By Alec Meer on May 21st, 2009 at 1:37 pm.
The Hivemind keeps muttering to itself “let’s not give each of the TF2 sniper/spy updates its own post, but instead do a round-up of the lot once it’s all been revealed.” No other game gets this kind of treatment from us, after all. Annoyingly, Valve seem to have read our cynical minds, and have ensured that each and every info-drip is too significant or rampantly hilarious to ignore.
Like today’s Jarate reveal, turning a former April Fool’s gag into foul-smelling reality. Perhaps the Sniper being able to throw a tub of wee that temporarily increases the amount of damage his enemies take isn’t all that big a deal in the grand scheme of gaming, bar the initial hilarity/disgust of the concept. But the accompanying comic – oh, now that’s something that deserves a dozen posts all of its own.
Here’s a teeny, compressed version, but you really should go look at the super-sized version on the TF blog for maxi-fun.
Veteran comic readers will quickly spot it’s a frame-for-frame homage to the old Charles Atlas muscle-building ads – inadvertently hilarious at the time, but gutbustingly so now it’s about jars of piss. “Boy! Those Jarate pills tripled the size of my kidneys! And thanks to my Saxton Hale pain tonic, I can barely even feel my organs shutting down!”
We forget, these days, that hyper-zeitgeisty, 21st century Valve were once only the guys behind beardy old Half-Life. It’s been an incredible reinvention, really, and I’m excited for the prospect of their eventually truly inserting their impeccable humour into the core of a videogame. TF2 is pretty funny in and of itself, but most of the best gags happen outside of and around it. Portal and L4D are part way there in some ways, but I can’t help but wonder if a full-on comedy opus is on the distant horizon.
Anyway: Jarate. I wonder which element of it will prove most successful – that 35% damage increase, temporarily breaking Spys’ stealth, dousing enflamed allies, or simply the horrifying humiliation of drenching someone in urine before killing them? The open crassness of Jarate is likely to be divisive, but hey, what’s a little toilet humour between friends?
More details here, including a list of Sniper unlocks.
I imagine we haven’t seen the last of Saxton Hale, either. Someone else for you conspiracy theorists who read far too much into the cameo by the Scout’s mother to run off and make crazy about, perhaps?
21/05/2009 at 13:40 RiptoR says:
Who would’ve thought it’d real :o
21/05/2009 at 13:41 Man Raised By Puffins says:
At last I can fulfill my lifelong dream of throwing jars of urine at John Walker’s face!
And in the game.
21/05/2009 at 13:42 Feet says:
^_^
Man that’s awesome.
Just. Awesome.
21/05/2009 at 13:43 LactoseTheIntolerant says:
Speaking of gags around and outside of the game..
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/91844-Valve-Replies-To-Fake-Order-Form-For-TF2-Items
Valve, if anyone deserves a lessthanthree, it is surely you.
<3
21/05/2009 at 13:46 Dozer says:
Setup time is going to get a whole lot smellier.
21/05/2009 at 13:52 Bozzley says:
I’d been keeping an eye out on the TF2 updates to see if anything would entice me back. Alarmingly, the thing that is going to get me back on it tonight is a jar of piss. I’m worried about me.
21/05/2009 at 13:53 Lorc says:
If you download the hires sniper or spy icons you’ll notice that there’s no milestone icons, unlike the other packs. Looks like the mysterious new weapon unlock system is coming into play this update.
21/05/2009 at 13:53 TauQuebb says:
well, it will bring the snipers out, even for just a laugh
21/05/2009 at 13:58 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
Off the steam forums, here’s a link to the ad it’s a spoof of.
21/05/2009 at 13:59 Haroshi says:
oh by the way Saxton Hale is an anagram of Hot Anal Sex
or Halo Ant Sex
or Hat Loan Sex
or Ah Talon Sex
or Halt On Sex
21/05/2009 at 14:03 Ryan says:
WE WILL GIVE YOU A TROPHY
21/05/2009 at 14:05 Shadowmancer says:
@VelvetFistIronGlove
In one of my old Deathlok comics that same ad appears, I just noticed it lol it did look familiar after all (Thought I was paranoid all night).
21/05/2009 at 14:15 DarthInsinuate says:
I can’t wait for the Soldier’s poo-on-a-stick unlock.
I reckon Valve could make a decent bundle merchandising jars of Jarate.
21/05/2009 at 14:15 Dave says:
I still wonder if they’re not pulling all our legs with the Jarate thing. I half expected the web page to have been replaced with a kukri sidegrade or something this morning.
21/05/2009 at 14:18 CMaster says:
I’m really not sure how well Valve’s humour would translate to a full comedy singleplayer game.
Left 4 Dead played it quieter, subtler and that worked. Portal played it again less in your face and more surreal and that worked.
But a lot of how TF2′s totally outrageous humour work is by making the classes not characters but charicatures. Heavy is comedy slow and stupid. Soldier is bombastic and stupid. Scout is arrogant and stupid. Spy is poncy and smooth. Engineer is singleminded. Etc. They wouldn’t make good characters to actually have a story going on around them and about them – there isn’t really much to them, other than a love of destruction. They are however great fun as the side show to a simply superb multiplayer game.
21/05/2009 at 14:19 Anthony says:
Fucking beautiful.
@ Cmaster: You’re seeing the OMM effect here. Since they hired those guys the humour level of everything Valve has increased exponentially.
21/05/2009 at 14:24 Yfel says:
Saxton Hale is obviously the Sniper’s father, even though Sniper’s unaware of his father’s occupation. Since Saxton Hale’s MANN CO. is the chief spy-utilities vendor, this is why the father’s so disappointed in the Sniper’s career choice: he’s killing his clientelle.
21/05/2009 at 14:38 Anthony says:
Also worth noting: most Australians do not, in fact, look like Saxton Hale.
21/05/2009 at 14:44 Rei Onryou says:
Yes, yes and yes. How long until the RPS server breaks down into mass piss-throwing?
21/05/2009 at 14:49 Newt Pulsifer says:
Also, there was a jarate hint on day 6… (just like the spy sappin’ mah sniper update)
http://i43.tinypic.com/245gbgh.jpg
21/05/2009 at 14:49 cyrenic says:
I look forward to dousing teammates with wee when they’re on fire and having them thank me. Only in TF2 will you have a sniper chasing around flaming teammates to douse them with urine.
21/05/2009 at 14:49 Arca says:
Is it just me, or does Saxton Hale’s chest hair have the same shape as the Superman logo?
21/05/2009 at 14:52 Lack_26 says:
I can’t wait till they get those smello-vision monitors released and Valve updates TF 2 to use them.
Oh wait, perhaps I can.
21/05/2009 at 14:52 wyrmsine says:
Saxton Hale seems like a very important person.
21/05/2009 at 14:56 cullnean says:
Piss? In a jar?
Never thought id be grateful to have that added to a game
21/05/2009 at 15:00 mgl says:
The Steam forums are LARGELY UNHAPPY with Jarate, on account of it being “GROSS AND IMMATURE” or some such. This is the STEAM FORUMS speaking, mind you.
Me, I laughed. It is the PERFECT update.
“Jarate reveals its TRUE POWER: forcing your enemies to accept a terrifying new existence, where people do awful things to them ALL THE TIME for NO REASON and DIGNITY DOES NOT EXIST.”
21/05/2009 at 15:01 Calabi says:
I really hate the spy when I’m a sniper, I cant wait to try his gear out so I can finally get some revenge on the spy.
21/05/2009 at 15:05 A Dead Eldar Guardian says:
It’s supposed to be due out today and yet I’ve heard no mention of either hats or the new unlock system, I wonder if they scrapped it.
21/05/2009 at 15:05 pkt-zer0 says:
durr hurr piss lol
It’s not humourous, it’s just stupid. I was really hoping it’d be just an April Fool’s joke, nothing more.
21/05/2009 at 15:09 CMaster says:
A Dead – Thursday for Valve though. What we are talking about right now is the Wed update – so they still have time to provide some more details and launch it their evening/afternoon.
Also, TF2 is getting a free weekend this weekend apparently.
@ Anthony – my key point though was that while TF2 is reguarly hilarious, I don’t think it would be funny an hour into a singleplayer game.
21/05/2009 at 15:10 Basil says:
For once I agree with the steam forums. I had expected more class from valve.
21/05/2009 at 15:11 Anthony says:
pkt-zer0 – too mature for them there internets, demands you get off his lawn.
@CMaster – Oh, I agree, part of it is that it’s so zany, etc, that it just wouldn’t work single player. But I wouldn’t discount a bit of Old Man Murray influence on the advertising, at the very least. The humour of the actual releases (at least, recently) has been more (dare I say it) meta than the game will ever be.
21/05/2009 at 15:19 FunkyB says:
Yeah I don’t think it is funny either. Toilet humour is boring and a bit dull.
I like the idea of what it actually does though.
21/05/2009 at 15:21 phuzz says:
Wee? Teehee!
21/05/2009 at 15:25 Anthony says:
Ok, so, the joke here being that the sniper doesn’t go outside to piss, but stores it in jars instead. As in, it relates directly to his character. You know, the one sorta-kinda shown in that little-known video “Meet the Sniper”?
So it relates, and it involves throwing piss on people which is likely some sort of statement about Australians and our propensity to drink. Or something.
Luckily, it’s a fucking video game. Which means nobody actually need think it’s stupid, because the whole fucking thing is stupid generally. Especially so when you’ve got cartoon characters blowing each other up constantly with all manner of crazy weapons.
Or am I intruding on some sort of Steam forum hate that spilled into these here respectable parts?
21/05/2009 at 15:29 abhishek says:
How can someone’s sensibilities be offended (with the Jarate) in a cartoon game where it is common to blow someone’s head off, or set them on fire, or riddle them with holes, or gib them, or….
It’s also a brilliant display of marketing how Valve have managed to make a simple software update into an entertaining, hilarious community event for the past week. This is especially true in the case of the ‘leaked’ spy video and how they have handled the situation, especially with the blog updates in the past few days.
21/05/2009 at 15:33 Fazer says:
Saxton Hale is actually an anagram for Hot Anal Sex.
And you spelled his name wrong in the article ;-)
21/05/2009 at 15:38 Stense says:
As if I needed reminding, but its things like this that make me love Valve.
21/05/2009 at 15:40 Das Blau Medik says:
Still waiting on MEET THE STAVROS.
21/05/2009 at 15:43 shon says:
For most TF2 fans, it’s okay to set someone on fire, shoot them through the head, nail them with four different shotguns, stab them on the back, shoot them with syringes and blow them up seven ways from Sunday, but throwing non-lethal urine at people is crossing the line.
21/05/2009 at 15:46 FunkyB says:
@Anthony, shon and abhishek:
I’m not offended and I wouldn’t think that anyone else is *really*, despite the frothing rage that builds up on the Steam forums. Many just think the idea is a bit puerile, that’s all. The unlockable itself I think sounds really good though and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays.
21/05/2009 at 15:46 phil says:
The spy is lucky it’s not James Bond’s piss, a face full of that stuff is enough to kill Wrestlers.
21/05/2009 at 15:52 Bulalo says:
You know what makes this all even funnier? Jarate is having the same exact effect on the people crying about immaturity as it does in the game; “forcing your enemies to accept a terrifying new existence, where people do awful things to them ALL THE TIME for NO REASON and DIGNITY DOES NOT EXIST.”
I can’t wait to throw jars of piss at those players, if they haven’t gone through their threats of uninstalling their games already.
21/05/2009 at 15:53 Captain Haplo says:
The people who are reacting with disgust to this weapon?
You have just proven its effectiveness. There are bullets racing towards you, prepared to do 35% more damage to your uncloaked, urine-covered behinds.
21/05/2009 at 15:58 passingtramp says:
Luckily I’m British, so genetically obliged to love toilet humour. Toilet humour, hooray!
21/05/2009 at 16:01 Seniath says:
I wonder what significance can be taken from the Scout’s desire for tacos?
Or rather, I wonder what significance those crazy nuts over on the forums will see.
Fuck. Now I want tacos.
21/05/2009 at 16:03 Xocrates says:
I have to agree with FunkyB, while what the item does is great, I wish it felt a bit less demeaning.
True, probably by day 2 of the update I will already be used to the idea and be throwing jars of piss left and right.
21/05/2009 at 16:03 Robyrt says:
Chalk me up with the “disgusted” crowd. There’s really no reason to go with the toilet humor here. Violence, yes – the entire game is about cartoon violence, so I expect plenty of that, but I didn’t sign up to have any of my OTHER sensibilities offended. I just thought the Sniper had more class than a Bart Simpson line.
Just because it’s funny as a parody doesn’t mean it’ll be any easier to explain to your girlfriend what that poison grenade really is.
21/05/2009 at 16:07 Alex Hopkinson says:
I wonder whether Saxton Hale can use his almighty jars to change the shape of the Pentagon into a circle…
21/05/2009 at 16:13 Stoffig says:
Wonder what the emote will be with the pissjar
21/05/2009 at 16:27 Wulf says:
Up until now, I thought that Flex Mentallo was the best thing ever that took the piss out of Charles Atlas (a company that sorely deserved mockery, back in the day), but no… Valve have to go and nearly damn top Flex Mentallo, something by Grant Morrison.
…
Damn you, Valve! Damn you to hell!
Funny though.
21/05/2009 at 16:33 Je Suis Un Bear says:
Am I the only one to note the subtle hint that the next update is soldier/demoman combined in the last panel.?
21/05/2009 at 16:43 Mitthrawn says:
If this is real, tf2 will forever be known as, that piss throwing game. Not the best memory to leave people with, and yes, here in the states we don’t really care for urine jokes the same way we care for our blood. really its just aberrant behavior, I can’t think of another game with urine in it, which brings the bad kind of notoriety to team fortress 2.
21/05/2009 at 16:49 jsutcliffe says:
Wait … someone mentioned a RPS server. Does such a mythical realm exist? Is it reasonably well populated at America o’clock or only really used at Britain o’clock?
21/05/2009 at 16:51 Jante says:
Who can forget the urine hijinx of Postal 2?
21/05/2009 at 16:54 Reverend Speed says:
Love how this makes the Sniper increasingly unhinged. He’s asked his Mum to tell his Dad that he’s now a doctor. Imagine the scene when his parents come ’round to find him throwing his bottled urine at a real medic…
!!ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED:
Total mental breakdown.
21/05/2009 at 17:15 Seniath says:
@jsutcliffe Server details can be found here.
21/05/2009 at 17:16 invisiblejesus says:
This unlock has just single-handedly made the sniper my new favorite class. Sorry medic, it’s not you, it’s me. It’s over between us.
21/05/2009 at 17:23 Oddtwang says:
@Wulf: Flex Mentallo FTW! Been reading Doom Patrol again recently – it makes me want to talk like the men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.
21/05/2009 at 17:25 Vandelay says:
Thank god this doesn’t stun like it seemed to originally do from the April Fool’s Day joke. Personally, I’m not that bothered by the scout stun bat, which no one uses now anyway, but another stunning weapon would be a bit much.
Problems with toilet humour? I’m amazed, but as others have said it could be down to being British and used to this sort of thing. Nothing wrong with jokes about bodily functions. I really can’t imagine anyone getting irritated about such things, particular when there are plenty of so called “comedy” films released every month that contain misogynistic, racist, etc jokes which contain much more bile (pun intended.)
It is kind of crazy when it is perfectly acceptable to make jokes about violence in a cartoon game, but something as natural as pissing is seen as no go area for some. To each their own, I suppose.
21/05/2009 at 17:25 Scroggage says:
This whole update has been hilarious, but they’ve outdone themselves this time. Brilliant double bluff with Jarate/Fosters, as I’ve started calling it.
The weapon itself sounds interesting and a generally good sidegrade.
And as for the Steam Forum hate crew, it’s probably a little more immature to delete a whole game over an update item than it is to use a bit of crude humour to add to make a good idea funnier.
21/05/2009 at 17:34 Tei says:
Its not a jar of piss!
Its a jar of limonade.
Well… It wash, ….1 hour ago.
21/05/2009 at 17:53 Mark says:
Well, they went and did it. They took an April Fool’s joke where the punchline was that it was a really dumb idea, and then they made it real.
I can’t believe this.
21/05/2009 at 18:02 Lugubrious says:
Frankly, I think they misread their user base a tad. Perhaps after all the positive attention the April Fool’s Day version got, they thought it would be a good idea. Now, mechanics-wise, it seems like a decent addition, in line with their efforts to make the sniper more of a team player, and bringing him closer to the action. Sadly though, I was hoping for something a little more classy. Honestly, I’m not complaining, I’ll be the first in line throwing jars of piss at everyone on the server, but what I think is getting under the skin of the sniper fans is the fact that his ‘meet the’ video paints him to be such a badass, and they feel that throwing a jar of urine kinda undermines that. I’m grinning as I write this, I can’t believe I’m writing about the comparative merits of a virtual jar of urine. To ease the ego’s of those who might think that such ad-hoc weaponry would be out of character for an assasin, I recommend seeing the movie “Grosse Point Blank”.
21/05/2009 at 18:05 Wulf says:
@Vandelay
You’re my favourite person, today.
I do wonder though, is it just a British thing? I can take sex jokes, quite easily. I’m even amused by scat humour such as this, very much so to be honest. But I’m turned off by people practising classism and racism, you know, someone having a laugh at someone else’s expense to make themselves feel better, that really irritates me.
Most “comedy” movies of the sort remind me of those kids on Live who make gay jokes about the person who was skilled enough to hammer their sorry faces into the ground at whichever game, and I’m turned off by the attitude as a whole. I can’t help it, I’m very PC, I don’t think that anyone should be made fun of for what they are or who they are. As long as it’s not causing suffering to someone else, why should it matter?
And toilet humour in a game is harmless, it’s just some pee being thrown around, some people are offended by that, but they can laugh at minorities being smacked around.
It baffles me.
Give me toilet humour any day of the week over that.
And I have to thank Valve for not falling pray to the ethnicity/minority thing.
Edit: No, it’s not just a British thing. Out of curiosity, I showed this to a friend from Idaho and he absolutely loved it. In fact, that almost got him into TF2 as he seems to love silly, juvenile, harmless humour as much as I do.
21/05/2009 at 18:14 Ginger Yellow says:
“dousing enflamed allies”
Jarate – bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase: “I wouldn’t piss on him if he were on fire”.
21/05/2009 at 18:18 elle says:
Saxton Hale was on the Spy catalogue, too. Dude is playing all sides! That Australio-Machiavellian bastard!
21/05/2009 at 18:19 psyk says:
Snipers actually do piss in either jars or bags so how are people getting offended.
21/05/2009 at 18:29 PFC Skinner says:
Psyk i heard that they just piss in their trousers to avoid unecessary movement etc.
21/05/2009 at 18:34 psyk says:
Could well be right not read up on snipers in a long time but i remember they shit in bags so was guessing they would piss in bags as well.
21/05/2009 at 18:36 TeeJay says:
For the first time ever I can’t connect to Steam, I just the following: :(
“Updating: 0% complete”
“cannot contact steam network – please try later”
Probably too busy? Anyone else having problems connecting?
edited to add:
I have now deleted Clientregistry.blob and it seems to be working now…
21/05/2009 at 18:38 Walter says:
Robyrt: It’s a good thing we don’t have girlfriends, then.
21/05/2009 at 18:42 PC Monster says:
Love the homage to those old comic adverts. I also vote Saxton Hale become the new Duke Nukem. He looks like someone found a way to sew tree trunks together and wrap them in skin. Not someone *I’d* mess with!
But the Jarate thing? Piss poor. Great if you’re nine years old, I guess.
@TeeJay: That’s my default experience with the oh-so-wonderful Steam. Welcome to my world.
21/05/2009 at 18:48 Dr Ham says:
I really hope the ammo recharges over time….
21/05/2009 at 18:55 autogunner says:
any word on when the update is arriving? if its tonight im just going to can revision for a while, or if its the usual 6am then tomorrow is a write off.
personally i think the jars of piss is totally out of character for the sniper, but will be hilarious none the less
21/05/2009 at 19:06 PeopleLikeFrank says:
How could it possibly be out of character for the Sniper when it was introduced in Meet the Sniper, which establishes his character in the first place? Sure he didn’t throw them at anyone, but they were there! He was pissing in them!
Anyway. Highly amusing update. Not because Jarate is especially hilarious, but the fact that it developed from an in-joke, all the QQ-ing, the whole back-and-forth between the Sniper and Spy updates, and the comic up there. (“Haw Haw! What are you going to do, run five miles away and shoot me?” “Ye-… No! How did he know?!”)
21/05/2009 at 19:06 Serondal says:
I love the comic, very funny. The bit at the bottom about how it will ruin someones entire life had me nearly in tears.
That having been said I’m not looking forward to seeing this in game. It might be funny the first few times but after that it will just kind become annoying to get pee thrown in my face. Then again I never got tired of peeing ON people in Postal 2 (EVER NEVER EVER NEVER) so who knows.
I’m certainly willing to give it a chance, would have rather seen something a bit more interesting like a new melee weapon ect but I guess this makes as much sense as anything else they could come out with. Now I’d just like the ability to stack the jars behind me so spys can knock them over when they’re about to stab me in the back and say in French “Crap, I stepped in piss!”
21/05/2009 at 19:07 Jake Roth says:
Looking forward to people hesitating on the rush up to Snipers who menace them with only moderately threatening jars of piss.
21/05/2009 at 19:08 Blast Hardcheese says:
M Rated game.
Sometimes means ridiculousss content.
Blowing someone into bits is okay but humiliating them by throwing pee at them isn’t? It’s not like you’re peeing on them, you’re throwing it collected. There is no sexual innuendo, therefore it would retain an M rating here in the States.
KEEP CRYING BABIES!
Oh and come to think of it, the Engineer would’ve probably been a better companion to this, since the Scout not caring and going for tacos seems a bit out of his character.
21/05/2009 at 19:09 Lack_26 says:
I think any Brit who finds this disgusting/immature just isn’t being British enough, you’ve become too Americanised.
So, in the name of Australia, the Commonwealth and the Queen I shall throw this jars of urine.
And I’ll be proud of it.
21/05/2009 at 19:13 Wirbelwind says:
SAXTON HALE
21/05/2009 at 19:15 A Dead Eldar Guardian says:
For the record, us Americans only pretend to be offended by bodily fluid humor, it’s all just to keep up our facade, but deep down we all know it’s hilarious.
21/05/2009 at 19:19 DMJ says:
Immature, yes, but I get the impression that the “jars of urine” thing was a throwaway detail in Meet The Sniper that stuck with people.
21/05/2009 at 19:36 Y3k-Bug says:
And just like that, I can say that I’m officially a Valve fan boy.
I love this.
I don’t get where the anger is coming from by the way. If you truly hate the thought of throwing jars of piss at people, then wait a week for a water balloon model to show up on FPS Banana, you’ll never see the pee again. No fuss, no muss.
21/05/2009 at 19:40 Mark says:
I thought Valve was classier than this. What are they, five?
21/05/2009 at 19:55 Stupoider says:
It’s lemonade, Mark.
21/05/2009 at 20:00 EBass says:
I still don’t like the direction Valve are taking with the game at all. This has done little to change that, no matter how well or funnily its presented.
21/05/2009 at 20:05 Dave says:
Agreed with Serondal. The comic is funny; the idea of people splashing each other with pee is not. While I’m not deeply offended or anything, it’s somewhere between kindergarten humor and the bizarre obsession with rape that some gamers seem to have (without coming off as either misogynistic or homophobic as that often does).
I can’t rationally explain why it is okay — and in fact, deeply satisfying and hilarious even the thousandth time — in a game like this to blow people to small meaty chunks, but to throw bodily fluids on them strikes me as abusive and cruel.
21/05/2009 at 20:23 Some Guy says:
anyone got a golden showers fetish?
21/05/2009 at 20:25 Stupoider says:
Anyone got a flying body parts fetish?
21/05/2009 at 20:25 Vinraith says:
Immature violence I enjoy, immature obsessions with bodily fluids not so much. The balance of releasing a spy update with a sniper update was just barely enough to coax me back, this bit of unpleasant weirdness is just enough to deter me after all.
21/05/2009 at 20:35 Serondal says:
Wouild peolpe be as angry if it were a jar of semen he’s throwing?
One thing about the comic I like, based on the way the jar is tilted it looks like the Spy got hit square in the head with the jar first then it went up in the air and slipped on him. That strikes me as even more funny when you have this visual image of a dude getting struck straight in the face with glass jar, thinking that must be the bad part only get to further mental pain by having said pee jar tilt over and fall in his face.
21/05/2009 at 21:07 Dorsch says:
I don’t get peoble obsessing over this joke by valve. I mean, yeah, it’s not funny (none of the updates were really funny imo), but it honestly looks like a great addition to the game. Snipers are a little boring to play right now, this might spice things up. I don’t care if what I throw is a concussion grenade or a jar of piss, as long as the game stays interesting. Hope its not a “throw-once-and-then-wait-forever-item” like the sandman or bonk, even though it probably will be. I will definitly play when the update hits.
Edit: Also, pornography starring your mother isn’t funny. Just sayin’
21/05/2009 at 21:17 Chris R says:
@Vinraith
So that’s all it takes to keep you from playing a game huh? Bravo sir, bravo. Now GTFO. /@Vinraith
To everyone else that’s upset about this update and think this isn’t funny, are you serious? This is HILARIOUS.
Perhaps you guys are forgetting Dave Chappelle’s “remix” – Pee on you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJkND9AlMPw
21/05/2009 at 21:19 Serondal says:
@Dorsch – Yes, yes it is. (in ref to your edit comment)
21/05/2009 at 21:30 Nerd Rage says:
I’m surprised nobody has commented on the spy’s cliche Frenchman “Haw Haw” before he speaks. That’s pretty hilarious to me.
What I can’t wait to find out is if you throw the jar, or throw the urine from the jar. The difference in gameplay terms likely dictating the range of the weapon. Other differences I will leave you to distinguish yourselves. I haven’t the time to write a thesis on the implications of urine exposure and the differences between becoming saturated due to seepage from a broken, but sealed, container, and outright flinging from an open container.
21/05/2009 at 21:35 Polysynchronicity says:
@ Nerd Rage: You throw the jar and it bursts like a grenade, from what I can tell.
It wouldn’t be “The Jar-Based Karate” if you didn’t actually throw the jar, now would it?
21/05/2009 at 21:38 Heliocentric says:
I find it neither funny nor offensive. But i see an extra item, kind of useless unless you get a decent range of splash on it, so to speak.
21/05/2009 at 21:40 Dorsch says:
It looks like you can throw it into a group of people, based on an achievement icon. Nice for supporting your team, lets hope it has enough range to be useful. I’m also gonna love putting out teammates and decloaking spies. This unlock makes the sniper much more of a team player.
21/05/2009 at 21:43 CakeAddict says:
I’ll probably waste it on my friends.. with glee on my face and shouting a battle cry trough my headset while doing it.
21/05/2009 at 21:44 Pijama says:
I already thought that Valve was brilliant, but after I saw some of the responses above, they are clearly more than I first guessed. Key quote for you lads: …Where dignity does not exist.
Jarate for the win.
21/05/2009 at 21:45 A Dead Eldar Guardian says:
I’m disapointed at the few people crying about this. Of all the places I’d see people upset about a harmless pee joke, the internet wasn’t one of them.
21/05/2009 at 21:51 Xocrates says:
@A Dead Eldar Guardian: Do you go to the same internet than the rest of us? The internet will get upset if you offer them a million dollars and a kitten.
21/05/2009 at 21:53 Wulf says:
I… I want to do a digest. Lordy, I want to do a digest. I think it’s necessary.
@PC Monster
“But the Jarate thing? Piss poor. Great if you’re nine years old, I guess.”
Are you saying you never do anything childish? Never? Not even in the games you play? Hypocrisy much? At least, IMHO.
Funny hypocrisy though, it reminds me of the story’s I’ve read about how politicians act so irritated and put off by something and later on it’s discovered by the liberal media just how into it (or something similar) they really are.
Words of the hour: Oy vey.
@Jake Roth
I’m envisioning more tight-trousered people having serious issues with this.
“COME BACK, YOU’RE ON FIRE!”
“I’M NOT GOING TO LET YOU HIT ME WITH THAT!”
“YOU’RE GOING TO DIE, LET ME DO THIS!”
“PISS OFF!”
“NO, PISS ON!”
“AAIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!”
And I will smile.
@Blast Hardcheese
“Blowing someone into bits is okay but humiliating them by throwing pee at them isn’t?”
Indeed, you do have to wonder what’s wrong with some people. You just have to examine that.
Consider: I think that stabbing this man standing next to me in the guts is A-OK — you could even videotape me doing it so it’s forever recorded in its gorey, photorealistic, and violent glory — and I could stand that happening to me if it was for a good, patriotic cause. But if anyone puts a jar o’ that near me, or if I have to touch that stuff… just forget it, that’s sick.
I think mental illnesses are far more pravelent than human society would ever want to admit. Frankly, I find the thought of tossing piss around quite funny
The thing is, I’m put off by games depicting more photorealistic violence in PvsP because it just doesn’t feel right, but I’m okay with TF2 because it depicts cartoon violence which couldn’t possibly be real, and adding more layers of surreality to it is pleasing to me.
I think the correlation would be startling, if it was researched.
Do you enjoy gorey violence? You probably won’t enjoy harmless, juvenile jokes. Do you enjoy harmless, juvenile jokes? You’re probably going to be less inclined toward gorey violence.
Really, someone do a study, prove it!
@Lack_26
I have a friend from Idaho who’d very much disagree with you.
@Mark
“I thought Valve was classier than this. What are they, five?”
There’s that hypocrisy thing again.
Examine your lifestyle, see if you can honestly say that within the past year or so, you haven’t done something incredibly childish. If you have, you’re really no one to talk about this.
@Dave
“While I’m not deeply offended or anything, it’s somewhere between kindergarten humor and the bizarre obsession with rape that some gamers seem to have (without coming off as either misogynistic or homophobic as that often does).”
Okay, first… read that aloud to yourself, and then to another person. Then try and rationally explain it.
Of all the comments here, this was the one that blew me away.
You are saying, and I want to stress this, splashing people with jars of pee implies rape.
Well, for one thing, it’s just bodily waste and not semen. It’s not nice, certainly, and it’s something someone could be had up for in a court of law. But how could such a thing possibly be construed as/twisted into rape?
My brain is doing backflips trying to understand the ‘logic’ behind that.
@Vinraith
“Immature violence I enjoy, immature obsessions with bodily fluids not so much.”
Wouldn’t you say that to be so accepting of one and not the other implies a certain kind of mindset?
I just wanted to highlight that.
@Serondal
“Would peolpe be as angry if it were a jar of semen he’s throwing?”
Good question!
[ Conclusion ]
Anyone who’s right with one part of TF2 but offended by another is probably less right in the head than someone who’s okay with all of TF2. To be able to find the cartoon elements of TF2 amusing shows a well-adjusted inidividual who can tell fiction from reality.
Did I do all this for the amusement value of it?
…
Yes, yes I did. Watching people freak out over this is hilarious, it needs to be compiled into a digest. I even dare say that Valve/RPS should do a post on the QQ-ish responses, and get a psychoanalyst to look them over.
21/05/2009 at 21:54 Bozzley says:
Like any online game which patches and amends the experience over time, each update will whittle down the existing user base, and attract new users, until there’s only people who love playing the game left. Sooner all the hyper-imaginative warped “OMFG VIRTUAL PISS, I FEEL DEGRADED IN REAL LIFE, URINE IS NOT FUNNY IT IS A BASIC AND ESSENTIAL PART OF THE EXCRETORY SYSTEM ONLY” children / idiots are gone, the better. Until the next update where the Soldier is revealed to shit in his helmet, and the cycle goes round again.
To each their own etc (unless you’re in to watersports (“you’re in”, geddit? damn I’m good)).
21/05/2009 at 21:56 Vinraith says:
@Chris R
You think it’s hilarious, others don’t, is it that hard for you to comprehend that humor is subjective? As to me, I was only tepidly interested in a return anyway in light of the inevitable sniperfest. The spy mitigated that concern, the inevitable flood of “OMG TEH PEE IS TEH FUNNY!!11″ kiddies is sufficient to turn that tepid interest back to disinterest.
Enjoy your toilet humor, and the flood of mental 10 year olds that comes with it.
21/05/2009 at 22:05 An Innocuous Coin says:
I guess you could say this a bit of a jarring turn in the game’s sense of humor for some people, yeah?
21/05/2009 at 22:05 Serondal says:
you think it will trail pee behind it when you throw it ?
21/05/2009 at 22:11 Bozzley says:
Right, now that I’ve actually thought about this, I’m a bit confused. Are people really saying that they’re going to stop playing a game because one of the characters has a (presumably) unlockable, optional weapon that they find offensive / not funny? One character out of nine? That may or may not be a class being played on whichever server you happen to play on at any given time?
Isn’t that like saying you will never ever eat Quality Street again because of the purple ones? You’ll give up on watching films for the rest of your life because you were forced to watch all of Marley and Me once? You are now permanently vehemently against music, purely because of the existence of Newton Faulkner?
I’f I’ve got this wrong, please let me know. I’m genuinely interested now. From what I can gather, people are actually stopping playing TF2 because of the tiniest, almost insignificant part. It’s just baffling to me.
21/05/2009 at 22:11 Mark says:
It seems I have inadvertently become a person who owns a game where players douse each other in human urine. I need to go re-evaluate my life and find out exactly where I went wrong.
21/05/2009 at 22:15 StormTec says:
Excuse me, I’d just like to remind everyone that TF2 does undeniably have class….
…and that one of them is now armed with a bottle of piss!
*ba-dum-tsh!*
21/05/2009 at 22:22 psyk says:
“I’f I’ve got this wrong, please let me know. I’m genuinely interested now. From what I can gather, people are actually stopping playing TF2 because of the tiniest, almost insignificant part. It’s just baffling to me.”
Sad isnt it.
21/05/2009 at 22:22 Dorsch says:
@Wulf
I don’t think it is hipocrisy to call this humor childish and stupid. I haven’t laughed at toilet humor for a long time, and not because I trained myself to, it just isn’t funny to me.
21/05/2009 at 22:27 Nick says:
I would think the grown up pants thing to do would be to roll your eyes, shrug and carry on as normal. Not belittle and bitch and moan and go on about how mature you are. Doesn’t seem all that adult to me.
21/05/2009 at 22:35 Serondal says:
I don’t think there is anything wrong with complaining about the fact that your favorite game is suddenly containing graphic depiction of a fetish you do not find attractive and also you must now be subjected to being doused with urine if you want to continue playing said game O.o I’m not saying I fall into that group, but they’ve got a right to complain. If it were poo instead of pee I’d probably not be able to play as the sight of it makes me VOM hardcore.
I’m kinda surprised Valve would do this personally and still not 100% sure it is real. I’ll have to see it in game to really be convinced personally. I won’t stop playing just because of this but I’m sure some may.
21/05/2009 at 22:40 mgl says:
IT IS NOT COMPLICATED!
How do I know? I am from AUSTRALIA.
(Which I actually am, so maybe it IS a cultural thing.)
Seriously, I understand the folks who find it off-putting, but the whole thing is rescued for me by the Charles Atlas spoof, which had me in tears. And by the blog post leading to the spoof:
But wait. First, is your boss around? No? Well get him over here! He is going to love this! Your fiancée’s parents too. Heck, gather everyone around your computer right now, then read them this prepared statement:
“I, [STATE YOUR NAME], endorse this. What I am about to show you embodies everything I cherish as a person. If I could sum me up in a single webpage, this would be that page. Also, if I die from excitement shortly after clicking this, please put what I am about to show you on my grave.”
It’s not the piss, it’s the packaging!
21/05/2009 at 22:43 Rob says:
@Serondal
I … Really?!
21/05/2009 at 22:45 Dorsch says:
@Nick
“Not belittle and bitch and moan and go on about how mature you are.”
I didn’t see anything of that, just people expressing their disgust and dissapointment. What I’m saying is that Wulf’s post was pure overreaction.
21/05/2009 at 22:48 invisiblejesus says:
If jarate-ing someone amounts to the depiction of a fetish, I think it must follow that shooting someone with the syringe gun or blutslauger depicts drug use.
21/05/2009 at 22:50 psyk says:
“I think it must follow that shooting someone with the syringe gun or blutslauger depicts drug use.”
And tbh jacking up is alot worse than throwing piss on someone.
21/05/2009 at 22:52 Kieron Gillen says:
Exactly, Rob. “Sometimes a jar of piss is just a jar of piss”
KG
21/05/2009 at 22:56 fishmitten says:
Sometimes a gameplay mechanic, accompanied by a short-lived gag is just that.
For all the whining about immaturity here, I would have thought people would be mature enough to realise this.
21/05/2009 at 23:01 Dorsch says:
Can’t you complain about something on the internet anymore? I mean, I’m not complaining, because I think the gameplay mechanic looks very promising, but if something isn’t to your liking, a comments thread is the perfect place to state your opinion. No need to deny that because you do not agree.
21/05/2009 at 23:08 Dorsch says:
I think that was one person only but yeah thats pretty laughable.
In other news, check out this fake video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Wctn1C5hY
21/05/2009 at 23:29 Scandalon says:
Wait, wait, not only is the overt violence okay, but so is blackmail photos of red spy getting it on w/ a scout’s mother, and blue spy saying the F-word (implied) is okay, but…but…throwing a jar of urine is juvenile and reduces the class of valve?!?
*Head explodes*
21/05/2009 at 23:30 Shadowmancer says:
TF2 and Valve are going to get bad press, Daily Mail headline “Videogame tells kids to throw jars of urine at each other”, “Little Timmy blinded by urine cos he was a noob”.
21/05/2009 at 23:30 Y3k-Bug says:
Again, the thing I don’t get is, why are the people who are angry about this angry about this?
Go get a water balloon model that’ll come out in like a week, problem solved.
Ignoring the fact that this makes no sense for a second (I’ve never been made aware of a fetish involving throwing jars of piss at people), it brings up an interesting point.
Serondal, don’t you think it’s really odd that you engage in a form of entertainment that features death of virtual avatars, by means of guns, explosives, and knives? Graphic death where characters are set on fire, bodies dismembered, arms, legs, decapitated heads and strewn innards are not only displayed but highlighted by the game via a freezecam, but you take issue with pee being thrown at people?
Its interesting how desensitization is being brought out to light by this update. Not saying that’s a bad or good thing, just really interesting. I mean there is no way anyone against jarate can say that it’s any more offensive than anything else in the game, yet it has many riled up.
I feel there’s a really interesting conversation that is boiling under the surface of all this, one that I’d love to see the skilled writers of RPS take on.
21/05/2009 at 23:32 Fumarole says:
I’m surprised being vomited on hasn’t had this much reaction, and that’s from a game in a much more serious vein. At least urine is mostly sterile.
As the Bard would tell us: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
21/05/2009 at 23:32 FunkyLlama says:
Tut tut… and there I was thinking that Valve was above this kind of schoolboy humour.
EDIT: Fumarole – I’m guessing that’s partly because L4D’s liberal showering of blood and guts makes vomit seem less… distinctive, and partly because it’s not intended to be funny.
21/05/2009 at 23:37 Stupoider says:
“TF2 and Valve are going to get bad press, Daily Mail headline “Videogame tells kids to throw jars of urine at each other”, “Little Timmy blinded by urine cos he was a noob”.”
Now, y’see, if kids were playing TF2 they could learn -worse- things.
21/05/2009 at 23:43 mgl says:
@Scandalon
That’s actually a good point. I don’t let my sons (10 and 11) play TF2–mostly to prevent them using my account to be like the annoying kids I encounter frequently in-game–but I do allow them to watch the videos and read the update pages. They’ve seen the Jarate April Fool’s gag (which, yes, is exactly the kind of thing they find hilarious), but I was far less comfortable with the barely masked use of f*** in the Scout and Spy videos. Despite first appearances, it really isn’t a game for kids.
21/05/2009 at 23:44 Serondal says:
This isn’t school boy humor. I admit the jar of pee is, but the package it is wrapped in, the above comic, is far beyond school boy humor. This entire series is probably one of the funniest things I’ve seen video game related in a long time.
I have to admit after the intial shock I’m kind of looking forward to this being in game. I want to see the animation for it explode as well as the emotes issued by team mates/enemies that get hit with pee.
21/05/2009 at 23:48 FunkyLlama says:
Oh, no, I’m not saying the comic is – everything but Jarate is up to Valve’s usual standards. Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that it is centre lies, essentially, ‘heh heh… piss is funny’.
21/05/2009 at 23:49 invisiblejesus says:
“Its interesting how desensitization is being brought out to light by this update. Not saying that’s a bad or good thing, just really interesting. I mean there is no way anyone against jarate can say that it’s any more offensive than anything else in the game, yet it has many riled up.
I feel there’s a really interesting conversation that is boiling under the surface of all this, one that I’d love to see the skilled writers of RPS take on.”
It would at least make for some interesting podcast fodder, if not a full article.
21/05/2009 at 23:50 Vinraith says:
Getting soaked in virtual piss isn’t really the problem, it’s just a game after all. The problem is the crowd this encourages. Toilet humor is a very specific kind of juvenile, and encourages exactly the kind of player I really hate to run into in TF2. The crowd this update will bring into/back to the game isn’t the crowd I want to play with, quite the opposite. Look at some of the comments in this thread and you can easily see what I mean.
21/05/2009 at 23:53 Stupoider says:
I’m certain juveniles won’t flock to TF2 because they caught wind that it has a jar of urine as a weapon.
21/05/2009 at 23:54 Serondal says:
Maybe I’m less shocked by this now because I was just watching a Youtube video with my 2 year old girl early that suddenly turned into porno. People say well “you should monitor what your kids are watching” Well sorry, I was watching Jane and the Dragon which turned into something quiet diffrent . . . When compared to that the pee jar thing is minor. Also if you don’t want your kids seeing the F word ect I’m kinda suprised you let them watch the game at all considering peoples bodies explode ect durning normal game play :P
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8061979.stm
21/05/2009 at 23:55 Y3k-Bug says:
@Vinraith
You can’t possibly be serious with that assessment.
Shitheads have been a staple of gaming since gaming existed.
Counter-Strike is a huge gaming community, featuring extremely serious gameplay, feel, and aesthetics, and features a metric ton of them. As does every online community that has, does, and will ever exist.
21/05/2009 at 23:56 Dorsch says:
There was this bully at my school
he made fun of me, he always called me names and he took my lunch money a lot of times
it was so bad that I didn’t want to go to school anymore
then one day I came up with a plan…
I filled a jar
with my urine
and brought it to school
and emptied it all on his face
It worked!
He didn’t even talked to me anymore!
No one talked to me anymore, actually.
21/05/2009 at 23:56 MD says:
If any of those calling Jarate ‘too immature’ are the same people who loved Meet the Spy for featuring your mum jokes and the word fuck, then hah.
That said, we each have our boundaries set up slightly differently, and as someone pointed out earlier I too would be pissed off (ha!) were this poo-based instead of wee-based (or even worse, vomit based — I’d be the one calling them idiots and never playing again, in that case).
As it is though I found the comic very funny, and this update is probably going to bring me back to TF2 for a bit (not solely because of the Jarate, though it did help). I’m enjoying the surrounding hooplah more than I can see myself ever enjoying the game again, and part of me is still all “grrr well done with your cynically calculated marketing, maybe that effort could have gone into making a better game”. But whatever, time to just relax and enjoy. Loved the comic, parodies of the Charles Atlas ad always get me.
21/05/2009 at 23:59 Shadowmancer says:
The problem with Jarate is that it sounds like it was made by a 2 year old or a 4chan user.
22/05/2009 at 00:03 MD says:
Heh I just saw the accompanying blog post, great stuff.
22/05/2009 at 00:11 MD says:
Bozzley says:
“Right, now that I’ve actually thought about this, I’m a bit confused. Are people really saying that they’re going to stop playing a game because one of the characters has a (presumably) unlockable, optional weapon that they find offensive / not funny? One character out of nine? That may or may not be a class being played on whichever server you happen to play on at any given time?
Isn’t that like saying you will never ever eat Quality Street again because of the purple ones? You’ll give up on watching films for the rest of your life because you were forced to watch all of Marley and Me once? You are now permanently vehemently against music, purely because of the existence of Newton Faulkner?
I’f I’ve got this wrong, please let me know. I’m genuinely interested now. From what I can gather, people are actually stopping playing TF2 because of the tiniest, almost insignificant part. It’s just baffling to me.”
That makes no sense. I don’t know what Quality Street is, but the other two analogies would be perfect were this an issue of people quitting gaming altogether based on one game. This is obviously completely different: people are talking about quitting a game because of something in said game. If you are genuinely as baffled by this as you made out, let me know and I can explain it to you! But it seems that you were just pulling the old “make silly, eggagerated analogies and pretend to be utterly confused by other people’s behaviour, in order to imply that they are ridiculous idiots” routine.
22/05/2009 at 00:13 FunkyLlama says:
But Meet the Spy was clever ;__;
22/05/2009 at 00:20 Dorsch says:
Meet the spy isn’t IN THE GAME. Many people didn’t think it was funny, but they don’t care because they do not have to watch it. If this humor finds its place in the game, people post about being turned off, because they care about the game. I don’t find this offensive, but I don’t find it funny either. If you can’t see how someone yould make a negative comment about it, then you have a very limitied perspective.
Here’s a quote for y’all:
“An old Quake 1 mod, Painkeep, had a health item that was a can of baked beans. It gave you a substantial health boost, but it frequently gave away your position with audible cues, and would give you jump boosts…sometimes useful, sometimes annoying. You can guess the mechanics here.
Do you Jarate fans think adding that item would improve TF2? Do you want more of this? Honestly, where do you draw the line? How much is too much?
I’d like to know. “
22/05/2009 at 00:34 lilgamefreek says:
I said this about the huntsman, and I’ll say it again about every other sniper unlock.
It deeply contrasts with the original art direction of the game.
TF2 was originally about an arms race gone out of control. Big men with big guns who fought over big rockets. It was an embrace of technology to the point that at the end of the day, everyone gets nuked. All three, Huntsman, Razorback, and Jarate, take a big step back from this theme. It doesn’t make sense for a game, with characters fighting over laser beams, for one of them to wield a bow and arrow, run about with an aborigine shield, and throw jars of piss.
It doesn’t matter how well modeled the weapons are, how beautiful the textures are drawn, how naturally animated it is, the weapons do not belong in TF2′s setting.
Honestly, if anyone makes remodels of these weapons that make sense, link them to me.
22/05/2009 at 00:35 Y3k-Bug says:
@lilgamefreek
I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about there.
22/05/2009 at 00:39 psyk says:
Its valves game they can do what they bloody well want with it hopefully they will make all the classes run around in dresses or gimp suits.
Yahtzee says it best at the end of zero punctuation whining fanboys.
22/05/2009 at 00:48 lilgamefreek says:
I’m saying these weapons don’t fit into the TF2 world. The way they function (aside from the razorback) are perfectly fine, but the problem is they don’t make a whole lot of sense.
TF2 is about a technological arms race gone out of control. Two companies, with no restraint, have built up and have become the most powerful entities on the planet. Everything about TF2 is about an embrace of technology, no matter the cost. Superfluous missiles, vast control rooms, big boards, the game is about ludicrous technological development.
“Here sniper, have this rifle!”
“But this scope is ludicrously big! The optics will weight me down!”
“It doesn’t matter, it’s fancy, now go kill people!”
“Scout! Take this soda! It has isotopes!”
“But….. are they dangerous isotopes?”
“I don’t care! Go out there and dodge some damn bullets!”
“Engineer, take this dispenser that gives unlimited health and ammo to people!”
“Can’t people in third-world countries use this?”
“Shut up and start building stuff!”
The new sniper weapons go against this theme, ludicrous technological advancement.
22/05/2009 at 00:48 Simular Mine says:
@lilgamefreak I think the downgrade for the Sniper is intended, simply because Sniper is depicted as the sort of person who favors not the size of the weapon, but how well it is used. It only makes sense for him to try out a bow&arrow.
Can’t really speak for Razorback or Jarate, though.
22/05/2009 at 00:53 invisiblejesus says:
@lilgamefreak: Is it actually stated somewhere that that is the theme of the game? I can see how it could fit into that, but personally I’ve never picked up on TF2 being about anything other than cartoon guys shooting each other in ridiculously over-the-top locations that make no sense.
22/05/2009 at 00:56 Serondal says:
Makes no sense? You mean two giant bases facing each other across a shalllow moat with no way out and no defense built into the buildings themselves (Even common doors) doesn’t make any sense ?
22/05/2009 at 00:59 invisiblejesus says:
“Here’s a quote for y’all:
“An old Quake 1 mod, Painkeep, had a health item that was a can of baked beans. It gave you a substantial health boost, but it frequently gave away your position with audible cues, and would give you jump boosts…sometimes useful, sometimes annoying. You can guess the mechanics here.
Do you Jarate fans think adding that item would improve TF2? Do you want more of this? Honestly, where do you draw the line? How much is too much?
I’d like to know. “”
The difference is that jarate is funny. That baked beans thing is stupid. I’m not sure how anyone can look at the jarate ads, read the sheer amount of funny stuff in them, and then conclude that the sole reason anyone finds this thing amusing is the fact that it’s throwing piss. If Valve just added an item called “piss jar” that did the exact same thing and just said “Sniper collects his piss in jars and figured out how to throw it! Piss is funny!” I very strongly doubt many jarate fans would find it remotely interesting. Taken within the context of the very funny jarate ads, though, the way those ads tie into the other material out there on the TF2 setting, and given that it’s only one item and not a whole bunch of them turning the entire game into Piss Fortress 2, a lot of us find it pretty funny. If it were just a jar of piss, devoid of context, then I’d find it as stupid as the baked beans in Painkeep. But it’s not.
22/05/2009 at 00:59 lilgamefreek says:
I’m really just looking at it from an artsy-smartsy perspective. To me, it feels like inserting the empire state building into the background of the Mona Lisa, from a visual standpoint, no matter how well Da Vinci paints it, it still wouldn’t fit.
@Serondal: I’m not complaining about logistics, I’m saying it doesn’t fit stylistically. The bases are there because of society’s blind embrace of technology, the result of a toe to toe fight left out of control. Suddenly, you have a man trading his ultra-modern sniper rifle for a bow and arrow? His lean, mean kukri for a tattered, hand-crafted shield? His submachinegun that shoots bullets for jars of his own urine? It doesn’t make thematic sense.
Here’s a way too put it. Look at this picture: http://liti4.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/tf2_big.jpg
Which class looks out of place in it? I can almost guarantee you that you think that all the classes seem like they belong because of the way they are characterized.
Now imagine that the sniper in that pic does not have a sniper rifle raised to his face but rather a bow and arrow. Who doesn’t belong? The Sniper? Why? Because everyone else is holding fairly modern weaponry while the sniper is wielding a bow and arrow. It doesn’t fit into the established style and comes across as jarring.
22/05/2009 at 01:07 Dorsch says:
@invisiblejesus:
If they had made ads about the baked beans and realeased them as a heavy unluck, would it have been funny?
The comic and the blogpost surrounding the jar of piss aren’t bad, but at its core it is still toilet humor. In the game, it’s not going too be any more funny than teabagging.
22/05/2009 at 01:08 CG says:
I’m all for juvenile humor, loved DN3D and Postal 2 blah blah, and until this moment I’ve though that Valve could do no wrong on that count (all the other unlocks were clever), but Jarate is a bridge too far. It’s just not funny, not witty, and has the general feeling of a joke gone too far, past the point of good humor. Geeky, strained laughter after everyone else is quiet.
Some kind of shark appears to be being jumped over. As a commenter above said, it’s like something a 2 year old or a 4chan user would think up. I hope it’s such a poor weapon in-game that it doesn’t just become a urine-throwing contest.
For the record, baked beans is funnier.
22/05/2009 at 01:12 invisiblejesus says:
@Dorsch: If they’d made it as funny as jarate, sure. I’m not sure how you’d do that with a can of baked beans, but then again I’d never have thought of most of the stuff in those jarate ads. It’s toilet humor, sure. But it’s really good toilet humor. It’s a far cry from “huh huh, piss is funny, huh huh”. And frankly, when I run into this in game I’m not going to magically forget the ads. I’ll be more likely to be making wisecracks about “jarate chop!” or “I HAVE BEEN SHOWN WHO IS THE BOSS” and having fun with it.
22/05/2009 at 01:17 MD says:
CG says:
“Postal 2 … not funny, not witty, and has the general feeling of a joke gone too far, past the point of good humor … like something a 2 year old or a 4chan user would think up.”
Seriously though, it’s pretty obvious that as with everything in the world, but especially with crude humour, this is entirely subjective: it’s simply funny to some and not funny (and/or offensive etc.) to others. There’s really not much point in trying to make pronouncements on why it flat-out is or isn’t hilarious, or what is wrong with those on the other side of the argument.
It’s quantum humour: simultaneously funny and not funny, collapsing into one state or the other when observed.
22/05/2009 at 01:20 psyk says:
Erm bows are pretty high tech now days. http://www.bowhuntingbasics.com/images/Parts_Bow-Compound.gif
So the game about killing Hitler is fine but throwing piss takes it to far.
Dorsch says:
“I wanted to make clear that people who are offended or annoyed have a right to complain in a comments thread.”
And the people who think its funny or just dont care dont have a right to complain in a comment thread about people who dont think its funny?
22/05/2009 at 01:22 Dorsch says:
Yeah, you’re right, MD, your post sums it up. The first 100 comments made it sound like you had to be crazy to not find this funny, so I wanted to make clear that people who are offended or annoyed have a right to complain in a comments thread.
22/05/2009 at 01:26 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
Considering how juvenile and puerile online gaming is in general, the ability to throw Jars of Urine at people is not only appropriate but also satisfying. Even more so that it’s a fully functional combination debuff/status effect remover–fun for friends and enemies alike!
A BowSniper with Jarate just might make good backup on the frontline. I’ll finally have a reason to not hide behind some crates/a hill/the bulk of a ledge.
22/05/2009 at 01:29 MD says:
Dorsch says:
“I wanted to make clear that people who are offended or annoyed have a right to complain in a comments thread.”
I certainly agree with this. Too often in forums and comments threads, people who like the thing that is being discussed seem to think that this makes them somehow superior, and that anyone who disagrees should be written off as a whiner, or a person who takes things too seriously/has no sense of humour, etc. etc.
I’d rather a thousand reasonably-expressed complaints than one post telling those with a negative opinion to “cry some more”, or anything else along those lines.
22/05/2009 at 01:30 Erlam says:
Keep in mind this was added becaues the fanbase asked for it. There was a joke made on April 1st, and people wanted it. I personally think it’s smirk-worthy, but not laughing-my-ass-off funny.
It’s not the end of the world guys.
Also – the bow fits. The pyro can use a flaregun instead of a huge shotgun. A flare. Gun.
So yes, it works fine for me.
22/05/2009 at 01:33 Nurdbot says:
Angry internet men get angry over everything. Leave them be. Personally, I find this hilarious.
22/05/2009 at 01:38 Dorsch says:
ITS OUT! RESTART STEAM!
22/05/2009 at 01:45 MD says:
wooooo downloading time
Just noticed that in the patch notes the new weapons are described as “new x replacement, the y” (“new sniper rifle replacement, The Huntsman”), with no mention of unlockables. Is this normal, or does it signal a change in the method of doling out the new weapons? Someone told me they might be going with random pickups rather than unlocks, has that been confirmed? (I’m secretly hopeful that they are just giving us the weapons straight off, but I doubt it.)
22/05/2009 at 01:47 Dorsch says:
confirmed that they changed it, dont know how to get them yet.
22/05/2009 at 01:52 invisiblejesus says:
Some sloooooow downloading, here. :(
22/05/2009 at 02:46 Saul says:
Yes, they have de-coupled unlocks from achievements!! I can play TF2 again!!
I’m so happy. The jar of pee is just the (yellow) icing on the cake.
22/05/2009 at 03:08 Shadowmancer says:
Games broken, can’t connect to any servers or do anything.
22/05/2009 at 07:51 Bozzley says:
@MD: Yes sir/madam, I am genuinely baffled by this. Could you please explain this to me?
My analogies were meant to highlight that some people are threatening to stop playing TF2 because of a tiny part of that game. I was actually pulling the old “make a daft analogy which hopefully entertainingly reinforces the point made above it” routine.
When I first heard about some people’s rather extreme reaction to this, I did do the “these people are idiots” thing. You can read my previous posts on it. But then I got to reading the rest of the comments, and I actually thought about the whole thing. Which led to me realising I didn’t understand why people were taking it so personally, so I thought I’d ask. I gave a couple of examples to show what I thought was going on (them analogies you mentioned), and after reading the latest batch of comments, I’m even more confused.
This is purely to anyone who is seriously considering not playing TF2 any more – is virtual piss really that scary / offensive? Can you please explain why? I crave understanding.
22/05/2009 at 08:01 Jazmeister says:
Imagine the heavy had a sandwich in that picture. Totally fits.
22/05/2009 at 08:18 PC Monster says:
Interesting to watch the debate develop on this.
For the record, the Jarate thing just isn’t funny to me. It seems to stem from the community which is why Valve have done it – for the fans – so it should be treated as an in-joke more than a measure of Valve finally losing the plot, but for those of us on the outside the central concept is simply devoid of any real humour. A jar of urine? Really? That’s the best they can come up with? It reminds me of the kind of thing you’d find in Viz, a rude, sweary comic school-age boys used to lap up back in the day, which pretty much says it all.
The cartoon is great, and as I’ve said already I think Saxton Hale is a brilliant homage to those old comic ads, but I just don’t find the piss thing funny. At all.
@Wulf – I object strongly to both the content and tone of your amazingly self-righteous rant against the supposed psychological malfunctions you apparently see all around you. Quite apart from being completely unable to accept a conflicting point of view without decrying it as insanity you also seem perfectly comfortable making unfounded accusations against others without a shred of proof (Hang around Digg much?). To answer your specific charge against me: yes, I do childish things. But what’s your point, exactly? Playing a computer game is a childish thing. Reading a comic is a childish thing. Watching cartoons is a childish thing to do. I have done all of these in abundance in recent times. But have I ever thrown urine on anyone? Or laughed whenever I’ve seen it done or depicted? No. Not once in my entire life, child or adult (Whether you choose to believe that assertion or not is entirely up to you).
22/05/2009 at 08:20 StormTec says:
I believe the central focus of the art direction is more around caricatures, not the bigger picture that was suggested about “arms race out of control”. though I can see why they’d read that, the weapons at least are meant to be more caricature-focused, and always have been.
22/05/2009 at 08:35 J. Prevost says:
Hmm. Totally arbitrary collectible objects? Like funny hats, say?
24/11/2010 at 16:54 Shindal says:
My brother has this on his drums!