Are there still gamers bitching about how they won't get this for free?

I can't wait to pre-order and get this game as soon as possible!!!

LOVE L4D! And L4D2 is going to rock my socks off!!!

I see a lot of people saying, over and over again, that they won't be purchasing the game until its $15/$20. We get it. You don't want it.

If they are saying that they intend to buy it when it's 15 or 20 bucks, how do you get out of that they don't want it? Obviously if they are planning on purchasing it at all then they must think it will have some inherent value when it ships. That would be "wanting it", or at least acknowledging the possibility that they may want it, as it isn't out yet. I know if it's good, I certainly would want it; I just don't feel like over-paying again like I did with L4D. Why this concept could be offensive to someone is baffling.

Jesus.. anytime there's news about L4D2, I see a lot of people saying, over and over again, that they won't be purchasing the game until its $15/$20. We get it. You don't want it. But for christ sake, at least find something else to say, or some different way to say it, because it's getting really old really fast. And we're still 4 months away from the game's launch.

I'll probably get it, btw. Because Valve have yet to screw me over the way I see it.

If they do what they did with L4D1, the demo will be disabled when the full game launches. That one fact alone almost turned one of my friends off the game entirely, them disabling his and everyone elses demo access when the release of the full game hit. As it was, I was barely able to pursuade him to buy it much later when it went on sale for around $25.

So just be aware, if you wait to even try the game until the price drops, you almost certainly won't be able to try before you buy since the demo will likely be gone when game gets released.

This comment was edited on Jul 7, 2009, 02:25.

You guys are more than welcome to your own opinions, about whether you think L4D was worth the price, or whether L4D2 will be worth it, but spare me your self-righteous bullshit with the implication that pre-ordering must mean that you're a "lemming".

Think what you personally want to think, but plenty people (like me), had a shitload of fun with the original Left 4 Dead, got more than our money's worth for it, are looking forward to the continued support that will be coming for Left 4 Dead, and at the same time, are plenty happy to pay another $45 for a sequel that amounts to much more content than what the original game had.


And if that means it'll "convince" them to do the same thing and come out with Left 4 Dead 3 next year, then so what? Just like every single game I've ever bought, I'll determine my interest in Left 4 Dead 3 when Left 4 Dead 3 is about to come out, how much new stuff it brings to the table compared to Left 4 Dead 2, and if I still feel like playing it.

This comment was edited on Jul 6, 2009, 19:01.

bla bla bla.

You will all buy it and love it.

This isn't Call of Duty 4 or something, I have no idea why you think people are going to foaming at the mouth for it. I definitely will not purchase it unless it's something cheap like $15.00, I don't want to pay full price to encourage them to do this again with L4D3 in a year.

bla bla bla.

You will all buy it and love it

qft

"With Left 4 Dead 2 we plan to do a demo before the game comes out that'll have multiplayer in it. And hopefully we can continue the free weekends with the full game post-launch."

Nice to see Valve is trying something new this time around...

"With Left 4 Dead in particular we've found that word of mouth really is the strongest thing,"

LOL. I love this statement.

This comment was edited on Jul 6, 2009, 17:59.

bla bla bla.

You will all buy it and love it.

i hear if you do the boycott you get an advance copy of self-righteous indignation

The word-of-mouth is bound to be overwhelmingly positive as it will be from people who loved the series enough to pre-order a game without having ever tried it or even seen all that much of it.

Business-wise, a pretty smooth move for Valve if you think about it.

For that to work the preowners need to drown out the people upset about the game and thus far on most forums I frequent(Arstechnica, Shack, SA, etc) the ratio is roughly 1 to 20, anecdotal of course.

I was referring more to the demo, where if it were released to the public at large, there's a good chance it would be slaughtered by people angry about the way Valve has failed to deliver on L4D thus far.

It's probably safe to assume those same angry people will not be pre-ordering L4D2, so they won't be able to sample the demo, and as such, any slagging of it won't be credible. The word-of-mouth is bound to be overwhelmingly positive as it will be from people who loved the series enough to pre-order a game without having ever tried it or even seen all that much of it.

Business-wise, a pretty smooth move for Valve if you think about it.

That doesn't change the quality of L4D 2, so to give it a crappy review out of spite seems kind of petty.

No one is reviewing it or anything, game's not finished yet. People are just basically slagging the shit out of the game in frustration. I can't really disagree with any of them either, I mean was the game really crying for Incendiary ammo? Shit like that is just weak and lackluster.

Well, the haters point is a good one. Regardless of how good the demo is, there will be a lot of people waiting to slag it mercilessly just because of the controversy surrounding it.

Me, I'm annoyed at how things played out, but I simply won't be buying L4D2 until it is in the $15 to $20 range to make up for how much I feel I over-spent on L4D. That doesn't change the quality of L4D 2, so to give it a crappy review out of spite seems kind of petty.

It's a pretty stupid decision for this particular game, they need as many people as possible playing it. If you take a cruise through some of the bigger forums on the web, you'll find the game's reputation is already pretty battered. People can be pretty fickle, especially if they think they're being ripped off. Some here comment on the Xbox users who will buy anything but that's really just a generalization derived from Halo's sales. Console users will generally follow their PC brethren in many respects. There just happen to be a lot more of them is all.

Doesn't matter who is right or wrong, there are plenty of people ticked off about this and Valve really needs to throw them a bone. Exclusive preorder demo is exactly what they should have avoided, just going to further aggravate people.

This comment was edited on Jul 6, 2009, 13:34.

Isn't it kind of pointless to release an demo for people who have already opted to buy the full product?

That's what I was thinking, with the second question being - why give a demo early to people who have pre-ordered if "word of mouth really is the strongest thing"?

There is an element of incentivising the pre-order, but put the two questions together for another answer: surely the first pre-orders will come from the L4D fans who are most keen on a sequel. So if those guys get the demo first, the first round of word-of-mouth will be from the guys most likely to talk it up.

Sounds cynical, but IMO it's fairly basic marketing - control the message. There's more than a few games that have been forever condemned simply because the opening salvo came from a minority of haters, and it subsequently became fashionable for everyone+dog to rage on it.

Personally, I always feel a little sceptical when they push you towards "buy before you try", but as Verno says it's so common now that it doesn't really tell you anything.

This comment was edited on Jul 6, 2009, 13:25.

It's rewarding them for supporting this nonsense. Have to give your lemmings something. Yep I'm that bored at work right now. Seriously though there is nothing new about rewarding users for preorders, it's an annoying but accepted method of doing business in the industry.

This comment was edited on Jul 6, 2009, 13:19.

Isn't it kind of pointless to release an demo for people who have already opted to buy the full product?

It would be a nice gesture if they offered this demo to everyone who bought L4D, or even just offer it to everyone. A demo is just a glorified advert for a game after all, why restrict who can have it?

From the wording it sounds like the demo will be available to everyone before retail, but people that pre-order will get the demo first, i.e. like a FilePlanet exclusive.

At the very least I think Valve should offer a discount on L4D2 for those that own L4D1.

This comment was edited on Jul 6, 2009, 12:13.