The need to see the context of conflicts, or, Why does Team Defence Fort Two have so much lore?

When engaging with media the essential nature of context to conflicts becomes obvious as context follows conflict even when not, arguably, needed.

An excellent example of this is found in Valve’s Team Fortress Two which, despite the game being America’s #1 war-themed hat simulator¹ a simple multi player first person shooter, has what feels like more lore than the entirety of Valve’s Half Life series, despite the latter being composed entirely of story based single player. While this, at first, appears silly (why would Valve even bother?), it makes more sense when you realise how much this depth of lore adds to the experience.

First: it is necessary to have some idea of what is happening in the overarching setting in order to design the levels played in and this is just as true, if not more, for TF2 as it is for Half Life. Where there is a story built into the game (as in Half Life) the levels could be less connected without the player losing track of what is happening, while in a game ‘separated’ from its story like TF2 each level needs to be like the others in enough ways for it to feel like it exists in the same universe (and so the players know what they are doing). Now, this does not, in itself, require there to be some grand narrative but it encourages it, especially in a class-based shooter.

Second: TF2 is a class-based shooter. When translated this means that each player chooses from one of a set of characters (classes) to play as. Valve chose to introduce each class to the world with an animated short (Meet the Team) which gave each of the characters a distinct personality – a personality that is further explored through the various voice lines uttered by the characters in-game. Between the extra bits of the world seen in the videos, the personality-filled characters, and the semi-coherent setting style already discussed, this adds up to a window into a world.

Third: TF2 has many, many comics. While this is a product of the lore expansion it is also its vehicle. Not only are there story comics (the covers of which are shown in the featured image) there are also many more update comics, each of which shows how the update fits into the game’s universe.

But why? Why is there so much lore? Surely a set of design guidelines would be enough? Why release comics about a game that has no story content? Because it adds something to the game. This something is, of course, not immersion (nothing in the lore is in anyway immersive) but instead a feeling of depth to the stupidity. It adds something to know that the wizard that invades every Halloween is Soldier’s room mate who is hunting him after Soldier ate all his “Kill Me Come Back Stronger Pills”², to know that the fancy items you are receiving as rewards were stolen because your employers have no money, it goes on.

The thing is, we, on some level, know that there is always a context to any conflict, and we can see this is true in how much we appreciate it when we get one.

¹ https://www.teamfortress.com/macupdate/earbuds/
² https://www.teamfortress.com/doommates/