*Dons flame-retardant suit*
Hi all,
What I hope to achieve here is to put across why myself, much like the more mature/educated members of the boycott group, chose to do so in the first place. There has been a LOT of negative press aimed at the group and on the surface it seems easy to understand why. There are a multitude of short-tempered, swear-happy members who, along with such gems as 'Newell can suck my dick', present an incredibly poor image of the silent majority. I am here to hopefully represent that silent majority, and share some of our opinions with you.
I'll start by addressing the first major criticism of us seemingly demanding a free game from a very reputable games developer. I would like to go on record by saying that I do NOT expect L4D2 to be free, indeed, I do not mind all that much that they are coming out with a sequel so soon. What ires me is that shortly after the release of L4D1, Valve started development on L4D2, which completely nullified all their previous promises of additional content. I would like to stress that whilst this content is free for other IPs such as TF2, I would NOT mind paying for it! I would happily shell out £5 for a new campaign/weapon bundle the fact is that I never got the opportunity to do so.
It honestly feels as if I bought a beta to L4D2; as rather than make some effort to fix the problems in the existing campaigns, we are instead greeted with a brand new sequel. Where is the bug-fixing and exploit-stopping that Valve are so renowned for doing? I would argue that the biggest update L4D1 has had is the inclusion of two Versus maps which, let's be honest here chaps, should have been in the game from the get-go and Survival, which is little more than a breakdown of each campaign into much smaller sections.
There is also the issue of price. I'm not going to be so presumptuous as to guess what the pricing will be for the new game, but suffice to say that lots of people paid full retail for quite a small game. There is the argument about re-playability but once you've encountered a Tank 5 times, you know what to do, regardless as to which part of the map you are in. The way to counter this is with, of course, new content which is...in a brand new sequel. Great. Even now I'm watching all the friends that I have spent long hours killing Infected with slowly drift away from a game that really had the potential to last so much longer.
I would also put forward the argument that the very formula of L4D just doesn't seem fresh enough to warrant a sequel. Granted, they are making changes to the mechanics and I cannot judge those alterations until I try them first-hand, but they would have to be some pretty drastic changes for me to consider buying the same game again. This is not the FIFA franchise and I don't expect to have to shell out for minor fixes every year. L4D:2010, L4D:2011 anyone? No thank you.
It is a common theme in this industry that once the product is out of the door, the developer/publisher washes its hands and moves on. Valve did not follow this formula at all, instead taking an interest in their communities that is rivaled by no other developer and this went some way towards getting them the reputation that they now enjoy. I keep going back to TF2 but it really is the epitome of how successful an IP can be if it receives the support from its creator. How angry would you be if, instead of the class updates that Valve promised and delivered on, instead they boxed them all up and sold it as TF3 with a few new maps thrown in for good measure? That is, in essence, how the L4D community feels at the moment, that a developer they respect and believe respects them in return, has fallen foul of the greed normally associated with less reputable developers *cough*...EA...*cough*.
Anyway, I think I've gone on long enough. I hope that I've argued my case as convincingly as possible, maybe some of you even agree with me. Many of you probably do not. Regardless, I wanted to highlight the side of the boycott that very few people actually see; those who have an educated, intelligent reasoning behind a sequel that, I believe, shouldn't really exist.
L. Wrex
P.S. They also removed Zoey. I have to hate them on principle just for this.
EDIT: Yes, they *finally* have the SDK released so new content can be obtained from the community. However, giving modders the tools and saying 'do it yourself' is only one half of the story, some official features would also ensure the community that they haven't been abandoned for the next shiny thing on Valve's to-do list.
Hi all,
What I hope to achieve here is to put across why myself, much like the more mature/educated members of the boycott group, chose to do so in the first place. There has been a LOT of negative press aimed at the group and on the surface it seems easy to understand why. There are a multitude of short-tempered, swear-happy members who, along with such gems as 'Newell can suck my dick', present an incredibly poor image of the silent majority. I am here to hopefully represent that silent majority, and share some of our opinions with you.
I'll start by addressing the first major criticism of us seemingly demanding a free game from a very reputable games developer. I would like to go on record by saying that I do NOT expect L4D2 to be free, indeed, I do not mind all that much that they are coming out with a sequel so soon. What ires me is that shortly after the release of L4D1, Valve started development on L4D2, which completely nullified all their previous promises of additional content. I would like to stress that whilst this content is free for other IPs such as TF2, I would NOT mind paying for it! I would happily shell out £5 for a new campaign/weapon bundle the fact is that I never got the opportunity to do so.
It honestly feels as if I bought a beta to L4D2; as rather than make some effort to fix the problems in the existing campaigns, we are instead greeted with a brand new sequel. Where is the bug-fixing and exploit-stopping that Valve are so renowned for doing? I would argue that the biggest update L4D1 has had is the inclusion of two Versus maps which, let's be honest here chaps, should have been in the game from the get-go and Survival, which is little more than a breakdown of each campaign into much smaller sections.
There is also the issue of price. I'm not going to be so presumptuous as to guess what the pricing will be for the new game, but suffice to say that lots of people paid full retail for quite a small game. There is the argument about re-playability but once you've encountered a Tank 5 times, you know what to do, regardless as to which part of the map you are in. The way to counter this is with, of course, new content which is...in a brand new sequel. Great. Even now I'm watching all the friends that I have spent long hours killing Infected with slowly drift away from a game that really had the potential to last so much longer.
I would also put forward the argument that the very formula of L4D just doesn't seem fresh enough to warrant a sequel. Granted, they are making changes to the mechanics and I cannot judge those alterations until I try them first-hand, but they would have to be some pretty drastic changes for me to consider buying the same game again. This is not the FIFA franchise and I don't expect to have to shell out for minor fixes every year. L4D:2010, L4D:2011 anyone? No thank you.
It is a common theme in this industry that once the product is out of the door, the developer/publisher washes its hands and moves on. Valve did not follow this formula at all, instead taking an interest in their communities that is rivaled by no other developer and this went some way towards getting them the reputation that they now enjoy. I keep going back to TF2 but it really is the epitome of how successful an IP can be if it receives the support from its creator. How angry would you be if, instead of the class updates that Valve promised and delivered on, instead they boxed them all up and sold it as TF3 with a few new maps thrown in for good measure? That is, in essence, how the L4D community feels at the moment, that a developer they respect and believe respects them in return, has fallen foul of the greed normally associated with less reputable developers *cough*...EA...*cough*.
Anyway, I think I've gone on long enough. I hope that I've argued my case as convincingly as possible, maybe some of you even agree with me. Many of you probably do not. Regardless, I wanted to highlight the side of the boycott that very few people actually see; those who have an educated, intelligent reasoning behind a sequel that, I believe, shouldn't really exist.
L. Wrex
P.S. They also removed Zoey. I have to hate them on principle just for this.
EDIT: Yes, they *finally* have the SDK released so new content can be obtained from the community. However, giving modders the tools and saying 'do it yourself' is only one half of the story, some official features would also ensure the community that they haven't been abandoned for the next shiny thing on Valve's to-do list.
)
