Trade Plaza

Trade Plaza (trade_plaza) is a Team Fortress 2 map created by The Asylum of the Devitory. Unlike Asylum's other publicly released maps, there is no objective to Trade Plaza- rather it is used as a utility, intended for players to come together to trade items. While players wait for others to join, they usually engage in an endless deathmatch with the other team.

Layout
Trade Plaza is divided into four sections: Red Team's spawn, Blue Team's spawn, a large common area, and an inaccessible area featuring a mock F-Zero race, modeled after the Mute City I track of the 1990 SNES game. The common area features tables, a small pool, and two small football nets with a beach ball.

Conception
Originally, Asylum had envisioned a much larger and prettier Trade Plaza, modeled to look like a mall with various items on display. However, Asylum wanted to secure bragging rights for publishing the first trade map ever, so the more detailed areas had to be cut from the final product due to time constraints.

Reception
The TF2 community has given a mixed reaction to Trade Plaza. While some appreciate the aesthetics, particularly the F-Zero races in the background, others criticize the map for poor layout, notably the two small spawn exits being directly in front of each other, making deathmatching difficult. Asylum has responded to these complaints by saying that the map was never meant to be treated as an actual playing map, and designing gameplay-friendly layout was barely given any consideration.

Legacy
Although there are countless edits, expansions, and remodelings of Trade Plaza by other users, the original is still one of TF2's most "played" maps.