into was being killed by negligence like aie mandas it was the idea of a great game being forgotten to the sands of time something had to happen to stop this runaway train from derailing and destroying all that TF2 had left 2020 was a rough year for the world with something bad happening every single month and in April of 2020 the voice actor for Soldier Rick May died it took multiple Strokes a pandemic and mouth cancer to take the man down and the internet came together in consolidation over the loss of a great man it was such a big deal the sleeping giant valve woke up to pay their respects to the great man before quickly going back to sleep but with Rick May's passing something in the community snapped as they realized this was no longer just a game it was an experience a memory that never gave up on us just because it was no longer valve's Premier game and it didn't get that attention doesn't mean that we should stop loving it there was so much heart and soul that was poured into this game Team Fortress 2 was dying and it wouldn't be long until it was dead and then what what of all of that love and care was it to be wasted what of the legacy of Rick May was it to be tainted by some neglectful company what about KY 706 there was a realization of how important Team Fortress 2 was to not only gaming but all of YouTube and so in a last ditch effort # saave TF2 was initiated # saave TF2 was a final Cry for Help from valve it was a pleading to please update their game even if it wasn't some major stylistic update the Bots need to be fixed and it came by to the front page of the internet with a bunch of different creators making content on it and it failed to get valve to change but I won't say it was a complete failure see with # saf TF2 people realized why they love the community it's not for updates it's for the people and seeing what people can do with this amazing game with creators like soundsmith and lazy purple breathing life back into it with animations that are rivaling the actual saxi Awards while not even being animated videos they're analysis videos on Old topics made new and in the sfm field you have creators like Ceno that have become so iconic with their animation style that it has BL into so many other sfms and I only mean the most amount of respect to both creators whenever I say that Ceno is kind of the new Kyo 706 influencing other animations so distinctly and dynamically we also have people like silent man Joe that make weekly content that keep things interesting and funny and on the other end holy freaking crap that's straight up a movie there's another one but with people like Fortress films and hovie Tube making consistent amazing Productions that are hours long I can make an entire video on these alone but this is the final nail in the coffin we don't need valve kind of I'm sure no one would be complaining if we finally got the heavy update or sniper was balanced a bit more or you know the Bots but still TF2 content is no longer dependent on Val I'd say we're finally out of that tunnel with content being made about every facet of the game you want challenges we got it development we got it animations we super got it anything you want is being made in Spades the TF2 YouTube is no longer dependent on valve and it's to the point where I'd say valve can pretty well keep doing what they're doing and TF2 YouTube will be pretty well fine and I know that sounds like a hyperbolic statement and it is this is a YouTube video but it's not entirely based in fiction with TF2 having multiple player Peaks within the last couple years as well as many original content creators coming back just to make a couple few videos but still they're coming back and I know that TF2 has its issues the game code is becoming more and more outdated as we speak and you know the Bots but still we're no longer dependent on valve the thing is whenever I first started researching for this video I was really expecting a clearcut tf2 YouTube is dead because well if you're not in the community that's really what it looks like but it's like tf2 it's like you you have the community that plays it but you don't hear about TF2 ever the thing is TF2 content is the furthest thing from dead as a matter of fact it's to the point where if you just watch TF2 YouTube and don't play the game that much the Bots are only going to seem like an underlying issue because well you're able to edit footage and a YouTuber is not going to want the footage of them dying 90 times to a bot they're going to want the footage where it's an active game full of people and they're Pub stomping because not only does it make them look better it's also more entertaining to watch and so because of that they cut out all of the bot footage they get rid of that unless if it's a video specifically about Bots and and the weird thing is Bots don't seem to be affecting creators that much sure there's still a lot of problems it's a problem with the game but as I stated earlier creators can just cut out the Bots meaning that if somebody wants to make a video they can make it whether there's Bots or not because there is simply not enough Bots and there will never be enough Bots to actually be able to stop a Creator from making a YouTube video that they want and because of how miserable it is to play the game you think that people are just going to stop wanting to do anything with TF2 just cuz there are some Bots no if they can't play the game they're going to want to have content about the game meaning that the content creators are probably going to get more views as well it gives them an easy rant video that everybody's super pissed off at but you get videos of El maxo torturing himself for 100 days straight or Shick getting rid of the sniper and realizing that the game is actually more fun you can see engineer and heavy get balanced into the characters they are now and a banana can teach you how to gamble I was neglectful and it's a little bit more than sad but we can still be happy that they're so lenient with the community one could say they're too lenient I know that there are many complaints with a lot of the things that are being added to TF2 but regardless many other games get the plug pulled on them with no say at all from the community as well as you have the problem of crappy business practices ruining what could be quote Socrates it's a shame for a man to grow old without first seeing the beauty at which his body is capable and so for TF2 fans we're really fortunate now that's not saying that content right now isn't peak in many ways it is and I don't want to seem like I'm just excusing and dismissing everything that valve is doing valve is neglectful and in every way the community is currently pulling the weight of the game and that is simply not okay valve practically prints their own money so I don't care for their excuses they have the money they simply don't want to do their job that's it team Fortress 2 is past the days of Harmony that it has seen and so while many may call content now Peak and I wouldn't disagree it means no less to admit that in every Majestic Mountain Range there will be multiple Peaks but only one can stand above the rest but we're fortunate fortunate to be able to look at TF2 and admit while its best years may be behind it its Legacy is secured TF2 had its peak and by God it was beautiful but that's a statement that's a lot easier to say and a lot harder to appreciate or even accept sure I can rationalize that we're lucky that we have community-led projects breathing life back into the game and creators making constant updates but whenever I can't queue into a cth map to actually be able to complete my contracts that I've had since jungle Inferno because nobody ever cues it into anything but Harvest it becomes a lot harder to really appreciate and I know you're probably thinking that there isn't a game that feels properly adjacent to compare and I would tend to agree except for one game a game that has come under a lot of fire as of recent because of the scummy business practices of the game company a game that is well known for its character and its um animations and of course I'm talking about Minecraft I mean it hasn't been doing so good since dream posted that 2hour long video exposing things no no I'm I'm kidding I'm not features that were previously am I am I kidding so unironically whenever I was first writing this script I was obviously I was going to talk about OverWatch lwh hanging fruit you know it has its parallels issues if you want to see that Doc it's it's right here I was originally going to say Minecraft as a joke you know haha funny block game Dream but there's actually some genuine parallels here at least with content maybe even more so than OverWatch think about it Minecraft came out only two years after TF2 did and started off with much more simple commentary over gameplay but eventually evolving and having a peak in content around 2015 before falling off because people weren't happy with what the developers were doing and then it had a Resurgence as people found new ways to use use this medium like come on there's something there with Minecraft it shows the discontent that comes from making halfhearted updates Minecraft still releases major updates but the general consensus is that Mojang could definitely be doing more Mojang is doing functionally the bare minimum but unlike valve they don't have multiple other IPS to look at regardless Minecraft is a great example of what would have happened if valve went forward only giving halfhearted updates as the content around Minecraft has really kind of stagnated people aren't really going to it anymore and it feels overdone and Bloated comparatively to TF2 who still has a lot of videos being made about it that feel fresh and interesting but yeah OverWatch bad TF2 good ha imagine dying idiot Team Fortress 2 is nearly two decades old with content still being made about it frequently and the future is not set in stone the final ever game could be tomorrow it could be in a billion years who's to say valve has given no indication that they're going to start caring again and it's a very real possibility that we're living in the future of TF2 but I want to bring you back back to a simpler time the year 2015 a kid's life was being turned upside down as his parents were just getting a divorce and he was doing what everybody did in 2015 watching My Little Pony uh I watched my little ponies but his brother showed him a game it wasn't like anything he'd seen before it wasn't like Mario or Minecraft it had like blood and guns and stuff and so you know that whenever he got his tonsils removed he was going to guiltrip his dad into playing the game on the family Dell laptop it was a potato and I had to share it with my brother which just meant that he only got it and if I couldn't play it well the next best thing was watching it I have really fond memories of watching melk unbox 100 crates or watching uncle danne and thinking yeah yeah I'm going to be the best engineer and it's going to be super easy I remember watching sfms and genuinely being moved by them being an adult now only makes me really appreciate all that Team Fortress 2 has done for me when I look at the future of Team Fortress 2 I can't help but look at the past and see what it has done for so many different people what it's helped them through how the only time that somebody actually stops playing TF2 is when they go to meet the soldier in person I'm no psychic and the future of the bot crisis is in fact really Grim with no help from valve in sight many would say it's over but for fans of the game and and viewers we know it's not over something only really dies whenever its name is forgotten and you can trust me when I say that won't happen for a long long time

Channel: DrDerpGamer

Views: 17,716

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Id: xIj8DPHmbmE

Length: 32min 15sec (1935 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 31 2024