Template:Blog Post (Left 4 Dead 2)

Blog Post was introduced along with The Passing in Left 4 Dead 2 as a means for Valve to communicate more directly with the community. It is directly available in-game at the game menu with a biohazard icon next to it, and will be colored yellow when new Blog Posts have been posted. It is also available here.

The following is a history of posts.

Friday May 14th 2010


Week 4 of the in game blog: New Mutation, Angry and Confused, and Pick a Mutation.

New Mutation: Last Gnome On Earth

Protect the gnome at all cost.

Do you crave attention? Want all the infected to swarm you and the gnome you are carrying? Then we have the game mode for you. The team needs to carry the garden gnome from start to finish in any campaign. The infected hate the gnome and will swarm whoever is carrying him. Watch out putting him on the ground, a boomer explosion will send him flying!

This Mutation is available in Campaign Mode.

Angry and Confused

Last week's poll asked what makes you rage quit. The answers were pretty spread out. The top two were skill imbalance and team disharmony. A thread was started in the L4D2 forums where people clarified their voting, thanks to everyone who participated. This helps us make choices on how to combat this problem.

Our stats show the best way to avoid rage quitting is to play with friends. Steam supports friendly people you recently played with. So if you have a good game with someone, make sure to bring up that dialogue and send a friend request. Your future games depend on it.

Pick a Mutation Any Mutation

Next week Realism Versus will slide into a permanent slot but what about the other three Mutations? One is coming back for an encore week and you get to pick it. Your choices are Bleed Out, Follow the Liter and Last Gnome on Earth. Make sure to at least try Last Gnome on Earth before voting.

We will continue the Play with Devs games this weekend, someone needs to protect you while you carry the Gnome. Look for us all this weekend using these Steam names - L4D2_DEV_1, L4D2_DEV_2, L4D2_DEV_3, L4D2_DEV_4, L4D2_DEV_5. All valid dev accounts are members of the Valve steam group.

Check back next week to see which Mutation will be returning.

Friday May 7th 2010
Week 3 of the in game blog: New Mutation, Landslide Victory!, and what rages you?

New Mutation: Follow the Liter

Scavenge one can at a time.

No more fighting over which cans to grab first. This Mutation spawns only one group of cans at a time, so survivors know exactly where to go. There is only one problem: the Infected know exactly where they are going.

LANDSLIDE VICTORY!!!

Last week's poll asking if we should make Realism Versus a permanent mode ended up telling us clearly - make it permanent. The final results were 68% Yes, 21% No, and 11% No Opinion. Thanks everyone for voting, even those of you who have no opinion. Next week we have news on when this Mutation will become permanent.

Don't Get Mad At This Poll

Do you play Versus Mode? Do you ever get frustrated mid-match and quit? Do you ever Rage Quit? If you do, why? While we can collect hard stats on this behavior, finding the motivation behind the behavior will help.

We will continue the Play with Devs games this Friday. We might even be forming Valve teams to take on your team! Look for us all this weekend using steam names - L4D2_DEV_1, L4D2_DEV_2, L4D2_DEV_3, L4D2_DEV_4, L4D2_DEV_5. All valid dev accounts are members of the Valve steam group.

Check back next week for info on the next mutation: Last Gnome on Earth

Friday April 30th 2010
Week 2 of the in game blog: New Mutation, previous poll results, and putting the game in your hands.

New Mutation: Bleed Out

Your health is ticking away!

With constant mobs chasing you, there's no time for standing around. You have no permanent health, only temporary health that is continuously ticking away. You won't find any health packs to restore your health, only pills and adrenaline. This mutation is for Campaign mode.

Poll Results

Last week's poll asking who your favorite L4D2 character was resulted in an interesting stat. Xbox 360 users were clearly Ellis fans with him winning by a large margin with 43% of the vote. PC users were split with Nick and Ellis coming in a virtual tie with 33%. Reading the forums, Rochelle surged a bit in popularity after people watched her in "The Passing" teaser. Our internal poll tells us we should make more teasers.

This Week's Poll

This week's question, should we make Realism Versus a permanent game mode? With the overwhelmingly positive response to this Mutation, we wanted to leave it in your hands if you think it should always be available for Left 4 Dead 2 or not.

Check back next week for info on the next mutation: Follow the Liter.

Thursday April 22nd 2010
Welcome to the Left 4 Dead in-game blog.

We will be updating this space every Thursday evening with information on the Mutation going live Friday. Every week there will be a new Mutation and every week we will give you the details here.

Mutations are tweaks and changes to the game rules. They can be for any game mode. For example the first Mutation is Realism Versus. This is a Mutation of Versus. It combines Versus and Realism to put a twist on regular Versus. It is playable on all maps, not just the maps in "The Passing".

Each Mutation will last for one week and then it will be replaced by a new Mutation. At regular intervals you will be able to vote for your favorite Mutations and the winners will be cycled back in.

In addition to information on the Mutation we will also be running weekly surveys and posting the results the following week. Sometimes the survey will be general feedback and sometimes it will directly control what is released next - so make sure to vote every week.

The first Mutation is Realism Versus.

What this means is, Survivors have all Realism changes working against them, no glows on items or survivors, tougher zombies, instant kill witches, etc. The Infected have all those changes working for them. The Jockey becomes one of the most powerful specials for his ability to steer a survivor out of view. Make sure you have a working microphone so you can scream for help.

To give us more detailed feedback on the individual Mutations and Mutations in general visit the forums at forums.l4d.com.

Check back next week for info on the next Mutation: Bleed Out.