[url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/164922/GDC_2012_How_Valve_made_Team_Fortress_2_freetoplay.php]Team Fortress 2: From The Orange Box To Free-To-Play In Just Four Years[/url]
I'm not sure if the recorded talk will ever reach the free public GDC Vault, but Valve are usually pretty good about posting their GDC slides on the [url=http://valvesoftware.com/company/publications.html]Publications page of their site[/url].
You probably already know most of the story, but here's two interesting snippets:
[quote]In order to make a successful free-to-play game, Valve needed to make sure that its players were constantly coming back to Team Fortress 2 and checking back in. Part of its strategy entailed engaging its player community in as many different ways as possible.
Ludwig showed TF2's Sniper-focused update as an example. Each content update started with a teaser trailer that hinted at several possible new items or features, and Valve developers would monitor the community reaction in the forums to determine which aspects caught the players' attention. "We found people in the forums talking about how cool it would be if the Pyro could light the sniper's arrows on fire. To be honest, we hadn't considered it, but we were able to implement it by the time the update shipped," Ludwig said.
In another instance, players picked up on a blueprint displayed in passing within the teaser trailer for the Engineer-focused update of a mechanical hand item. Ludwig explained that "[The players] didn't realize it, but they were indirectly voting on the content of the update. When the update shipped, it included that robot hand."[/quote][quote]Fortunately for Valve, its four-year efforts ended up paying off. Once the item store was introduced, revenues from item sales alone were four times larger than revenues from sales of TF2 itself, and after the free-to-play transition was finished, overall revenue was up 12 times higher than monthly TF2 sales were. "This is just the beginning of taking the lessons we've learned from TF2 and applying them to Steam itself," Ludwig said, "It was risky, everything could have gone horribly wrong, but we felt it was worth the risk to try the new business model."[/quote]
[quote]In another instance, players picked up on a blueprint displayed in passing within the teaser trailer for the Engineer-focused update of a mechanical hand item. Ludwig explained that "[The players] didn't realize it, but they were indirectly voting on the content of the update. When the update shipped, it included that robot hand."[/quote]
I had a feeling that the Gunslinger came from fan speculation.
why are they wording it like tf2's a finished project
[QUOTE=psyke;35046090]why are they wording it like tf2's a finished project[/QUOTE]
Either they are gonna let community-made things take over, or they're starting on TF3 [img]http://www.facepunch.com/fp/ratings/rainbow.png[/img]
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