Team Fortress 2 (TF2)[1] is an online competitive First Person Shooter (FPS) that consists of 9 distinct types of character classes. Each 9 classes have their advantages and disadvantages against one another, just like the simple game of rock-paper-scissors. Two teams, Red and Blu (not Blue), will compete against each other to achieve an objective. For example, Blu will push the bomb cart to a destination and Red will try their best to obstruct/stop them. Or, both teams will try to enter opposing team’s intelligence room to steal their briefcase and head back to home base to score a point.

Lens #2: The Lens of Surprise

• Each holiday seasons Valve[2] will update the game with new weapons, gameplays, skins and/or hats. There is always something to look forward to at every Christmas, New Years, Halloweens, Easters, and other western holiday seasons.
• Once in a while when a player dies in-game and waiting to re-spawn, random weapons or hats will be given to the player.

Lens #16: The Lens of Player

• TF2 is a typical FPS game with the main objective having to kill the opposite team. In general, players like to shoot with different types of guns in different playable maps.
• Players would hate to see similar gameplays with a limited range of weapons to choose from. Therefore TF2 has different objectives, a wide range of maps, and updates for new weapons and accessories in every holiday seasons.

Lens #27: The Lens of Skill

• The most fundamental skill is aiming, obviously. For Sniper to deal a large amount of damage, a headshot is required; getting either instant kill or 95% of the life chipped off from the opponent’s health. The rest of the characters also require good aiming skill, though not as essential as a Sniper class.
• That aside, to kill without a good aiming skill is also possible. For instance, the Engineer can build a Level 3 sentry gun and sit by one corner and drink his beer; that sentry gun will shoot all incoming opposite team at 100% accuracy. The Engineer just needs to resupply the ammo and repair the sentry gun. Medic needs to point at his healing target at a general direction and he can heal the target already. Spy needs to get behind an enemy’s back and stab them. Demo-man lays down some sticky bombs and waits for his opponent to walk by before detonating them. It’s about trickery and mind games, too.

Lens #38: The Lens of Competition vs Cooperation

• On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being competitive and 10 being cooperation, TF2 would be a 7. Though skill is a necessity in a FPS (you can’t be winning if your aim is off), it’s the cooperation of the team members that will enable the team to complete the objective.
• Players are given a choice to play either competitively or cooperatively, and the outcome of the match will depends on the ratio between competitive players and cooperative players. If there are more competitive players on a single team and there are more cooperative players on the opposing team, then the latter have a higher chance of winning the objective. But of course, there has to be a good mix between competitive and cooperative players; being competitive will motivates but the player might die easily while being solo. Being cooperative will help each other during difficult times but the motivation to finish the objective isn’t as great as a competitive player.
• TF2 doesn’t have a campaign or story mode; hence in all the gameplay it has to offer, it is the competition of who can achieve the objective faster.

Lens #76: The Lens of Character Function

• There are in total 9 different types of characters in TF2; Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demo-man, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper and lastly, Spy.
• All of them have strong points and weak points, which balanced out nicely in the end.
• Scout is strong when the terrain is big and against slow-moving classes, but weak whenever he is in open ground.
• Soldier is strong against low health classes while weak against Sniper.
• Pyro is strong against Spy, while weak against medium and long range weapons.
• Demo-man is strong against low health classes but weak against long range weapons.
• Heavy is strong against low and medium health classes but weak against Sniper and Spy.
• Engineer is strong against anyone as long as his sentry guns are up, but is effectively a sitting duck.
• Medic is a healing class which helps to keep his team alive. His primary role is not to kill and run away whenever possible.
• Sniper is strong against anyone who is far away, but weak whenever he is in range of others’ killing zone.
• Spy is strong against anyone whose back is facing him, but weak whenever he is spotted.
• And since every character has both strong and weak points, it is absolutely essential that the whole team must compromise with each other to achieve their objectives.