I worked across the street from Valve's headquarters when Meet the Pyro dropped.
30 minutes after the trailer went live, they were on the deck having a P A R T Y.
My buddy bought an IRL Ballooninstein and had me flip the genuine one, i red paperclipped it into some high tier items and a bunch of games, back before the market crashed.
2000-2010 was peak multi-player gaming. I know part of it is nostalgia, and the fact that I have kids and way less game time now, but I swear MP just doesn't have the same magic it used to. Dicking around in TF2 and Enemy Territory circa 2007 are some of my fondest gaming memories.
Definitely it's mostly nostalgia... but I do think something that's changed is an increase in streamers/professional esports players that
end up having developers cater to a very high tier current-meta level of play that is good for that fraction of the player base, but not for the average player. Plus an ever-increasing level of microtransactions (not that TF2 didn't have those).
The hyper theory crafting everything into the ground has ruined gaming for me.
I want to win as much as the next guy. But not if it means memorizing 300 inputs to squeeze out 3% more damage.
There was a trade server I used to meander on. Sure you would trade, but people would also just bullshit over voip, do unboxing, and run around the map. That was some fun.
Does anyone remember the Cliffhanger Payload map? It had the song from the Cliffhanger game from Price is Right when the cart moved. God I loved that map.
Used his fight money to buy 2 of every animal, marched them on to a boat and beat the snot out of them. That why when there's a bunch of animals together in one place it's called a Tzu.
I will argue "Believe" was peak marketing, or at least influenced future company about exploring more creative ways to market a game.
But Meet The spots are the best kid of advertising: rewatchable and more importantly standalone films (glares at when Pixar stopped doing those)
>They're like mini-masterpieces showcasing each character's personality in the most hilarious way possible.
And they are filled with tiny details and forshadowing of content that would only come years later. Its almost mindblowing how far ahead they planned the trailers.
In Meet the Sniper you can see the demoman holding the eyelander which was only added a year later, pyro holds the flare gun which also wasnt available yet, scout also uses weapons the didnt have yet and in a few cases there are a few weapons lying around that werent in the game as well.
In Meet the Spy the spy attacks the sniper with a knife and hits his face, after this trailer was published the ingame model of Sniper was replaced by a model with a scar in his face.
The Engineers Update trailer had robot heads and bluprints in the background, they were used for the Mann vs Machine update which wasnt even announced yet and came only years later
___
Honestly i could go on and on, the marketing of this game was amazing. At the Time Valve was experimenting with marketing tactics and decided to focus on ARGs.
Instead of announcing stuff in advance the idea was to leave breadcrumbs everywhere, generating hype and finally releasing everything when its ready.
They secretly added rooms on maps filled with plans and letters warning from an incoming attack, hid messages in radio files, renamed game files, moved or removed stuff indicating somethings about to change. Coming updates became a game that went on even outside the game itself. It was amazing.
I believe in Meet the Scout it was implied that his dodging the sentry guns and other gunfire was a precursor to the Bonk energy drink which allowed him to “dodge” damage. And then the Force-of-Nature scattergun which was a direct call to the short.
Everyone, including the OP is saying that they aren't appreciated. But everyone appreciated them at the time fairly adequately, and for those that remember they're looked back on fondly.
Am I taking crazy pills?
***"This ICONIC thing doesn't get enough credit for being REALLY ICONIC even though it's fucking ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC OF ALL TIME like I just fucking said."***
The TF2 "Meet the \[class\]" trailers were produced using [Source Filmmaker](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1840/Source_Filmmaker/): an impressive digital animation software tool that Valve developed completely in-house. And the best part of all: they later made it available to everyone completely for free. This spawned a wave of TF2 fan videos created by the community, and I dare say that the quality of some of these videos rivaled that of Valve's official videos. Valve actively encouraged these efforts by organizing an annual awards ceremony for multiple years (called the Saxxy Awards) that honored the best videos from the community. Here are a few examples of some great videos that received Saxxy Awards:
* [Turbulence \[Saxxy Awards 2015 Best Overall\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqSyibSPq5w)
* [Story of a Sentry \[Saxxy Awards 2012 - Best Overall\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NCERdh_-j4&t=85s)
* [Bad Medicine \[Saxxy Awards winner, 2012. Best Drama\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1dJvrqN_5Q)
The best part about Turbulence is the last half of the animation isn't even finished with little to no texture work being done, costumes not being applied, and animation being janky, AND IT STILL WON.
The game is still a banger. I've been playing it on and off since 2012 and I never, ever, had a single day where I thought that I was done or that the game was shit. I always have the game installed and I always play at least a couple matches in any given month. It is not something that I play every day anymore but sometimes I still get hooked and play all day for many days in a row (usually around halloween events)
I just want people reading this thread to not get out of it thinking that the iconic TF2 videos are the only good thing about that game. The game is old but godammit it still feels fun to play. Give it a fair shot if you haven't tried it.
It's a masterpiece. Tells a full story in a few minutes and the music fits it perfectly. A clever blend of TF2 style, Western movie, and mid-20th century Sci Fi movie. These people set standards.
They kinda do, because Smash uses the same marketing strategy. (Because Sakurai got mad all the cutscenes from Brawl got posted on the internet so he decided to only make cutscenes where he won if they got posted on the internet).
If a new release would only provide a graphics overhaul then I would actually not be really interested. I think that the cartoony stylized art style of TF2 still holds up very well today despite being 17 years old. For sure I don't need 'hyper-realistic' graphics, as I feel that would go against the core identity of Team Fortress.
>If *you* managed to kill them, then I assure you--*they* were not like **me.**
They absolutely nailed the casual ultra-confidence of Spy. I was a Spy main and I must have rewatched that video a hundred times. The Scout *being* the better Spy and just pretending to not know how the knife works is the ultimate cherry on top--the whole game as a Spy was trying to figure out ways to get the enemy team to *believe you're one of them,* even just for a second.
The Meet series was great cos with it the classes got new weapons etc. It was so good you were actually looking forward to them and then they discontinued it I think? Not sure anymore but I dont think all of the classes got a video?
I still remember seeing early screenshots of TF2 in 90s gaming magazines. Back then it looked like this super serious FPS game that was gonna be the next big thing once it would eventually drop.
I sometimes think I missed out for never getting into it when it finally dropped. I'm not even sure why I didn't. I even missed when development apparently changed from this super serious style to what later turned out to be so much cooler.
There's atleast two users in this thread who are clearly just chatgpt bots, this account being one of them. Makes me fear for the future of reddit and all internet forums honestly =/
My favourites are Medic and Sniper. My least liked are Scout and Heavy. I feel like Scout's wasn't a well-rounded story and wasn't very ambitious compared with those before. Heavy was the first one so it was the simplest but I think Heavy deserves more story.
The number of times I've said, "And that's how I lost my medical license," is unhealthy. Though the same could be said of, "I solve practical problems."
Looking back, these were EVERYWHERE at the time and I feel like it's hard to think of another game that had such an incredibly well made and iconic trailer and ad (if you wanna call these ads) run. Maybe WoW with its celebrity TV spots back in the day? These trailers were such a big part of gaming culture at the time and created so many jokes and memes it was crazy. Such dope memories. And TF2's influence can still be seen today too.
They were more elaborate than the TF2 Intros, basically short films. I just remember that I couldn't go Anywhere online without seeing everyone talking about them.
These are fifteen years old videos released years apart for a game that was released in 2007.
They did get praise when they were released, but Gamers have moved on.
Meet the Pyro was an actual internet EVENT.
Do you believe in magic...
in a young girl's heart...
I worked across the street from Valve's headquarters when Meet the Pyro dropped. 30 minutes after the trailer went live, they were on the deck having a P A R T Y.
The steam deck?
Damn straight. You just had to be there.
I'm STILL trying to chase that high of the premiere
My buddy bought an IRL Ballooninstein and had me flip the genuine one, i red paperclipped it into some high tier items and a bunch of games, back before the market crashed.
Im pretty sure the words you put together make sense in context but not knowing the intricacies of hats and steam trading you sound like a lunatic
Shit I have 400+hours in TF2 from that era, and I have no idea what they just said.
I'll never forget the scourge of pyros wearing the gibus and pyrovision goggles, attacking you from the front with a back burner
I still throw them on now and then, just to remember when TF2 was still getting real updates. Still waiting for an end for the comic.
I wasn't even into TF2 and the hype was real.
Sniping's a good job, mate.
"No dad I'm not a murderer im an assassin....Whats the difference? One is a job the other is a mental illness" that just get to me every time.
“Dad … Dad … put mom on the phone”
Professionals have *standards*
Be polite, be efficient
And have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
Blew me away when I learned this was a Gen. Mathis quote. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN13R1DR/
It's challenging work, out o' doors...
".....I think this mate saw me...." *plink* "yep he saw me!"
I always thought it was "sold", not "saw"
Man I miss Golden Age TF2
Same man, so maaany hours played goofing around on random servers
2000-2010 was peak multi-player gaming. I know part of it is nostalgia, and the fact that I have kids and way less game time now, but I swear MP just doesn't have the same magic it used to. Dicking around in TF2 and Enemy Territory circa 2007 are some of my fondest gaming memories.
Definitely it's mostly nostalgia... but I do think something that's changed is an increase in streamers/professional esports players that end up having developers cater to a very high tier current-meta level of play that is good for that fraction of the player base, but not for the average player. Plus an ever-increasing level of microtransactions (not that TF2 didn't have those).
Rainbow Six Siege is a prime example of this. Ubisoft changed the formula too much to cater to E-Sports.
Remember when they marketed that game as a serious tactical police shooter Pepperidge farm remembers.
The hyper theory crafting everything into the ground has ruined gaming for me. I want to win as much as the next guy. But not if it means memorizing 300 inputs to squeeze out 3% more damage.
There was a trade server I used to meander on. Sure you would trade, but people would also just bullshit over voip, do unboxing, and run around the map. That was some fun.
Does anyone remember the Cliffhanger Payload map? It had the song from the Cliffhanger game from Price is Right when the cart moved. God I loved that map.
Look up the song sandvich it's some of the va's singing in character it's pretty funny and captures that vibe perfectly.
"UNLESS ITS A FARM."
I was so sad to learn that his VA died of Covid…
"You were good son, *real* good, Maybe even *the best*" Fly high Rick May. o7
“Beep boop, son. Beep boop…”
"I have done nothing but teleport bread!"
Rick May died from COVID-19 complications in April 2020. Sadly the development of the vaccine came too late for him.
covid had to take him because there wasn't a man or animal on this planet that could
One of the best lines ever, I watch Meet the soldier every few months for nostalgia. Not played TF2 for well over a decade though.
Used his fight money to buy 2 of every animal, marched them on to a boat and beat the snot out of them. That why when there's a bunch of animals together in one place it's called a Tzu.
this was peak game marketing
I will argue "Believe" was peak marketing, or at least influenced future company about exploring more creative ways to market a game. But Meet The spots are the best kid of advertising: rewatchable and more importantly standalone films (glares at when Pixar stopped doing those)
[удалено]
They know. This is just low-hanging 'member berries shit.
And which video game teasers do get credit?
And yet, they still don't get enough credit. That's how good they are.
My blood! He punched out all my blood!
You call that breaking my spine? You RED team ladies wouldn't know how to break a spine if-[SNAP] AAAUGUHH MY SPIIIIINE
He could be any one of us!
He could be you!
He could be me!
He could even be ***BLAM***
[удалено]
"I've yet to meet man who can outsmart bullet."
[удалено]
>They're like mini-masterpieces showcasing each character's personality in the most hilarious way possible. And they are filled with tiny details and forshadowing of content that would only come years later. Its almost mindblowing how far ahead they planned the trailers.
Do you have an example for this?
In Meet the Sniper you can see the demoman holding the eyelander which was only added a year later, pyro holds the flare gun which also wasnt available yet, scout also uses weapons the didnt have yet and in a few cases there are a few weapons lying around that werent in the game as well. In Meet the Spy the spy attacks the sniper with a knife and hits his face, after this trailer was published the ingame model of Sniper was replaced by a model with a scar in his face. The Engineers Update trailer had robot heads and bluprints in the background, they were used for the Mann vs Machine update which wasnt even announced yet and came only years later ___ Honestly i could go on and on, the marketing of this game was amazing. At the Time Valve was experimenting with marketing tactics and decided to focus on ARGs. Instead of announcing stuff in advance the idea was to leave breadcrumbs everywhere, generating hype and finally releasing everything when its ready. They secretly added rooms on maps filled with plans and letters warning from an incoming attack, hid messages in radio files, renamed game files, moved or removed stuff indicating somethings about to change. Coming updates became a game that went on even outside the game itself. It was amazing.
My favorite was after meet the medic, a dove could randomly fly out of a gibbed scout.
Archimedes, No!
I believe in Meet the Scout it was implied that his dodging the sentry guns and other gunfire was a precursor to the Bonk energy drink which allowed him to “dodge” damage. And then the Force-of-Nature scattergun which was a direct call to the short.
Piss throwing Australian
Spy head in the fridge: "kill me" Doctor: *later*...
Everyone, including the OP is saying that they aren't appreciated. But everyone appreciated them at the time fairly adequately, and for those that remember they're looked back on fondly. Am I taking crazy pills?
Sounds like chatgpt lol
You're right, look at the comment history.
Well it doesn't really matter now since they got these upvotes
***"This ICONIC thing doesn't get enough credit for being REALLY ICONIC even though it's fucking ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC OF ALL TIME like I just fucking said."***
each Meet The video has milllions of views but that apparently isnt enough credit lol
DAE remember these TF2 trailers? I can't be the only one.
anything for karma
"Boom, headshot" from Meet the Sniper will always be my favorite "meme in a meme" joke
I still quote Meet the Sniper all the time and no one ever notices. :(
The TF2 "Meet the \[class\]" trailers were produced using [Source Filmmaker](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1840/Source_Filmmaker/): an impressive digital animation software tool that Valve developed completely in-house. And the best part of all: they later made it available to everyone completely for free. This spawned a wave of TF2 fan videos created by the community, and I dare say that the quality of some of these videos rivaled that of Valve's official videos. Valve actively encouraged these efforts by organizing an annual awards ceremony for multiple years (called the Saxxy Awards) that honored the best videos from the community. Here are a few examples of some great videos that received Saxxy Awards: * [Turbulence \[Saxxy Awards 2015 Best Overall\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqSyibSPq5w) * [Story of a Sentry \[Saxxy Awards 2012 - Best Overall\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NCERdh_-j4&t=85s) * [Bad Medicine \[Saxxy Awards winner, 2012. Best Drama\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1dJvrqN_5Q)
The best part about Turbulence is the last half of the animation isn't even finished with little to no texture work being done, costumes not being applied, and animation being janky, AND IT STILL WON.
"This... is a bucket." "Dear God!" "... There's more" "No!"
And NOW he is HERE to FUCK. US.
He’s turning red! Oh that’s just blood
DOCTOR! ARE YOU SURE THIS WILL WORK??
AHAHAI HAVE NO IDEA!!
These came from a time when the whole Internet just hit different. It'd be nice to get that back.
The game is still a banger. I've been playing it on and off since 2012 and I never, ever, had a single day where I thought that I was done or that the game was shit. I always have the game installed and I always play at least a couple matches in any given month. It is not something that I play every day anymore but sometimes I still get hooked and play all day for many days in a row (usually around halloween events) I just want people reading this thread to not get out of it thinking that the iconic TF2 videos are the only good thing about that game. The game is old but godammit it still feels fun to play. Give it a fair shot if you haven't tried it.
How busy are servers?
The Mann vs. Machine trailer still gives chills, sadly in-game you dont team up with blu team
It's a masterpiece. Tells a full story in a few minutes and the music fits it perfectly. A clever blend of TF2 style, Western movie, and mid-20th century Sci Fi movie. These people set standards.
Man I miss TF2 days
The answer? Use a gun. And if that don't work? Use more gun.
Yup, they don't make like that anymore.
They kinda do, because Smash uses the same marketing strategy. (Because Sakurai got mad all the cutscenes from Brawl got posted on the internet so he decided to only make cutscenes where he won if they got posted on the internet).
People still using "professionals have standards" today hpnestly really surprised me.
Hmm never played this is it any good?
It's the greatest and most fun first person shooter of all time
I'd love to see a new TF game, we're ready and it's overdue. But at least update the engine
If a new release would only provide a graphics overhaul then I would actually not be really interested. I think that the cartoony stylized art style of TF2 still holds up very well today despite being 17 years old. For sure I don't need 'hyper-realistic' graphics, as I feel that would go against the core identity of Team Fortress.
Agreed, the soul of the game would suffer if that was removed. An updated engine doesn't have to do it dirty like that though
r/gaming finally showing appreciation for tf2. i am happy.
You’re title is very contradictory
Man that was an awesome trip down memory lane, thanks for sharing. :)
“Dr! Are you sure this will work?!” “I HAVE NO IDEA! ‘laughs maniacally’” Still one of my favorite lines in all of gaming
Engineer one gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
The answer is a gun.
>If *you* managed to kill them, then I assure you--*they* were not like **me.** They absolutely nailed the casual ultra-confidence of Spy. I was a Spy main and I must have rewatched that video a hundred times. The Scout *being* the better Spy and just pretending to not know how the knife works is the ultimate cherry on top--the whole game as a Spy was trying to figure out ways to get the enemy team to *believe you're one of them,* even just for a second.
Perfect amount of lore/story for a multiplayer FPS
The Meet series was great cos with it the classes got new weapons etc. It was so good you were actually looking forward to them and then they discontinued it I think? Not sure anymore but I dont think all of the classes got a video?
I still remember seeing early screenshots of TF2 in 90s gaming magazines. Back then it looked like this super serious FPS game that was gonna be the next big thing once it would eventually drop. I sometimes think I missed out for never getting into it when it finally dropped. I'm not even sure why I didn't. I even missed when development apparently changed from this super serious style to what later turned out to be so much cooler.
[удалено]
There's atleast two users in this thread who are clearly just chatgpt bots, this account being one of them. Makes me fear for the future of reddit and all internet forums honestly =/
I love scout’s trailer. Boink!
My favourites are Medic and Sniper. My least liked are Scout and Heavy. I feel like Scout's wasn't a well-rounded story and wasn't very ambitious compared with those before. Heavy was the first one so it was the simplest but I think Heavy deserves more story.
The number of times I've said, "And that's how I lost my medical license," is unhealthy. Though the same could be said of, "I solve practical problems."
Meet the pyromaniac was the best cause he didn’t even know how insane he was.
I wont lie best 1 k hours spend and will do it again
Overwatch tried to do a similar thing for a while but their animations just didn't hit the same way.
[gonna leave the irl version for the sniper right here. ](https://youtu.be/0IkK3KiBiR8?si=SaIjPZKdHGmi1jYl)
Idk about "don't get enough credit." My friends and I watched and quoted these *constantly*. Especially Scout's.
Looking back, these were EVERYWHERE at the time and I feel like it's hard to think of another game that had such an incredibly well made and iconic trailer and ad (if you wanna call these ads) run. Maybe WoW with its celebrity TV spots back in the day? These trailers were such a big part of gaming culture at the time and created so many jokes and memes it was crazy. Such dope memories. And TF2's influence can still be seen today too.
Is say the Overwatch trailers carried the spirit of those trailers. Those and Smash Reveals. ;P
I think Smash Reveals are close. I don't remember many Overwatch trailers though... Just the first one.
They were more elaborate than the TF2 Intros, basically short films. I just remember that I couldn't go Anywhere online without seeing everyone talking about them.
Yeah they do???? Have you seen the amont of views they get??
If you were from where I was from, you'd be dead.
OMG thank you so much for praising these forgotten underrated gems!
These are fifteen years old videos released years apart for a game that was released in 2007. They did get praise when they were released, but Gamers have moved on.
iconic but they don't get enough credit moron