There's a trending post on Reddit, a letter to Valve from a player with 6,000 hours, which has already earned 12K upvotes and 2.6K shares, about Valve's updated pet system and anti-cheat. They say suffering is the fertile soil of literature — before reading him, I was just complaining blindly. His words are filled with emotion for the game between the lines. Let's take a look.
Dear Valve:
Earlier this month, I got an egg from the weekly drop and I was really happy. Honestly, this is the first thing in this game in a while that has made me happy. It hatched, right on the main menu, and I named it Greg.
Greg
Then the drops were gone, and I had to choose between feeding Greg and taking the case. I realized this was the first time in years Valve had given me any kind of power in this game. I can't stop cheaters, and reporting does nothing. The "anti-cheat improvements" in the patch notes changed nothing in my actual games — every other match I still run into the same people locking onto me through smoke. But Greg? Greg's fate is in my hands.
So I won't feed him.
Greg will die, I've accepted it. Any day now the game will start telling me he's running out of food, and when it does I'll think of that guy on Ancient last week who went 38-4, whose crosshair was already on my head before I even peeked. Greg is paying the price for that guy. Greg is paying the price for every one of them.
I know this is unfair to Greg, none of this is fair. And that's exactly the point.
If you want him to survive, fix the game. Not another patch notes, really fix it. Until then, Greg will starve, and you can go explain to the community why you had time for a chicken photo booth, but no time for a working anti-cheat.
Sincerely,
A person who has played for 6405 hours and no longer has any hope
Addendum: Greg isn't real, I know. Neither is your anti-cheat.
A little chick resonated with players, who expressed their approval in the comments:
Some players have also started discussing the chick part:
Perhaps it would be better to keep it when grown?
Some players have even created groups, saying they want to save this chick.
The post was published about a week ago. Interestingly, over the past two days, players both in China and abroad have reported that VAC has achieved remarkable results recently. It looks like VAC is really stepping up its game. Could Valve really want Greg to survive?
"Second time encountering VAC Live in 4 games today. Every game is still full of cheaters, but fewer and fewer of them are getting away with it. I'm not saying the game is fixed, but this is a first small step in the right direction, provided they can keep it up."
“I didn't encounter a single cheater in any of my Premier matches in the 20k to 25k bracket today. And none of the friends I talked to today encountered a single cheater either. One time there was a closet cheater on their side who got VAC-banned live on stream. It hasn't felt this good in a long time.”
The cheat community has also said that VAC has been cracking down hard lately, and those prioritizing official matchmaking are easily detected.
If Valve can win back this disheartened player, then Greg will most likely survive. My chick hatched on National Day, I had no time to play during the holiday, and I didn't feed it during that time. Including today, it has already been ten days, and there is still one layer of feed left to eat. Based on the timing, Greg's feed only has a few days left. If the player chooses feed, it will survive. Tomorrow I need to feed mine, and I want to name my chick Liangzhuo.