CommunityFortress

Hello all, I'm Jesus. I've taken up the task of becoming a Community Fortress writer, just some quick info on myself here then before I get to the topic at hand. I'm on a low/mid team called The Magic, we're currently not playing any leagues (as no leagues have actually started yet.) But we will be playing in TWL and CEVO (seasons 6 and 5 respectfully.) Next, I've been playing TF2 since the first minutes of the beta's release and have seen it grow as a game and become the best multiplayer experience out there (notice how I left out competitive, while it may be the best for competitive it's also the best for casual players too.) I'm a scout player so my main point of view is going to be that of a scout or utility player. Now that I've given a small intro of myself I'll get to the topic at hand.

I've seen issues with our community, one thing that could ruin any staying power for TF2. The issue I'm talking about is the general treatment of new or otherwise inexperienced players. We as gamers have been essentially raised on the idea of insulting and trashtalking one another and this is terrible for the growth of the competitive community. I'll even admit it, I've done it, but looking back on it, it's something we need to consciously stop doing. Let's set up a scenario, there's a PUG starting up on #tf2.pug, everyone has joined and a new player has been assigned to your team, within a round it's obvious he doesn't know his vocabulary, or how to call out enemy locations and in general it shows that he's only had experience with pub play. Hell lets say he's the medic and he drops an uber, at this point what do you usually do? If you're anything like a normal competitive player you berate him in Mumble, yelling at him for not popping uber early. What's wrong with this? You're making the assumption this player knows competitive medic well enough to know to pop uber. If he came from a pub chances are he's used to not worrying about dropped ubers. Secondly, you've now left a bad mark on this player, if your treatment was especially rude, it could drive him away from competitive play entirely. This is not good at all.

So what's the solution? How can we as a community approach new players in a way that helps grow our community? I believe we can do this through constructive criticism, in the example I gave, instead of yelling at the new player for dropping uber you could have said something like “Hey, I know you're new to this but if you're low on health it's a good idea to use your uber rather than die and lose it.” and after the match you can give the link to either the Gotfrag intro to competitive play or the Ubercharged.net guide.

Here's a few suggestions on how to treat new players

• Give them constructive criticism, if you just tell them they're shit or yell at them for messing up it's not going to help them get better and chances are it's just going to drive them away from the competitive scene.
• Help them out, if you're a scout and they are too, show them good places to hide for a flank or just give them tips in general.
• Compliment them on a job well done, I don't mean get overtly friendly and start treating them like the next Reptile, but if they get a back cap for your team or save your point just say something nice to them. A little bit of positive encouragement goes a long way with people.
• If they genuinely tried to play a PUG and be a credit to team, send them a friend request through Steam and try to at least chat with them to see where they're at with competitive TF2, this generates interest in the game and makes us out to look like less of dicks.

Basically think about any professional sport, what's one thing they all have in common with their attitude towards new players? They all try to help new players. Why? Because they hope to share what they find fun with others and it's a good thing for the community; you never saw Michael Jordan yelling at a kid at a basketball camp for not passing the ball in a game. You saw him offer to help the kid and teach him what to do.

tl;dr. Treat newbs nicely, you were there once and it isn't helping our community when you be a dick.

-Jesus

*edit* Durp, fixing typos. :)