On one of my articles, I said that Overwatch did a great job in creating characters with their own personalities and characteristics. Team Fortress 2 actually was kind of the first who did it in an FPS MMO setting. The different classes have different attitudes, mannerisms, etc. thus made them attractive in their genre which became a great TF2 Market.
TF2 Market: Great Analysis
There’s a fresh post in Reddit that is a great analysis on how we are all relatable to the TF2 characters especially the Pyro:
In Team Fortress 2, the nine classes are distinct characters, all with unique personalities and features. However, one of them is an exception: the Pyro. The Pyro wears a full-body suit that masks their every feature and muffles their voice. The only character trait we’re given is that the Pyro sees a very different world than we do. Instead of the violence, murder, and insanity, they see a world of rainbows, candy, and little cherubs. There’s no death in Pyroland, only happiness.
Furthermore, the Pyrovision Goggles item show that Pyroland might not be the product of insanity, but a half-virtual reality that transforms everything they see into something out of a children’s cartoon.
That’s because the Pyro represents the players.
Think about it. As players, we’re murdering people. We think it’s okay because they’re not real, because no one actually dies, but that still doesn’t change the fact that we’re virtually killing people for fun. It’s not a life-or-death battle to us, just something that we all share and enjoy. Not only that, but we even laugh at it; the comics and videos make death and brutality funny. We laugh at these grizzled mercenaries because they accidentally killed themselves, or had a fatal accident.
Furthermore, the Pyro was shown to be a very successful businessman, but would much rather be fighting, and lose himself in Pyroland. Just like how we can be successful in real life, but prefer to lose ourselves in video games filled with death and carnage.
TL;DR: The Pyro is an insane maniac because they represent us players. When we play Team Fortress 2, we’re not seeing it as it is, a horrific unending tale of violence and death, but a fun game to play. We enjoy the game, and we laugh at the comics and videos, all the while ignoring the fact that we’re enjoying virtual murder.
Pretty deep and relatable, right? This is one reason I won’t easily trade TF2 for any game (Overwatch is a complete exemption though, lol) because we can get deep stuff like this aside from enjoying the game.