I'm not sure what you're after here but isn't it common sense? They are going to want people to move to L4D2 so time spent creating content for the old game is completely wasted and, as an added negative, it maintains fragmentation of their user base.

Have they SAID they're going to release content for L4D once L4D2 comes out? 

This is the first of such articles I've seen, feel free to do more research if you want

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/06/before-its-time-valve-explains-left-4-dead-sequel-to-ars.ars 

But yeah, I doubt they'll spend money on producing content for an old game, which is what L4D1 becomes as soon as 2 comes out.

What I would like to see is that L4D2 content is backwards compatible with L4D1 - so new maps can be loaded etc. in the old rendering system, and the old characters, maps etc. being possible to load in L4D2.

A complicated feature, but seeing as we're including support for external mods and content in RQ I can't see it being that difficult. Lots of wrappers, basically.

That'd stop the whining by anyone with two brain cells to rub together, allowing the gaming blog forum mes to return to its uneasy slumbers of viral marketing, bullshit commentary and bitchy flamewars. 

So they're doing it then?

Great. 

Actually, that article was more an explaination for why they're making it as a sequel (well argued too tbh), but doesn't mention owt about continuing to make DLC for L4D1. Closest it comes is mentioning that they contacted community mappers saying that 'their work wouldn't be affected', which basically means, it'll be out far enough in the future that your current maps will be done (and may hint at backwards compatibility for loading L4D content(probably simple enough))...

Still, good article. 

"This is the first of such articles I've seen, feel free to do more research if you want

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news..."

Sorry to be argumentative and I guess I might be getting trolled at this point but ... can you quote the part where he says that Valve is going to continue producing free content for L4D? I read the article (it's 1 page, right?) and I didn't see that. 

The SDK will be coming out of beta in the next week or so, and Faliszek points to that to prove that Left 4 Dead will still be updated. Also, all the maps created with the SDK will work on the sequel. As for playing old maps with old characters but new creatures and melee? "We have some additional work to do there, we're talking about how to do that. That's what we want to do."  

So ... the community can create content for L4D that will probably work in L4D2. How does that translate to Valve releasing free content? 

For one, it proves that Valve is still supporting the community. If they weren't going to support it, why even bother with an SDK at this point? Basically the SDK itself IS free content, whether you like it or not - many games don't even release tools, such as Bio Shock. You can only draw "community support" from this act.

Secondly, the quote mentions updating the old maps with new gameplay - such as new Special Infected and new melee weapons, ie FREE CONTENT. I saw nothing mentioning that you had to pay for that (and vice versa, I saw nothing saying that you didn't have to pay for it, but come on, do you think you will have to pay for it?) 

1. Updating the SDK now, while L4D2 isn't even out yet, isn't surprising. It's the expected action, especially if they are hoping to support loading old content into L4D2.

2. I think what he was saying there was you could (potentially) load old maps into L4D2 and play them with the new creatures and melee. Not the other way around. 

Zwiffle, they promised new campaigns, characters and weapons before release, by now I doubt that's really planned anymore, better off putting all the new stuff in the new game.

That being said, I read in a few interviews that in addition to the SDK stuff they are releasing, they will be also releasing the matchmaking patch for L4D soon enough, which is cool (no more playing in a team of friends against 4 random pubbies that rage quit as soon as they lose, now the game will find you other teams of 4 friends to play against).

If they do end up releasing an extra campaign for L4D, I bet it'll just be to shut everyone up, hehe. 

There are plans for backwards compatibility from what I've read, but that's not what I gather here because he includes it with the SDK as proof that L4D will still be updated. I find it unintuitive to break the paragraph apart as two completely separate statements - in other words to me it looks like you're looking for evidence that Valve is actually seeking to make L4D2 into a "L4D + L4D2" package, which is counter productive all around.

In my eyes, the natural conclusion is that they are adding backwards support to L4D - not including new support for old maps (from a different game mind you) with L4D2. 

If you want an explicit statement that there is more stuff coming, here:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/992/992284p1.html

There are plenty of articles out there stating the obvious. 

I feel like you're trolling me. He says that, short term, new things are coming for L4D. I'm saying that once L4D2 comes out, that stops.

Where are you refuting my claims with these links? Short term, yes, they'll update it. Long term, no, they won't (IMO).

The only X factor here is if somehow L4D can benefit from L4D2 updates but that seems really unlikely. 

Again, they said they wanted to update old maps with new content. They said that. THEY SAID THAT. They said it. I can quote it if you want. Again. 

I really think you're reading it wrong. At any rate, this has gone circular. 

So my original argument was that people are complaining because they don't want to pay for a new game. Somehow I got sucked into this "will they won't they" thing about updating content. I have put forth evidence that there are updates forthcoming - there are immediate updates coming soon, and they want to update older maps with new content - new infected, new weapons - for free. How have I not refuted your claims? Please tell me what I am missing from your argument.

Are you asking specifically about new episodes? Is that the content you expected? Are you expecting new characters to be included with regular updates, similar to how TF2 focuses on a character per update?

I don't understand what you are arguing, I feel I've presented enough evidence against all arguments you have presented. 

The reaperbot is absolute pants for testing (all aim and lousy navigation and movement), the omibot does a better job even if it's far from a human opponent which is really what you need for any serious testing. 

http://kotaku.com/5286185/valve-responds-to-left-4-dead-2-boycott-vows-support-for-original

Let this be the end of it, okay? 

wow, 40 new posts and it's not spam! (in the strict sense of the word) 

That article still doesn't say that they'll release content for L4D after L4D2 ships.

And interpolarity probably means a UT2k4 style rebate if you have a key for the previous game... 

Interoperality even. Which kinda just means you can keep your XP or whatever between games and that custom content can work on one or both versions.

Or that you can run both games at the same time...

Yeh, I skim read long words ;p 

Third post/definition.

I think it may also mean 'we've found a cool buzz word to distract people until they forget about this...' 

Some of the comments at the bottom are so true/funny.

Metlslime: None of this would have happened if I hadnt mentioned that Half-Life was originally derived from the Quake engine (fairly flippant probably but also fairly true) 

that they will support the L4D community, not that there will be any more levels for L4D from them. Given that they only included four campaigns in the original release, and only half had versus support for some reason, I can't really imagine we will see any more new campaigns released for free whilst they are making a sequel that they expect people to pay $45 for.

I think the problem with what they are doing is not that it is wrong, it's just that the people that normally buy their games (on PC, which is still their lead SKU afaik) are so used to amazing support with a lot of extra content released for a while after the initial release that the very real threat of not getting what was expected is somewhat hard to stomach. Personally I don't really mind because L4D is great and I've probably had my money's worth already, but given that the game cost more than most of their other titles of a similar size (CS:S, TF2, Episode 1, Episode 2, Portal) and now suddenly doesn't seem likely o get anything like the level of support several of those (CS:S, TF2) titles have received is slightly annoying. When I bought L4D I thought "well, there isn't so much content for $45, but I suspect Valve will release another campaign or two" but that appears to have been a poor assumption to make. Also, the value Valve offered with their last product, The Orange Box was so insanely awesome that it's not hard for people to have very high expectations for L4D, which cost nearly as much for a tiny fraction of the content.

I'm not mad at Valve and will probably still buy L4D2, I'm just a little dissapointed that I allowed myself to assume that I was getting more than Valve ever told me I was actually getting.