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I see in a lot of posts talk about Team Fortress 2 and hats, what is that about?

What is so special about hats in that game?

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Hats (and the 3 hats moved to the Misc slot) are the game's only rare items. Need I say more? – user2974 Aug 18 '10 at 19:44
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It's the best war themed hat simulator around! – Alex Larzelere Aug 26 '11 at 16:51
Buying certain games on Steam gets you a special edition hat for that game. They suck in the TF2 player base hat addicts with a promise of a new hat fix when they buy some game they'll never play for more than an hour – Chris S Oct 28 '11 at 9:28
I can't believe that this hasn't been mentioned in the year and a half this question has been here: Hats are the game's "rare" drops... and some are rarer than others. – user2974 Dec 26 '11 at 21:17

3 Answers

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The TF2 Forum community has had a thing for hats ever since the Spy / Sniper update when they (and the random drop system) were implemented.

They like to complain about hats, cheer about how awesome their hat is, or worry that too many people are complaining or cheering about hats.

Of course, it may have all petered out, but Valve decided to add more hats. The classless update only added fuel to the fire with such quotes (from the Blog Update news itself) as: http://www.teamfortress.com/classless/day01.php or,

Throughout history, men have worn hats as a way of showing how much better they are than other men. “I buy hats,” a behatted man seems to say. “I am better than you.”

It appeared to reach its height when the Valve blog (not an update post, mind) itself seemed to indicate that hats were the most important things to the developers.

Observe.

Suffice it to say that Team Fortress 2 is no longer a first person shooter with RPG elements. It is 100% a hat simulator.

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This is stated also in the mac update page: teamfortress.com/macupdate/earbuds: TF2 is America's #1 war-themed hat simulator – Drake Jul 23 '10 at 19:38
That blog post is hilarious! – jmfsg♦ Jul 23 '10 at 19:50
You mean "It is 100% a hat simulator... and we love it!" :D – JavadocMD Jul 23 '10 at 19:52
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This comic more or less explains it:

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xkcd.com/455 – Ullallulloo Dec 26 '11 at 20:57
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Hats are the main unlockable customizations available for your character during loadout. Most do not affect your character's stats in any way and are purely cosmetic, though there are a few that provide small bonuses when worn as part of a larger set of items. Some hats are rarer than others and are highly sought after.

Valve awards some bonus hats to people who pre-order their games. For instance, "Bill's hat" was awarded to anyone who pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2.

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In addition, hats that you earn via the crafting system result from either destroying other hats you own, or using literally weeks worth of weapon components to fashion a single hat. – TheQ Jul 23 '10 at 19:32
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And you will never craft a hat you want. I have yet to receive a single hat from the random drop system, though I recently accrued enough metal to craft a hat manually. I received the Engineer's hatless hat. My first hat was -1 hats. – Raven Dreamer♦ Jul 23 '10 at 19:35
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@Raven. I upvoted out of feeling bad for you. That stinks big time. – Corv1nus Jul 23 '10 at 21:04
@Raven I feel your pain. I've been playing consistently since release and only 2 weeks ago got my FIRST random hat. Coincidentally, I got another one 1 week later, so maybe other people with crap luck will get some hat love soon too. – TheQ Jul 30 '10 at 14:48
Likely the most important thing about hats is that they're a prestige symbol with zero in-game relevance. It's a way for the rich and time-blessed to show off, without actually imbalancing the game. – Allen Gould Mar 21 '12 at 19:34
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