Did you know that when Team Fortress 2 was in early development at the Valve gaming company, it was going to be styled in clay animation? Sadly that never came to be, but it hasn't stopped stop motion animators from making their own TF2 films. In fact, TF2 has inspired clay animators, brick filmers, toy animators, hand drawn short film makers and of course films made in Source Filmaker.
At one point, even Robot Chicken made a funny TF2 skit that has been viewed over 3.7 million times! You can watch it here.
The reason I believe so many in the film making community have gotten behind the game is because of the universal appeal of the game. The characters are funny and the voice actors are well....you can't help but love them. To this day they make their own films about TF2. Here's a recent appearance they made at "Meet the Mercs". Even the cosplay community still celebrates the game which is nearing 18 years old!
Unfortunately today the game is in a very sad state. Valve (a multi-billion dollar company) has allowed the game to be taken over by bots, making casual game mode almost completely unplayable. A YouTuber by the name Zesty Jesus made a video documenting the way bots have taken over as AI NPC's, trader, idle bots and more. All of which can be fixed, if they were to spend time and effort resolving the issues. Much of which can be done if they would download and examine the nefarious code from the very bad actors who post it online for others to use.
While this website is not a gaming website, given that Team Fortress 2 is so entwined with the animation and creative communities, I think we should all get behind the new #FixTF2 movement. How you might ask? The ways to do so are simple. First...
On June 3rd, spread the word on social media using the hashtag #SaveTF2 or #FixTF2 and share your own stop motion TF2 films.
Then make sure to sign the petition on this site here. All signatures are going to be printed and sent to Valves office to hopefully persuade them into taking action.
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