Originally Posted by Hidus

The main flaw in this wonderful essay is you assume that the people who want to play with their friends are only doing it to win.

It's perception: the people on the wrong side of an unbalanced team don't care why you chose to keep the teams imbalanced, only that they are imbalanced.

You're looking at this from only your own perspective, and that's fine for a player: I don't have that luxury as GO. I have to make sure everyone has a fun environment to game while keeping in line with TG SOP. Keep that in mind when you're arguing with me.

If I ran a TG server based on only my perspective of how the game should be played: Apo and I would butt heads a lot more than we already do. So, I have to find a happy medium where we stand the best chance of success.

I would rather lose 10 rounds in a row if it meant I got to be on the same team with my IHS than win 10 rounds in a row with random people I don't know.

And here is the crux of your argument: you assume that by being pushed to the other team, all you will have to game with is random players.

TF2 doesn't need tightly knit squads that work well together. What games like TF2 needs are players who can work with what they have, take charge when they need to, and change their plan when the situation arises.

I can't stop "clicks" from forming around the different games that TF2 has drawn in from TG, but I'm not about to foster the behavior. Yes it's cliche, but "random people" are just people you haven't had a chance to get to know yet. And at least online, you don't have to worry about strangers leaving you bleeding in an alleyway.

What could you possibly stand to lose by broadening your player horizons on a server that is bringing in players from all aspects of TG? I look at it like this: it's a new game. Even the people I know from other games at TG will have different mindsets when playing TF2. I take it as a sense of pride that I'm already building a repor with players like TG Nemesis, whom I've never gamed with.

You have to want this community succeed. And you do that by formed bonds with ALL players at TG:TF2. I just do not see a benefit in forming clicks here. It's not like BF2 where you can get lost in the utter magnitude of the games. 12 vs 12 leaves enough room for you to interact with nearly all the players on your team. And something tells me in the future, we won't even be running 12 vs 12 for long. It will most likely get smaller anyways.

Like I said before: if you're looking to use TF2 as a diversion up until you go back to BF2, PCS, NS, etc (I've seen a lot of this from being the GO of Dystopia), then you have the right attitude for just that. But that attitude doesn't help me make TF2 a mainstay at TG, so I'm not going to condone it.