Jun 01, 2008, 01:45 PM
I started playing on the servers a little over a month ago. Maybe I can add some input from a new player's perspective. To give you a little background, I started playing TF2 about a week before I joined the server. I had a little FPS experience under my belt but I was pretty much a complete newbie.
Stat tracking has been an overall good experience for me. I really enjoyed watching myself improve, coming to the site and looking at all the stats it gives you. Sure there may be some negative side effects of stats but I also think there are benefits they bring that are being overlooked (besides just simply tracking overall statistics.)
-Survivability:
Again, while there are certainly negative side effects to this such as turtling and the likes, it's nice to have a penalty for death. People SHOULD care whether they live or die and all and all it makes for a better tougher game. When I was just starting out I could really care less if I got my ass handed to me when running around. Suddenly, when I saw some points drop when I died I thought to myself "oh shit, maybe I better be a little more careful and charge head long into the fray." It makes for overall smarter play which makes for better games in the long run.
-Level of play:
One of the things I love about these servers is that the majority of players kick ass. Now when I hop on random server x I can roll over a good bit of the competition (probably from playing with you guys) but again and again I keep coming back here. Why? Because I get my ass kicked and I love it. Stats give a reason for good players to be on and playing their best. Whether it be a new person trying to climb the ranks or a top player trying to maintain their rank, stat tracking brings back the people who care about doing well consistently. I come here because I can count on people playing who care about doing well and winning. You know people on both sides will be trying their damnedest to get the job done. It makes the gameplay more intense and better overall imo.
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Of course, hlxstats isn't without problems. Now that I've accumulated a bit of points I can see the frustration of a new player joining, violating me, draining me for 25 points a pop, and then never seeing them again.
This brings me to my next question. How customizable is hlxstats if at all? I feel that there are some general point tweaks that can solve a lot of problems instead of just removing them completely. For example, if it was possible to make it so that there was a 100-200 kill buffer before players started to accumulate stats. Anyway I don't even know how much could be done to hlxstats so I'm not going to go off on a tangent here but I will say that I agree with And1 that it would be nice if there was a way that hlxstats rewarded aggressive play for all classes (save engie maybe) and perhaps a little better point protection for people who have a ton of them.
All in all, I really enjoy the stats and I'd be sad to see them go.
Stat tracking has been an overall good experience for me. I really enjoyed watching myself improve, coming to the site and looking at all the stats it gives you. Sure there may be some negative side effects of stats but I also think there are benefits they bring that are being overlooked (besides just simply tracking overall statistics.)
-Survivability:
Again, while there are certainly negative side effects to this such as turtling and the likes, it's nice to have a penalty for death. People SHOULD care whether they live or die and all and all it makes for a better tougher game. When I was just starting out I could really care less if I got my ass handed to me when running around. Suddenly, when I saw some points drop when I died I thought to myself "oh shit, maybe I better be a little more careful and charge head long into the fray." It makes for overall smarter play which makes for better games in the long run.
-Level of play:
One of the things I love about these servers is that the majority of players kick ass. Now when I hop on random server x I can roll over a good bit of the competition (probably from playing with you guys) but again and again I keep coming back here. Why? Because I get my ass kicked and I love it. Stats give a reason for good players to be on and playing their best. Whether it be a new person trying to climb the ranks or a top player trying to maintain their rank, stat tracking brings back the people who care about doing well consistently. I come here because I can count on people playing who care about doing well and winning. You know people on both sides will be trying their damnedest to get the job done. It makes the gameplay more intense and better overall imo.
==========
Of course, hlxstats isn't without problems. Now that I've accumulated a bit of points I can see the frustration of a new player joining, violating me, draining me for 25 points a pop, and then never seeing them again.
This brings me to my next question. How customizable is hlxstats if at all? I feel that there are some general point tweaks that can solve a lot of problems instead of just removing them completely. For example, if it was possible to make it so that there was a 100-200 kill buffer before players started to accumulate stats. Anyway I don't even know how much could be done to hlxstats so I'm not going to go off on a tangent here but I will say that I agree with And1 that it would be nice if there was a way that hlxstats rewarded aggressive play for all classes (save engie maybe) and perhaps a little better point protection for people who have a ton of them.
All in all, I really enjoy the stats and I'd be sad to see them go.