Valve writer: L4D2 has too much new stuff to be an add-on |
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| BY Butner Brimberry Jun. 10th, 2009 | More on: |
Left 4 Dead 2 is a bit of a mystery to me. While watching Microsoft’s E3 press conference I was blown away to see a trailer for a new L4D game; The first one hasn’t even been out a year, and already a new one has been in the works we find out. Perhaps what shocked me just as much was that L4D2 was playable on the show floor for both the 360 and PC. Something just didn’t feel right. On Wednesday of last week, day two of E3, I had an appointment with Valve and was ready to find out what the deal was. When I got to Valve’s meeting room, I saw that it was really no more than just an L4D2 PC playtesting room. The Valve PR rep sat me down at a computer to try out the new game, and away I went.
After about 15 minutes of play time, I got up and was able to find one of Valve’s brilliant writers, Chet Faliszek. I say brilliant because the man co-wrote Portal. Among the things we discussed was of course the L4D sequel, mainly why is it a sequel and not an add-on for the first game. The answer — the amount of content; L4D2 has four new characters, five new campaigns, and a totally new location.
“When Left 4 Dead ended, the L4D team, instead of wondering off to other projects, was like, ‘I wanna do more Left 4 Dead,” Faliszek said.
So why not make it an expansion pack or some form of DLC? “[..] part of it is we started talking about it and realized how big it was,” Faliszek explained. “[..] all the common infected are replaced because obviously it’s hotter here [..] there’s locational damage on them so you can blow out parts of the stomach, you can blow out arms, and so like all these pieces kinda tied together.”
“In [Team Fortress] you can do these discreet units or a map and it’s a self-contained world. Here it’s just so big that we just wanted to do this entire thing. And one of the other things we wanted to do was make sure that when we release it, its five campaigns. All of them have versus, survival mode, co-op and a brand new multiplayer mode, right out of the gate.”
Another interesting thing of note, Chet told me that the L4D development team approached Valve’s PR about doing another L4D game, not the other way around. With the recent boycott petition floating around it’s fair to say that this is a pretty touchy situation amongst gamers. Though I have to point out, look at Valve’s track record and notice how they have always made their games with the player in mind first above all other things. Are they not allowed to make a sequel to an incredibly successful franchise if they so choose? Or, does Valve see a cow and want to cash it? Tell us what you think.
June 10th, 2009
at 3:07 pm
Cow goes moo.
June 10th, 2009
at 3:51 pm
Yeah, let’s all boycott the company that made two of the most engaging multiplayer games of the last 5 years. Good call, nice way of saying thanks.
June 10th, 2009
at 4:01 pm
Could just be in the name. “Left 4 Dead 2″ implies completely new, whereas something like “Left 4 Dead: Creole Crisis” is just another chapter, like an Episode 2 to Half Life Episode 1, or Vice City to GTA3.
Also, their marketing and public relations for the L4D2 announcement failed so hard. The press release talked mostly of marketing and sales, mentioned nothing of their continued support for Left 4 Dead, and like I said, “Left 4 Dead 2″ with two zombie fingers sticking up is incredibly uncreative of them, even at this stage.
June 10th, 2009
at 4:28 pm
while it certainly falls within the realm of possibility, that this could be a cash grab, it can’t go any further than that. a possibility.
we can’t assume anything until the game is finished and we’ve played it for ourselves. if you’re still pissed off afterwards, then fine, at least it’ll be based on something tangible. but to criticize and make assumptions about a game we know *nothing* about (beyond the scraps we’ve been tossed) is lunacy.
that goes double for all these idiots signing this petition (which actually turns out to be a ‘declaration of stupidity’ once you’ve read its “merits”). but that’s besides the point.
the point, at the very least, is to wait and abstain judgement until it’s out. that’s all, it’s not that complicated.
June 10th, 2009
at 5:59 pm
The issue in my opinion is that this will make the multiplayer within L4D suck, for half the people will buy the new game in turn crushing the online community for the original game just a year after release. I don’t need to wait until release to see this inevitability, at the very least it will hurt the community by decreasing the player base which is sad after only a year.
Waiting for the game to be released before judging is not a viable counter argument. L4D has not gotten any DLC worth a damn since release, instead they began work on a second game that is basically just a re skinning in my opinion of the original. Had they not wasted their time on milking the community and instead worked on DLC that they promised repeatedly this would not be an issue.
Valve is better than EA but these tactics blur the line between a good community focused company and one seeking profits at all costs such as EA.
MOOOO!!
June 10th, 2009
at 7:07 pm
I didn’t get the first one like all you suckers. Boyah!
June 10th, 2009
at 8:12 pm
Yea, well I only paid $20 for my copy!
June 10th, 2009
at 10:10 pm
“Waiting for the game to be released before judging is not a viable counter argument.”
- yea… you really should *think* before you speak.
“basically just a re skinning in my opinion of the original”
- again, another assumption based on nothing. have you played L4D2 in its entirety? do you know anything about it other than the screenshots and footage shown? opinions are fine but worthless if you have nothing to base them on.
“Had they not wasted their time on milking the community…”
- milking? the only DLC made available so far was FREE. what are you talking about?
“but these tactics blur the line between a good community focused company and one seeking profits at all costs such as EA.”
- now, that’s a remark that goes beyond ‘ignorant’ and borders on ‘incompetent’ because anyone with even a shred of knowledge on Valve’s history could tell you otherwise.
June 10th, 2009
at 11:08 pm
“Valve is better than EA but these tactics blur the line between a good community focused company and one seeking profits at all costs such as EA. ”
Couple things here. First, In the past two years or so EA has really turned into less of the MONEY MONEY MONEY company we used to give them grief for and seems to slowly at least be turning it around. Second, like I said in the article you just can’t even put Valve on the level of other companies that will do anything for money. They have bent over backwards time and time again to please there devoted fan base in a way that literally no other game developer has.
June 10th, 2009
at 11:17 pm
“First, In the past two years or so EA has really turned into less of the MONEY MONEY MONEY company we used to give them grief for and seems to slowly at least be turning it around.”
Have you played The Sims 3? That game is FILLED to the rim with micro-transactions.
June 11th, 2009
at 7:34 am
Activision as taken the greed reins from EA. Butner is dead on, EA has cleaned up their act a lot. Valve is no where even close to either EA or Activision in that respect. The thing that you have to remember about this is Valve answers only to themselves. They’re a private company and they only really need to make enough money to sustain and grow the company. EA and Acti are both publicly traded companies that answer to a board of directors that want to see the valve of their shares go up. To say Valve is playing a money grabbing game is both ignorant and dead wrong.
June 11th, 2009
at 10:46 am
” yea… you really should *think* before you speak.”
I did and that is why I know that a sequel 1 year after the original is going to decrease the number of players. If they released a new Team Fortress now the people playing TF2 would drop.
“again, another assumption based on nothing. have you played L4D2 in its entirety? do you know anything about it other than the screenshots and footage shown? opinions are fine but worthless if you have nothing to base them on.”
They began work on this a month after the release of L4D you really think there is that much difference. The videos show it all everything is identical graphically, with some bells and whistles like flaming ammo. My opinion not forcing anyone to agree with me however.
“milking? the only DLC made available so far was FREE. what are you talking about?”
I am speaking to the release of L4D2 prior to any DLC worth a damn.
“now, that’s a remark that goes beyond ‘ignorant’ and borders on ‘incompetent’ because anyone with even a shred of knowledge on Valve’s history could tell you otherwise.”
I understand Valves history but lets not forget their history works both ways, if it were not for the community then games such as CS, TF, and Portal would not be around. I am saying that valve is better then this and I hope they recognize the error in their ways and make this an add on at the least and not a fully separate game.
June 11th, 2009
at 1:45 pm
first quote: uh, no, you obviously dont think because you’re now talking about something entirely unrelated to what i based my response to. go back and *read*.
second quote: that’s the point, isn’t it? and you, naturally, failed to answer the question because the truth is you know nothing about L4D2. how do you fail to see what’s fundamentally wrong with making presumptions about something you know nothing about?
third quote: uh, yea…and? so because they failed to deliver any DLC “worth a damn” (which only stands at “1″ because they’ve been busy working on a sequel) that somehow equates to “milking”? ‘milking’ is something that takes years and *several* successive titles and/or DLC of sub-par quality to accomplish. you need to establish a franchise first before you can milk it.
fourth quote: this one makes absolutely no sense, which is why i explicitly used the word “incompetent”. Valve’s entire history has been built on their succesful relationship with their community and yet this sequel (that’s not even out yet. before anyone has had a chance to play it) is going to somehow jeopardize all of that? just like that, huh? wow, i didn’t realize L4D2 was *that* bad. see, i haven’t played it yet to reach that decision.
you really believe that, after all these years, Valve isn’t aware of the importance of their community?
honestly, if anyone could be so quick to turn on a company like Valve, based on mere assumption and speculation, it’s pretty obvious Valve will be better off without these 18,000. there’s a reason why their more level-headed supporters remain in the millions.
June 12th, 2009
at 7:05 am
I wonder if this shortened development cycle is taking root elsewhere at Valve. Might we be seeing Half-Life 3 in the next couple years?!
June 12th, 2009
at 10:54 pm
The one group of people that seems to be missing in most of the comments on the boycott group site and the articles on the web are the server owners.
As a server owner, I support L4D by paying for 4 West Coast servers out of my own pocket that have had in total roughly 17000 players since they were started 4 months ago. As well, I work for a server company that provides numerous servers for TF2, L4D, CS:S and other Valve games.
One disturbing trend I have seen is the daily cancellation of L4D servers. Since the ‘Survival Pack’ the company I work for has seen a 70% increase in server cancellations of servers that service Central North America and the West Coast. That number increases daily.
The biggest drop was right after the ‘Survival Pack’ when people began to realize how minor the changes actually were. Most people played Survival mode until they got the achievements and then moved back to Co-op or Versus. We lost 45% of the servers within days of that release.
The second spike was right after the news about L4D2. That was about 20% of the servers. The other 5% has been just due to attrition since the DLC was released.
Now, obviously there have been new servers started, but the total loss of server coverage totals about 70% in the company I work for, and I work for a shitty little hole in the wall no one even knows about. In actual numbers that means about 110 servers are now shut down in the past couple months with my employer alone. I wonder how this has affected Gameservers or Darkstar.
I should mention that most of the people canceling servers have been very vocal about why they’re canceling them, and I agree with the majority of their reasons, especially about the release of L4D2.
So, I pose this question to you, do you think splitting the games community base will increase or decrease the number of servers for both games?
Secondly, do you think server owners that are canceling their servers will be rushing out to start a L4D2 server after they feel that they’ve been burned by Valve?
The answers are pretty obvious.
All you flame-baiters screaming about the boycott group being a bunch of whining retards might want to think about that, because without the server owners, you’d have no where to play either game.
As for myself, I don’t have any choice but to ‘get’ the game since it’s purchased for me by my employer for troubleshooting and testing. However, I’ll be shutting down my servers the day L4D2 is released unless both games can be serviced by a single server and other significant issues about the release of L4D2 are satisfactorily dealt with by Valve.
July 1st, 2009
at 9:19 pm
For those of you who are worried about the DLC for left 4 dead and those who are upset about it, have you forgotten that Valve said they will continue to make more DLC after they have released the sequel.
Also for those who are concerned about having a sequel after only a year of the first one being released, you need to remember how short the game actually is and how repetitive online matches are. They needed to make a sequel for fear of losing all their l4d fans to some bigger better zombie game (of course, in reality there is no better zombie game:).
In the end I think we should just stop getting ticked and emotional about a freakin video game. If we really want to have fun, we should actually make a zombie virus and release it upon the world. Then we’d actually have something to get mad about.
July 2nd, 2009
at 1:46 am
5 new missions with 5 chapters each. new people. 20 new weapons. 4 new specials. 2 new common. new story. who ever thinks that is DLC and not a squeal is retarded
July 28th, 2009
at 8:26 pm
i wonder if valve realizes that people who don’t have $400 for a plane ticket(damn eco-crsis) should give us a free one level demo of their two new campaigns :D, this is a good idea