My Take on Left 4 Dead 2 v. Crybaby Bitches
I don’t know why I bother trying.
First, Starcraft II becomes a trilogy. People would not only receive the sequel to a beloved game, but two expansion packs. They complained Blizzard was trying to milk them for all they’re worth, as though I didn’t have a field day with that. One day ago, the unfathomable occurred: Left 4 Dead fans began complaining that they would get a sequel to Left 4 Dead.
“People are pissed,” I told [Chet Faliszek, one of the project leads on Left 4 Dead].
“Well, some are,” he responded.
That’s something of an understatement. I’ve been getting e-mails, texts, phone calls, and tweets from readers and friends enraged over Valve releasing a sequel to Left 4 Dead so quickly. This is a company that has reinvented Team Fortress 2 since its release, and every update was free. Left 4 Dead received the Survival Pack, and now there is a sequel coming to the PC and 360 this year. Faliszek knew that he had to do some damage control; he told Ars he was texting prominent map makers from the community minutes after the announcement to let them know that their work would not be affected negatively by the sequel.
During my twenty-two-year existence, I have played video games for twenty years. Every few months, gamers prove so spoiled and pathetic that I have to eviscerate them. This keeps me from getting a job or curing cancer. Thanks again, assholes: I’m now unemployed for another few weeks, and thousands more will die from cancer. And unfortunately, most of those people weren’t part of the Left 4 Dead community.
For nearly forty years, this medium has upped the standard. Through Mario Brothers, through Street Fighter, through Metal Gear, the expectations are now thoroughly unrealistic on a year-to-year basis. They are now so unrealistic that a company which overhauled the twenty-dollar Team Fortress 2 and gave you two free campaigns for Left 4 Dead is now stealing your money!!1
Where were you when Nintendo released three Super Mario games in thirty-two months from 1988 to 1991, when Nintendo was “cashing in on you”? (You could have justified that one, since Mario 2 is still the worst-kept secret in gaming history.) What about the expansion pack on steroids, Doom 2, released ten months after the original? How about getting the first three Sonic games in a three-year stretch from 1991 to 1994? Oh wait, you were a stupid kid with stupid parents paying for it. Now that you’re a stupid adult, you have bills to play. Guess what? Companies do too. This isn’t Walden, Gabe Newell isn’t walking into the fucking forest, compiling code with his animal friends, and coming back with the definitive game of our generation. He’s trying to make money.
You’re mad the core gameplay isn’t polished? Only fixed the bugs that caused your computer to catch fire? Boo fucking hoo. By playing Left 4 Dead non-stop for seven months after the game’s release, you signed an imaginary EULA indicating you got your money’s worth for the game. This isn’t a competitive game, where its value lies in years of evolving strategy and tactics. This is co-op Doom, the gaming equivalent of sharing pixie sticks with your friends. You should be lucky Valve gave you anything, let alone a patch that increased the core content by forty percent. Valve’s employees made the decision that their vision for Left 4 Dead couldn’t be satisfied on the cheap, so they went with the best alternative.
For Christ sakes, Valve is one of the lone forces of good in PC gaming. You don’t think the industry is looking at this embarrassment right now, and that it’s possible they may come to the conclusion it’s impossible to appease gamers in any way that generates a profit? You crybabies make me sick. Go ahead and punch Valve in the dick. Pirate their game “for the greater good”. If we end up with a medium where console games wipe PC games from irrelevance, I’ll gleefully look back at this moment as the prelude to that.
June 6th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
For the record, I do not use steam/play any Valve games, this is just my interpretation of events.
I believe that the playerbase actually has a legitimate reason to whine on this one. I said it in another post, and I’ll say it again: gamers basically paid $40 to beta-test L4D 2.
Think of it this way: Valve is the bitch Gertrude who married Claudius (L4D 2) at Old Hamlet’s (L4D) funeral feast. I know the analogy to Shakespeare is a huge stretch since this is the Internets and I doubt anyone ever really read into it, but there is definitely a similarity.
There’s something just MORALLY wrong with releasing titles too close together: it’s like conceding the first one sucked, or that (much more importantly) you don’t give a shit what your playerbase thinks, THIS game is the one they should buy. For propriety’s sake, just wait at least a fucking year at least before coming out with the right hook.
From what I can see reading released info about L4D 2, there’s nothing inherently better about it: there’ll just be some different characters that’ll take all of 15 minutes to change over from the first, some new weapons (gosh, how hard is it to do) some new maps (again…no effort required) etc. all for a lovely $40 bundle.
L4D was by no means a dead game. It was still badly in need of another DLC (which will never come now) and could have been improved. Instead, it appears that developers basically turned the DLC into a new game, lol. IMO, sequels should be released when activity dies down…then you can really knock them dead with it. Look at SC2 or D3: some people had a clue it was coming, but the majority didn’t. Now, everybody and their mom is running out to get a copy: Blizzard remains the most successful gaming company.
June 6th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
By the way, just saw this: http://www.overclock.net/video-game-news/519118-steam-comunity-l4d2-boycott-no-l4d2.html
Do NOT piss off the people you sell shit to. It hurts your wallet.
June 7th, 2009 at 7:23 am
If they do what Harmonix did with Rock Band 2, where players had the option of importing all the content from the original game, would it be justified to you?
June 7th, 2009 at 8:52 am
I’m not sure about that. Perhaps that might increase the perception that the first was just a beta…all the old stuff is still there, with some new shit added in. I have a feeling that might be even worse for Valve.
June 7th, 2009 at 9:18 am
i think L4D sucked and after i beat all 4 campaigns on expert the week it came out, other than a couple frustrated hours trying survival and versus, i can’t play it because it’s too boring. the entire game boils down to the same 60 seconds of gameplay repeated forever.
however it’s my fault for paying full price for it, not valve’s, and i see nothing wrong with them charging full price for another, similar game. the people complaining have the same choice everyone has when buying any game: pay up or shut up.
June 7th, 2009 at 10:02 am
If you followed L4D development, it was meant to be a 20€ game. And that’s what it is. When they announced the price, lots of people got scared, me included.
L4D2 should be a 10€ expansion for L4D, and the whole pack should be 30€. The way they’re doing it deserves to lose many of the blind fans.
For the record: I own all Valve game I’ve played, except TFT2 and L4D which I haven’t even bothered to pirate. They lost me there.
June 7th, 2009 at 10:04 am
By blind fans I mean those who think “If it’s from valve, it’s good and deserves to be bought”. I was one of those since HL and CS.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
The problem is, that 80% of the REAL gamers, who trusted Valve, preorderd and payed 50eu(=70$) and all they get is a game which is worth ~15eu after all. Valve promised to add some DLC to make it up, but come on, Survival mode is not 40% more content, same old maps just added a timer and an endless loop. Its a nice mode, but still doesn’t make this game worth 50eu.
O yeah, it does cost now only 30eu and you could get it for 15eu @ freeweekend, but if you take the POV from the preorders – it is a complete ripoff, ffs, after 1/2year the game looses 70% of its price and after 1 year there comes out a new one? This time i’ll wait till the free weekend, since L4D2 is woth only ~20eu.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
And you “real gamers” played the game for seven months straight without interruption, and you have gall to complain you didn’t get your money’s worth for the game?
June 8th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Not everyone played that much, Ghetto. Most people played the 4 campaign twice and then waited for the never arriving *real* new content. Also, are you the only not afraid about Valve becoming Activision? Maybe it’s because you don’t play their games?
June 8th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7987/17104009.jpg
Lol
June 8th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
@SS: I’m quite a big fan of Valve games, particularly Half-Life. I’ve bought just about every game they’ve made since Half-Life 2. I mean, I wouldn’t put most of them as my favorites, but this certainly isn’t a case of one looking from the outside in.
@Kirym: Ain’t it special?
June 9th, 2009 at 2:10 am
Well, then that’s it, if Valve becomes activision we’ll have Half Life 6 by 2012. And no one wants that to happen, that’s why they need to be punished if they try to ><
June 9th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Valve is a privately-owned company. Although they are trying to make a profit, they’re not obligated to do so by shareholders.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I’m not a fan of fighting clown-zombies in the daylight. Very odd.
June 12th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Thing is, Starcraft 2’s trilogy will be treated as two expansion pack priced games.
Gabe confirmed that Left 4 Dead 2 will cost 49.99$.
When those marios game out, I didn’t buy any of them. I’ve never been milked, nubzor. Reviews were out then in magazines zomg.