G4TV

Uro

From the L4D Boycott. Please respond to this. I would like to see a debate from someone who isn't just 5% in support of the nerd rage.

"Mr.Sessler,

It has come to our attention that you recently spoke about our group on your segment entitled Sessler's Soapbox . You brought up some interesting points about those in opposition to Left 4 Dead 2, and we welcome your comments. While there were some over generalizations made during the show, that is understandable. You must be reporting on a lot of different groups that are upset about this release, and have to address a wide community of people. We most definitely do not envy your job.

The Left 4 Dead 2 boycott staff would like to invite you to sit down with some of our community members, many of whom are fans of you and your work, so that we may discuss any questions or misconceptions you may have about us.

Feel free to contact us at the boycott if you are interested and would like to set something up. Our email is l4d2boycott@gmail.com

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

The L4D2 Boycott Staff
http://steamcommunity.com/gr oups/L4D2Boycott "

The following is a personal opinion.

THE BIGGEST MISCONEPTION: Most resonable people believe L4D2 can't be Free at this point due to the effort that has gone into it. It should be an EXPANSION as to not split the community, and still allow for L4D1 to be supported.

L4D1 and L4d2 are not complimentary. Chet himself says L4D2 is the answer to the "problems" he saw in L4D1. One of them being corner camping, and shockingly, they didn't see that as a viable strategy. No one is going to buy the first game since L4D1 doesn't actually have a story. L4D2 does. It's what Halo 2 Multiplayer is to Halo 1 multiplayer. Why would people buy both if the second is frankly, an improvement.

As part of the "nerd rage" group. I bought L4D expect the support Valve has given to all their games, great modding potential, and post release support. I know CS, CS:S, DOD:S, and most notably TF2 have all had good support post-release. From quotes already given in this thread, the support was expected to continue upon the release of L4D1.

Many disappointments followed, from the forced matchmaking all the way to the flawed SDK and custom map support. Simply put, finding custom map games is a lot more linear, and do not lend themselves nearly as well to discovery of new maps as all other Valve games have. You join games based on a map, hoping to find players playing it, not based on players willing to play custom maps.

The new weapons are reskins and remodels, no new actual functions. The modding community has already provided a large supply of reskins and a few new models. Melee weapons are damage buffed Gas canisters. Incendiary ammo is a gimmick that many players are expecting to hurt versus, due to the ability to take light a player tank much easier.

Objective cresendos could have been implimented if the SDK was released on time. That's just an extra entity.

Dynamic Mapper, if it's genuinly a randomly generated section of a map, that's something respectable, even though it's been done in CS:S and currently a mod is being made for Half Life 2 specializing in this. If it's just A/B/C prefab paths, then thats something able to be modded and mapped in if the L4D team doesn't specifically make L4D to not be able to do it.

Other than real dynamic mapping(which I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't actually happen and it was simply a/b/c prefabs or object blocking), the voice work and a genuine story is the only thing that strikes me as "all-it's-cracked-up-to-be" and would generate excitment for me.

L4D2 is nothing what I'd expect from a sequal. It's given a development cycle of less than 1-year. Most of the alleged new content is less than spectacular to those who are frimilar with game development.

Plus, it's so soon, as of now restricting any new players from entering the L4D1 community. Since L4D is a multiplayer game, it's only as good as the community around it. Valve could have simply sat on their hands without any new updates other than an SDK, and watch the money flow in, the expectation of updates is enough to drive sales. But they beefed it, and decided to doom a young restless community.

The biggest influence for me though. Is my gut reaction. I thought it was a joke. They joked about firing staff on the TF2 blog. Maybe this was another Valve troll. But they really are releasing a new game THIS early. What happened to Valve time?

I've learned now though, that even though Valve bought Turtle Rock, Turtle Rock hasn't adopted Valve's philosophy. I won't be buying L4D2 for this reason. I encourage any who haven't bought L4D1 to buy L4D2 if interested, it's a decent deal because it's more of what L4D1 was meant to be.

But for me, as of now, I can't help but associate Turtle Rock with the business as usual sect. The developer that feeds off rich or ignorent consumers and certainly not part the Valve I've known since HL1.