I want to know how long have you guys been playing TF2 for. I've been playing TF2 on steam since 2008 (when I was around six) and I had to buy the game too, but I started playing TF2 in 2007 on the PS3.
I personally got TF2 on my account when it went F2P back in 2011. However I did occasionally play it at my friends house when the game cost money.
I started playing in 2013 and started to trade, at this point I was new to steam and learnt that I could make Artwork for these profiles the following years and now got my own service. Unfortunately, I kept switching accounts basically every month but now I just stick with this one. Altogether I would have like 2,000+ hours if I had stayed on the same account. I placed £5 into the Steam and bought 1 Key on the 9th October 2016 so around 3 years I was a F2P.
Back then, nobody used the word F2P because you actually had to buy the game and everybody was super nice and generous to gibus players. When I had a gibus there were a lot of people that gave me free stuff and were very generous
Hmm... I started playing tf2 somewhere for the first time in autumn with few other friends when we went through steam for free games to try out and im pretty sure TF2 became free somewhere in the summer. Could be wrong but im pretty sure. Also i don't mean F2P is a bad thing or anything. it was alot of fun back then when i didn't care for trading at all and enjoyed playing with friends and strangers. ^^
I personally started playing in 2014. Like most new players, I ran around as Spy facestabbing everyone as if I was potentially robbing them. Time flew by and I eventually began to main Demo, Pyro, and Medic realizing I wasn't too terrible at it. I remember seeing a player running around with a Misty Skull unusual in a KOTH Valve server and thought to myself, "the fuck is that?" I learned about Unusual's and TF2 trading and got heavily involved and went overboard with it. Now I just play casually, continue to trade unusual's, and involve myself in various in-game communities. TL: DR 2014 and it's been great.
I Started to play since the Though Break update. (i don't really remember the date) It was with my school friends.
Oh man I had to have started playing in 2012/2013, the art style and gameplay kept me coming back day after day. I was a f2p for probably my first 1000 hours before I bought 70$ worth of cosmetics off the Mann co store with a gift card id been given for my birthday..... against the advice of my friend lol. I'm still loving this game even after close to 6000 of in-game time and I'm sure I'll keep playing for years to come!