Come Together. Right Now.
- Thread starter Sean Sands
- Start date
LOL this will look like i signed up here just to comment on L4D topics 
I bought the game in preorder and at that time developers promised a lot of content to become available - similar to TeamFortress2 game (you can find videos on youtube...)
While the game was a lot of fun at first i got bored pretty soon after release and waited for them to add something new to the game. At that time even if the community wanted to help them, they could not because they were holding SDK back.
Then the first "DLC" came, which was nothing more than stop-watch on top of the screen, with endless zombie respawn and old locations reused. Oh, lets be fair - ONE new location. And that is it. No new promised Special Infected, Weapons or anything new. Since i wished for at least some new campains, i was disappointed to say the least.
If i recall correctly L4D2 was announced soon after this. I was like - WTF???!??! It soon became obvious that they lied with their promises, since L4D2 was in development from the day L4D was released. I felt cheated for paying a full price, because if i knew that i would surely have waited for its price to drop - and to be sure that the game is really as fun as it looks from the videos and developers mumbojumbo.
That gets us to L4D2 Boycott. If Valve had not lied to us customers, released SDK at lunch, maybe 1 or 2 new scenarios and a SI, there would not be any need for boycott group. But in such a short time there were only a couple of community scenarios released, so everyone had not seen anything new when L4D2 was announced.
In other words - everything that we were waiting for was packed in L4D2 and it had a full price again.
Anyway, i will stay away from L4D2, from all the disappointment im not even playing L4D anymore. Mostly because all my friends stopped playing it, and the fact that playing this game with random people is the most frustrating thing ever. L4D2 is not that different from original, so i presume my experience will be the same. If i will ever need to play something like this again, i will just run original and go play some custom campains. By that time there should be a dozen. Besides they are free
I will surely buy another Valve product when it comes out, im just over with L4D. And no more preorders from me.
I bought the game in preorder and at that time developers promised a lot of content to become available - similar to TeamFortress2 game (you can find videos on youtube...)
While the game was a lot of fun at first i got bored pretty soon after release and waited for them to add something new to the game. At that time even if the community wanted to help them, they could not because they were holding SDK back.
Then the first "DLC" came, which was nothing more than stop-watch on top of the screen, with endless zombie respawn and old locations reused. Oh, lets be fair - ONE new location. And that is it. No new promised Special Infected, Weapons or anything new. Since i wished for at least some new campains, i was disappointed to say the least.
If i recall correctly L4D2 was announced soon after this. I was like - WTF???!??! It soon became obvious that they lied with their promises, since L4D2 was in development from the day L4D was released. I felt cheated for paying a full price, because if i knew that i would surely have waited for its price to drop - and to be sure that the game is really as fun as it looks from the videos and developers mumbojumbo.
That gets us to L4D2 Boycott. If Valve had not lied to us customers, released SDK at lunch, maybe 1 or 2 new scenarios and a SI, there would not be any need for boycott group. But in such a short time there were only a couple of community scenarios released, so everyone had not seen anything new when L4D2 was announced.
In other words - everything that we were waiting for was packed in L4D2 and it had a full price again.
Anyway, i will stay away from L4D2, from all the disappointment im not even playing L4D anymore. Mostly because all my friends stopped playing it, and the fact that playing this game with random people is the most frustrating thing ever. L4D2 is not that different from original, so i presume my experience will be the same. If i will ever need to play something like this again, i will just run original and go play some custom campains. By that time there should be a dozen. Besides they are free
I will surely buy another Valve product when it comes out, im just over with L4D. And no more preorders from me.
This reminds me of some fo the anger Blizzard stirred up, and continues to do so, over how it handles WoW.
Burning Crusade wasn't out for long before they announced there would be an expansion, and everything your doing now would be replaced/worthless. Anger and apathy set into the game. Along came Wrath of the Lich King and a few months into that expansion 'Oh by the way Cataclism, its all gonna be replaced again lol.' The endless treadmill of leveling/gear and 'fast' pace of expansions has been complained about but it doesn't seem to make any sort of impact so it lingers and simmers.
It seems like this is an iconic example of how the majority of gaming industry customer service is aimed at muzzling discontent and sweeping it under the rug.
Burning Crusade wasn't out for long before they announced there would be an expansion, and everything your doing now would be replaced/worthless. Anger and apathy set into the game. Along came Wrath of the Lich King and a few months into that expansion 'Oh by the way Cataclism, its all gonna be replaced again lol.' The endless treadmill of leveling/gear and 'fast' pace of expansions has been complained about but it doesn't seem to make any sort of impact so it lingers and simmers.
It seems like this is an iconic example of how the majority of gaming industry customer service is aimed at muzzling discontent and sweeping it under the rug.
Its like watching a soap opera written and directed by Monty Python, the events that transpired are absolutely absurd and yet at the same time it all makes sense as you watch the madness unfold.
Change your mind I dont care. I just find it a little suspicious that both of them pretty much did a complete 180 on their views after visiting Valve. Even if they are releasing a new campaign and are saying they will do more, I would keep it around until they actually follow up on these words.bart229 said:
*hugs console*Abedeus said:
I can honestly say I've never had those problems playing on or off line.
Faky" post="6.149998.3532971 said:
Wasn't the idea of going to Valve in the first place to see what it is about LFD2 that is so different that it required a new game? And, if they were able to see it and were convinced, which I believe is what Agent and Walking said, why isn't that enough for you?Fortesque said:
Sean, while the article's been interesting, I don't think you really wrote with enough scope in mind. By using the Left 4 Dead boycott as a case study, you've missed out on the chance to comment on the other two huge online petitions that are currently sweeping the community:Sean Sands said:
Starcraft 2 and Modern Warfare 2.
Starcraft 2's fiasco began when they announced that -every- game would be played through the online Battle.net service; that LAN play would be redundant and thus not included, and that custom servers would be limited in various ways. Though they've never been totally clear on the extent to which Battle.net will pervade their game's experience, it seems like it's more likely to be "a lot" than "a little".
Naturally, the people rallied against this online injustice, and petitioned. The results of this have been arguable at best; the most productive outcome that I ever saw was that Blizzard expressed an interest in developing a pseudo-LAN, or other peer-to-peer connection for multiplayer. Is that a success? I'm not really sure, as we've still got no details.
Modern Warfare 2's debacle sparked from the outrageous claim* that they'd be dropping and crushing 'neath their mighty heels the option for players to host a dedicated server. Not even for LAN, apparently! This -very- quickly spiralled into a 20,000+ online petition [http://www.petitiononline.com/dedis4mw/petition.html]**, and hilariously, other companies [http://www.dice.se/] immediately started gloating [http://twitter.com/L_Twin/status/4964309159], touting their more advanced multiplayer systems, complete with dedicated servers***. Also, to the bane of many PC gamers, clans are rumoured to have been totally scuttled for MW2, as have mods, and custom maps.
Many gamers immediately jumped to the conclusion that it's an Activision-forced/-inspired attempt to rip into their wallets more than once****, or that it's an antipiracy measure. I personally think it's more likely to be the latter, but it's not the point. Many feel -more- righteous about pirating these games now than before. What I'm concerned about is that these things will become standard - that the success of Modern Warfare and Starcraft will be seen as the success of so-called 'integrated' experiences like Battle.net and IWNet.
It seems very unlikely that petitions will have any noticable effects here - Activision, owner/publisher of both of these titles, is so far above the petty concerns of their customers that they don't -need- to care. Valve, on the other hand, has achieved their entire success through the grassroots support they garner, so they had no choice but to respond to the boycott/petition.
I don't think any discussion of online movements, petitions or boycotts can really take place without examining more than one case. There are more, too, like the various oppositions to Spore's DRM, and just about anything involving "People" and "World of Warcraft". So hopefully, some more discussion can happen now that I've brought some more examples up, because not all petitions or boycotts have the same effect as the L4D2 one did.
Sean, thanks for writing about such a touchy topic. I'm very keen to hear your opinions on other movements, though.
--Fen
Sources: ((Apologies for having no sources for my Starcraft comments - that was a while ago, and was reported -all- across the 'net.))
* - BASHandSlash.com - MW2: Our game has changed forever [http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1], via Kotaku - New Modern Warfare Matchmaking Service Will Definitely Reshape PC Community. [http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/10/new-modern-warfare-matchmaking-service-will-definitely-reshape-pc-community/]
** - Petition Online - Dedicated Servers for CoD:MW2 [http://www.petitiononline.com/dedis4mw/petition.html] via Kotaku - Modern Warfare 2 Server Petition *sigh* at 21000 Sigs and Counting [http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/10/modern-warfare-2-server-petition-sigh-at-21000-sigs-and-counting/]
*** - Twitter [http://twitter.com/L_Twin/status/4964309159], via Kotaku - DICE Makes Hay With Dedicated Server Controversy [http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/10/dice-makes-hay-with-dedicated-server-controversy/]
**** - Check the comments threads of anything else I've linked above.
Yeah I haven't had any of those problems. AI is always going to be spotty in one way or another though, but everything else sounds like it's a problem on your end and not Valve'sAbedeus said:
Oh, i must of have misunderstood at least a couple of interviews with developers i watched pre-release. Im not much in the mood for searching, so here is the quick link from Boycott page.VanityGirl said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQWylFmqnwM
Heck, if you ask me again right now, i think i still hear something about updating game like TF2, most sense will be adding new maps, weapons and characters (SI and survivors??). Oh maybe they only "forgot" to tell that it will cost another 50$? If that was the case you can bet i would never consider buying game at release time. I would wait and see if it is worth it. And frankly for the full price i payed i expected some of those "words from interview" to become true.
Boycott is not over for me (and a couple of my friends) and probable never will be. That is why i am also angry at those sellouts (to say it nicely). I find it very hard to believe they would go in so much trouble of closing the group even before the release of L4D2, if they did not get something out of it. A lot of members do not agree with the closure, because honestly - what has been done from release?
* SDK was very, very late - making sure community would not release maps (making people bored and hungry for something new - L4D2)
* Survival - come on, old maps reused, only stopwatch added. That could of have been done with SDK in very short tim - if we had one!
* CC - lol a 2 map campain. Sloppy and it seems like rushed to say the least. I have seen many better custom 5!! map campains, and they were done in peoples free time.
* more promises - like people will gonna wait another half year for what? another 2 map campain?
So yeah, they almost leave you with no choice. Buy L4D2 for full price to have fun is the bottom line. That is why i will just leave it at that. I have spend my money on L4D and while it was a good game it sure lacked the content. Im not even so sorry about the money, but i am because ANY of my expectations did not become true (from Valve). And LOL i only wished for a couple of new campains to play co-op with my friends.
