Can i get a better explanation of "Test Code"; I'm rather confused.

leading us all to believe that Valve had some DLC planned, and perhaps even ready to go.

Since when did having DLC ready before a game even goes on sale count as a good thing?!

OT: Oh well, of course they'll have DLC for it (that'll be free as well). Come on, it is Valve; Gods of gaming but victims of a freak accident in which their timeline is ,whilst parallel to our own, about 3 years slower.

Anyway we all know that there will be DLC eventually.

We haven't actually come out internally with what we're going to do yet

He even confirms it.

Furburt:
Microsoft exist to annoy me. Why does everything on XBL have to cost something?Why are they so bureaucratic? Why does Games For Windows suck so much? The list goes on and on.

Because they need more money for their giant ocean of money?

Furburt:
Microsoft exist to annoy me. Why does everything on XBL have to cost something?Why are they so bureaucratic? Why does Games For Windows suck so much? The list goes on and on.

Because each exec at Microsoft needs a money vault/pool a la Scrooge McDuck. If you expect them to swim in water then you are SADLY mistaken my friend!

Just goes to show you that Microsoft requires just about every game to have potential DLC...period.

Doktor Merkwurdigliebe:
Anyway we all know that there will be DLC eventually.

We haven't actually come out internally with what we're going to do yet

He even confirms it.

Of course there would be DLC. It's expected. I think Valve announced it when they announced the game.

Edit:

Furburt:
Microsoft exist to annoy me. Why does everything on XBL have to cost something?Why are they so bureaucratic? Why does Games For Windows suck so much? The list goes on and on.

They're a company with shareholders? Companies with shareholders live to make them happy so they'll keep buying shares and sell them to other people. It's simple business, not a vendetta against you.

Paragon Fury:
'Ti better to take the time to be prepared for a later occurance, than to have deal with the problems down the road.

Also, I stil can't believe people think that they don't start working on DLC until after a game is out. Its been siad many times, by many different devs - work on DLC begins before the main game is even finished - otherwise even things as simple as maps for Halo 3 or Operation: Anchorage for Fallout 3 would take another year or so to come out.

Exactly, these people who bitch about a company planning/starting/annoucing dlc seem to miss the point that of course they have. It's called planning ahead, every company does it. Car manufactures have the next years model in progress when the make this years. If companies waited till after release to start working on dlc then it would be 6-12 months before any significant work was releasable. I personally love dlc as if I like a game it gives me new incentive to keep playing.

Vault boy Eddie:

Furburt:
Microsoft exist to annoy me. Why does everything on XBL have to cost something?Why are they so bureaucratic? Why does Games For Windows suck so much? The list goes on and on.

Because each exec at Microsoft needs a money vault/pool a la Scrooge McDuck. If you expect them to swim in water then you are SADLY mistaken my friend!

If you think them having a lot of money is such an evil thing then you shouldn't be buying their products.

AkJay:
Can i get a better explanation of "Test Code"; I'm rather confused.

In order to prove to the Microsoft people that L4D2 could handle any potential DLC, they would have to have put in codes that pretended there was DLC to test for.

Sevre90210:
This is all the proof I need that Microsoft is evil, wanting a dev to make sure they are prepared to sell more if Microsoft wishes for it to happen. It's kind of silly to think Valve would do DLC anyway, they've always given the post-release content for free through patches.

I doubt this will happen on Xbox live where MS charges for almost everything. I can't really imagine them doing the same thing for the PC though, but i would not be shocked if they did.

However, if they do decide to sell it on STEAM then we don't really have a right to complain so along as the new content is created after the game is released.

But if they take away MODS and user made content that was highly popular for Left 4 Dead 1......then i would be angry. But i find it extremely unlikely that they will do that considering that Left 4 Dead 2 is a source engine game and pretty much every Source engine game ever has had mod tolls and a modding community.

Knowing Valve, they'll release DLC with the same names anyway.

Internet Kraken:

Vault boy Eddie:

Furburt:
Microsoft exist to annoy me. Why does everything on XBL have to cost something?Why are they so bureaucratic? Why does Games For Windows suck so much? The list goes on and on.

Because each exec at Microsoft needs a money vault/pool a la Scrooge McDuck. If you expect them to swim in water then you are SADLY mistaken my friend!

If you think them having a lot of money is such an evil thing then you shouldn't be buying their products.

Or you should be investing in Microsoft yourself so that you can start swimming in money as well.

Skizle:

mrfft:
Just goes to show you that Microsoft requires just about every game to have potential DLC...period.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. At least you'll know that there will be more to play down the line.

True, the only time i resent DLC is when the creators make a bare bone game on purpose and then sell it at full price or almost full price so that the gamers have to buy DLC to put some meat on the bones so that they can have a proper gaming experience (waves fist at EA).

It all sounds like a good idea to me, means when they want to support their product (you know, like valve like to do) it won't go tits up on their loyal fanbase. I really don't see why people have a problem with this, i mean is making sure your product is ready for future changes such a bad thing?

Goddang, I was excited for this.

Valve doesn't do DLC packs only episodes. Well not really episodes either anymore, mainly sequels.. which is about the same as a typically DLC pack anyway. So whos preordered L4D3? That's right I went there :)

Hardcore_gamer:

Skizle:

mrfft:
Just goes to show you that Microsoft requires just about every game to have potential DLC...period.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. At least you'll know that there will be more to play down the line.

True, the only time i resent DLC is when the creators make a bare bone game on purpose and then sell it at full price or almost full price so that the gamers have to buy DLC to put some meat on the bones so that they can have a proper gaming experience (waves fist at EA).

I think the fact Valve completely curb-stomped the boycott movement (with kindness unfortunately) has proved they didnt' make a "bare bones game" on purpose, so I don't think we'll have an EA situation. And besides which, I think by now after all of the controversy and publicity regarding L4D2, I think it's safe to say that Gabe spends a lot of time going like this:

...to be honest I wish I had made this image back when the boycott died but oh well.

As to why they had to give test code names, I think it makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. You can't just say "oh we'll give you this stuff" you might as well have a working title added to it to at least satisfy any "coming soon" list, it makes it more effective.

So I take it I'm the only one that doesn't get my asshole clenching whenever anything related to Microsoft happens?

I mean Christ...nobody would even be here if it weren't for them (you could argue about Linux and macs all day but the internet as we know it likely wouldn't exist if Microsoft never had).

When I was in College I got almost everything I needed that Microsoft makes at either free or a ridiculously good discount.

They aren't angels but I never quite understood the bash fest. I suppose I'm the only guy who knows how the hell you properly build a PC so it doesn't crash.

Been going for years without so much as a blue screen.

But what can you do. I doubt this will get much but people bashing me for being a fanboy :P.

Furburt:
Microsoft exist to annoy me. Why does everything on XBL have to cost something?Why are they so bureaucratic? Why does Games For Windows suck so much? The list goes on and on.

probly cause they lose money on the xbox with all the replacements and other such things and they're overly greedy and over charge for everything, just look at their office software and operating systems

i figured the stuff in the game was just a placeholder or something like that, didn't really shock me

Wow, what a lot of conspiracy buffs on this thread. Obviously because Valve put two lines of harmless do-nothing code in a game at the behest of Microsoft, that Roswell will now be amass with aliens from Vulcan out to kill everyone with hopes for Episode 3 of Counterteamlife 16. I'm really hoping that most of you are just being sarcastic over something that is completely pointless. I figured that code was fluff put in as filler as most coders do anyway for any program. And that is all it is....fluff. It is not a new reason to hate the people that make the game that is so damn fun.

matrix3509:

theultimateend:
So I take it I'm the only one that doesn't get my asshole clenching whenever anything related to Microsoft happens?

I mean Christ...nobody would even be here if it weren't for them (you could argue about Linux and macs all day but the internet as we know it likely wouldn't exist if Microsoft never had).

When I was in College I got almost everything I needed that Microsoft makes at either free or a ridiculously good discount.

They aren't angels but I never quite understood the bash fest. I suppose I'm the only guy who knows how the hell you properly build a PC so it doesn't crash.

Been going for years without so much as a blue screen.

But what can you do. I doubt this will get much but people bashing me for being a fanboy :P.

I think people hate Microsoft for the very reasons you pointed out: that we depend on them so much.

And yes, people can go on and on about open-source products all day, but the fact remains that without businesses like Microsoft, most products would never move forward.

I love it when people talk about how much they hate Vista and things of that sort because it always reinforces my superiority over them because I actually know how to properly operate a computer.

I had no problems with Vista which makes it difficult to relate with customers who rant about it for a half hour at work.

I've always been amazed that there are essentially infinitely many combinations you can mix to make a PC at this point and on nearly all of them Windows will work. It might not work well but the fact that they even boot to the OS amazes me.

Good. Its just wrong to have DLC before the game is EVEN OUT YET!

matrix3509:

theultimateend:
I had no problems with Vista which makes it difficult to relate with customers who rant about it for a half hour at work.

I've always been amazed that there are essentially infinitely many combinations you can mix to make a PC at this point and on nearly all of them Windows will work. It might not work well but the fact that they even boot to the OS amazes me.

Yeah, I love how actually constructing a computer these days is about one thousand time easier than it was (say) fifteen years ago. And then you have people who still can't (read:refuse to learn to) do it.

As my father said: "Ignorance is the absence of knowledge, which in most cases is perfectly acceptable. Stupidity, however, is nothing but proud ignorance, and is completely unacceptable in all cases."

Wow. What are the odds. Some guy came into my work this morning and basically said that.

He said something like "Being Ignorant is great, as long as you know you are ignorant and want to learn. There is nobody that knows everything. However stupid is different, stupid is when you think you know everything."

It was something like that, I am butchering it but it made my morning. I basically apologized for not knowing the answer to something and he told me that :P.

PS. I agree. I built my current PC on the first try and have had it running for two straight years (well you get my point I turn it off sometimes) and haven't had a single blue screen. Everything has been running flawlessly. I'm hardly a computer whiz by any stretch of the imagination, but they make it so user friendly now :P.

I hope this doesn't mean that anything to do with the original survivors is gonna be scrapped. I like the new bunch, but I can't just abandon the old gang.

You guys are reading too much into this; Microsoft is not evil, neither is Valve. Certification is there to guarantee a stable product (well.. stable'ish, anyway).

As a developer you have a choice whether to include DLC support in your certification or not; if you add DLC support later on (by a patch), it would need to be re-certified again, which is why most developers opt for including a DLC system with placeholder content.