Team Fortress 2 players have gotten creative in the fight against the shooter’s rampant bot problem by turning a 340,000 signature strong petition into an actual book and delivering it to Valve headquarters.
PC Gamer reported on the post from @thewhat89 on X/Twitter, which unveiled the hardback book in a fancy promotional video.
“340,000 plus names all compiled into one book,” the post said. “This is a symbol of the astounding amount of people that love TF2 and want to see it flourish. This book has now reached its destination at Valve HQ. The future is looking bright for TF2. Thanks for taking part, everyone.”
340,000+ names all compiled into 1 book. This is a symbol of the astounding amount of people that love TF2 and want to see it flourish.
This book has now reached its destination at Valve HQ. The future is looking bright for TF2. Thanks for taking part, everyone ❤️#FixTF2 pic.twitter.com/6VLiVG99Pa
— Thewhat (@Thewhat89) September 7, 2024
Team Fortress 2, which arrived way back in 2007, is one of the most popular and beloved multiplayer games of all time. But despite this, or perhaps because of it, it has an overwhelming bot problem where fake players infiltrate matches with game breaking hacks installed, offensive content on display, and much more.
A campaign to get rid of bots began in 2022 and gained the attention of Valve, which did improve Team Fortress 2 by initiating a bot ban. But the problem has grown again as time passed, with players now hoping this book does enough to make Valve pay attention.
The last message was seemingly ignored, however, as in June 2024 players tanked the Team Fortress 2 Steam page by bringing its review rating to “mostly negative,” the worst classification on Valve’s platform.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.