portal

I suppose that word of the day is “Money”, so let’s talk about another company’s supposed greed.

It’s been a rough week for what I feel is one of the best developers in video games, Valve. Following the debut of the bloody-great trailer for their newly announced Left 4 Dead 2, the gamer community has been less than thrilled with the company. Valve, a developer long-thought of as a consumer-minded entity amongst money-hungry crap-peddlers is being accused of giving gamers the shaft.

Their crime? Ripping gamers off by over charging for content.

Left 4 Dead was released on November 18, 2008 with a $60 price tag (the norm for games nowadays) and some truly positive reviews. The game is one of the coolest, fastest, and all-around fun multiplayer experiences there is. Despite all of these positives, a slew of gamers openly expressed that the game is not worth the dough.

Now I don’t completely agree with this statement, but they do indeed have a point. The game has four shipped maps and two modes of play. Fight the zombies or fight the humans. Is this worth $60 to you? Not to me. Lucky for us, I believe that Valve understands this, and that’s why the price dropped to $40 at most places (a price that I think is perfect) and the “Survival” expansion wound up being completely free, and how often do you see that in this day and age of DLC? (Valve isn’t like Capcom, who charged $5 for Resident Evil 5 Versus mode and Street Fighter 4 costumes already on the disc. I still laugh when ever I read this Consumerist Article). I think everyone felt pretty good about that.

Then came Microsoft’s pre-E3 conference where we saw this trailer…



trailer taken from Machinima

Seeing as I’m such a fan of the original L4D, this trailer has me psyched. Although, at the time this article is being written, 26,111 Stream Community members do not share my excitement. These disgruntled buyers have started their own boycott page, swearing that they will not buy Valve’s new game in November unless the following need are met:

-That Valve honor its commitment to release ongoing periodic content for Left 4 Dead.
-That Left 4 Dead 2 not be released as a stand-alone, full-priced sequel but as either a free update to Left 4 Dead or an expansion with full compatibility with basic Left 4 Dead owners.
-That Left 4 Dead owners be given discounts for Left 4 Dead 2, should it be released as premium content

Now as you can see from my previous post, I am all about fair prices in the gaming industry. As gamers, between DLC, new hardware, software, and subscriptions, we are forced to spend the big bucks if we want to stay up to date. That said, looking at current and previous price trends in our favorite entertainment medium, I can’t support this groups cause. Here’s a few reasons:

1. I love Valve. Out of almost all of the game developers out there, I can’t think of a company that’s more gamer focused, community minded, and creative over Valve. You want to talk about supporting previous games? Bobdert and I STILL PLAY Counterstrike. We STILL PLAY Team Fortress and Day of Defeat. Best of all? They’re all just as fun as when we played them 7 or 8 years ago! Those servers are still up! Also, think about how cool Steam is? You can download anyone of the aforementioned games and jump into a community of gamers thriving for almost a decade. That’s a testament to how great Valve’s games are. I haven’t even mentioned Portal or Half Life 2, both of which are in my top 5 games of all time. I trust Valve and I think we should hold out and wait until November before we start flaming them. They have never steered us wrong.

2. What’s wrong with a sequel every year? No one’s screaming about Modern Warfare or the just announced Call of Duty 7? What about the plethora of Final Fantasy releases and re-releases? Or Resident Evil spin-off games? I’m not asking for a free of discounted version of “Darkside Chronicles” just because I bought Resident Evil 5! I’m not asking for the Gears 2: All fronts pack for free just because I bought the Combustible and Snowblind map packs a few months ago. Do I get “The Ballad of Gay Tony” for free because I bought “The Lost and Damned”? I don’t think so. This is the nature of the business.

3. LEAVE VALVE ALONE! WAHHHH!

That’s how I feel, what about you? Discuss! Is Valve screwing you out of money or are you just as excited as I am? Also, how do you feel about this recent Loot Ninja article when Tom Leonard talks smack about the PS3?

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