People who played tf2 before it became free to play, what was it like?

Player since beta, 2fort was a lot less hated, there were people actually playing maps like tc_hydro. Not a lot has changed except that there are a ton more maps, and more custom game modes available.

When hats first came out they were fairly rare and people made a big deal about seeing them. The sam and max set was fairly common in comparison and most people thought it would be worthless when trading came out because everyone seemed to have it. I traded my set day 1 of mannconomy for a Dapper Topper (Rare drop from the new hats for this common junk? Yes please).

Value on unusuals when the first crates arrived was all speculation, no one knew exactly how rare they were. I got lucky and had a Otolaryngologist's Mirror with Circling Heart drop from one of the first few I opened. It was neat, I hadn't at all thought about the "theme" of the hat. At launch the effect placement was glitched and it floated just below the ground at the players feet. I ended up trading it for a Flies towering pillar, I figured it would be nicer to have an all-class hat. It made sense to me as a "unwashed pile of hats", pricing on effects hadn't settled into "tiers" yet, so I thought I got a pretty good deal at the time. I also unboxed a Green Energy Ushanka within my first 20 crates, that set me on a path to some unhealthy spending over the years. I have a very thorough understanding of the true value of crates/money these days, and I choose not to open them as frequently.

There wasn't any serious competitive scene that I can recall, or it was too small for most to have heard of at the time.

Valve was still that company that ran steam and made half-life. Nothing to special there, steam wasn't nearly as big as it is now and it was before the advent of major seasonal sales.

Youtube gaming hadn't really taken off yet, so I can't recall any famous youtubers. Most of the notable players I can think of were community members who were either developers on sites like tf2stats/tf2items or major contributers on SPUF (Steam Powered User Forums, what everyone used prior to the new community discussions.)

It took a long time for many traders to transition from metal to keys, and the price wasn't as widely set, it varied from trader to trader.

/r/tf2 Thread