A World of Hats, For You, For Me

Since its release in 2007, Team Fortress 2 has become one of the most popular online first person shooters available. Valve has created a strange universe with a mythology all its own, using only the game’s nine unique character classes. TF2 has also tried to keep their fans happy with free patches and updates, while keeping the story of the conflict between Reliable Evacuations & Demolition (RED) and Builders League United (BLU) fun and wacky.

Over the years, Valve has released a series of videos generally corresponding to major updates for the game. The first video was titled Meet the Heavy. Since then, each class has had a Meet the video except for two: the Medic and the Pyro.

Today, Valve announced something big. Team Fortress 2 is now a free-to-play game, forever.

In September of 2010, a TF2 update introduced a store option to purchase items for your Team Fortress characters. The microtransaction store was both criticized and praised by fans. Some even drew similarities to the kind of exploiting that Activision does with its Call of Duty franchise, but you have to wonder if that store has paved the way for this new development.

As a TF2 player, I am happy to announce the release of the latest Team Fortress 2 video: Meet the Medic. And now that Team Fortress 2 is free, there is no reason for you to not get in on the fun.