Sniper Pyro Scout Soldier Engineer Medic Heavy Demoman Spy

TF Team

For general feedback about the game.

Steam Support

Visit the support site for any issues you may be having with the game or Steam.

Gift Abuse: The Gift That Keeps on Abusing

November 2, 2011 - The Administrator



I was enjoying my only hour off of the year, in the park feeding pigeons, when Miss Pauling called and notified me there was an issue in need of prompt resolution: gift abuse. Apparently some game servers are abusing the system and making the gift system unfair.

Nothing stokes my ire like a cheater. Deception, duplicity, murder -- these are merely tools in a toolbox one can use to ensure a job done well. But cheating? I cannot even wrap my head around the point of it. Wouldn't you know you had cheated? How on Earth could you maintain crisp certainty of your superiority to all others? And if you're unable to do that, what's the point of anything?

At any rate, I have already taken action against several servers and will continue to monitor the situation and revoke privileges -- with prompt relish, I assure you -- from abusive server operators. I will also be monitoring the in-game Abuse Reporting Tool, which you can and should use at any time to report abusive players and servers by pressing F7. Don't think of it as snitching. Think of it as making the world a better place. One where you can more fairly estimate how much better you are than your contemporaries.

Well, I'm off to enjoy the last ten minutes of my annual hour-long vacation. When I left the pigeons I had already managed to split them into warring factions and planted seeds of doubt about the capabilities of their pigeon leaders, so I'm interested to see how things play out once I take away all of their bread.