How A Jar Of Pee Polarised Team Fortress 2’s Fanbase

Today marks a special day in the history of Valve’s well-known first person shooter Team Fortress 2. On this day in 2009, Valve revealed a brand new weapon: Jarate. The secondary weapon was first introduced to players during the Sniper/Spy Update, in the following April Fools comic:

Most players took this as what it was–a simple joke–and praised the comic for its humour and the fact that it was a wonderful homage to the old Charles Atlas muscle-building ads of the 1940’s and 50’s. The comic was soon forgotten amongst the other aspects of the Sniper vs. Spy Update, which was announcing things like new weapons and maps–the Huntsman bow, the Razorback, and two arena maps–Sawmill and Nucleus–were all introduced during this update. These were all announced early on in the update, and the addition of achievements for the Spy left players excited to what kind of achievements that the Sniper would also be receiving. The comic was quickly brushed over as being a fun bit of fluff to help promote the update to players new and old.

Flash forward to May 21 of the same year, and a patch was released for TF2 which added most of the things announced during the Sniper vs. Spy Update days. Under the patch notes section for the Sniper, however, there was one strange addition:

• Added new SMG replacement, Jarate. If thrown on an enemy they will take more damage for short period of time. Also extinguishes flames on yourself or allies.

This was a shock for most players, who had long forgotten about the comic, and were excited for the new maps, weapons and achievements. A jar of pee that you hurl at people to increase the damage they take in-game was now a real part of TF2.

If you started playing TF2 in 2010 or later, you may be a little confused about quite why Jarate stood out as something unusual. In a eccentric and almost surreal game filled with hats, conga taunts and giant bird heads, a jar of pee seems anything but out of place. However, back in 2009, TF2 was still considered to be at least somewhat of a serious game, with the game’s additional material (such as the original Jarate comic) being the source of the game’s humour. Many fans and players thought that the addition of Jarate in-game was a step “too far” for TF2, and that it was too silly of a concept for a first person shooter to be able to properly pull off. Many people were unhappy with the decision, and news outlets and forums at the time reported on the controversial new Sniper weapon with titles like “Taking The Piss?”.

For a while, it seemed as if Valve would be removing Jarate (either because they’d thought the joke was spent, or because of the backlash from some of the TF2 community) but players soon found that the Jarate’s damage increase was actually incredibly useful, and made a great replacement for the limited uses of Sniper’s SMG weapon. Jarate soon became an integral part of many Snipers’ loadouts, and the controversy surrounding the mason jar full of pee soon settled down.

Fast forward to 2017 and we’ve got things like Pyroland, stuffed Spy companions and countless player-made game modes featuring things like Saxton Hale and a hurricane of bonus ducks. Though TF2 hasn’t seen a large update since last year when the competitive system was overhauled, I for one will always see risky changes to my favourite games as a good thing, as it means that the developers are pushing the boundaries and limits of their own worlds and imaginations, and aren’t letting things sit stale. Fingers crossed for a chunky new update in 2017 and beyond–throw all the jars of pee you want at me, Valve. I’m ready.