This is United Fortress. Click here for CompTF2C.

THE WALL

The wall of fortresses.
A collection of active Fortress games, mods and communities.

The history of three young Australian men three decades ago building something young people of today fortify in masses across the whole world.

Jump down to Glossary or F.A.Q.

VALVE ERA ↧

ⓘ
Valve era is defined by the commercial release of Team Fortress built on highly altered versions of the Quake engine, and the huge success it eventually achieved, impacting the industry and popular culture.

POST-TF2 ERA ⇣

ⓘ
The release of TF2 introduced a totally different gameplay characterized by Übercharge, respawn times and nerfed bunny hops which emphasize a meticulous health management, positioning and team pushes&pulls.

Team Fortress 2

The gameplay and art design introduced by TF2, acclaimed as “the most fun you can have online” (-PC Gamer), has changed the gaming industry, and influenced the online sub-culture forever. About two decades after its release, still being one of the top 50 most played games on Steam every year, and with a self-organized competitive community having annual LAN tournaments on three continents, it is regarded as the last standing popular old-school movement FPS.
Note: Only some of the TF2 communities are shared below.

🛠️
Developer
Valve
⚙️
Engine
Source
🌐
Website
🍺
Public game availability
Anytime
🏆
Competitive game availability
Anytime
COMMUNITIES
ETF2L

European Team Fortress 2 League, founded and ran by the community since 2008.

💼
Type
Online league
🌍
Region
EU
🌐
Website
Discord
RGL

Recharge Gaming League. The largest North American TF2 league.

💼
Type
Online league with LAN playoffs; PuG system; live broadcast
🌍
Region
NA
🌐
Website
Twitch
YouTube
Discord
OzFortress

The oldest active Team Fortress organization.

💼
Type
Online league
🌍
Region
AU
🌐
Website
Discord
FBTF

Federação Brasileira de Team Fortress 2. Organizes the main South American league Liga Brasileira de Team Fortress 2 (LBTF2), comprising players from all nations of the region.

💼
Type
Online league
🌍
Region
SA
🌐
Website
Discord
AsiaFortress
💼
Type
Online league
🌍
Region
AS
🌐
Website
Discord
TF.TV

Former live broadcast, current textual coverage.

💼
Type
Textual competitive coverage; forum
🌍
Region
Effectively EU, NA, AU; on occasion others
🌐
Website
Twitch
YouTube
Discord
EssentialsTF

Broadcasts ETF2L, poLANd.tf and other top 6v6 events. Produces events with partners.

💼
Type
Live broadcast; event organizer
🌍
Region
EU
🌐
Website
Twitch
YouTube
Discord
Fireside Casts
💼
Type
Live broadcast; event organizer
🌍
Region
NA
Twitch
YouTube
Discord
KritzKast

Former competitive podcast coverage, current live broadcast focused mainly on top European 9v9 (highlander) competitions while covering European and Australian competitions of other formats as well.

💼
Type
Live broadcast
🌍
Region
EU, AU
🌐
Website
Twitch
YouTube
Discord
CappingTV

Live broadcast of competitive across Oceania and Asia. Organizes LAN Downunder and Summer Brawl (LAN) in Australia every year since 2018.

💼
Type
Live broadcast; event organizer
🌍
Region
AU, AS
Twitch
YouTube
Discord
TF2CC

Team Fortress 2 Coaching Center. Coaching with live classes, Q&A, demo reviews and other means. 6v6 newbie PuGs as well as all-divs (various levels). Organizes TF2CC Newbie Cup for players with little to no competitive experience.

💼
Type
Mentoring; PuG system; online tournaments
🌍
Region
NA
Discord
ETF2NP

European TF2 Newbie PuGs. 6v6 newbie PuGs as well as all-divs (various levels), organized usually on the weekends.

💼
Type
PuG system
🌍
Region
EU
Discord
Weekend Mixes HL

Mainly 9v9 (highlander) PuGs, organized usually on the weekends.

💼
Type
PuG system
🌍
Region
EU
Discord
TF2Center

Note: Voice communication is not mandatory in TF2Center lobbies (PuGs).

💼
Type
PuG system
🌍
Region
Common in EU; supports ALL
🌐
Website
Discord
TF2Maps.net

Provides support, feedback and playtests for mappers. Organizes mapping contests and jams.

💼
Type
Mapping community; forum; event organizer
🌍
Region
Playtests in EU, NA
🌐
Website
Discord
Uncletopia

Initiative of the renowned TF2ber Uncle Dane, offers a set of community servers across the world, alternative to the official casual servers, promising a bot-free, moderated environment using custom configuration such as class limits and no random crits.

💼
Type
Public server community
🌍
Region
NA, EU, SA, AS
🌐
Website
Discord
COUSINS
PASS Fortress

Originally the 4v4 PASS Time community, now a stand-alone Source mod on Steam; a competitive, basketball-like, movement and projectile based mod.

🌐
Website
Team Fortress 2: Gold Rush

A Source mod for TF2 on Steam, focused on restoring the original atmosphere and presentation of the game as it existed in its earlier years. Pulling content from up until around 2010 and applying a layer of visual polish to it to better reflect the game’s initial aesthetic and premise. “In short“, they say, “the Team Fortress 2 you’ve been missing, in better quality than ever“.

🌐
Website
Discord

Team Fortress 2 Classified

Team Fortress 2 Classified (formerly Classic) has been the most populated non-commercial Fortress mod since its pre-Steam release. It brings back ideas from the previous installments such as the VIP mode, adds onto them with new mods and weapons introducing significantly different gameplay, does not deviate from the spy-movie art style of TF2’s initial years, and presents improved visuals. In a sense it is an early fork of TF2, steered deliberately with tighter design goals, and is easily the default way of playing the game for a vast crowd.

🛠️
Developer
⚙️
Engine
Source
🌐
Website
🍺
Public game availability
Anytime
🏆
Competitive game availability
Periodic sessions
COMMUNITIES
CompTF2C

Pioneered competitive TF2 Classified with tech and viable formatting for the unique game modes. Organizes weekly PuGs.

💼
Type
Online tournament; PuG system
🌍
Region
EU, NA; on occasion SA
🌐
Website
Discord
TF2C Mapping Community

Provides technical support, feedback and periodic playtests for mappers.

💼
Type
Mapping community
🌍
Region
Playtests in EU, NA
Discord

Pre-Fortress 2

PF2 brings back major elements from the previous installments such as grenades and armor, and natively includes server variables that emulate classic staples such as bunny hopping and grenade holstering, with an intent of bridging the gap between QWTF/TFC and TF2. It takes a best-of-both-worlds approach while keeping true to Valve’s visual design, gameplay balance, and player readability, making it highly desirable even without any pre-TF2 experience.

🛠️
Developer
⚙️
Engine
Source
🌐
Website
🍺
Public game availability
Frequently
🏆
Competitive game availability
Not available

POST-TF2 ERA ⇡

ⓘ
The release of TF2 introduced a totally different gameplay characterized by Übercharge, respawn times and nerfed bunny hops which emphasize a meticulous health management, positioning and team pushes&pulls.

PRE-TF2 ERA ⇣

ⓘ
Fortress games in the pre-TF2 Valve era preserved core gameplay mechanics of the Quake era while introducing modern FPS features like reload cancelling, and new engine behavior like crouch-jumps.

Team Fortress Classic

As the first commercial release of Team Fortress, TFC brought the saga to bigger masses and ensured its immortality. Aside from modern FPS features we are all accustomed to today, it introduced hand-held concing, enabling more fluid movement patterns, and made Medic and Scout the ultimate flag carriers. TFC is the only Fortress game running on the unique GldSrc engine many today are exclusively crazy about.

🛠️
Developer
Valve
⚙️
Engine
GldSrc
🍺
Public game availability
Anytime
🏆
Competitive game availability
Anytime
COMMUNITIES
Royston Vasey

Community of a UK-based public server that has existed over two decades, playing every Saturday night.

💼
Type
Public server community
🌍
Region
EU
Discord
OST

Old School TFC.

💼
Type
Public server community
🌍
Region
NA
Discord
ETFC

European (competitive) TFC.

💼
Type
PuG system
🌍
Region
EU
Discord
Team Fortress PUGS
💼
Type
PuG system
🌍
Region
NA
🌐
Website
Discord
NoNamePickups
💼
Type
PuG system
🌍
Region
NA
🌐
Website
Discord
Oz TFC
💼
Type
PuG system
🌍
Region
AU
Discord

Fortress Forever

Developed on Source engine and released shortly before the release of Team Fortress 2, Fortress Forever is how TF2 could be if it was faithful to the spirit of its predecessors. As the most modern installment among the old-school Fortress, it natively presents proper HUD and visuals, includes an extensive training mode, and according to the taste of many, offers the best looks and shooter feeling ever in the whole saga.

🛠️
Developer
BreakinBenny, Sumit "YoYo178" Chaurasiya, Azzy (current)
Ryan "squeek" Liptak, Mike "AfterShock" Parker, Dexter "Dexter" Haslem, Gavin "Mirvin_Monkey" Bramhill, Patrick "Mulchman" O'Leary, Jon "trepid_jon" Day, et al.1, 2, 3 (former and/or original)
⚙️
Engine
Source
🌐
Website
🍺
Public game availability
Periodic sessions
🏆
Competitive game availability
Occasionally

PRE-TF2 ERA ⇡

ⓘ
Fortress games in the pre-TF2 Valve era preserved core gameplay mechanics of the Quake era while introducing modern FPS features like reload cancelling, and new engine behavior like crouch-jumps.

VALVE ERA ↥

ⓘ
Valve era is defined by the commercial release of Team Fortress built on highly altered versions of the Quake engine, and the huge success it eventually achieved, impacting the industry and popular culture.

QUAKE ERA ↧

ⓘ
The dawn of Team Fortress as mods of open-source Quake games witnessed its rapid recognition and acclaim across the globe, rising strongly on the deathmatch roots, enriched by a myriad of modifications and branches.

Enemy Territory Fortress

ETF at its core is the port of Quake 3 Fortress to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a free multiplayer game developed by the modders of Q3F. Running on id Tech 3, ETF feels unique, relatively modern, and naturally similar to the old time favorite Quake 3 Arena. In the current era ETF released version 2.0 with the aim of making it a “QWTFC” fusion, amplifying the fun aspects of the game while bridging the gap between different playerbases.

🛠️
Developer
Ensiform, Tulkas (current)
LaVaGoD, 5anny, CaNaBiS, Slothy, et al. (original)
Splash Damage (Q3F developer)
⚙️
Engine
id Tech 3
🍺
Public game availability
Not available
🏆
Competitive game availability
Occasionally

Custom Team Fortress

In CustomTF, players are given a limited amount of credits to build their own class, customized with the purchased weapons, items, armor, health points and skills of their choice.
Note: The branch presented here is often referred as “Prozac”, and is recommended to run with the self-titled client.

🛠️
Developer
OfteN (current)
StarBrick-1 (former, indirectly)
William "ShakaUVM" Kerney (original)
⚙️
Engine
Fuh/ezQuake (QW source port)
FTE for AGR
🌐
Website
🍺
Public game availability
Periodic sessions
🏆
Competitive game availability
Not available
COUSINS
Attackers Go Red

Forked from OfteN’s CustomTF, originally designed by its current programming developer OneManClan, originally programmed by Pulseczar.
AGR in essence has the competitive CTF logic hardcoded into the game, removing the red flag, making one team defend or attack at a time, resulting in an intense gameplay.
FTE clients are recommended for AGR, however, ezQuake compatibility is also looked after in its development.

🌐
Website
Discord

Mega Team Fortress

MegaTF in essence is QWTF with many more throwable items, higher projectile speed and faster movement. It offers mods like Coop (players vs. monsters), and also had become popular with competitive quads (2v2) in the past decade. MegaTF is still hosting one of the longest standing weekly public events of Team Fortress.

🛠️
Developer
Aberrant, Kevin (current)
superstitious, Assail, Xavior (former)
Ambush (original)
⚙️
Engine
Fuh/ezQuake (QW source port)
🌐
Website
🍺
Public game availability
Periodic sessions
🏆
Competitive game availability
Not available
COUSINS
Über Team Fortress

Forked from Xavior’s MegaTF Coop by its current developer Argonator.
ÜberTF offers even more weapons and items, most notably those of Quake PainKeep mod, allowing for more viable solo play. It includes team deathmatch and CTF as well.

🌐
Website
Discord

QuakeWorld Team Fortress

The closest possible experience today to the original Quake Team Fortress, where it all began and achieved worldwide success. Still populated by its veterans, QWTF is now enhanced with modernized controls and graphics while preserving the accustomed feeling.
Note: The branch presented here is often referred as FortressOne/QWTF Live, and is recommended to run with the self-titled client.

🛠️
Developer
newby (current)
drzel, lordy, meht, empezar, TFS (former)
Robin "Bro" Walker, John "Jojie" Cook, Ian "Scuba" Caughley (original)
⚙️
Engine
FTE (QW source port)
Fuh/ezQuake for QWTF.RU
🌐
Website
🍺
Public game availability
Frequently (on QWTF.RU)
🏆
Competitive game availability
Anytime
COUSINS
QWTF.RU

Russian QWTF community with active public servers located in Europe.
The version used and still maintained on QWTF.RU (a.k.a. QWTF.NET) servers is TF2003, which is forked from TFS’ 2.8 by [sd]angel, making it a closer experience to the original.

💼
Type
Public server community
🌍
Region
EU
🌐
Website
Discord

QUAKE ERA ↥

ⓘ
The dawn of Team Fortress as mods of open-source Quake games witnessed its rapid recognition and acclaim across the globe, rising strongly on the deathmatch roots, enriched by a myriad of modifications and branches.

GLOSSARY

Jump back to The Wall or down to F.A.Q.

Quake, QuakeWorld, Team Fortress, forks, Valve

Quake is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software, including one of its co-founders and lead programmers John Carmack, and released in June 1996. John Carmack and id Software had also developed Wolfenstein 3D (1992) and Doom (1993), creating the FPS genre in an era where the people would refer it as “Doom-like” for some time for lack of a better term.

QuakeWorld (QW) is an official source port released in December 1996 by id Software, that is compatible with Quake servers, updates the multiplayer source code, improving responsiveness over the internet, hence, providing a better online multiplayer experience.

Source port: A modified version of an engine through the modification of its source code.

Team Fortress is a Quake mod developed by three friends in Australia, namely Robin Walker, John Cook and Ian Caughley, who have been coming together for Quake LAN parties at home. It was released only two months after the release of Quake, and was later ported to QW. Team Fortress heavily modified the nature of the Quake deathmatch, introducing teams, unique classes with specific weapons and inventory that is restacked upon respawn, clips which need to be reloaded and cannot be fired during reload. [1][2]

Mod: A vast term used to describe modified versions of the base game or another mod. In Quake/QW, it can be made possible via game code, map logic or models, all installed on the server running the mod. In the case of major Team Fortress mods, the modification to the game code is essential and made possible by a customized progs.dat file present in the server installed with the mod (or csprogs.dat in some cases).

From the Team Fortress v2.6 introduction video.

The massive popularization of TF by the end of 1996 led to its developers founding TeamFortress Software (TFS) in spring 1997, and owning the rights to the intellectual property. Although turned closed-source eventually, TF’s code gave birth to various other mods forked from it, such as MegaTF.

Fork: A code, or a mod in this case, that is created by duplicating an existing one and, is subsequently modified independently of the original.

TFS was acquired by Valve Software in 1998 and was tasked to develop a Team Fortress mod for their upcoming title named Half-Life. TFS released their last version of QuakeWorld TF, 2.9, in October 1998, with the help of community members, and never again turned back from their full-time work on Valve titles. [3]

Valve Software was founded in August 1996 by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington who had the support and encouragement of id Software and John Carmack, and had obtained a Quake engine license from them. [4]

Quake engines, source ports, Valve engines and SDKs

Quake runs on id Tech 1, popularly known as the Quake engine. QuakeWorld is an officially released source port, in other words a modified version of it, as mentioned above.

In 1999, the Quake engine’s source code was made open-source. Community-made QuakeWorld source ports have been emerged since then, having their own client, fixing the legacy issues, making the game compatible with newer operating systems, incorporating latest graphic technologies and, tailored for various other purposes.

Client: The application the player uses to communicate with the server, sending input to it and receiving the simulated world state from it.
Mercury, Solj. QWTF.
Narkkari, jakob. TF2.
Folly. Enemy Territory Fortress.

The full potential of the engines is unleashed in the Fortress games, resulting in epic occurrences. Duos juggling and hitting the same target midair (top left, Team Fortress Done Extreme by Mercury), enemies simultaneously airshotting each other to death (top right, poLANd.tf 2024 Winter fragmovie by deli), flag runners escaping in the most unexpected ways (bottom, Unyielding by ktz).

Valve’s first title Half-Life, released in November 1998, and its 1999 mod Team Fortress Classic run on GldSrc engine which was created by heavily modifying the Quake engine they had obtained from id Software; in a way, making GldSrc and derivatives other Quake source ports.

Source engine is the successor of GldSrc, developed by Valve and shipped with their 2004 title Half-Life 2. Source engine had many branches over the years, shipped with different Valve titles, and mostly named after the release year, like Source 2006 and Source 2013 Multiplayer both on which the community-made Fortress Forever runs.

Tools named Source SDK (Software Developer Kit) Base are released by Valve for development with Source engine, provides assets from specific games, locked to a specific engine branch, upon compiling creates a game or mod that can be released on Valve’s gaming platform Steam. In 2025, Valve released the Team Fortress 2 branch (a.k.a. Source 2025 Multiplayer) of the Source engine, developed from the updates between 2015-2021 to their highly acclaimed 2007 title Team Fortress 2 (TF2). Valve titles running on Source 2013 Multiplayer are updated to this branch, as well as the tool Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer (while keeping the same name). More importantly, the code and assets of Team Fortress 2 is added to the contents of the SDK Base. This made the Source mods using TF2 content publishable on Steam.

Deathmatch, bunnyhopping, hand-held concing, ÜberCharge

Deathmatch (DM) is one of the oldest multiplayer FPS game modes where the objective is to eliminate as many opponents as possible within a given time or score limit. It usually involves respawning the players at various points of the map after being eliminated, allowing for a fast-cycled, high-focus game where they are constantly engaged and on the move. A more recent, common usage of DM mode in Team Fortress games has been for 1v1 training maps. In TF2 competitive, where game sense and decision-making make up a big portion of a player’s skillset, the term “DM” refers to the skills related to taking on fights, like aiming and dodging.

A lineage of Deathmatch games
Deathmatch was the main multiplayer mode of Quake. 1999’s multiplayer-only Quake III Arena, on which Quake 3 Fortress was modded, is still one of the most impactful old-school FPS experiences of the modern player, and is mostly played in the form of its 2010 remaster Quake Live nowadays. Valve in 2001 released a remake of Quake’s deathmatch mode as a tribute to it, called Deathmatch Classic, a free mod of Half-Life that runs on the GldSrc engine. A Source engine remake of it, DMC: Refragged, is being developed the modding group CoaXion. id Software continued developing multiplayer deathmatch games such as 2017’s Quake Champions. Another developer, Get Psyched Games, is also working on to release their unique deathmatch Source mod, called Open Fortress.

The combination of bunnyhopping and hand-held concing in TFC resulted in Medics, like MightyMouse, escaping flag rooms full of explosives and shells with seamless movement patterns (Joga Bonito TFC by Manu).

Bunnyhopping (or shortly bhopping) is a movement technique that exploits the way Quake engine and derivates work. Due to engine behavior, the players preserve speed while in the air, they accelerate mid-air if they are moving in the direction they are turning, and the ground friction (deceleration) can be avoided if jumps are timed perfectly. This results in players accomplishing what looks like a bunny hop reaching to extreme speeds, making it an essential skill to be an effective flag runner in most of the Fortress titles. Over the years, both id Software and Valve struggled to modify their engine behavior to limit or cancel bhopping, with Source engine being mostly successful in that sense. [5]

Concussion grenade (or shortly conc) has been the secondary grenade of Scout and Medic in Team Fortress games (except for TF2 or others that do not have grenades). It shoots away anyone near it while giving them a concussion effect. Concs are more commonly used to jump long distances without being damaged, called conc jumping or simply concing. Hand-held concing introduced in TFC allows conc to jump the player even if it goes off in the player’s hand, getting rid of the necessity to throw it on the ground first. This allowed for more fluid movement patterns, and gave Scout and Medic a significant edge over the other classes in offensive flag runs, especially in competitive gameplay.

ÜberCharge is an ability of the Medic class, through his secondary weapon, in TF2 and related mods, where the Medic and his healing targets gain invulnerability for around 8 seconds. The ability’s meter can be charged through healing, and it grants a great advantage to attack on the enemies or defend the objective, especially in TF2’s unique setting. In TF2, medics are full-time healers instead of strong flag runners, the maps are filled with health packs to make players live, and there are relatively long respawn times; making kills and deaths have much more at stake. This results in the games revolving around the ÜberCharge advantage, especially in competitive. The charge meter comparison of teams’ Medics is one of the major factors determining whether to push and pull back.

Public, competitive, pick-up games (PuGs)

A public game or server (shortly a pub) is one where any player on the network can join and leave at any point. Playing pubs is the ideal way to get to know a game, and to have a laid-back gaming session.

A competitive game is an organized game where there are more agreements between the players such as fair win conditions, team compositions and roles. In competitive game modes players are often guaranteed to play alongside teammates who commit to the objective throughout the game, are open to criticism, and willing to adjust according to the team’s needs. The organized, intense gameplay, the high stakes, and the fair grounds it provides for assessing one’s mastery and success makes competitive a much enjoyable way to play the game.

Competitive games lead to the formation of competitive teams, or clans, by players who want to stick together and work on their game together. Competitive leagues or tournaments, online or LAN, are organized for the teams to compete with each other. Teams often play and practise with each other in unofficial matches which are called scrimmages (shortly a scrim), or private clan wars (a pcw). A pick-up game (PuG), or (double) mix or gather, is a game where players who are not necessarily on the same team coming together to play with each other in mixed teams decided at the spot. PuGs are often the way new players enter competitive gaming.

F.A.Q.

Jump back to The Wall or Glossary.

How to?

How do I play these games?

The games/mods that are on Steam, meaning almost all categorized under the Valve Era, should be played directly on Steam.

For the other ones, please join their Discord communities, or look up to their websites if up-to-date, to find their newcomer resources and guides. They may recommend various different clients, and require unique server packages. However, most recommended clients are likely to have compatibility with almost all the servers, and the packages are mostly, if not always, automatically downloaded by the client as one connects to the relevant server.

What is the difference of all these Quake clients?

Source ports (engine variants) come with their own clients.

Features included by some of the engines/clients may not be supported by others. A prominent example is that the FTE engine supports CSQC (Client-Side QuakeC) whereas popular FuhQuake forks like ezQuake do not. This results in the server communications of the mods that are developed with FTE in mind like FortressOne/QWTF Live not being able to be loaded by FuhQuake-based clients that are widely used in MegaTF and CustomTF communities.

It is anyway recommended for players to use a separate client copy for each Quake Fortress mod since there are prevalent issues such as different mods having different models with the same name but different frame ordering.

Can I connect to the Fortress servers directly with the Steam-installed Quake client?

The short answer is no. The Steam re-release is a source port known as KEX Quake, and there are multiple problems related with its compatibility with the most popular servers nowadays.

A server programmed with the features of a “Swiss knife” engine like FTE would still allow it with some specific configuration, however, the existence of such server is not known by the author of this page.

Taxonomy

What is meant by an era?

The eras on The Wall indicate a collection of games, a family, which have more in common in terms of engine behavior, gameplay, art, playerbase, history. The beginning of an era in this sense does not mark the end of another one, as all these games have been and are still being played. The very purpose of this page is to promote them more effectively to each other. The games separated by these eras do not necessarily comply with a chronological ordering either. ETF (2005), for example, a Quake Era mod, came out much closer to TF2’s release (2007) than TFC’s (1999), let alone to QuakeWorld TF (1996). Attackers Go Red, a CustomTF fork, was programmed about one or two years later than that.

What is the difference between a game, a mod and a game mode?

The terms game and mod are used synonymously almost at all times for the Fortress titles under this page. Game mode is used for any gameplay variant available under a game/mod.

The distinction between a game and a mod is not straight-forward for a title that started off as a server mod to a game, and have never let go off that creative tradition. Having a separate client does not necessarily mean it is a completely different game, while being compatible with the same client does not mean it is simply a mod of the same game either.

Some developers call their games mods due to legal reasons even though they have created almost all assets and world models from scratch. Some will call their creations a separate game after heavily modifying the game code of the server, bringing out different gameplay philosophies. However, game modes and maps within the same game/mod often also offer such diversity. In TF2, the community-made, SourceMod plugin or VSCript based game modes like Saxton Hale (a boss player fighting all others), Mobster VIP (bank heist with an objective/VIP player), or bball (Soldiers trying to dunk in a basketball pitch with the flag/intel) drastically change the way TF2 is played, resembling so little of the conventional game modes like CTF, Control Points, KoTH or Arena (DM). In MegaTF and ÜberTF, players will fight against Quake monsters in certain maps.

In the end, this categorization is not independent of the legacy and perception that has been built around the identity of the intellectual property. However, it should not be self-claimed only, and should maintain touch with the contemporary reality. This page avoids this discussion, and considers both terms of game and mod equally valid and descriptive for the Fortress creations presented here.

Exception goes to Team Fortress 2, and the standalone version of TFC, which are officially released and categorized as separate games by a commercial company.

What is a cousin game or mod?

Games or mods that are presented in the Cousins list of another share the same lineage with that other game. This means that the cousin game is forked either from that specific other game at some point, or from an earlier release which gave rise to both of them. Note that the information presented for games with Cousins is mostly based on a specific fork of it as well, and that there are other live ones. This condition is noted down as much as possible in the information boxes. Therefore, a cousin game is not a sub-ordinate or direct mod of the one it is presented under.

An exception for this is TF2. TF2’s cousins, or modes, even if not presented under it, should be considered that way, especially concerning legalities and technicalities.

Why some games are presented separately while others as cousins of those ones?

The list should be functional and practical for the visitors to explore the domains of the saga that are unknown to them. One of the ways enabling this is the stacking of the relatively similar ones (cousins) together in a single block.
It might be argued that games presented in separate blocks, like TF2 and TF2 Classified, or QWTF and MegaTF, feel and look almost the same, especially to an outsider. It might also be argued that this highlights the mainly presented branch in a block more than the one listed as its cousin. Of course, this separation and grouping is a result of a series of conscious decisions, and it involves criteria such as legacy, playerbase, development history and perception built around the identity of the title.

Are these all the Fortress games ever? Which ones are listed, according to what criteria?

These are the active and outstanding ones as far as the knowledge of the author goes.

A game is considered active if there are people who are consistently being ready there or trying to gather the other people, to have a game going, even if there has not been a pub or PuG game in a long time.

There are multiple other creations in the form of server mods that are being developed and promoted by personal efforts, or new development teams gathering around new TF2 Source mods. The criteria involved in this selection were, as for many other processes regarding the categorization, legacy, playerbase and the strength of its identity.

Are these all the Fortress communities? Which ones are listed, according to what criteria?

No. These are the communities that are deemed relevant and useful to the average visitor even if they are looking at that game/community from outside. Especially concerning, though not limited to, a massively populated and very much community-driven game like TF2, there is no way to list all the communities, simply because they constantly appear and disappear and there will always be one you missed. Plus, if one manages to capture all the communities at a given time, a collection that comprises such number of items loses its practicality and specific purpose, and becomes an alphabetically ordered wikipedia list. Note that because of this, the number of communities shown are forcefully limited in TF2, leaving out many significant ones.

Public server communities are listed primarily for TFC whose concurrent player count is still not suffering badly, however, is really benefiting from these groups. They also help people get on board to a relatively old game. An important criteria here was that it is not only Discord chat, useful links or legacy messages, but a live community that regularly invite people to play the game with them.

Systems for organizing PuGs, which is a community effort across all Fortress games since there’s no proper in-game competitive mode in any of them, are presented as much as possible. Note that the last famous Excel list in rotation showed more than thirty active PuG systems for TF2 across five continents, so, the selection is also strong here. PuG systems in European TF2 are scattered and hard to find, so more help is given there. For smaller continent communities, it is assumed that the league channels will direct the players if they ask around there.

The major TF2 league for each region, and some of the major casting and competitive coverage platforms which also help organize and promote major events are shared to guide players who want to participate in and follow the competitive scene.
Stand-alone mapping communities are presented, which proved to be one of the main driving factors of a game’s evolution.

There are many types of communities that are not represented. Modding communities is an example to it. Fortress games have tight-knit playerbases, and it is possible for the players to quickly find such domains if they ask around.

Shouldn’t game/community X be missed or categorized differently?

If you have read and understood all the other questions and answers under the Taxonomy category, and you think there is a community or game that should really be on The Wall, or be presented differently, please contact us.