Too soon for another Left 4 Dead? Valve explains

[Queasy]

Ars - In a nutshell, all the updates and story additions to the game that the devs wanted to do were too big to deliver as content updates.

Long-ish but good read so click through if interested.

edit: Sessler's Soapbox does a bit on this subject. Not nearly as entertaining as the one where he went off on over people questioning his integrity.

 

[bdubyah]

i think that once they get a solid base game released, they could just update it so often with DLC. a game like L4D seems perfect for something like that. just release a whole new game whenever something major needs updating.

 

[smackababy]

Not a bad read. I almost want to trust Valve and their logic. It remains to be seen what will happen though. This is very uncharacteristic of them releasing anything so soon. I do like the idea that they wanted to much more added, it couldn't just be a few updates.

 

[Slick5150]

I'd prefer knowing where the hell HL2: Ep 3 is.

 

[mesthead21]

Originally posted by: Queasy
Ars - In a nutshell, all the updates and story additions to the game that the devs wanted to do were too big to deliver as content updates.

Long-ish but good read so click through if interested.

Good read, im not too upset about it cause well... its Valve. Also, that chet guy seems pretty cool; another reason why valve is a bad ass company

 

[abaez]

His point about the orange box is ridiculous. Sure, tons of people bought the orange box that already had HL2, but the orange box included Portal and TF2. HELLO? Of course no one minded.

 

[Kromis]

Too soon for Jeff

As long as it is REASONABLY priced, then I'm happy.

 

[R Nilla]

I'm ready for another one, and from I've seen so far a sequel seems to be appropriate. I am really tired of playing the first Left 4 Dead. Survival Mode added some replayability, but now I'm really done. Some new weapons, assets, and gameplay tweaks might be enough to get me back into it.

Although I was disappointed to see that they are still using the same models for the special infected. I would have liked to see them change slightly to fit in with the setting of the new game. Maybe they will end up changing them but in the gameplay that was being shown at E3 they remain unchanged.

 

[cyphilis]

I'm happy no matter what. I don't understand why people complain,.. its a new game assholes.. do you want new games or not??? People complain because they don't release games,.. now they are complaining because they do release games. You can't win with some people.

 

[R Nilla]

Originally posted by: liuxurong
thanks~~

Spam.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: cyphilis
I'm happy no matter what. I don't understand why people complain,.. its a new game assholes.. do you want new games or not??? People complain because they don't release games,.. now they are complaining because they do release games. You can't win with some people.

A sequel to a game they promised to add much more content of and even the new content in the sequel isn't that much to warrant a whole new game. The content they added a little while ago got boring after a week or two just like the original content. No way is the game worth full price and no way is a new version worth that much either. I paid full price for it and wishing they'd release more content for it but obviously they won't since they're busy working on the "whole new" game.

 

[AstroManLuca]

This sounds to me like if they had released Team Fortress 3 about six months ago and simply included all the new weapons, maps, achievements, and game modes in it (with Team Fortress 2 staying basically vanilla the whole time).

The especially annoying part is that L4D is still expensive ($40, vs. $20 for TF2, which is still being updated regularly and doesn't have a replacement right around the corner). Even if they're adding more content than they'd want to do with a patch, it still seems more like an expansion pack or new episode of the same game, rather than an entirely new game. On top of that, it seems as though it'll make L4D completely obsolete when it comes out, since it's essentially a superset of it.

 

[biggestmuff]

The people doing the complaining must not be gamers? Too soon? LOL

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: biggestmuff
The people doing the complaining must not be gamers? Too soon? LOL

I don't think people are complaining about that, it's more that they're coming out with a new full-priced game so soon after. That implies that they're not going to release any new content for L4D 1 once L4D 2 comes out, which is annoying to people who bought the game recently. Unless you bought it at launch or you got a special deal on one of those half-price weekends, you're getting kind of a raw deal.

There are other games that release new installments every year for full price, but they generally have a single player component to them as well. And unlike Valve games, their customers do not expect much (if anything) in the way of content updates. It's just sort of a shock to people used to games like Team Fortress 2, which has received a huge number of updates and continues to change almost two years after its release. Now that's a game with some lasting value. L4D 1, not so much.

However, I am happy that they're doing more L4D stuff. I just think it would have been nice if they had decided to release it as a paid expansion pack at $20-$30 instead of a full game at probably $50. It's not a huge deal, but it does make me a bit skeptical of Valve (actually, it would make me hesitant to buy L4D 2 because they might just come out with L4D 3 a year later).

 

[Czar]

If they do a first ever and offer big discounts for l4d owners then I'll be very happy.

Just dont do that stupid crap of releasing the game at a retail price but offer a bundle of l4d and l4d2 and some other crap as a really good deal. Fuscking hate that about Valve.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: Czar
If they do a first ever and offer big discounts for l4d owners then I'll be very happy.

Just dont do that stupid crap of releasing the game at a retail price but offer a bundle of l4d and l4d2 and some other crap as a really good deal. Fuscking hate that about Valve.

There's still a difference between this and the Orange Box. With the Orange Box, Valve included all of Half-Life 2 in order to give new players a background instead of making them jump straight into Episode 2. It was a three-year-old game at that point, and a single player one at that, so its value was pretty low.

If they release Left 4 Dead 2 in a bundle with L4D, it'll be pretty different. It seems as though once L4D2 comes out, L4D will have no reason to exist. It's not like Half-Life 2 where you have a whole single-player saga to play through. These are basically the same game, except one is newer and has more content than the other. If you get L4D2, why would you bother playing L4D, even if you had never played it before? On the other hand, at least newcomers could get some use out of everything included in the Orange Box (even if existing Valve fans got duplicates of one small part of it).

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca

Originally posted by: Czar
If they do a first ever and offer big discounts for l4d owners then I'll be very happy.

Just dont do that stupid crap of releasing the game at a retail price but offer a bundle of l4d and l4d2 and some other crap as a really good deal. Fuscking hate that about Valve.

There's still a difference between this and the Orange Box. With the Orange Box, Valve included all of Half-Life 2 in order to give new players a background instead of making them jump straight into Episode 2. It was a three-year-old game at that point, and a single player one at that, so its value was pretty low.

If they release Left 4 Dead 2 in a bundle with L4D, it'll be pretty different. It seems as though once L4D2 comes out, L4D will have no reason to exist. It's not like Half-Life 2 where you have a whole single-player saga to play through. These are basically the same game, except one is newer and has more content than the other. If you get L4D2, why would you bother playing L4D, even if you had never played it before? On the other hand, at least newcomers could get some use out of everything included in the Orange Box (even if existing Valve fans got duplicates of one small part of it).

you might wanna play the 4 campaigns from the 1st one.

 

[BD2003]

Too soon? No way! I want more. It's announcement out of the blue was the best thing I've heard at e3. I got more than my moneys worth out of the 1st game, and love it to death, but always felt like it was a bit half baked or rushed.

New campaigns, new characters, new weapons, new zombies, new ammo types, updated AI director, the ability to blow limbs off, the new style of crescendo encounters....and thats just what theyve announced. This is hardly an expansion pack or content update. It's a new game by virtually every definition.

There's more new in L4D2 over L4D than in each year's madden, yet people just gobble that sh*t up and are somehow whining about L4D. Valve made a bit of a mistake with TF2 by dribbling content out for so long....people seem have far too much of a sense of entitlement with valve games that they simply dont have with other games.

And L4D isnt going to stop working when L4D2 comes out, so whats the problem either way?

 

[R Nilla]

Originally posted by: BD2003
And L4D isnt going to stop working when L4D2 comes out, so whats the problem either way?

Exactly. Just watched an interview with Valve and it sounds like there is still some content planned for L4D. It's reasonable to assume that they will stop supporting it but that's not necessarily true--just an assumption.

 

[coreyb]

I love everything Valve does. I don't care if I have to shell out another $50.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

The problem with a new game this soon is that it will likely split the community. The honeymoon for L4D Vs. play is far from over, and Valve is going to entice us with another before we're done with our first. Now some might question why having choices is bad, the problem is that any online game isn't fun solely for the game, its fun for the community that plays the game with you. Choices will divide that community.

Of course there are ways Valve can make things better. Making the games inter compatible would be amazing. Giving discounts to those who already own L4D1, and then including L4D1 with L4D2 for those that do not already own L4D1 will make it even better.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles
The problem with a new game this soon is that it will likely split the community. The honeymoon for L4D Vs. play is far from over, and Valve is going to entice us with another before we're done with our first. Now some might question why having choices is bad, the problem is that any online game isn't fun solely for the game, its fun for the community that plays the game with you. Choices will divide that community.

Of course there are ways Valve can make things better. Making the games inter compatible would be amazing. Giving discounts to those who already own L4D1, and then including L4D1 with L4D2 for those that do not already own L4D1 will make it even better.

I dunno, to me, L4D has always been just a game, not a community. I never got on and said, "Hey fellow L4Der's, whats up!?! How's your mom, dude?" It's always just been "Do you have a mic? Ok, lets do it."

Community is overrated.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles
The problem with a new game this soon is that it will likely split the community. The honeymoon for L4D Vs. play is far from over, and Valve is going to entice us with another before we're done with our first. Now some might question why having choices is bad, the problem is that any online game isn't fun solely for the game, its fun for the community that plays the game with you. Choices will divide that community.

Of course there are ways Valve can make things better. Making the games inter compatible would be amazing. Giving discounts to those who already own L4D1, and then including L4D1 with L4D2 for those that do not already own L4D1 will make it even better.

I dunno, to me, L4D has always been just a game, not a community. I never got on and said, "Hey fellow L4Der's, whats up!?! How's your mom, dude?" It's always just been "Do you have a mic? Ok, lets do it."

Community is overrated.

i think he means the number of people playing. it will be split between the 2 games.

 

[Dumac]

Screw you, Valve. L4D is the last game I buy from you for a long, long, time.

Do you not understand the L4D2 is basically going to make L4D obsolete and worthless? Almost all of the L4D community is probably going to migrate to L4D2, leaving L4D with scraps for a community. They should have warned customers that they were paying full price for a 1 year beta.

The main criticism with L4D was the obvious lack of content, but Valve fans promised that they would continue to back it up strongly, like TF2. Now with L4D2 coming out, all hopes of that happening are squashed, are you are foolish if you think otherwise.

Sequels split online communities. In other to stay with large majority of the population, you have to buy the sequel. L4D2 is great and all, but this is too soon. It just seems like a slap in the face for anyone who bought L4D, as they would have been much better off not wasting their money. L4D2 looks like what L4D should have been. I'm not paying full price for half a game again.

EDIT: Also, I would like to point out the giant different between the attitudes towards L4D in this thread and the attitudes in this PC gaming thread.

 

[cyphilis]

I will gladly fork over $50 or $60 for L4D2, and if 2010 they release L4D3, I will gladly fork over more money. Its a NEW GAME!!!! I'm glad, and I have gotten endless hours of enjoyment from L4D, and will continue to have fun with it until November. Then, its time to move on, and start over.

Thank you Valve, you have me hooked, and I will continue to give you my money for fast releasing games. I don't care about community,.. I care about ME having FUN. If you are upset about a new game.. well, sucks to be you... pick up a Monolpoly board if you want to keep playing the same game for the rest of your life.