[POV]The State of Death and Lost Friendships

[violent]

Just a heads up, the following is purely opinion and more than likely unshared by anyone else here. I use naughty words and I think I use the Lords name in vain a few times. You've been warned.


The State of Death and Lost Friendships (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=7919)


Few things require little introduction and if you are an avid gamer today, Left 4 Dead is one of those things. For those with the social life of a Smoker(n.), allow me to explain.

Continued... (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=7919)

[violent]

Imagine if you will, being stuck in a dirty hospital, deserted airport, decrepit farm, basically anywhere you wouldn’t like to be caught alone at night. Now imagine yourself there at night. Yeah. Fret not because you brought 3 of your closest friends with you. Problem is, they brought hundreds of little green guys that would love a nibble of that fat brain of yours. Zombies for you slow types. It perfectly replicates the tension one would expect from being cornered while hordes of these fucking things run at you like a fat man would after an ice-cream truck were he not too bulbous to do so. But I digress. Point is things get hectic and naturally, every move can be vital and every mistake fatal. This is where you learn who your friends are.


Before I get into the meat of this thing, I want to talk about something quite prominent in the game. More so than most it would seem. The ragequit. Now don’t get me wrong, I have been on the business end of a serious ass-beating and nothing would make me more content than just quitting, of this I am quite guilty. Way it works is when you play the Versus gametype, it pits 4 individuals against another 4. Within 5 acts, each team gets to play both Survivors and Infected. The mental transition that occurs when going from one side to another is astounding. As a survivor, my thought process is the equivalent of looking at one of my partners and thinking “Look at me goddamnit, I will not die in this god forsaken airport and neither will you! *slap*”, and I Leave him sniveling on the ground with a booger bubble forming around his nose as he blubbers something about his mother’s bed. That is of course until he realizes there is no other choice. God I miss old Romero films. On the other hand, as the infected I seem to lose all care and brotherhood I may have formed with my opponent even if that friendship existed since the Carter administration. I want him dead and if his death can be humiliating, all the better. Hell, if I had the option to dance the goddamned Charleston on his ripe loser corpse, I would spam the shit out of it. It just feels good. Not quite sure why that is.


Of course in the end it’s all games. But why is this one so different? Why is this so capable of inducing fury? Only thing I can really think of is the actual dedication one must apply in order to simply survive. I don’t care where you’re from, hustling through an otherwise deserted city for 20 minutes just to get reamed like a stack of paper 10 feet from safety fucking blows. Gandhi would throw his monitor through his window, of this I’m sure. Worse still is the idea that your freedom was robbed from you by some asshole sitting at a computer. Would the ability to see the one who ultimately bested you help? Would you want to see the face who robbed you of your freedom? I think I would if only for the torrent of original vulgar body gestures that would be unleashed upon my opponent. My body will become a tool of the gods of immaturity and vulgarities. And you know what? I’d embrace it because it’s only games and in the end you know how I know who my friends are? The one I tell to go to Hell and he says he will after he’s done banging my mom. Somehow, that makes me feel better.

[hunterx280]

LOL! I love it! Especially the last few sentences.

[violent]

LOL! I love it! Especially the last few sentences.

Hell, we've played together. You know exactly what I'm saying. Playing with friends has never been so helpful to my sanity.

[hunterx280]

Hell, we've played together. You know exactly what I'm saying. Playing with friends has never been so helpful to my sanity.

I agree. There aren't too many better ways to wind down the day or week than shooting your friends square in the face with a shotgon. :D

[Hawkzombie]

Playing Survivors Vs Infected is absolutely NO FUN if you're playing 1vs1...A friend and I tried it out for kicks after playing through the scenarios...and I gotta say, it was infuriating. the waiting to spawn is what killed it for me. Not to mention the fact that I kept getting gibbed by the AI as I tried to sneak up on them. Even as a tank I couldn't kill anyone because they backpedaled faster than I could run.

Co-Op is fun as hell...but I hate the Vs.

[violent]

Playing Survivors Vs Infected is absolutely NO FUN if you're playing 1vs1...A friend and I tried it out for kicks after playing through the scenarios...and I gotta say, it was infuriating. the waiting to spawn is what killed it for me. Not to mention the fact that I kept getting gibbed by the AI as I tried to sneak up on them. Even as a tank I couldn't kill anyone because they backpedaled faster than I could run.

Co-Op is fun as hell...but I hate the Vs.

I can definitely see that. You should join our games. Versus definitely shines when you have a full 4v4. There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to the infected but play with us and you'll pick up quick enough. I would also suggest not playing 1v1 anymore because to be turned off of playing versus would be a huge loss. Start here: http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=98

[Hawkzombie]

I may take you up on that...I guess I got turned off because he's the only person I know who actually plays :P

[violent]

I may take you up on that...I guess I got turned off because he's the only person I know who actually plays :P

We'll change that up for you real quick.

[BrassGecko]

If the other team all ragequits, switching to survivor to try to herd three bots past your former teammates can be pretty fun, in a grim "can I make it the next 10 feet" sort of way. Actually, I can't think of any better demonstration of that instant switch from "we've got this guys, no one left behind" to "DIE YOU BASTARD DIE."

[LiquidRain]

I had to cut back on my L4D playing due to the insane amount of rage it was causing me. I used to not swear, at any time in my entire life, and L4D broke that within about 2 weeks of me playing Versus.

[violent]

Luckily, these days when I play I really try my hardest to not lose. Now I can actually get a decent pounce in. Maybe it's mere luck but I think the perseverance is starting to pay off.

[Jackel]

Yeah, lately I've been hitting a lot more of those 25 pt pounces than I used to...I must be playing too much lol.

[violent]

Yeah, lately I've been hitting a lot more of those 25 pt pounces than I used to...I must be playing too much lol.

I've never been one of those guys that is aware of every little change in each update but I hear that the claw damage of the Hunter was dropped a bit. Be that the case or not, I'm really trying to get effective pouncing down.

[Libuke]

I've never been one of those guys that is aware of every little change in each update but I hear that the claw damage of the Hunter was dropped a bit. Be that the case or not, I'm really trying to get effective pouncing down.

It was 10 damage originally when you swiped, and the first hit after pouncing used to take longer so one swipe was often way better damage wise the bouncing unless you got the pounce damage. Now it is 5 or 6 per swipe and 5 per hit on the ground and you almost always get the ground hit and often have a better chance of getting a second or more so pounce is more effective then swiping.

[violent]

It was 10 damage originally when you swiped, and the first hit after pouncing used to take longer so one swipe was often way better damage wise the bouncing unless you got the pounce damage. Now it is 5 or 6 per swipe and 5 per hit on the ground and you almost always get the ground hit and often have a better chance of getting a second or more so pounce is more effective then swiping.

Ah, I see. Well even with the nerf, the idea of getting 25pts damage on a pounce is high enough up there for me to have growing room with the Hunter.

[Fenced]

I don't think I ever get to the point of actual rage. I get close when I get popped as fatty without hitting anyone, or completely failing as tank. Your team is relying on you to fuck shit up and all you do is fuck up. Oh the shame. And of course, the other team always gets more first aid.

But it really is so therapeutic when, for example, I blast a hunter midpounce, about two inches from my survivor's face. If it is a friend, I can easily imagine his reaction, and I can't help but laugh in glee.

Oh, and Wack, Spectre, and Secret are cowards.

[violent]

Oh, and Wack, Spectre, and Secret are cowards.

That was something. Funny thing was that I was gonna jump on their team after the event, it only seemed fair. Then Ink jumped in and I figured it was up to us and the pubs to pull through. Little did I know we were winning.

[UWCrash]

You know my general stance on this already Violent. Obviously getting stomped the first time I played Versus didn't help. I can see how it would be a blast if the score wasn't 600 to 2000+ going into the last round, but alas, that wasn't the case. I may give it a second chance at some point. I'm not generally quick to dismiss a game based a single bad impression (looking at all of my friends who tried playing Shadowrun and bitched about something other than the price-point here), but my hopes aren't terribly high.

Having thought more about it, what really bothers me about the Versus mode is the time spent playing vs. observing. The very nature of a zombie is to be part of a seemingly endless horde of what are individually disposable entities. When playing as a Boomer, Hunter, or Smoker you'll probably sneak around a bit to wait for the right opportunity, but once you make your move there's likely to be 5 seconds of real action (unless you get lucky enough to separate a lamb from the herd) which is almost certainly followed by your death and then a 20-30 second respawn timer. The Tank obviously has more endurance than the other specials, but generally speaking there's only one per round, two at most, and I wasn't fortunate enough to fill that role (which I have no hard feelings about). Ultimately it feels like an extremely poor On:Off ratio for real interaction with the game, and when I look back on the hour and a half we played I remember watching a twenty second timer tick down more than anything.

Yes, I have focused on what it's like playing as Infected. Of course playing as the Survivors is fun. Campaign is probably why quite a few people (I'm willing to bet most) bought the game, and while "The Director" works out quite well in my experience, giving human players control of the specials adds a new level to the difficulty. However, Versus makes playing as the Survivors a segmented experience where the gaps are filled in with primarily respawn screens. Look away if you don't want to read a really bad analogy, but to me Versus is like having the creme filling in my Oreos replaced with plaster. I've just bitten down and am left wondering how these delicious chocolate cookies could have been paired with such tripe.

[mister slim]

Man, the real Simon Pegg wouldn't spend so much time bitching about not being killed by zombies.

[Lon Lon Rabbit]

I think the reason L4D Versus mode causes such polar extreme reactions is because playing as the infected is essentially equivalent to griefing.

In most FPS games death usually means a small wait and then a fresh start with full health/ammo/cover/safety etc, and your opponent either kills you or they don't.

In L4D, the infected are not often able to just kill you right out of the gate, and instead they have to be as sneaky and annoying and jerkfaced as they possibly can, getting in your way in short but continuous bursts. In any other game they might headshot you for an instant kill, providing a little annoyance but a fresh chance moments later, but in this one they relentlessly pester you and slowly drag you down into the grave once and for all.

There is NO moment of safety or fresh start/respawn for the survivors until the next round; it's not even possible to heal up to 100hp again once you've been hit, so I think it's this tense atmosphere and the fact that the infected are trying their hardest to get in your way rather than kill you that can make a player swing from griefing glee to INTERNET RAGE in a single moment.

[UWCrash]

Man, the real Simon Pegg wouldn't spend so much time bitching about not being killed by zombies.

Actually, the real Simon Pegg did bitch about not being killed by zombies...or something like that (albeit not in a L4D context). I'm having a hard time interpreting your double-negative.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set

[violent]

Truth is Crash, I completely understand your frustrations with the game. It's that one real negative aspect I in with the game. And I think what Lon Lon said holds a lot of truth, that playing as the Infected is the equivalent of griefing. Bunch that together with the idea of learning the game and it cannot equate to an enjoyable experience.

I wish I could tell you something like "play with us until you learn the game" but that fact is that I don't think this game accommodates based on party. Losing always sucks bad.

Still, I don't want you to be deterred from the game because when you are dishing out the ass-kicking, it's rather fulfilling.

[mister slim]

Actually, the real Simon Pegg did bitch about not being killed by zombies...or something like that (albeit not in a L4D context). I'm having a hard time interpreting your double-negative.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set

Yeah, that was my fault for trying to drunkenly shoehorn your complaint into a Simon Pegg joke.