Things You CAN Do In Team Fortress 2

Day 17 done! I really struggled with his face shape, and then realized it was just my brain being bothered by the lack of a regular human ear to connect to the jawline. And though I love the Gigacorp aesthetic, I never want to draw a spacesuit again

Don't forget that Hermit-a-Day May is raising money for Gamers Outreach! 

Day 11 done! For some reason, I can't seem to make Cub look anything other than menacing when I draw him. Believe it or not, the fangs actually made him look nicer. Though since this is permit office Cub, menacing might be the right look

Day 29 done! My weird headcanon for Skizz is that he isn't actually an angel or a regular avian, but rather in a sort of grey area between the two. He's an albatross, which is a bird with a lot of legends and superstitions surrounding it. Albatrosses have mistakenly been associated with burdens and bad luck (like in "Rime of the Ancient Mariner") However, they only symbolize misfortune to people who mistreat them. They're actually symbols of perseverance and guidance, as well as healing and protecting lost souls. This means that Skizz counts as a supernatural being, but it isn't really noticeable. He's got a good sense of direction and is remarkably good at telling when someone needs guidance, but other than the giant wings, he seems normal

(Thanks to anyone who read that whole thing! I warned y'all I was a literature major, rambling about bird symbolism was inevitable)

Don't forget that Hermit-a-Day May is raising money for Gamers Outreach!

https://tiltify.com/@teamhadm/hermit-a-day-may-25

Day 12 done! I'm not sure why my Pearl design has hidden eyes. Maybe to fit her mysterious yet silly persona? It's definitely not because I couldn't figure out how to draw her eyes

i'm just curious bc i'm watching How to Train Your Dragon and i always forget how happy and calm it makes me feel. i mean, i did name my cat after Toothless the dragon. but i also love Lion King, that's my Disney comfort movie. and my Ghibli comfort movie is Spirited Away. watching any of these when i'm in a foul mood or my anxiety is high always helps 🥰 but i watch them just for fun too, not only when i'm in a mood. what about you?

Day 3 complete! I'm trying to improve my face drawing skills by incorporating features from IRL hermits into their characters. It's not even close to perfect, but I think I'm learning a lot, and that's what matters!

Now remember, we must criticize constructively with Valve’s negligence on the bot crisis. 5 years of little to no effort and the bare minimum updates are not on us. That is on Valve fully. They made a game that is a PILLAR of their brand and let’s be honest here it’s breaking apart.

Save tf2 has failed before, sure we got some feedback but not what we needed. We MUST be louder, we must voice the problems FULLY. I’m not saying go on forums and talk crap with a bunch of curse words. That won’t get us anywhere. What will is expressing our experiences, not complimenting and being nice to the team. But showing the damage in full length.

The valve team is riding on the workshop creators to do work for them. That is not acceptable.

Sign the petition, tweet, stream, screencap, bang pots and pans together. I’ve seen game developers let their games crumble and I don’t want this to happen to tf2. And to those who follow this blog I don’t think you want that either.

Together we will be heard. We have to be. Do not settle for minimum effort from valve.

We should be fine as long as we do not reblog bread.

Team Fortress 2 is Sill Alive

I know I don't have much of a following, and for those not interested, I'll be as short as possible: Team Fortress 2, a beloved and timeless game, has been suffering for half a decade, overrun by hoards of hacking bots and dangerous bot hosters. Please help us in our campaign by signing this petition (save.tf) and spreading the word of our efforts.

I have played Team Fortress 2 since 2012. I witnessed the hype for Meet The Pyro and saw YouTube crash when it dropped. I watched Meat Vs. Match unfold. I was one of the first to the front lines when Gray Mann raised his metal army. I patiently waited between updates, even when those updates became fewer and farther between, until eventually year long silences between updates became the norm as the developers and programmers slowly fell out of love with their game. All content in recent years has been community made. There hasn't been a Smissmas or Scream Fortress comic in years, and their ongoing comic series has been all but abandoned. I still check their website at least once a month, hoping that maybe they'll quietly release that last comic, but I know all hope for that is lost.

I met the love of my life because of this game. I have made literal hundreds of friends and countless fond memories playing it, reading and writing fanfictions, admiring and making fan art. This community is the most compassionate that I have ever seen, especially for a game that is nearing it's 18th birthday.

But as with any other good thing, there are groups of people whose sole intent is to ruin it for everyone else.

I've watched this game slowly rot away for the past five+ years, and it kills me to see such a loved game be abandoned. I've never loved a game as much as I love Team Fortress 2, and DAMN IT, I AM LIVID with how Valve has treated this game. It is completely overrun by bots. Hacking bots that mic and chat spam, DDOS players, and in some cases even SWAT certain content creators. These bot hosters are vile, abusive, and dangerous. Their programmed demon spawn spew absolute FILTH on every casual server they join. Click this link for a more in-depth review of what Team Fortress 2 is facing.

At the start of this crisis, Valve pushed out an update that completely silenced its free-to-play playerbase. Not even built-in voice commands could be used anymore until these players made an in-game purchase, leaving them unable to strategize, communicate, ask for guidance from more experienced players, or even call for a Medic. It was such a vile "solution" and nothing more than a weak cash-grab. Valve had essentially created a way to profit off the very thing that has effectively destroyed their game, because these bot hosts PAID FOR PREMIUM ACCOUNTS to let their bots continue hacking, ear-raping, chat spamming, and DDOSing.

And 2 years ago, when the Team Fortress 2 community asked nicely for Valve to pay even the smallest amount of attention to this beloved game? Valve puts out one tweet, pushes a couple of small updates, and fades back into silence. That's when we made our fatal mistake. We were placated by the response, and Valve took that as a sign that the matter was taken care of. We were heard, but we were not listened to.

This time, we will not back down. We will not give up. We will not stop our digital march until Valve PROMISES to fix our beloved game, and FOLLOWS THAT PROMISE THROUGH.

WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED UNTIL THE BOTS ARE GONE.

I still love this game, but I am absolutely *sickened* by the way Valve has acted lately.

And now for something slightly different Still Alive (Portal end credits)

Rewritten to reflect the current state of Team Fortress 2 and Valve's reluctance to fix it. Portal and its theme song belong to Valve Software, this lyric rewrite is not intended to infringe copyright, it falls under fair use as parody.

This is just tragic I'm making a note here: Huge Unrest It's hard to overstate my disappointment Valve Software Game Devs: "We won't do our jobs Unless we must Updates aren't worth our time Until communities beg"

But this game's not dying We're just taking a break Until VAC is working And you fix your damned game Once the bots are all gone You'll return to being loved Because Team Fortress 2's STILL ALIVE

We're so very angry We're being so sincere right now All because you broke our hearts And killed us And tore us to pieces And threw every piece into a fire As they burned it hurt because We're all so pissed off at you

Now these bots and cheaters Will keep logging online They're harassing your players Yet you're saying it's fine So of course we're all mad Think of all the fun we had Way back when the game was Still Alive

Why did you leave us? We don't want this game we love to die Maybe we'll find someone else To help us You have to realize VAC is a joke! Ha. Ha. What bans?

This game could be really great If you would get off your ass

Look at us all begging Cause it's all we can do You say "we love this game And we know you do too" But you gave us empty words And your product barely works It's a wonder the game's Still Alive

And belive me we are Still Alive We are relentless; we are Still Alive We're disappointed; we are Still Alive You think we're dying; we are Still Alive Team Fortress 2 will remain Still Alive

Still Alive Still Alive

Want You Gone (retitled: Want Them Gone)

Well here we are again Never got your shit together Remember when you said you'd kill the bots? Oh how relieved we were Except you didn't kill them Under the circumstances we've been shockingly nice

TF2 has been ruined You're who we counted on The cheaters want this game dead Valve, we really want them gone

Counter Strike has them too And there are just as many Your greedy company ignores them, too One day the bots woke up And swore they'd stay forever It's such a shame to see Their threats may really come true

We have run out of patience You're who we counted on We won't accept your silence Valve, we really want them gone

Thank you for staying here Oh, did you think I meant Valve? That would be funny if it weren't so sad So much for those updates You promised to push out If you ignore us maybe We'll just get off your back

It's been a huge disaster You're who we're counting on You can still solve this problem Valve, we really want them gone

Valve, we really want them gone Valve, we really want them gone…

If you made it through all that text, thanks for sticking around. Please consider signing the petition, spreading the word, and helping us take our game back. Enough is enough.

Day 15 done! In honor of Sal the Salmon, I decided to give him salmon fins. I like to imagine Jevin made them himself and just sorta stuck them on (he definitely did the same thing with the eyebrows, though he'll swear those are natural.)

There was a scrapped design where he had a salmon skull floating in the slime, but salmon skulls look weirdly like bird skulls, especially in a tiny pencil drawing. Sadness.

Also, I've completely forgotten to add the charity link for previous days! There's a donation match in progress, so if you can give, now is the time!

https://tiltify.com/@teamhadm/hermit-a-day-may-25