TF2 blog clarifying idle punishment

[uma plata]

I never considered cheating the system in any way, never saw the point. This goes back to farming for medic weapons. Glad I made that decision

I haven't received 1 hat until today. Wonder what I'll get?

/leaves work early

[Dance]

Looks stupid.

Btw, at average only 10,000 people idled... so only 222,222 people play TF2?

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by Terr

Well, it devalues legitimately-gained hats... And with the presence/expectation of a trading system the impact becomes much more significant.

And I don't really count "random drops" as legitimately earning a hat - if they were a reward item, rather than a luck item, then I may agree it would be devaluing them, but as it stands, a few more people having them as opposed to around 1% who each seem to have many hats will barely devalue them at all.
And if we had a trading/crafting system, that may be a legitimate impact and I might actually consider it to have ramifications, but the thing is we don't have one and so any impact it would have is moot.

[Jack Riguel]

I wonder if valve's 4.5% represents anyone who ever "bought" the game, meaning that anyone who got it in the Orange Box or Valve Pack but never used it would be effected as well... that being said, the average 12,000 people that used the idler will most likely be affected, including myself.

I'll get ticked off though if they remove my hats, especially since all four were actually earned in game.

[Terr]

Originally Posted by Dance

Btw, at average only 10,000 people idled... so only 222,222 people play TF2?

Firstly, it's possible they are only going after the severe offenders.
Secondly, that's people affected, so it only means people who idled and got some number of hats out of it.

Originally Posted by Jack Riguel

I'll get ticked off though if they remove my hats, especially since all four were actually earned in game.

Unless Valve can identify specific hats being from the idler (and hey, maybe they can) then the only remotely sane way of dealing with it is statistically. If half your time was idling, lose half your hats.

[Dance]

So if you didn't get any hats, you're OK? My friend idles. -.-'

[Shmitz]

Originally Posted by Evang7

That's pretty cool.

But I bet I'm going to be a little grumpy with how self-absorbed halo-wearing players will be

Maybe rather than assuming they're self-absorbed, consider that it might actually just be because it's the first hat they've gotten? You know, because they didn't idle.

[Terr]

Originally Posted by Shmitz

Maybe rather than assuming they're self-absorbed, consider that it might actually just be because it's the first hat they've gotten? You know, because they didn't idle.

Unless I get spectacularly lucky soon, it'll be my first hat.

[Jack Riguel]

From Drunken_F00l :

Hey,

I've gone ahead and shut down the idler. Valve has made it clear that they don't appreciate it and will police the players pretty hard in regards to items. I don't want players getting further punishment because of a service I run, so the idler is dead.

The good news is they've agreed to help me work on tf2items.com and give me a "public blessing" of some sort. More details later.

Well at least he's getting credit for that system. :/

EDIT: Linky

[Icarus]

Check out Robin's new avatar