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subject: Interview with Valve's Chet Faliszek on L4D2 Release
CEVO|Plitt
original topic posted Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 5:03 pm CST
With the pending and much anticipated release of Left 4 Dead 2, Mike Donahue (Head of Game) sat down with Chet Faliszek from Valve Software to get the developer's insight.
CEVO|Donahue:Are you encouraged by the reaction to the demo so far?
Chet Faliszek: The reaction to not only the demo, but the new coverage, video segments, previews, etc has been overwhelmingly positive. I can't wait until the game is released already! I want to play with other people online, there is just so much to this game people haven't seen yet.
CEVO|Donahue: The "L4D2" boycott seems to have completely dissipated by now - in fact, boycott members pre-ordering L4D2 at a rate higher than regular L4D1 owners; what would you say to any remaining holdouts?
Chet Faliszek: Check out the demo. Check out the full game when your friends have it.
CEVO|Donahue: What is Valve's view of the competitive gamer situation that exists around its games - Counter-Strike, TF2 and L4D?
Chet Faliszek: We think the competitive community is a great asset for these games.
CEVO|Donahue: Does Valve try to categorize its customers into groups - i.e., casual, hardcore, etc - and if so, does it have a separate category for Competitive?
Chet Faliszek: When you have over 3 million people playing one of your games, there are going to be many types of people playing it. We don't categorize customers this strictly because even one player could fall into many groups. But we do realize different people have different needs, one of the reasons I have been reaching out to the community.
CEVO|Donahue: What is Valve's stance regarding dedicated servers and mods?
Chet Faliszek: We continue to not only provide dedicated servers but also host thousands of our own to try and make sure players get the best possible experience. We always encourage modders and will make sure our L4D authoring tools arrive alongside the game's release as we know for some customers that is as important as the game itself.
CEVO|Donahue: There's been some commentary that the L4D2 demo feels a bit console-like, going so far as to presume that it started as a console game and was ported to the PC. Can you respond to those rumors?
Chet Faliszek: We don't develop one and then the other. We develop the both in tandem.
For Left 4 Dead 1 I think some people thought the lobby system was that, until they realized it was created because L4D was unique at Valve for match making. It has the problem of a small group of people who all want to start the game at the same time, not just join games that have been going on for hour. Left 4 Dead 2 continues to have multiplayer games that have a beginning and an end, that is an odd concept for some, but that is what necessitates the need for lobbies. It has nothing to do with this game also being available on the 360. If the PC version needed something different from the 360 it would get it or vice-a-versa, simple as that.
CEVO|Donahue: Does the demo accurately portray the state of the game as of its release date (Oct 29th) - or was it packaged from a prior stage of development (i.e., is the demo an accurate representation of the game that will come out in 2 weeks?)
Chet Faliszek: The demo is a small segment cut off and created just for the demo. Some functionality and a ton of features are not in the demo but we think it does give you a good taste of what Left 4 Dead 2 is all about.
CEVO|Donahue: One component that has helped the CS and TF2 competitive scene is Source TV. Any plans on making that available for L4D in the near future?
Chet Faliszek:Yes! Yes! Yes! We have people dedicated to fixing this absence in Left 4 Dead 2. It will not be a part of the launch, but we are currently working on it.
CEVO|Donahue: There's significant concern that once L4D2 is released, L4D1 will die a quick death. Can you address those concerns?
Chet Faliszek: We just released 4v4 match making for L4D1 within a week of L4D2's launch. Not sure how that is a signal that we are forgetting about it.
CEVO|Donahue: Do you anticipate Valve releasing a game in the future with a "competitive mode" right out of the box; i.e., with ready ups, etc?
Chet Faliszek: We might but for our release of Left 4 Dead 2 we wanted to get feedback from the community about the changes we have made to Versus and the new game mode Scavenge. You will see some experiments in scoring in Versus for Left 4 Dead 2 as we try and work with the community to deliver the best method for scoring.
CEVO|Donahue: Lastly, what can we look forward to from Valve regarding its relationship with the competitive community?
Chet Faliszek: We are really excited about the release of Scavenge Mode with Left 4 Dead 2 and to see the competitive community's reaction to it. As for our relationship with the community, the game modes for Left 4 Dead 2 are different than many games. With the new modes there is always some fine tuning that can and should happen by watching how people play. As people start playing this week, they should post in forums, send us emails, etc - let us know what they think.
Stay tuned to www.cevo.com for news this week regarding our Left 4 Dead 2 Launch Tournament!
J.p.
Evo Points: 11
#1 posted Mon Nov 16, 2009 at 12:04 am CST
Nice article Donahue.
image
Evo Points: 29
#2 posted Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 1:52 am CST
so..... when ya guna fix source :P
raw
Evo Points: 5
#3 posted Wed Nov 18, 2009 at 4:05 am CST
counter strike is timeless.. the bomb plant/hostage rescue type of gameplay has been copied, redone, but no other game has done it as good as cs to date. Even if it takes them years to release a new version people will always be playing it...
frozt
Evo Points: 6
#4 posted Fri Dec 4, 2009 at 4:18 pm CST
It's nice to know valve actually recognizes there IS a competitive community. So please don't give up on games Counter-Strike: Source which hasn't been updated in ages, or at least give us some hope that a better game is in the works...
