In my experience with TF2, many popular community servers have common-sense rules like no slurs, cheats, etc. The great thing about a player-run server is that, if you want, it can be stricter than official guidelines, as Valve for example is pretty hands-off beyond the obvious in-game cheats. It allows pockets of the community to shape the experience they want to have more adeptly than official servers ever could.

They were going to implement “harsher” (read: more invasive) anti-cheat at some point, but it never happened as development stalled. Some say the devs are lazy, but I think it’s just the classic feature creep that cripples passion projects with zero oversight. Star Citizen is the highest profile example, although I think the feature creep is part of its appeal to a lot of people. So that might be an imperfect example.

Deep Rock Galactic is still actively developed, so there is hope. An indie titanfall-like is in early development too. If boomer shooters can have a revival, so can classic multiplayer…

I also blame the broken sound update, and the focus on class balance changes over new weapons and maps. Even when they did make new maps, they’d often be overhauling a bad, but fun map into a fine, but generic map (new Basra). Imagine if Valve “fixed” 2fort or Dustbowl. I think it’s that bad, given old Basra’s ridiculous sniper battles were a highlight for me.

Was it unbalanced? Absolutely. But it was stupid fun and something no other game had. The choke point in the middle was just a big mosh pit, but it was so much fun because of how people used proximity chat. Helicoptering over the carnage while someone played 70’s rock over radio was part of why that game went viral.

I know the map isn’t removed from the pool entirely, but it speaks to a design philosophy I personally disagree with. Having a couple “bad” but funny maps are more important than having a bunch of okay generic maps. New Wakistan looks to be making the same mistakes (if it’s ever released).

This ended up being long. I played for a couple hundred hours, so I guess I’m passionate about it :).