Left 4 Dead 2: Whining Edition
Posted in Left4Dead News, UncategorizedThe internet can complain about anything. At E3 Valve, makers of the greatest zombiecidal game in existence and all round Best Company Ever, announced that they were making an even better zombiecidal game WITH CHAINSAWS. While pretty much everyone ever was composing odes on the theme of “Awesome”, a small but extremely vocal minority starting whining like a man having his arms sawed off by a violin. Which just goes to show: some people could get into heaven and start a Homeowner’s Association to complain about the harp music.
In case you’re going for a Guinness record in “Not being aware of cool stuff”, Left 4 Dead servers are the best place to kill zombies until someone connects virtual reality to Army of Darkness. It sold over two and a half million units at retail and, in case you haven’t noticed, Valve don’t sell most of their stuff at retail. That means that even without counting digital downloads, which is kind of Valve’s entire deal, there’s an entire population of Jamaica-worth of people enjoying killing the dead on L4D servers.
Of those, a group of seventeen thousand have threatened to boycott Left 4 Dead 2 for a range of offenses ranging from “How dare you make another game” to, we kid you not, “We don’t like the use of fiddles.” It’s really hard to argue with people like that (but not for the reasons they think.) That’s about zero point zero zero seven per cent of the retail audience, or put another way: if you were in a room with a hundred people this group wouldn’t even count as the mass of dead skin.
Other problems with the protest, which we’re going to call the “We Hate Good Things” movement, include how Valve actually listen to online feedback. There’s the terrible risk they might in any way acknowledge these whiners - the worst thing you can do short of feeding a Gremlin after midnight. These people complain that constant perfecting of the balance, extra game modes, and entire extra levels don’t count as appreciable free content - they should spend some time as XBox users, then they’d really know what a monolithic corporation blocking downloadable content was like.
The best problem with the “boycott” is how it’s impotent as a nervous panda. These are people who spend time organizing online protests about games that haven’t even been released - they’re less likely to resist the actual product than a fat kid in Willy Wonka’s Emergency Donut warehouse. They simply won’t be able to live without the new game, if only so that they can play one of the best things ever and complain about it. (Again.) The only real risk is that they’ll use this perceived insult as hollow justification for piracy, as happened with Spore, but then they’ll only have themselves to blame for being unable to download extra content.
In fact, we kind of hope they’ll live up to their improbable promise of “finding something else to do.” It’ll let the rest of us play Left 4 Dead servers in peace.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Yeah, the group is lame. But their main point is not. When L4D came out, they advertised support like TF2, including: “more movies, more characters, more weapons, unlockables, achievements”. Why?, “because that’s the way you continue to grow a community over time”. Yeah, that’s a quote from Newell. Now they’re splitting up the community, and every clan member has to shell out 50 for a new copy, or the clan has to run 2 servers. But that’s good for you right
June 9th, 2009 at 8:40 am
I think you just don’t seem to understand the fact that some of us (me included) bought the game knowing there would be downloadable content in the future.
I bought the game on first day knowing that even if there was only four maps I would support them right from the go since they promised me more content in the near future, which they didn’t deliver. You should know for a fact that they did promise this on more than once occasion.
Don’t get me wrong: if they would release TF3 tommorrow I would buy it because I feel that it has delivered what it promised and even more. L4D2 for me will not be a firt day buy from me. Simple as that.
I’m the consumer, I have the right to complain if I want to for what my 60$ was worth.
June 14th, 2009 at 12:55 am
I wouldn’t call nearly 30,000 people willing to join a group, and based on the idea that each person willing to take a proactive action represents significantly more who are not, small.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/L4D2boycott
The problem people are having is not that they don’t like L4D or they never want a squeal, it’s that they’re releasing a sequel within a year of the original game. The community is dubious to how they can actually expect to product an entirely new game inside of a year that isn’t more than a stand-alone expansion pack.
The community is also completely fine with paying for DLC/expansion pack as long as the original characters and campaigns remain playable. L4D2 will cannibalize its own community leaving only a fraction of the players still playing L4D, devaluing the less than year old purchase of the original game.
Valves track record is to support games long term, releasing new content as time goes on. When L4D2 is released the content for L4D will stop, content that was promised by Valve for L4D.
I bought the game because I expected a TF2-like experience, but what I got was a game that was nearly 3 times the price, with half the content and a sequel within the year. I knew that 3 campaigns wasn’t enough, but I expected Valve to come through and give me “the rest of the game”. But what I’m seeing now is that the rest of the game got put into a box with a retail pricetag.
Valve promises more content:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQWylFmqnwM
June 17th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Goddamn you’re an asshole. Go back and actually read the reasons people are boycotting it before slandering them.
August 13th, 2009 at 11:27 am
First of all the boycotter’s complain of not enough content being released for Left 4 Dead, Yet Valve has released a game mode titled “Survival” along with the release of two campaigns added to the “Versus” game mode. Later on this month, Valve will be releasing another Campaign for Left 4 Dead titled “Crash Course” which will be a bridge between No Mercy and Death Toll. Once Left 4 Dead 2 is released, Valve will still be adding content for the original Left 4 Dead. I don’t see why they complain about the “Lack” of content. When you bought this game, You bought it to play the game, Not for the content that will be released in the future, Valve dosen’t need to release any Content if they do not wish to, and that “Promise” of content they made to you is the very same thing your Boycotting. If this much Content comes out, Then you must pay for it, Things in life aren’t Free. Second, Left 4 Dead 2 can not be released as Downloadable Content for these reasons: (1) Left 4 Dead 2 now runs with AI Director (2.0), Which is superior to the AI Director (1.0). AI Director (2.0) will Change many things in the game, Including the games whether, The games routes that are taken to reach a safe house, and tailor every ‘zombies’ clothing, In every spawn the zombie has. That alone, To be added as Downloadable Content would take over 4 monthes, For a system like the XBox 360, Not including the other features the AI Director (2.0) has. Reason (2) There will be 5 New Campaigns, 4 New Survivors, A new ‘Secret’ Multyplayer mode, Over 20+ New Weapons, Including Melee Weapons, and 3 New Special Infected. These new Modes/Tools/AI would take a very long time to convert into something small enough that it could be Downloadable Content, Maybe only 1 Campaign could come out at a time, Which is pointless if were getting them all together, Including the weapons and the Special Infected. Clearly you see why this cannot be “Free” as the boycotters wish it to be. They also complain about the Release date of the game (November 17th 2009) not being enough time to polish content or make gameplay changes? Well, Of the Gameplay I have seen of Left 4 Dead 2, I can say that they have definetly made many changes to the environment, Which is another thing they complain about.. Being to colurful? This game takes place in another area of the world, The environment changes throughout the world, Which I think we ‘Should’ all know. Heh at this point I think they are just adding Ridiculous reasons to the list. They complain of the music of when the Horde attack being Disliked? Do you mean disliked by you, yourself? (Author of Boycott list) because then that would be perfect to say, I in the other hand love the music, Along with almost the 3 million members of the Left 4 Dead Commmunity. Well if they complain about the characters being bland, I might agree alittle bit, But many people don’t care who there playing as, aslong as they enjoy fighting endless hordes of zombies.They also say that It will Split apart online communities of both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2? Well If that was the case then I guess the Developers of Any game shouldn’t be allowed to make a sequel. There will still be many people on the original Left 4 Dead, Along with many on L4D2. Most of the Boycotters will be first in line the day of release, Which I find amusing. I think that we can all agree that 60$ Is a small price to pay for the sequel of one of the greatest Multyplayer Games on the market.