TF2 Official Blog – May 5th, 2009:  For all you TF2 fans out there! A new TF2 blog has been released by Valve. Robin Walker, explains how the sniper update is a bit challenging. In particular, designing an alternative to the Sniper Rifle. The sniper class could be the toughest if not the trickiest update the TF2 development team has come across. Robin Walker states that the Sniper has been a tricky class to update. You can read the full blog at the TF2 Official Blog site here.

In particular, the second seemed to be the root cause of the hatred of Snipers. You’re often killed by them while you’re engaged with an enemy in the foreground, and most of the time the Sniper is so far away it feels like you couldn’t have dealt with him even if you didn’t have enemies nearby. In fact, the Sniper’s goal is to create that relationship: he specifically wants to fight enemies outside their engagement range, because that’s his primary advantage.