Beyond the Box: Orange Box Afterthoughts from 1UP.com
GFW: Did you design critical hits to provide a degree of access to people who don’t traditionally play shooters?
RW: A lot of people assume that they’re there to help new players. Some of it’s pacing. We looked at Counter-Strike, where you happen to get lucky at times and get five consecutive headshots. And then you talk about it for another three weeks.
GFW: Is that luck or skill?
RW: It’s skill affecting luck. You can’t control the Gaussian distribution of fire when you pull the trigger, but skill is involved in centering that Gaussian distribution on an opponent’s head. The idea that there shouldn’t be any luck in an FPS is silly.
We created Team Fortress 2’s critical-hit system so that critical-hit chances increase over time based on performance. There’s the skill. If you’re a good player, you’ll always have a higher chance of hitting criticals than novices. On top of that, there’s the flat-out fact that crit chance is determined when you fire, right? You can miss crits.