When you think of games that are 20 years old that still have a large online player base; what games come to mind?
The most common answer would usually be a MMORPG or MOBA. Dota, RuneScape, Wow, EVE Online (somewhere GardenGroveVW’s ears are burning) just to name a few. Or maybe some RTS titles like Age of Empires 2 and StarCraft.
It’s not as common for a casual FPS game to last long - the average life span of most first person shooter titles is roughly 1 to 3 years. But there is one game that is near and dear to my heart that will be turning 20 in 2007. A game that can trace its roots back 30 years to the very early days of online gaming. A game that is just as synonymous with Half-Life and Valve history as Gordon Freeman and Steam itself. A game that was nothing more than a meme for almost 8 years that has since become an iconic part of gaming history. A game that EdgeGamers has supported since the day it was released:
The Team Fortress story began 30 years ago today on August 24th, 1996 as a free mod for the id software game Quake. A group of just 3 designers decided to make a game that they wanted to play. Quake Team Fortress was the genesis of the core components that all subsequent Team Fortress games would be known for – team based multi-class gameplay pitting two teams made up of nine vastly different yet complementary classes against each other. Even Team Fortresses’ most popular map that has been in every version of the game, 2fort, traces its roots back to the original QTF. The entire class-based shooter genre arguably started right here.
QTF was a massive success and was unrivaled in the gaming landscape at that time. There was no Call of Duty, there was no Battlefield, there was no Steam or console cross-play open to millions of players with near countless options for games. Online gaming was very much in it's infancy and QTF was a huge piece of that.
Put it in perspective - this was a full month before the North American release of the Nintendo 64 and QTF was offering 16 to 32 player online multiplayer games.
Quake Team Fortress, or QTF, released in 1996.
After the success of QTF, the Team Fortress team – officially known as TF Software - planned to make a follow-up mod for the Quake sequel – Quake II. Originally planned to be called ‘Team Fortress II’, this would be the first of three different iterations of the TF2 name to be seen in gaming history. But the success of QTF caught the attention of larger game developers - one of those being Valve Software. In June of 1998, Valve would acquire TF Software, including 2 of the original Team Fortress developers - John Cook and Robin Walker. The team was tasked to make an in-house official mod for Half-Life. That mod would become Team Fortress Classic.
After numerous delays (something Team Fortress fans would soon become accustomed to) TFC released in 1999 first as a Half-Life mod and then later as a stand-alone game in 2000. This would be a pivotal moment for Team Fortress history and for Valve itself. Years later John Cook would go on to help build the Steam platform, while Robin Walker worked on Half-Life 2, Dota 2, and Half-Life: Alyx.
Team Fortress Classic first released in 1999.
Over the following years TFC would continue to be wildly popular and a stand-alone sequel was planned. First showcased at E3 in 1999, Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms was set to be a wild departure from both QTF and TFC. Shedding the near-cartoonish style of a red and blue team, this Team Fortress game was going to be a more ‘realistic’ shooter with 12 unique classes. Weapons that were always a part of Team Fortress - like rocket launchers and gatling guns - were replaced by real world weapon systems like AT4’s and M60’s. Also teased were player drivable vehicles, like Bradley's and UH-60 Blackhawk's, a full 3 years before games like Battlefield 1942 would make that a common piece of the FPS genre. Yet again, Team Fortress was ahead of its time.
Team Fortress 2: A Brotherhood of Arms, was teased in 1999 and never released.
The hype after the E3 showcase was incredible. However, this second iteration of Team Fortress 2 was destined to become just like the version intended for Quake II and would never see the light of day. Years went by and – nothing. No news, no updates. Nothing. Long before Half-Life 3 and GTA6, TF2 was the original “it’s never going to happen” meme in gaming.
And then...
After YEARS of complete and total silence, nearly a decade after the release of QTF, Valve released a teaser trailer for the third and final iteration of Team Fortress 2 seemingly out of nowhere at E3 in 2006. Unlike the previous two versions, this TF2 would finally be released in 2007 as part of The Orange Box alongside Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Portal.
From that point forward TF2 has been a mainstay of online gaming. In a landscape full of more 'gritty' and more ‘realistic’ shooters in the late 00’s and 2010’s, the unique style of TF2 still remains as others have come and gone. TF2 was so popular that an Adult Swim cartoon series was planned in 2012 but was ultimately cancelled due to creative disagreements between Valve and Cartoon Network. TF2’s highest all-time concurrent play count of nearly a quarter of a million players was recorded in 2023 – a full 16 years after the game was first released. Today, TF2 is a free-to-play game that still draws 50,000 to 70,000 concurrent players worldwide.
What is the point of all this? The ramblings of an old gamer? Possibly. But there's something more.
QTF, TFC, and TF2 are huge parts of gaming history and their importance is sometimes underrated by the wider gaming world. Team Fortress is where my journey in gaming began and is very important to me personally. I was too young to play QTF, but I spent hours upon hours upon HOURS playing TFC as a teenager. Fun fact about me: on new years eve 1999 as the world ushered in Y2K, 13 year old mop was playing TFC on a Hunted server as the clock struck midnight. Today, even at 40 years old I’ll still play on the few remaining TFC servers from time to time.
Likewise, TF2 was a huge part of my 20’s. And not just because of the game itself, but because of EdgeGamers. I was a part of the original group that was tasked with launching the eGO TF2 servers and both its success and longevity are accomplishments I am very proud of.
TF2 is a cornerstone of EdgeGamers and of gaming in general. So many of us have spent so much time on TF2 servers sniping, backstabbing, taunting, and having a blast in a game that still stands out and offers a unique experience even so many years after its initial release.
So, again what’s the point of this?
To put it simply:
WE NEED YOU.
To put it simply:
WE NEED YOU.
After reading this – go jump on the EdgeGamers TF2 servers. If you’re like me and you’re returning to a game you used to love but haven’t played in a while – we need you. If you’ve never played TF2 and this has gotten you interested – we need you. If you’re not even an EdgeGamers member and you’re reading this - we need you. Do you have stories that stick with you about TF2? Share them here! Are there things you would like to see happening on eGO TF2 servers? Share them here!
=(eGO)= 2FORT TDM+ | US | FAST RESPAWN | EdgeGamers.com
ctf_2fort, Fast Respawn, No Objective Limit (TDM), Roll The Dice (RTD)
connect 66.118.246.42:27015
[Quick Connect
]
=(eGO)= HARVEST RTD | US | FAST RESPAWN | EdgeGamers.com
koth_harvest_final, Fast Respawn, Roll The Dice (RTD)
connect 66.118.246.46:27015
[Quick Connect]
ctf_2fort, Fast Respawn, No Objective Limit (TDM), Roll The Dice (RTD)
connect 66.118.246.42:27015
[Quick Connect
]=(eGO)= HARVEST RTD | US | FAST RESPAWN | EdgeGamers.com
koth_harvest_final, Fast Respawn, Roll The Dice (RTD)
connect 66.118.246.46:27015
[Quick Connect
]Team Fortress 2 would not be where it is today without community. EdgeGamers would not be where it is today without community. Neither survives without you. So dust off that old copy of TF2 or go install it for the very first time and we’ll see you on the servers!
