Where to start....
First and foremost. I am Walking_Target, founder of the L4D2 Boycott, etc, ad nauseum. Really, I just beat a whole bunch of other people to the punch when I heard about L4D2. It was kinda fortunate too though, as the group wound up in the hands of people who are mature enough to articulate why we are upset and not just shout that Valve sucks.
Many of you will be surprised to hear that Agent of Chaos, myself and most of the Boycott would call ourselves fans of Valve.
The big thing people really do not understand is that we are not a jibbering bunch of teenagers who just want Valve to give us their new game for free. Our focus has been the continued support of Left 4 Dead; especially the bug and exploit fixes that this game so badly needs. Secondary to that has been trying to get L4D2 discounted for current owners of the L4D. The fact that Steam provides an easy way to ID current owners of L4D whereas the Xbox has no such mechanism in place, nor is it possible with their distribution chain. That is also to say nothing of whatever contracts Valve Software may have signed with Microsoft. Therefore, we are not sure if anything of the sort will be possible.
But I digress.
We're not going to claim that Crash Course was released only because of the Boycott. That is short sighted and somewhat big headed; To say that we didn't have any hand in it what so ever is also short sighted though. I will say this: It is positive to see Valve releasing actual new content. Personally though, I am holding out for fixes to some of the "Game Breaking" bugs and exploits that have not been dealt with since release.
In the end though. We don't hate Valve. We don't expect anything for free. We are not doing this just to smear a good name. We're doing this because we were told to expect one thing and it was never delivered. Nothing more, nothing less.
EDIT: Oh and to squelch the rumors.
Valve has not been doing any mass-bannings of any boycott members. If they were, wouldn't they want to start with myself and the other staff?
Valve has not told us to 'Stop it or Else'. In fact, we have previously sent email to Valve and recieved several responses from them. We are actually on amicable terms with our contact(s) there.
The Boycott is not disappearing because of Crash Course. It's a step in the right direction and what we consider to be a show of good will from Valve. In simple terms, it's a start.
and lastly. People claiming to be from the L4D2 boycott do not necessarily represent the whole of the community. Myself and Agent of Chaos simply represent the majority opinion as best we can.
