kiwi

ok just as an fyi i didn't start playing tf2 until like 2019 or so so i never experienced the quickplay days BUT

i saw this video and while some points it makes is good i completely disagree that casual should become quickplay. please hear me out.

1. matches feel good to actually finish instead of just stopping after a set amount of time

this may be personal but i like the feeling of actually completing a match win or lose and that seems to be agreed upon by most modern shooters (even if i haven't played a LOT of them lmao)
just having a match go on and on for (as suggested in the video) 45 minutes or something doesn't feel as good as winning the best of 3 against the other team, most of the arguments i've seen just makes me feel like people just want a social hub for tf2 which is fine but that's community server activities. if you wanna keep talking to ppl for 2 hours just friend them or something or join a community server, casual should be primarily focused on like actually playing the game and shit. yes i realize i do look like a fucking Friendly Killer but idc lmao

2. ranks are cool

the feeling of getting exp and leveling up is awesome and from a design perspective is AMAZING for valve since it makes people spend more time in the game and stuff, literally the only real problems with ranks are that it just feels like matchmaking doesn't give a shit and will have you play against people who have 5k hours while your team has people who played for like 15 minutes and not getting rewards for leveling up especially later on when it requires hundreds of thousands of exp is pretty :/ besides people like me are attached to their level and removing that would have *some* outrage half of which is me.

3. the current year is 2023

this is very superficial i know but generally people don't like playing a game that feels 20 years old and valve wants to market the game to as many people as possible because that's just how businesses work they want money from as many people as possible and removing a modern matchmaking method which is basically how every other multiplayer game works nowadays to a goddamn 2007 system would most certainly not bring new players into the game
if you told someone who plays valorant, overwatch, etc to play tf2 using the server browser they just won't lmao it's an actual roadblock to playing the game and i think the same metodology applies to not using modern systems that many are used to nowadays, user experience is important and it's why you don't see a website that looks like it's from the 90s or a ui that uses skeumorphism anymore besides really small projects for a really focused dedicated group
its cause that doesn't make $$$ and most people are used to modern sleek websites and clean icons, nowadays people are used to not using a server browser and matchmaking into games

although this very much doesn't mean casual is perfect, the matchmaking is kinda god awful at times and basically never does distinction with ranks, it's kind of a pain in the ass to try to join a server your group is on if they're already playing, and also 9/10 times you enter a game in the middle of it or when it's ending already.

so here is

my very far fetched ideas for stuff that could improve casual somewhat

1. make it easier to just drop in in the middle of a match with friends please
2. ok so i had this far fetched idea if csgo's trust system ever comes to tf2 to also link it to playtime so if you're trustworthy with more playtime you'll go to servers with trustworthy ppl with similar playtimes same with less playtime and that basically does a better ranked matchmaking job than casual is rn on paper lmfaooooooo im no game designer idk if this would work
3. also like increase warmup times and focus on adding people to servers that are warming up so you just don't get sent to a server that's ended because i very rarely get sent to the start of a match ever in tf2 it's usually middle or end (maybe it's just a brazil server thing but yeah)
4. promote not requeueing every time a match ends because its so common for everyone to requeue after a match ends i do it you do it everyone does it and honestly idk why i started doing it lmao anyways there should be an incentive for people to stay on the same servers although idk what that would be it would also make the quickplay boomers happy with their 6 hour long virtual chatrooms
5. promote misc maps mannpower is so fucking good you guys
6. far fetched but give off free shit whenever you level up i think csgo does this with cases or something do something like that for tf2 idk free hats?? metal?? idk lmao i'm not a tf2 economist thankfully

of course im not a game designer and i know literally every single one of these could have massive consequences if not done properly that's quite literally the case in game designing everything (which is also why i get pissed when people say "just do this" without thinking of unintended side effects i at least KNOW there could be side effects which is better than nothing smh) but yeah

also remove graphics requirements for competitive and add an unranked mode for free players thanks bye

team fortress 2 is so funny because some games you can be topscoring jesus and then right after that you can play so awfully you get disrespected by enemies and teammates alike