Valve Says It’s “Working To Improve” Team Fortress 2’s Bot Problem

Team Fortress 2’s bot problem has finally received acknowledgement from the powers-that-be. On Team Fortress 2’s Twitter, developer Valve wrote, “TF2 community, we hear you… We see how large this issue has become and are working to improve things.”

Valve’s response follows a passionate campaign launched by TF2 players to save the game. Using the hashtag #SaveTF2, players wanted to draw attention to the state of the game and ask Valve to find a solution to the bots.

While Valve hasn’t officially announced what fix is in store, this is at least a public promise to do something about players’ requests.

TF2’s bot problem has made the game almost unplayable–or at the very least, unpleasant–and the issue has been ongoing for awhile, notably intensifying in 2020.

Valve has tried to address the issue before. In June 2020, Valve limited “certain new accounts” from accessing the chat function, but acknowledged that more needed to be done. It stated it was still looking for ways to “mitigate the use of new and free accounts for abusive purposes.”

TF2 retains a hefty player base, especially for a game released in 2007, and sits at 11 on Steam’s concurrent ranking lists.

In other player campaigns, Red Dead Online players have also been trying to get the attention of devs. In their case, there are no swaths of unpleasant bots they’d like kicked off. But instead, they want Rockstar to release more updates and content. Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick acknowledged the campaign, but pointed out it’s ultimately up to Rockstar to push updates.

In any case, organized player campaigns seem to be quite effective at eliciting a public response from devs. It remains to be seen, however, if the companies will follow through with their promises.