In My Quest For Hats

My first hat was a random drop, The Tippler's tricorne for the Demoman. The second was the Heavy duty rag for the Heavy, which my brother found. I then turned these two hats into the Glengarry bonnet for the Demoman. I also found the Hotrod for the Engie, which I’m stoaked about. In my Quest for Hats in the most popular 1960’s themed hat simulator Team Fortress 2 I have come across all the negatives one could find in an online multiplayer FPS game. Rage, rage quits, idiots trying to piss other idiots off, meme spouting 12 year olds, racism, sexism and stupid arguments over anything.

Most of my time is spent in an Australian surf surfer. Even in this one server with a frequent fan base many of which are frequent users of the server (much like myself) I have encountered all of these things. But even with these things, which often piss me off, it’s become a new social sphere to me. People on the server know me and say hello and goodbye and I will often hold conversations with people over mics.

This form of social gaming however is vastly different from how I played growing up. My youth was filled with going over to friend’s houses and playing Super Mario Cart and Crash Bandicoot. Or teaming up with a friend and trying to get the ultimate team together to defeat the elite 4 in Pokemon red. This form of gaming relied on physical presence of the person you were playing with to make the experience more enjoyable.

I do often have experiences these days where playing games becomes physically social, such as LANs or playing Red Dead Redemption at a mate’s house on his giant TV. The way people game has changed quite a lot, especially with the advancement of the Internet. Through this though gaming, in my opinion, hasn’t become more or less social, but the type of social interaction definitely has changed


The Vintage tyrolean for the Medic is the most recent addition to my Team Fortress 2 hat collection. I don’t really care much for it, I was hoping for the Scouts Troublemaker's tossle cap or the Hound Dog for the Heavy. although it has got me playing medic a lot more.