Yesterday, I wrote a post tackling those who were bawling their eyes out over Left 4 Dead 2. It looks like, however, I may be taking on an entire army, since a Left 4 Dead 2 protest group has formed and it consists of 13,011 whiny crybabies. Could I finally have taken on more than I can handle? Or could I just say the word "sequel" and watch them all fall their knees and sob like children?
The boycott group was formed on Steam and they have made a list of injustices about which they are strongly complaining. This is because videogames sequels are incredibly serious business, and the existence of Left 4 Dead 2 will give everyone cancer. Here is the list of crimes they believe Valve committed:
- 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
I think my favorite is the face that it's "too bright," which is not only nitpicking horsesh*t, but is completely wrong. Every smart person knows zombies are scarier during the day. The rest of the complains are also pretty weak. Are they seriously complaining about the "fiddle-based" music? Yes they are. The only complaint that holds water is the first one, and we still don't know how much further support Valve is giving L4D anyway.
Left 4 Dead. It is super cereal business, guys.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
12:00 PM on 06.07.2009
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But, that aside, the only thing I really agree with them about is the character designs. They are rather bland, so I hope they get a redesign like the original cast of L4D did before the final version hit.
In fact, the only thing which will affect me is the L4D community and players will be split in 2: L4D and L4D2. So less players. That. is. it.
IT'S TOO BRIGHT!
DIABLO 3 IS TOO COLORFUL!
BOOHOOOO
And I'd rather pay 50 bucks for it to be on disk than to pay 40 bucks for L4D in internet money I don't have, and then wait 6 hours for the damn thing to finish updating.
But not enough to go join and not buy the game however.
Is it weird that they release L4D2 a yer after the first?
Well yeah it is but weirder released sequels have happended.
They should have just labeled this as a expansion pack or somthing to stop people from complainging
@mabman
I think you mean Activision now, EA has been doing pretty good as of late.
Honestly, this just reminds me of the whining after the Diablo 3 announcement. Just a bunch of crybabies that are never satisfied, no matter what they're given.
But these guys have a few good points (and a few retarded ones). We should expect certain things in sequels. Everyone can happily bash Madden for essentially being the same game every year, but when it happens to a franchise people actually care about like left 4 dead (apparently according to jim your whining like a little girl).
Maybe its you who's taking it like a b*tch and lapping up a half-assed sequel?
I call BS. The fact is that left 4 dead 2 looks more like an expansion than a straight sequel. Plain simple fact.
I dont really know what the goal is of that army, but if they want to tell others that l4d 2 is a RENTAL at max more power to them. No different than destructoid reviews. And if valve takes notice maybe they wont decide to pull this crap again in their other franchises and you will be blessed with more effort in future sequels. (otherwise they'd likely apply this same business plan to the rest of their games if its successful).
13,011. 13,011 people complaining about a sequel to a game they like. Just because it is coming out a year later and the trailer and small snippets of gameplay don't seem to appeal to them/is too similar to the first.
What the fuck.
I out agree with the first 3 points. "drop in content quality"? If anything, L4D2 will influence creative content for L4D1, knowing Valve.
But hey, if these people are such huge fans, why did they take so much time out of their rigorous Left 4 Dead playing schedule to form an angry mob?
Seriously, this is pathetic. Apparently an abundance of stylish zombie survival-horror FPS's is bad. Go figure. I honestly can't wait to play the second one. I still play L4D1 very regularly. Sure, for a while, I'll be picking up the new one for a while, but I'll always come back for that darkness, and of course, Francis.
I am a little puzzled, though, why they decided to make a whole new game instead of adding all of this content to L4D1 as add-ons. That would have fixed the community problem, and would have been more like Valve to do. I have a feeling that the creation of L4D2 is partially because of the fact that EA is breathing down their necks.
Correction:
Essentially @Jim, Bitching all you want about others Bitching, whats your point? You make a case for both sides.
Your exact quote:
"Valve has the makings of a killer franchise on its hands, and I believe it deserves the chance to "sell out" at least a little bit, for once. If you had a hot property like Left 4 Dead and you knew that people would lap it up, would you not want to make more, and do so while things are still hot? Of course you would."
Then DONT get your panties in a bunch of a few nerdy activist gamers try to make an effort to be heard that they personally don't like valve selling out.
Jim doesnt think its stupid to express concern he just says wait till they actually sell out before taking action. Why? When we pretty much know everything about the features in left 4 dead 2 now.
Just stupid.
People expected more from left 4 dead 2 - Get over it.
Valve customers have been spoiled. No other game company treats gamers as well as Valve does. Valve does not owe anyone anything. They are a business that makes games. They have given and given free stuff for a very long time. They give discounts that brick and morter stores can't match.
To anyone that agrees to the boycott. STFU please. We owe valve. Valve doesn't owe us. If you dont' want to buy a product, don't. Crying like a two year old that dropped his lolly in the sandbox doesn't make you sound cool.
No other game company comes close to the amount of support/features/free gifts that valve does. Only other one that is close would be Stardock.
A.K.A We're too cheap to support a company that has given us more than they probabaly should have for free, and we have grown too used to getting stuff for free that every other game usually charges for. So we're going to act like Spoilt Unappreciative Brats.
Don't buy the hype.
Dead Rising 2 will be teh tits!
I personally won't buy L4D2 because I don't feel a direct sequal that re-uses a lot of the same design, assets, and the same tech so soon after the first game is worth $50. Especailly since L4D was almost not worth $50 in of itself at launch due to lack of content.
If L4D2 was a whole new game and a whole new system of everything, it would make sense. As it stands it's just taking everything in L4D1, putting new skins on stuff and adding more levels. Certainly worth some cash, but not a full blown price of a game.
Hell TF2 had more content and was an original design developed for 8 or so years and only cost about $20-$30.
Yet when you look at a game like L4D, which in of itself re-used A LOT of level assets and art material from other Valve games, and didn't even include all the content? And then they release a sequal that is full priced less than a year later?
Not worth the value IMO. I've already played L4D to death and it was worth the $25 I spent for it, this on the other hand is not worth the $50 they want for it.
Wanna bet that all of the hate would stop if they announced that L4D2 updates would be retroactive to L4D1? Okay, maybe not all, but that would shut up a lot of people. And it'd be pretty hard to pull off on the consoles, but hey, PCs could use an edge nowadays. The only complaint people would have then is about the high-priced expansion pack, but I thought that was how PCs rolled to begin with.
Even one campaign would turn out to be a massive amount of work and testing, no wonder they've decided to save content of that scale for a new game.
seems kind of a BS reasoning...
First, they could have started releasing the stuff sooner and thus avoided making it one large pile of new stuff... and second, why is this a sequel instead of just an expansion pack... really, isn't that what expansion packs generally are, huge piles of new content to be added to the game... the whiners are indeed over reacted especially on their nitpicks like the game being too "bright"... but the reasons for making a sequel instead of an expansion pack really is BS
That is unless we are all mistaken, this is an expansion pack and "L4D2" just happens to be the name of it to go with the movie theme of the games
But I feel ripped off for L4D 1. It never felt like a full, finished game to me; what content was there was great, no doubt, but where was the rest of it? Announcing a sequel so soon, re-using most of L4D with mostly cosmetic changes, and a few updates and additions (not many of which would require more than a typical update, of which L4D had very few) just makes me think L4D was a beta, for testing certain concepts (like the A.I director) while they continued work on the finished game. Except they made us pay for it.
In the end, I'm likely gonna be paying $90 for a finished game (i doubt itll take long before Valve brings over the old campaigns and characters, since if they dont someone else will). Its a damn good game, but it still pisses me off.
Exactly.
>Significant content for L4D1 was promised, and never delivered
This is true, and my only gripe. The fact that it was supposed to be a platform much akin to TF2 (or was expected to be at least) was never developed upon. Thus making people feel ripped off.
>Valve put little faith in L4D1 since they almost certainly started working on L4D2 right after release
Wrong. Valve started work on DLC for L4D1, then decided at a later stage that to fully flesh out their ideas and new technology, it was worthy of a sequel.
>The fact that L4D2 is nearly identical to L4D1 will decimate the community for both games
Interesting point, but if L4D2 has a matchmaking/download system, the old maps will slot right into the new game. Along with the fact that L4D1 is getting this feature soon, I imagine it will be in L4D2 off the bat.
>The announced date is not nearly enough time to polish content or make significant gameplay changes
Halo 3 isn't significantly different from Halo 1. Yet Halo 3 was a big seller.
>The new character designs seem bland and unappealing so far
Oh gee, they're unappealing because we've seen one fucking trailer. Clever arguement you have there. TF2 got plenty of Meet The... videos before its characters had any personality. Go figure.
>L4D2 is too bright to fit in with L4D1’s visual aesthetic
Cry some moar. Resident Evil 4 + 5 are set in the daytime. You don't see people BAWWing about that.
?The fiddle-based horde music is extremely disliked, though the differently orchestrated music is otherwise welcome
Personal taste, but I agree here.
>L4D2’s release will result in a drop in quality and frequency for L4D1 content, even compared to before
That's like saying Bungie are going to release more Halo 1 maps. Downright retarded.
>The community has lost faith in Valve’s former reputation for commitment to their games post-release
What, because of one fuckup in order to allow for the best experience possible?
Again, apologies for the long post. I just needed to air my views about the fact that we've seen one fucking trailer and L4D1 is a fantastic -allbeit short- game.
@Unique78 "Valve doesn't owe us. we owe valve." Uhm. no? I dont owe valve sh*t. maybe you do if you illegally downloaded their games or something, but speak for yourself. Can I interest you in buying a copy of madden?
and I thought I was wrong by saying it was being released too early.
But, whatever, lets make some shitty little internet petition to stop it from coming out cos' what we want is all that matters.
Assholes.