Finally.

Those of you (yes, all 6 of you) who have read through the archives know that I've played Team Fortress 2 for a while. In fact, I posted a quick screenshot some three years ago. Three years ago...wow. I'm happy to report that my 119th medal is golden, and I am known to still haunt a certain server set [who has their own forae and as such I won't link them here].

Though, if you go hunting for me on Steam, you'll find me with an avatar that looks awfully similar to the one I sport here.

In 2009, Valve changed the item drop system and introduced hats to the game. I remember wanting to get around to installing Idle Fortress to increase my chances of actually garnering one of these rare pieces of headgear, but by the time I got around to it, Valve had pulled the plug on this 3rd party app, and rewarded those who didn't use it with the Cheater's Lament halo. Also in 2009, during Halloween, they made available two event hats, the Ghastly Gibus and the Mildly Disturbing Paper Bag. I got the achievements associated with these, and garnered two more pieces of headgear. Hooray for simple, straightforward acquisition.

On to Halloween 2010, and the Ghastly Gibus becomes Ghastlier, and the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head is made available. I never got any of the paper bags that lead to the Saxton Hale mask, but alas, I barely had the opportunity to play at the end of October. I did think I was coming out ahead (heh heh) to get the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head by the end of it, and for what it's worth, I still don't know my way around Mountain Lab or Mann Manor.

4 hats. All of them available for all classes. And yet, they rang hollow because they weren't mine. I may have a certain cosmetic loadout, but the vast majority of TF2 players could load themselves out in an near-identical fashion. I still want a hat.

And so, ever since crafting started, I've been saving. I was going to make that Medic hat if I could ever get to it.

Well, last night, my brother gave me the last 3 scrap metal I need for my 12th reclaimed metal. I've long since made Medic, Heavy, and Pyro class tokens, and while I traded the Pyro token for five Series 9 crates, I still have everything I need to finally make that hat.

(One might ask: you traded for crates; clearly you purchased keys to open said crates. Why didn't you just buy the hat at the same time you bought the keys? I tell you, with as much time as I have had invested in the fabrication of this hat, I wasn't about to abort the process and just go buy a hat. Would've been grossly unfulfilling. I will likely go purchase a hat at some point, but not without having made one first.)

What do I hope to get? Well, I will be crafting a Medic hat. Medic is my primary class. I'm hoping for the Otolaryngologist's Mirror, the Physician's Procedure Mask, or the Gentleman's Gatsby. If end up with the Vintage Tyrolean, that'd be great, and I wouldn't be upset with the German Gonzilla either. Ze Goggles or the Blighted Beak will be promptly put up for trade. Don't know how I'd react to the Pickelhaube, though.

Oh, and my brother also gave me a Mining Light, so that's up for trade, since while I am an engineer in real life, I'm the world's worst Engineer in TF2. In fact, since they reset the World Traveler and Head of the Class achievements, Engineer is the last class I have to play to re-achieve the latter achievement.

I understand you may not care about any of this, but I care. It's been a bug in my ear for two years now, and if I'm never going to get to master all 8 Virtues in Ultima Online (which admittedly, I haven't played but 20 minutes since we moved to Illinois last year), I'm going to be an instantly recognizable hat-wearing Medic in TF2.

-KIE

EDIT: Behold, the Berliner's Bucket Helm. Pic forthcoming.