In reference to the original poster, the admin team and I have been working hard to create an environment on the server where everyone feels welcome and teamwork and communication take precedence over individual skill.

At no point while I'm in charge of this server will berating another player become acceptable. You can inform, teach, and help anyone. You can (and should) ask other players to switch classes or move to another location to help their team.

This isn't just on the admin team though. You have to be willing to help as well, and I'm sure most of you already do. Don't just sit idly by while players run around as "rambos." Guide them to make the right decisions.

Let me give you an example I had today, a player was having issues getting support as a heavy. His team needed medics. If he went medic, there were no heavies and vice versa. So, here's his reaction:

Code:

L 10/10/2007 - 15:13:16: "Luftwaffe Flak Vierling<62><STEAM_0:0:11262661><Blue>" say_team "we need a medic"

Now, most people just ignore this because "they're doing their own thing." He got even more annoyed.

Code:

L 10/10/2007 - 15:13:42: "Luftwaffe Flak Vierling<62><STEAM_0:0:11262661><Blue>" say "I love how our team refuses to play TEAMwork in TEAM fortress 2"
L 10/10/2007 - 15:14:26: "Luftwaffe Flak Vierling<62><STEAM_0:0:11262661><Blue>" say "no our team refuses to have a medic"

Still, no good results came of this.

Hunter tries to diffuse the situation (I'm not knocking him not being able to, he did his best and I REALLY appreciate that because it's the right idea). Then I see this:

Code:

L 10/10/2007 - 15:14:57: "Luftwaffe Flak Vierling<62><STEAM_0:0:11262661><Blue>" say "I did"
L 10/10/2007 - 15:14:59: "Luftwaffe Flak Vierling<62><STEAM_0:0:11262661><Blue>" say "****face"

Now, my finger hovered near the banID command, but I stopped myself. This public player was reacting the only way he thought he could. So, I took it upon myself to inform him of another way.

Code:

L 10/10/2007 - 15:16:31: "Console<0><Console><Console>" say ""point someone out and ask them to go medic.""
L 10/10/2007 - 15:16:47: "Console<0><Console><Console>" say ""Have a guy who is doing poorly as a spy? Ask him to change.""

So, what happened after this?

Code:

L 10/10/2007 - 15:16:50: "Luftwaffe Flak Vierling<62><STEAM_0:0:11262661><Blue>" say "spinnuck can you please support me in being a medic?"

He asks for help by singling out a player who isn't doing so hot.

Code:

L 10/10/2007 - 15:17:00: "spinuck<68><STEAM_0:1:4883056><Blue>" changed role to "medic"
L 10/10/2007 - 15:17:04: "spinuck<68><STEAM_0:1:4883056><Blue>" say_team "sure"

The situation was resolved with teamwork and maturity. Seriously, that was a great feeling on my part that two players could resolve an issue like that so early in the life of this server.

Code:

L 10/10/2007 - 15:18:43: "Luftwaffe Flak Vierling<62><STEAM_0:0:11262661><Blue>" say "thanks for the medic help guys it makes this alot smoother"

Blue team ended up losing the match, but instead of complaining, Luftwaffe said:

Code:

L 10/10/2007 - 15:19:28: "Luftwaffe Flak Vierling<62><STEAM_0:0:11262661><Blue>" say "gg"

Teamwork doesn't just happen. It takes work. All the things we take for granted in established games start off from scratch in new titles. Sure, we've got a better base, but the work still needs to go in there.

Your average public player eats this stuff up. They WANT a team. They want people grouping up and dominating (or just losing because they were outmatched, not because it was a 24 player deathmatch server). Help them see TG is about this 100% and they will stick around.

I'm not putting it to EVERY player to have to take time out to teach other players how the game works, but you can't have teamwork without the effort. If you don't put in the time, do you really expect others to?