Team Fortress 2 VA Unites Fans Against Bot Plague

I honestly can’t believe I’m writing a full article about this because of how speculative it is, but here we go. If you’ve recently heard or read anything about Valve’s legendary class-based first-person shooter from 2007, Team Fortress 2, I’m willing to bet it probably didn’t paint the game’s current state in a very positive light. That’s due almost entirely to legions of bots using cheat software infesting many of TF2’s playable modes.

This plague is nothing new, unfortunately. According to the information I was able to find, it has been going on for about two years now. Valve has done nothing to address it, which understandably has casual players and die-hard fans alike furious. I’ve seen discourse over the past few days on Twitter along the lines of, “if even IGN is reporting on this, then Valve has to know about it by now.”

I’m not going to assess the integrity of that argument, but I do wish to express my sympathies toward all the players who have been affected by this bot uprising. Valve seems content to just sit on its massive piles of Steam money instead of answering the plight of the player base of one of its most-loved games. However, it seems the game’s community might now have a central figure around whom it can rally and possibly make some headway on this issue.

You see, a member of the game’s original voice cast has heard the calls of Team Fortress 2’s fans the world over. Robin Atkin Downes, the voice actor behind the game’s maniacal Medic, stated on Twitter this past Monday that he would be willing to “contact those [he] know[s] at Valve this week and ask them about this situation.”

Mr. Downes made it a point to emphasize, however, that “although I worked as an actor on the game[,] I do not work for Valve. That being said, I will do what I can to help you.” The game’s community has seemingly been so desperate for any developments that may lead to Valve finally taking action that they’ve hailed Downes as something of a hero. Well, at least in the replies to his original tweet on the matter.

For what it’s worth, as a former somewhat serious Team Fortress 2 player myself, I’m compelled to agree with the overwhelming public response to this proposition. I’ve never heard of a game’s voice talent spearheading an effort to get a game developer (especially one so massive as Valve) to do anything productive. If this effort proves fruitful, you’re certainly not going to hear me complain about the means to an end. There is still a part of me, though, that considers it necessary to ask: “Doctor, are you sure this will work?”