Naughty hats are idle playthings.
Team Fortress 2 is one of those games that keeps on giving through continual updates and frequent discounts, bringing plenty of new content for free and drawing gamers back like bugs to a zapper.
When they introduced the random weapon and hat drop system gamers weren't very pleased, some frustrated at the impossible-to-gague item drops and turning instead to 'idle' programs that would keep them in-server for hours, thereby giving them more unlocks.
Valve were naturally quite annoyed at these TF2 players who opted for the easy route, and in a very strange move have decided to erase all the ill-gotten items from the cheaters - as well as promising to remove all items if it continues:
Going forward, if we find users using external applications, we'll remove all of their items. If you're interested, only about 4.5% of the players in TF2's community will be affected by this cleansing process.
They're still working on item trading and crafting for now, but it's quite good to see those who attempted to thwart the system be given a kick in the pants - after all, the weapons are unlockable through achievements quite easily.
To reward all those who didn't cheat they've also sent a special hat to everyone, most players receiving a special angelic halo (however some were rewarded with any hat).
Head to the TF2 blog for a little bit more, and post below with weapon frustrations of your own.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012