Left4Dead2 Boycott

[oobermybeer]

Boycott L4D2? Why.... read on. its worth it. and as any one who knows me, im a huge valve fanwankfanboy, so im trusting in their community, that includes THN!

http://kotaku.com/5281374/l4d-sequel-met-with-much-more-than-indifference
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/L4D2boycott

The few people here who defend the decision to make L4D2 seem to not understand what everyone is upset about. I've tried to summarize the most common issues I've heard people having in hopes that it clears things up:

* Significant content for L4D1 was promised, and never delivered
* Valve put little faith in L4D1 since they almost certainly started working on L4D2 right after release
* The fact that L4D2 is nearly identical to L4D1 will decimate the community for both games
* The announced date is not nearly enough time to polish content or make significant gameplay changes
* The new character designs seem bland and unappealing so far
* L4D2 is too bright to fit in with L4D1's visual aesthetic
* The fiddle-based horde music is extremely disliked, though the differently orchestrated music is otherwise welcome
* L4D2's release will result in a drop in quality and frequency for L4D1 content, even compared to before
* The community has lost faith in Valve's former reputation for commitment to their games post-release

Iv joined and really feel like this is a big issue,

 

[BiG D]

L4D2 is bullshit, BUT, those "points", are inane and ridiculous.

Here's what the argument should be: Valve says that L4D has significant problems, and that that timeframe to fix them is the same as the timeframe to architect a completely new campaign, so they might as well just make a new game. IF YOUR FIRST GAME IS BROKEN, WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I BUY A SECOND ONE?

 

[Ronin Storm]

I really haven't played L4D enough to form the opinion that it's broken. That said, I've only played the first two campaigns, never any versus, and only about an hour of survival. I did, however, get what I was looking for from the game; specifically, cooperative play in a genre suited to that mechanism. In that regard I've not thought of the game as broken, just not very deep (lack of weapon options, narrow zombie range, etc). Still, basically it worked for me even with the lack of depth.

So, given that as a starting point, what's so broken about L4D and why would that mean that L4D2 shouldn't be?

Of course, Valve's public voice declares they are not "closing the book" on L4D (link to: Eurogamer) and, unsurprisingly, they claim they've actually "been pretty good over the years - even with L4D going back just a few months - about supporting games post-launch."

Is this a timescales problem? Was the L4D community expecting new content inside 6 months and it took more like a year or something?

 

[Ronin Storm]

Actually, surely this is just a lot of hot air anyway... L4D2 is an X360 exclusive (source: Eurogamer reporting on Valve E3 comments). Didn't we all buy the PC version?

 

[thatbloke]

Actually, surely this is just a lot of hot air anyway... L4D2 is an X360 exclusive (source: Eurogamer reporting on Valve E3 comments). Didn't we all buy the PC version?

Read the last sentence of that article again

I think it's referring as to why it won't be available on the Gaystation than the PC.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Ah, doh, yep. My bad.

 

[Nanor]

Valve are asking us to trust them. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in this case considering how awesome they've been in the past. It just is a bit of a riddle that they're gonna keep updating L4D and work on L4D2?

 

[Gizmo-5]

Valve are asking us to trust them. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in this case considering how awesome they've been in the past. It just is a bit of a riddle that they're gonna keep updating L4D and work on L4D2?

-this

 

[BiG D]

So, given that as a starting point, what's so broken about L4D and why would that mean that L4D2 shouldn't be?

Versus was outright broken for a few months with some terrible exploits and outright poor balancing, not to mention you couldn't even play two of the campaigns.

Valve has been slowly fixing it. Their support of the game so far has been reasonable, if a little slow.

Is this a timescales problem? Was the L4D community expecting new content inside 6 months and it took more like a year or something?

In a sense, it's a timing issue, yes, but not the way you suggest there. HL2ep2 came out in 2007. Their EPISODIC game has went almost two years now without even a hint of being finished anytime soon. But a game that they've called a 'platform' is now getting a yearly release? This is something I'd expect of Activision, not Valve/EA.

(Quote via Joystiq)
"Left 4 Dead 1, like I said, had some of those fundamental things that we wanted to change about it, like the changes to the director, which took really long periods of time and a really long period of testing. And so, those changes fell in line with the long period of time it takes to create characters and everything else. That's why we're doing Left 4 Dead 2, right?"

If L4D has such fundamental problems, why did you charge me $60 for it? Why should I pay you another $60 to fix them? There are so many better ways they could've handled this.

As for trusting Valve, my goodwill has run out. Won't be buying this unless they can make it abundantly clear that the game is actually finished when they release it this time, and that it won't just be replaced a year later.

 

[Nanor]

Lies 4 Dollars.

Valve are treading on thin ice.