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[Banjo Tango]

have something in return for the time invested. releasing portal for the weekends would have been enough, but now that they dropped that ball, it would be such a disappointment if it would simply end with nothing in return.

Are you not enjoying the games bundle? It seems like we're potentially getting 'something extra' in addition to an amazing deal on the pack.

I suppose I like ARG thing because it introduced me to Defense Grid

 

[ArjanN]

I wonder where this rates on the scale of Valve screw ups?

We have:

- HL2 releasing on September 30, 2003
- Disastrous launch of HL2 on Steam in 2004
- L4D2 boycott
- "Episodic format will allow us to release a new part of the HL2 story every 6 months"

Where you would you put this one?

I'd say about a 100 times smaller than any of those.

And how was the L4D2 boycott even a Valve screw-up, that was just some fans who made themselves look completely ridiculous.

 

[Spire]

How was the L4D2 thing a failing of Valve's?

 

[sflufan]

OK, maybe I should re-phrase it to say

- Valve announces L4D2 less than a year after the release of the original.

 

[Red]

Yeah L4D2 was fine in they end, we got a better product that couldn't really have been delivered as free DLC. Followed by a load of awesome free DLC.

Yeah L4D2 was clearly a good thing, and the negative feedback was not really Valve's fault.

 

[TheExodu5]

Uh, no. If all the bars fill, the game launches at that point. If they don't, the game comes out a little bit ahead of schedule (completing individual bars pushes up the projected launch).

Eh? Valve is gaming the system here. The rate of growth for the bars here seems heavily controlled. If a ton more users were participating, I can only assume that the bars would just have been filling up slower per CPU.

 

[Spire]

OK, maybe I should re-phrase it to say

- Valve announces L4D2 less than a year after the release of the original.

And appeased the retards who were upset and released a fantastic product.

Yeah, we better hope Valve never does that again. :|

 

[Hylian7]

Uhhh, L4D2 Boycott wasn't Valve.....That was just a group of people that were mad. Also, TF2 hats isn't a "screw up" either. They don't actually change the game itself. They're just some stupid fucking shiny hats. I don't understand why everyone claims hats ruined TF2.

Back on topic, I would rate this below the "Episodic content" thing. It still deserves to go on the list though. They spent two weeks hyping people for this and then gave us nothing.

 

[Palette Swap]

Yeah all the data we've seen so far seems to indicate the whole thing is fixed, to be honest. Even though the users participating has fluctuated in between 14-22k, the rate of progress has been the same the whole time. Potatoes have absolutely no effect either.

If it's all fixed, it's pretty assholish on their part to have people idling in games.
Idling doesn't further anything except power consumption in some cases. It's not like people are computing actual data for cancer research or something.

Pushing this a bit further could even have the adverse effect of souring people and making them hate some of these great indie games.

 

[Red]

And appeased the retards who were upset and released a fantastic product.

Yeah, we better hope Valve never does that again. :|

Valve takes too long to release a game, gets hate. Valve announces a new title within a year, gets hate.

If it's all fixed, it's pretty assholish on their part to have people idling in games.
Idling doesn't further anything except power consumption in some cases. It's not like people are computing actual data for cancer research or something.

Pushing this a bit further could even have the adverse effect of souring people and making them hate some of these great indie games.

I don't think anyone reasonable is going to develop a hate for these games but yeah the first part is completely true and is what really sucks here.

 

[theinfinityissue]

It's kinda funny how you get these troll pages, it's like once one big troll is brave enough to say something negative a lot of baby trolls run out of its shadow to take little shots then scurry back behind mama.

Definitely a weak point in the ARG, but overall still an awesome experience and hopefully one that will be continuing beyond the launch of Portal 2. While I agree that this isn't really the right way to go about the release, these people howling about cancelling pre orders and blah blah blah are just silly.

 

[Oreoleo]

And appeased the retards who were upset and released a fantastic product.

Yeah, we better hope Valve never does that again. :|

No one is saying that didn't eventually happen. But announcing L4D2 like 7 months after the first came out was a bit of a dick move.

Valve takes too long to release a game, gets hate. Valve announces a new title within a year, gets hate.

Well that's sort of it. L4D1 was Valve's hot new multiplayer IP. Everyone who bought it when it first came out expected something comparable to TF2 in that it would last a while and evolve over time, not "lol gotta pay $50 again 12 months later to keep up with the community"

 

[stuminus3]

OK, maybe I should re-phrase it to say

- Valve announces L4D2 less than a year after the release of the original.

If this was a screw up, I wish Valve would screw up every day.

L4D2. <3

 

[Sibylus]

Eh? Valve is gaming the system here. The rate of growth for the bars here seems heavily controlled. If a ton more users were participating, I can only assume that the bars would just have been filling up slower per CPU.

I'm aware that more sales = harder to complete (as seen in Killing Floor), but he was contending that if all the bars filled at once, we'd still have to wait for the timer to tick down. And that's untrue.

 

[Red]

It's kinda funny how you get these troll pages, it's like once one big troll is brave enough to say something negative a lot of baby trolls run out of its shadow to take little shots then scurry back behind mama.

Who are you talking about exactly?

 

[TheExodu5]

It's kinda funny how you get these troll pages, it's like once one big troll is brave enough to say something negative a lot of baby trolls run out of its shadow to take little shots then scurry back behind mama.

Definitely a weak point in the ARG, but overall still an awesome experience and hopefully one that will be continuing beyond the launch of Portal 2. While I agree that this isn't really the right way to go about the release, these people howling about cancelling pre orders and blah blah blah are just silly.

People are canceling pre-orders to get it cheaper at BestBuy. I wouldn't bother doing it, but I don't really consider that silly.

 

[shuyin_]

I wonder where this rates on the scale of Valve screw ups?

We have:

- HL2 releasing on September 30, 2003
- Disastrous launch of HL2 on Steam in 2004
- L4D2 boycott
- "Episodic format will allow us to release a new part of the HL2 story every 6 months"

Where you would you put this one?

I'd personally consider the grinding for bars to be the worst in the history of Valve. Not because it's fresh and the others forgotten, but because it culminates every negative trend in the industry (countdown that leads to another countdown, like us x1000000 if you want to see/play our product) with a conclusion that beats all other negative trends: obey us and play these games NOW!!!!

I'm afraid they might give ideas to other publishers... What if "We won't release Battlefield 3 until you play <insert games here> for x hours"? :|

Only game I've played this weekend is League of Legends. I refuse to participate in Valve's idiocy.

Oh, I guess I played a few rounds of Killing Floor! But that was for fun.

You admit that what Valve is doing is idiot, yet you also say there's nothing to complain about? What? MAXIMUM Cognitive Dissonance!

SAYS WHO?!

You won't accept other people's opinions? So you're just trolling. Why didn't you say so from the start....

 

[MRORANGE]

The target was way to high for us to achieve, honestly valve if your trying to pull a stunt like this at least make it achievable, many of us would have been happy with a Tuesday release.

 

[BannedEpisode]

To be fair a lot of the problems during the HL2 launch were due to the fanbase as a whole still being somewhat behind the curve Valve wanted tech wise.

A lot of folks still didnt have reliable or constant Internet at the time. Not to mention computers able to even run the game.

 

[Oreoleo]

You won't accept other people's opinions? So you're just trolling. Why didn't you say so from the start....

It's Twig. It's sort of understood at this point.

 

[Drkirby]

No one is saying that didn't eventually happen. But announcing L4D2 like 7 months after the first came out was a bit of a dick move.



Well that's sort of it. L4D1 was Valve's hot new multiplayer IP. Everyone who bought it when it first came out expected something comparable to TF2, not "lol gotta pay $50 again 12 months later to keep up with the community"

Yeah, I think Valve got rid of a lot of Potential for the community to grow by jumping the gun on a Sequel. Now they have to deal with a segmented fan base on a game that isn't that old.

 

[Twig]

You admit that what Valve is doing is idiot, yet you also say there's nothing to complain about? What? MAXIMUM Cognitive Dissonance!

I honestly don't care enough to complain. I had my fun, and now the ARG is over and done with.

You won't accept other people's opinions? So you're just trolling. Why didn't you say so from the start....

There are plenty of valid complaints in this thread, but I'd say over half of the people are just raging because they want to rage.

Also the caps and the smiley were supposed to indicate that was a joke. I'm sorry you didn't recognize it as such.

It's Twig. It's sort of understood at this point.

SILENCE, PEASANT.

 

[Salsa]

OK, maybe I should re-phrase it to say

- Valve announces L4D2 less than a year after the release of the original.

oh yeah, this sure was terrible, since you know, L4D2 is such crap.


People complain about Valve taking too much time to do sequels, and then they complain about a sequel coming too soon, give me a break.

 

[Red]

No one is saying that didn't eventually happen. But announcing L4D2 like 7 months after the first came out was a bit of a dick move.

L4D is released, critics and fans: "This is incredible! A new benchmark in cooperative FPS! We want more!"

L4D2 announced: "What is this? I mean -- sure, we want more, but not yet."


What dicks.

 

[theinfinityissue]

People are canceling pre-orders to get it cheaper at BestBuy. I wouldn't bother doing it, but I don't really consider that silly.

oh. That's pretty understandable, I thought people were just kneejerking to the ARG stalling out.

not really talking about anyone specifically, just the kinda "swing" of the thread. It is important to have criticism like this though, because you know that Valve probably does read it and have a track record of improving from negative circumstances.

It'll just make the ARG for

Spoiler

Half Life 3

even better.

 

[TheExodu5]

To be fair a lot of the problems during the HL2 launch were due to the fanbase as a whole still being somewhat behind the curve Valve wanted tech wise.

A lot of folks still didnt have reliable or constant Internet at the time. Not to mention computers able to even run the game.

They're talking about the game file decryption fiasco. It was taking around 12 hours for a lot of people to decrypt their game files.

Anyways, as far as this goes, I'd say I put it around the TF2 beta launch, which launched at 11:55PM PST on the date they promised.

 

[L00P]

So is this really fixed? I am disappoint :|

 

[raphier]

L4D is released, critics and fans: "This is incredible! A new benchmark in cooperative FPS! We want more!"

L4D2 announced: "What is this? I mean -- sure, we want more, but not yet."


What dicks.

Maybe we wanted expansion packs to L4D and not a sequel? And L4D2 is technically one. It just kind of sucks it has a sequel name.

 

[Cipherr]

It's kinda funny how you get these troll pages, it's like once one big troll is brave enough to say something negative a lot of baby trolls run out of its shadow to take little shots then scurry back behind mama.

The hell are you to call me a troll just because I dont like this last shitty part of the ARG. Ive been Portals goddamn walking advertisement for god knows how long, just because someone disagrees with you doesnt make them a troll dumbass. This part of the ARG fucking sucks. Deal with it.

 

[BannedEpisode]

They're talking about the game file decryption fiasco. It was taking around 12 hours for a lot of people to decrypt their game files.

Anyways, as far as this goes, I'd say I put it around the TF2 beta launch, which launched at 11:55PM PST on the date they promised.

Oh my mistake then.

I dont even remember that issue.

 

[Twig]

Haha I'm impressed someone managed to start the L4D2 argument in this thread. Although I guess it was just a matter of time.

The hell are you to call me a troll just because I dont like this lass shitty part of the ARG. Ive been Portals goddamn walking advertisement for god knows how long, just because someone disagrees with you doesnt make them a troll dumbass. This part of the ARG fucking sucks. Deal with it.

Whoa, man. Calm down.

 

[Red]

Maybe we wanted expansion packs to L4D and not a sequel? And L4D2 is technically one. It just kind of sucks it has a sequel name.

Are you saying L4D2 is more expansion than sequel? Baffling.

 

[TheExodu5]

 

[Spire]

Maybe we wanted expansion packs to L4D and not a sequel? And L4D2 is technically one. It just kind of sucks it has a sequel name.

Well you got that too. They're still releasing new campaigns and content for L4D.

 

[jediyoshi]

Maybe we wanted expansion packs to L4D and not a sequel? And L4D2 is technically one. It just kind of sucks it has a sequel name.

Antecedents are your friend.

 

[shuyin_]

So is this really fixed? I am disappoint :|

There is no proof that it is or it is not fixed.
However, i think common sense and logic dictates that it is. Just my two cents, but i already posted my view on it:

I doubt they would've risked getting complains from console users for screwing them over if PC users had played it on friday or even saturday. I believe they scripted the bars to fill in such way that the game would be released a few hours earlier. Thus they are keeping the appearance of an early release, without upsetting anyone.

EDIT: looking at that graph, if it's legit, i'd say we have proof that it is fixed ))))

 

[Oreoleo]

L4D is released, critics and fans: "This is incredible! A new benchmark in cooperative FPS! We want more!"

L4D2 announced: "What is this? I mean -- sure, we want more, but not yet."


What dicks.

The L4D1 SDK at that point had not been released. Valve was basically trolling fans who wanted new content for L4D1 by showing off a sequel so early. That was my biggest hangup with the L4D2 announcement. Ultimately they made everything right, releasing the SDK before 2 came out, and giving us free DLC for both games. But at the time it came across as pretty disingenuous.

 

[Cipherr]

There is no proof that it is or it is not fixed.
However, i think common sense and logic dictates that it is. Just my two cents, but i already posted my view on it:

I doubt they would've risked getting complains from console users for screwing them over if PC users had played it on friday or even saturday. I believe they scripted the bars to fill in such way that the game would be released a few hours earlier. Thus they are keeping the appearance of an early release, without upsetting anyone.

Its the multiplier that has me looking at it sideways. When the site first went up there were like 1 or 2 hundred THOUSAND less, now its over 405,000 and the bars are not even remotely moving faster in comparison to even then.

 

[theinfinityissue]

The hell are you to call me a troll just because I dont like this last shitty part of the ARG. Ive been Portals goddamn walking advertisement for god knows how long, just because someone disagrees with you doesnt make them a troll dumbass. This part of the ARG fucking sucks. Deal with it.

I made a friend!

Valve really does need to do something else, something drastic tonight before all the energy drains out of the ARG entirely, and I wouldn't be surprised if they did. You know they're watching the backlash at this stage, it'll be interesting to see how they respond. The only wrong response would be no response.

 

[Home]

It's possible Valve overestimated how many people would take part in the final push. Maybe the expected double or triple the numbers, I'm not not sure.

I feel that the people who were involved with the ARG from the start and got really hyped will be more let down than people (like me) who really only heard about it when the final event happened. And it's understandable that those people would be let down considering.

 

[TheExodu5]

I made a friend!

Valve really does need to do something else, something drastic tonight before all the energy drains out of the ARG entirely, and I wouldn't be surprised if they did. You know they're watching the backlash at this stage, it'll be interesting to see how they respond. The only wrong response would be no response.

Valve will respond how they do every time there's a community backlash: ignore it completely.

I love Valve, but they badly need community managers. They are one of the worst developers in the industry when it comes to contact with their fanbase.

It's possible Valve overestimated how many people would take part in the final push. Maybe the expected double or triple the numbers, I'm not not sure.

I thought that at first, but now? No way. If this was simply a result of them overestimating the community interest in this, they would have changed the rules and sped things up a bit. This is scripted.

 

[Twig]

The L4D1 SDK at that point had not been released. Valve was basically trolling fans who wanted new content for L4D1 by showing off a sequel so early. That was my biggest hangup with the L4D2 announcement. Ultimately they made everything right, releasing the SDK before 2 came out, and giving us free DLC for both games. But at the time it came across as pretty disingenuous.

I wasn't trolled, and I am a fan, and I wanted new content.

 

[Treefingers]

Whoa, man. Calm down.

Hate when people say this

 

[Red]

The L4D1 SDK at that point had not been released. Valve was basically trolling fans who wanted new content for L4D1 by showing off a sequel so early. That was my biggest hangup with the L4D2 announcement. Ultimately they made everything right, releasing the SDK before 2 came out, and giving us free DLC for both games. But at the time it came across as pretty disingenuous.

That's reasonable.

 

[Oreoleo]

I wasn't trolled, and I am a fan, and I wanted new content.

Some people are trolled more easily than others, just sayin

That part has been workng great so far !

:lmao

 

[Palette Swap]

Thus they are keeping the appearance of an early release, without upsetting anyone.

That part has been workng great so far !

 

[Sibylus]

http://www.thejayzone.com/pics/p2.png

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27193789&postcount=5368

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

You won't accept other people's opinions? So you're just trolling. Why didn't you say so from the start....

Twig is always a troll. Contrarian and baiting.

 

[Spire]

Valve will respond how they do every time there's a community backlash: ignore it completely.

I love Valve, but they badly need community managers. They are one of the worst developers in the industry when it comes to contact with their fanbase.

Is this sarcasm or...what is this?

 

[Won]

Looks like Killing Floor overtook The Ball. Good job everyone. It may actually finish before Friday.