Left 4 Dead 2 Bits

Chris D

Chris D

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Boycotter "invented" Spitter[br]That's right, you read correctly. One of the main Left 4 Dead 2 boycotters supposedly invented the Spitter infected in Left 4 Dead 2, months before it was shown at Comic Con.[br]Eurogamer.net reports on the story where it turns out that Walking_Target posted on the Steam forums back in May:
Concept: an SI capable of lobbing a fair size glob of 'saliva' on an arcing path; at maximum (45* angle) on flat terrain, this glob of spit would travel roughly the same distance as a smoker's tongue. Obviously, if the spitter has a better vantage point they can lob their projectile a fair distance further.
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Walking_Target, to be fair, does acknowledge that the idea wasn't necessarily stolen by Valve in a Steam Community Announcement. To read the full story, head on over to Eurogamer.net.[br]What's New Interview[br]The guys over at Game Trailers have posted a short interview with Chet Faliszek all about what's good and new with Left 4 Dead 2.[br]This includes the new Swamp campaign, the new weapons and more[br]The Full Interview
 
ohnoez valve are thieves, they stole freeman's name from morgan freeman
 
You should of seen him. He is posting all over the webz to make sure you understand it was his idea.

1. get idea
2. tm or patent the idea
3. sell it
4. make money

His way, register on the forums for the steam community. Offer idea and love Valve if they use it. Ohhh they did something OHH I WANT FREE GAME AND CREDIT AND A CONTRACT. Ill ban your game!
 
I invented Left 4 Dead and Valve when I was 1.
 
The idea of a generic ranged area effect SI has been around for much longer than Walking_Target's thing (see all the whining about camping). Valve takes ideas from the community who'd have bloody thought.
 
Walking_Target said:
There has been a lot of commotion on the Steam Forums about how 'The Charger' was a stolen idea from a fan, and now a similar commotion is being raised about "The Spitter".

The first reaction of these folks, including myself, is to think 'Hey, they ripped me off". This is not really the case though.

In reality, when you come right down to it, it is far more likely that there were already similar ideas to this already floating around, these people just happended to be the only ones, or the first ones on that venue to post about it.

This is most likely the case for the new Special Infected in Left 4 Dead 2. Valve most likely foresaw similar solutions to the ones posted, probably before it was ever mentioned on the forums
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Seems like people are making a mountain out of a molehill here. The guy isn't claiming valve stole anything.
 
Its a pretty basic idea to suggest an infected that throws/spits/launches slime at the enemy, even AoE slime, the same things exists in 1001 other games, from Opposing Force's millitary zombie, to a members of the Flood in HALO, not to mention the countless examples in fantasy RPG games. If you asked people to suggest a speacial-infected, some sort of biological ranged attack would have been top of the list.

It is funny though, I remember emailing Valve shortly after TF2 came out, discussing the train/vehicle maps in RTCW: Enemy Territory, and how I thought it might work in TF2, I got a reply saying they were working on a similar 'Cart' based game mode already. About a month later somone else posted the idea in detail on the steam forums (In the form of a Tug-of-War), then when payload was officialy released, people cried out and said they stole the idea, it made me laugh.
 
The video got me more excited for L4D2. Grenade launcher? Hellz yeah!

I've had this idea for a special infected, but I didn't want to enter that contest because I can't draw for this.

It's called the Parasite, and he is covered from head to toe with these super-zombie insects (not sure what kind yet). The Parasite relies on mass hordes of zombies in order to make an effective attack. When there is a large zombie horde attacking the zombies, he will slither over and start to shake all the super-zombie insects off. These insects will, naturally, start crawling and flying around. They can latch onto survivors and bite them, spit puss onto them, etc. But the real deal of The Parasite's powers is what it can do to common infected.

In addition to attacking the survivors, these insects can crawl inside the bodies of common infected and beef them up quite a bit, Resident Evil 4 style. Now their heads won't necessarily turn into hideous insect tentacles or anything of the like, but slight mutations will cause their attack power and strength to grow. They might even have the Smoker's smoke or the Spitter's acid oozing from their bodies because they're so screwed up.

Since these insects are mutated zombie freaks, their longevity is very short, if they detach from their life source, The Parasite. While The Parasite's minions are doing his bidding, The Parasite can start exploring the map to find areas infested with infected insects. Or, as all L4D players do, die and then respawn with a full set of insects.
 
I fail to see why you guys think the guy is saying Valve stole anything. It's there for you to read. Game looks great though.
 
All sorts invent things over on the Steam User Forums.

Whenever Valve announce anything new, someone has usually "invented" something which sounds vaguely similar. When you get thousands making suggestions weekly, it is only a matter of hit and miss before someone is close to a concept Valve are thinking of.
 
Neutrino said:
Seems like people are making a mountain out of a molehill here. The guy isn't claiming valve stole anything.
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Walking Target seems reasonable. The guy who claimed to have come up with The Charger though was being a huge whiny douche about it, which might be what people are thinking of and mistaking for Walking Target / The Spitter.
 
Doesnt the Valve forum have an EULA with something along the lines of "anything you post here immediately becomes our property"? Most forums have that. Stops people pulling crap like this (well, they usually dont actually read that so still pull this crap. But they get shut up real fast)
 
Bob_Marley said:
Doesnt the Valve forum have an EULA with something along the lines of "anything you post here immediately becomes our property"? Most forums have that. Stops people pulling crap like this (well, they usually dont actually read that so still pull this crap. But they get shut up real fast)
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Steam Subscriber Agreement

7. USER GENERATED INFORMATION


"User Generated Information" means any information made available to other users through your use of multi-user features of Steam or to Valve through your use of the Steam Software. User Generated Information may include, but is not limited to, chat, forum posts, screen names, game selections, player performances, usage data, suggestions about Valve products or services, and error notifications. Subject to the Valve privacy policy referenced in Section 1 above, as applicable, you expressly grant Valve the complete and irrevocable right to use, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, transmit, broadcast, and otherwise communicate, and publicly display and perform the User Generated Information and derivative works thereof in any form, anywhere, with or without attribution to you, and without any notice or compensation to you of any kind.
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:)
 
I've played and talked with Walking Target a few times, he's a nice guy and a worthy leader for the movement.
 
"Go ahead, axe me a question!"

Oh god, this game will be mine.
 
How can you call the guy an idiot when you guys just babble and go straight to posting without even reading the news article?
 
A reasonable assumption.
 
Born said:
Truesay. A reasonable geezer who controls a horde of idiots.
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This sounds about right, and it has a 'Left 4 Dead' theme to it, a 'horde' of idiots.
 
I thought a lot of stuff in Valve games was user generated, or at least Valve has taken “advice” from their users.
To be fair this guy doesn’t have a leg to stand on because really the Spitter is such an obvious idea (apart from the burning ground part) It’s like when I said something about a Survival mode way before they announced it, it was just obvious they would and it was an obvious game mode to add in. The guy if anything should be complemented that they “used” his idea, I know I would.
 
This is what it is like being a gaming company:

If Valve ignores fan ideas they are not in touch with their customers.
If Valve uses a good fan idea they are ripping off their customers.

ALL I SEE ARE BABIES
 
alehm said:
This is what it is like being a gaming company:

If Valve ignores fan ideas they are not in touch with their customers.
If Valve uses a good fan idea they are ripping off their customers.

ALL I SEE ARE BABIES
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Just like if Valve takes 10 years to release TF2 and 2 years between HL2 episodes, they are taking too much time.
But, when Valve decides to release L4D2 within a year, it's TOO SOON OH GOD TOO SOON!
 
If Valve had announced some Ep3 information and then L4D2 I'm sure it would have gone down without a hitch.
 
Xevrex said:
Just like if Valve takes 10 years to release TF2 and 2 years between HL2 episodes, they are taking too much time.
But, when Valve decides to release L4D2 within a year, it's TOO SOON OH GOD TOO SOON!
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Valve's PR is all over the place. Anyway both are valid criticisms.
 
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