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Trezoristo: Even if you can find someone who disapproves of Valve making a sequel to L4D per se (and I don’t know who they’d be, but they’d be bloody rare), I doubt you’d find even one who’d claim Valve doesn’t have the “right” to make a sequel; you may find they disapprove of the timing of the sequel for a couple of reasons, one of them being that the issues of L4D expansions and L4D2 are linked very strongly — resources invested in one can’t help but take away from the other. (They could theoretically recycle some L4D2 content back into L4D expansions, perhaps, but I doubt it, as that would undermine the selling points of L4D2). Of course, being a multiplayer game, the community is as just as important a resource from the players’ perspective, and that too will be diminished (ie, divided) by this release (Cue some idiot: “But you don’t KNOW that will happen!”; what the hell else is it going to do? Are L4D2 newcomers going to go “Oh man, this is great, I’ve GOT to go play the more primitive original instead!”, thereby staunching the flow of migration? My rocket surgeon senses are tingling!)

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R
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You bought a game, and additionally maybe some sort of assurance there will be additional content, but most certainly not the assurance there won’t be another game.

That’s what I hate most about this entire debate. The additional content for L4D and L4D2, they’re two separate things, yet a lot of people insist to throw in all on one pile.

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A lot of the “you’re just spoiled” shit comes from the false dichotomy that Valve could only have (a), done what they presently have for L4D (ie, not much, in the all-important context of what was pledged), or (b) released everything they’ve done for L4D2 for free as an expansion to the original (all at once, even). Maybe a few isolated cases believe in (b), but if you have to scrounge for the bizarro outliers to characterise other people’s arguments, you obviously don’t have much of a leg to stand on yourself. There’s an enormous spectrum inbetween “bugger all” and “sinking so much manpower into an effort that you create something you believe to be (and are pricetagging as) a full sequel.”, and people in the boycott group (like myself, as it happens; mostly out of principle, haha) would’ve appreciated an approach somewhere within that spectrum. God, comprehending that isn’t exactly rocket surgery…

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Always the sign of a good podcast. =D

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BUT it seems silly to me, nonetheless, because it seems brilliant and awesome for fans in the possibilities that it opens up. If Valve isn’t stupid – and I assume they’re not, based on you guys’ endless discussion of them – then they won’t just abandon L4D1. Because L4D2 is great MARKETING for it.

The impression I get of L4D is that it DOES have a plot. Which is the only reason why, despite having no interest in playing a game which requires other people to be fully enjoyed, I still plan on buying it whenever I get around to building a new PC. If that’s true… well, what are the people who get hooked on the world they’re introduced to in L4D2 (the people who didn’t play L4D1?) going to do when they want to get more of that plot? They’ll buy L4D1. And vice-versa.

Valve has a world that exists as two simultaneously extant “services” – that’s double the revenue stream. The L4D1 players will have an interest in what’s going on in the simultaneous plotline in L4D2 and the L4D2 cats will have the same interest in what they missed out on in L4D1. The only way to have a complete knowledge of what’s happened to both groups of four will be to buy both games. And therefore, continuing to make both games look like a good investment is, well, a good investment for Valve.

Why would they stop making campaigns for either, until L4D3 comes out? Everytime new content for one comes out, it just makes that game look like a better investment for players of the other.

Please blame all the typos or (hopefully non-existent) errors in logic on the booze.

EDIT: Just for the record, by “plot” I mean a general progression. The “story” goes from one place to another. I don’t know how specific or detailed that journey is, though I get the impression it’s entirely detailed in the progress one takes through a level, as in Portal? Either way, if I play through L4D1 and find myself in one place, then I get some DLC that takes me through some other places, while observing changes in the environment around me and to the four characters I’m invested in… I’ll be really interested in seeing how that same period of time elapsed down south with four other characters. I feel like Valve can make providing extra content worth their while for both games, simultaneously, is all I’m saying.

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KG

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I honestly don’t remember any single quote promising or even having the intent to release free content for L4D specifically. Maybe I read something and maybe I didn’t but I always assumed there would be that content. In fact I was surprised when all the mess started that people kept linking to that one story and not to several different articles and videos when Valve said they would release more content for L4D after launch for free.

But I didn’t get pissed off about L4D2 and I didn’t join any groups or complain about in comment threads either when L4D2 was announced either. I also won’t be at all surprised to see L4D get more content updates either.

I think over the past couple of years with TF2 Valve has created an assumption that all their games (at least multi-player ones) would receive the same treatment. One comment I do remember is a quote from Doug Lombardi along the lines of a game being like an amusement park and once you enter you get to ride all the rides for free when asked why they didn’t charge for DLC.

Maybe Valve is doing business like that to be altruistic but I doubt it. What they have said is that releasing free content updates: strengthens a community, keeps servers up, and keeps their game relevant. Every time there is a new content update all the gaming sites have stories up about an almost two year old game.

This gives the impression that they think a better way of doing business is to get new players to buy into a game that came out a couple of years ago rather than nickel and dime their existing customers for DLC or unlock codes.

If people thought that there would be free content updates for L4D I think this would be why rather than reading it on a website. At least that’s the case for me.

It is very surprising to see Valve come out with a game this quickly considering their past track record. It is also surprising in all this arguing I have yet to seen anyone actually question that release date and not assume it is going to be delayed.

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When he quit WoW to concentrate on his A-levels, he gave me his never-equipped Arcanite Reaper, replete with the old 2h +AGI enchant. It was a beautiful gesture.

The character he gave it to has since been deleted in one of my many attempts to go cold turkey, which only goes to show: love not, for all is dust.

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