Template:Blog Post (Left 4 Dead 2)

The in-game 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 in-game instead of solely on their website. 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.

The following is a history of blog posts taken from the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2, with Xbox 360 poll results and such inserted where necessary. Blog posts posted here are to be kept in relation to the community. Technical updates to the games are to be reported here.

Friday August 13th 2010
Week 17: Iron Man, Diagnosing Mutations, Bill?

Iron Man No respawns, no restarts, no ammo, all tension!

Did you vote the Mutations are too easy? Try this one on Expert. There are no respawns in the map. There is no ammo. If your team wipes, you need to restart the whole campaign. Diagnosing the Mutations If you don't play a mutation why?

The numbers by platform: PC 27% None of these 22% Lack of Interest 22% Enjoy Traditional 10% Too Gimmicky 10% Too Easy 9% Too Hard

Xbox 360 41% None of these 21% Enjoy Traditional 17% Lack of Interest 8% Too Easy 7% Too Hard 6% Too Gimmicky

It was nice to see people trying Gib Fest last week. It not only had a high rate of people trying it, but it kept a stead 20% of the player minutes for the week.

Bill? If you played The Passing, you know that Bill dies. If you didn't play The Passing, sorry for the spoiler. We will be explaining Bill's death in an upcoming comic and DLC but what are your guesses as to how he died?

Next Week's Mutation: Developer's Choice!

Friday August 6th 2010
Week 16: Gib Fest! If you only had one thing? If you don't play a mutation, why?

Gib Fest Blast the infected to shreds with M60s.

Swords can slice up some fun. Chainsaws can tear apart the infected. But you need to get close for both and well... chainsaws are really loud! Time to go with the ultimate gun, you and three friends armed with M60s and unlimited ammo. This is going to get messy.

If you only had one thing... Last week's question was - Ignore the game for a minute. This is real world zombie apocalypse. You fought your way to a boat and boarded. You are unbitten. You are heading towards an Island in the Keys you hope is deserted but you have no idea. If you only had one thing you could wish to be on the boat with you heading towards that Island - what would it be?

Since the numbers are similar on both platforms we combined them: 56% Zoey 22% Shotgun 13% Ellis 7% Health Kit 2% Defibrillator

While we would have taken Ellis over the shotgun ourselves, this voting makes sense. Almost. I have to ask the 2% who voted for the defib. If it was for you, who was going to use it on you? If it was for someone else, were you really going to walk around looking for a random dead immune Survivor to resurrect? Either way, you scare us.

If you don't play a mutation, why? We did an update to our web blog this week about Mutations. While we go into more detail there, we are curious. If you don't normally play Mutations, what is the main reason why?

Next week's Mutation: Iron Man!

Thursday August 5th 2010
With the first dozen Mutations out we wanted to take a minute and talk about the Mutations.

Overall the Mutations and weekly polls have been a great success and an amazing way for us to get feedback from the community. Don't worry we still have more Mutations coming and we will also be tweaking and bringing back some of our favorites.

The idea behind the Mutations was simple. Left 4 Dead 2 is played by many different players and types of players. Some players have 300+ hours played in almost daily games and some players only play in weekly casual games with friends. We wanted to create weekly events that mixed up the game rules to experiment with gameplay and made people look at the game in new ways.

Before Mutations, what got played the most? It really depended on the day. Versus and Co-op Campaign were tied neck and neck each with around 40% (80-85% total) of the players on any given day. The other 15-20% was split between Survival, Realism and Scavenge.

Some of the constraints we decided on when creating Mutations: It was okay if it wasn't something that you wanted to play enough to replace an existing game mode as long as it was fun for a short period. Not every Mutation was going to appeal to everyone. Some Mutations would be directly aimed at smaller demographics inside the larger player base.

The decision to make Realism Versus permanent was easy. 41% of the players that week tried it. It grabbed an impressive 22% of the player minutes the week it was featured. That compares to the similar but different Survival Versus which was tried by only 25% of the players and was played for 4% of the player minutes the week it was featured.

Chainsaw Massacre was the most tried Mutation with over 52% of the players that week giving it a try and it was played for almost 14% of the player minutes that week. The voting pattern for encore weeks became obvious; the most played Mutation of the four received the most votes. The results of those polls were often a surprise for the forums but with a sample size for some polls reaching almost half-a-million votes these responses, by statistical necessity, reflect a more stable measurement of player sentiment.

The top 3 Mutations based on percentage of players who tried it at least once: 52% Chainsaw Massacre 45% Last Man On Earth 41% Realism Versus

The top 3 Mutations based on percentage of players minutes during featured week: 22% Realism Versus 14% Chainsaw Massacre 12% Last Gnome on Earth

The "You should have tried it because you would have loved it" honorable mention goes to Hard Eight which was only tried by 26% of the players but hit 12% of the player minutes that week.

Hard Eight leads us to our last point. Not sure about a Mutation? Try it. Too often we see people dismiss a Mutation before they play it only to play it and then request it be made permanent. The only way you can be sure if running scared from multiple Special Infected is fun or not is to give it a try.

Friday July 30th 2010
Week 15 of the in game blog: Split Vote! If you only had one thing? TANK!

We split in this week's vote. PC users went with Survival Versus and Xbox 360 users went with Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse.

Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse Four Swords against plenty of apocalypse!

Armed with only swords the survivors face near continuous streams of Special Infected ready to be sliced and diced.

Encore Mutation: Versus Survival Can you survive against your friends?

The first Survivor team sets the time. The second team tries to be beat it. Then the first team tries to beat the second team's time. Then the second team tries to beat the first team's time. And then that... you get the idea. Rounds keep switching until someone fails to beat the previous time.

We added a start timer for this encore of Versus Survival. You have 90 seconds to get setup and then the onslaught will start whether you hit the button or not - but the timer will only start when you hit the button.

How did the voting break down?

On the PC it was 32% Versus Survival 26% Four Swordsmen 22% Hard Eight 20% Healthpackalypse

On the Xbox 360 38% Four Swordsmen 28% Versus Survival 17% Hard Eight 17% Healthpackalypse

Similar numbers for the bottom two and a flip for the top two. Can anyone hazard a guess why we are seeing the split?

If you only had one thing... Ignore the game for a minute. This is real world zombie apocalypse. You fought your way to a boat and boarded. You are unbitten. You are heading towards an Island in the Keys you hope is deserted but you have no idea. If you only had one thing you could wish to be on the boat with you heading towards that Island - what would it be?

Next week's Mutation: Gib Fest!

TANK! The Tank statue over at the IP Factory is available for pre-order now! This is a very limited run so hurry up and click here].

Wednesday July 28th 2010
The above is from our friends at the IP Factory. This Friday they are releasing their Left 4 Dead 2 range of strictly limited high end collectibles. First up is the Tank. Pre-orders go live Friday July 30th.

Today’s update covers quite a few subjects so we thought we should touch on a few of them.

When we did our blog poll on rage quitting we mentioned we would be working on some of the underlying issues. Left 4 Dead 2 doesn’t have a more rage or less rage button – well not directly...

We checked some stats, did some testing, checked more stats, and did more testing. We have many more changes we are working on, some ideas failed, some were exploitable, and some were just bad ideas. What we are releasing today is not the sum of our answer to the problem but simply some of the updates that are ready to ship. More are coming.

While we were testing other changes with the Charger, we were bothered that doing the right thing did not give you the best score. New players were often confused by this lack of feedback, so we fixed that.


 * Charger now receives 300 points for any Survivor that is insta-killed.
 * Charger now receives 100 points for any Survivor that is insta-incapped by a charge.
 * Any infected that causes a Survivor to stumble into a "ledge hang" situation will receive 50 points.

Friendly fire is never fun, especially when it really isn’t friendly fire. So in both Versus and Co-op we wanted to remove those times when you receive a friendly fire warning for shooting through an infected.


 * Bullets that first pass through an infected character before striking a Survivor are now ignored as friendly fire.

Failing at the Tank is miserable experience. We all know the feeling when you are trying to explain to your team - but he was already on fire! So we did some work there.


 * Tanks go into a stasis when they spawn and leave stasis when the human player takes over.
 * Tanks do not attack when they are in stasis.
 * Tanks in stasis are invisible but still show a glow to the infected team.
 * Tanks in stasis cannot be set on fire.

The updates aren't over and you should expect to see some more shortly. As for the blog, besides the regular Friday update, next week we will be going into details on the Mutations, why Realism Versus was made permanent and other Mutations have not been. Plus what gets played more - Versus, Co-op, Survival, Single Player, or Scavenge?

Friday July 23rd 2010
Mutation Week 14: Healthpackalypse!, What else are you playing?, Pick Your Mutation, Extra updates.

Healthpackalypse! No health in this versus game.

Grind down the Survivors and don't worry about them bouncing back. With no Health kits in Versus, their permanent health is on a one way ride to zero.

What else are you playing? Last week we asked, what else are you playing? On the Left 4 Dead 2 team, our own poll winners are Modern Warfare 2 and Team Fortress 2. Red Dead Redemption would have won a few weeks ago.

With "None of These" winning the PC poll, and coming in second on the Xbox, what else are you playing? Let us know in the forums or on Facebook.

Here are your votes.

PC 27% None Of These 25% Team Fortress 2 16% Modern Warfare 2 11% Bad Company 2 11% Counter-Strike Source 7% GTA 4 2% Empire Total War 2% Football Manager 2010

Xbox 360 32% Modern Warfare 2 16% None Of These 13% Halo 3 12% Red Dead Redemption 8% Gears of War 2 7% Bad Company 2 5% GTA 4 5% Crackdown 2 2% FIFA 2010

Pick Your Mutation? It's time to pick your favorite Mutation! Vote for next week's Encore Mutation.

Extra Updates PC players will also be getting some Versus updates this coming week. We have more updates coming so don't think this is all we are going to do. These changes will show up on the Xbox 360 in a later update.

Next week's Mutation: ????

Friday July 16th 2010
Mutation Week 13: Hard Eight, What is your favorite Melee Weapon?, What else are you playing?

Hard Eight Double the specials, quadruple the fun!

Face eight Special Infected at one time, this is double the standard number! And if that wasn't trouble enough, we also increase the spawning frequency so it is raining Specials.

What is your favorite Melee Weapon? Last week we asked, what is your favorite Melee Weapon? I see I am not alone being a Katana man. It is interesting to see that Xbox 360 users prefer the Chainsaw that much over PC users. Is it all about the controller and that rumble?

Here are the votes by platform.

PC 44% Katana (Sword) 12% Machete 11% Fire Axe 9% Chainsaw 5% Baseball Bat 4% Golf Club 3% Frying Pan 3% Electric Guitar 3% Crowbar 2% Cricket Bat 2% Tonfa (police baton)

Xbox 360 34% Katana (Sword) 17% Chainsaw 12% Machete 10% Fire Axe 7% Baseball Bat 6% Golf Club 3% Frying Pan 3% Electric Guitar 3% Crowbar 3% Cricket Bat 1% Tonfa (police baton)

What else are you playing? Besides of course playing L4D2, what else are you playing?

Next week's mutation: Healthpackalypse!

Friday July 9th 2010
Mutation Week 12: Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse, What is your favorite finale? What is your favorite Melee Weapon?

Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse Four Swords against plenty of apocalypse!

Armed with only swords the survivors face near continuous streams of Special Infected ready to be sliced and diced.

What is your favorite finale? Last week we asked, what is your favorite finale? The answer is in and The Parish: Bridge and Dark Carnival: Concert are the winners. In parenthesis is the ranking and percentage the overall campaign had in our favorite campaign poll.

Here are the votes by platform.

Xbox 360 40% Dark Carnival: Concert (1/33%) 26% The Parish: Bridge (3/17%) 11% The Passing: Port (2/21%) 9% Swamp Fever: Plantation (6/5%) 7% Dead Center: Atrium (5/12%) 7% Hard Rain: Escape (4/13%)

PC 32% Dark Carnival: Concert (1/27%) 32% The Parish: Bridge (2/21%) 10% The Passing: Port (5/15%) 10% Dead Center: Atrium (3/16%) 9% Swamp Fever: Plantation (3/16%) 7% Hard Rain: Escape (6/5%)

What is your favorite melee weapon? This week's mutation limits you to the sword, but if you could pick any melee weapon which one is your favorite?

Next week's mutation: Hard Eight

Friday July 2nd 2010
Mutation Week 11: Versus Survival, Do You Play on More Than One, Favorite Finale, Play with Devs.

Versus Survival Can you survive against your friends?

The first Survivor team sets the time. The second Survivor team tries to beat it. Then the first team tries to beat the second team's time. Then the second team tries to beat the first team's time. And then the... you get the idea. Rounds keep switching until someone fails to beat the previous time.

Do you play on more than one platform? Last week we asked, do you own L4D1 or 2 on the Xbox 360 and PC. 30% of you do play on both the PC and Xbox 360. Xbox 360 users voted 57% No, 33% Yes and 10% Don’t Know. PC users voted 62% No, 29% Yes and 8% Don’t Know.

The Don’t Know votes scare us.

What is your favorite finale? We previously asked your favorite campaign, but do you like the finales the same?

Game with Devs! 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. Or on the Xbox 360 L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5. Our friends lists are full, but just play Versus Survival and look for us.

Thanks to everyone who submitted Avatar pictures last week. If you haven’t checked them out yet, visit facebook.com/left4dead2 to see them and other cool community content.

Next week's mutation: Four Swordsmen

Friday June 25th 2010
Week 10 of the in game blog: Chainsaw Massacre, Encore Week Voting, Do You Play On More than One?, Have You Earned a New Friend?

Encore Mutation: Chainsaw Massacre 4 chainsaws, millions of zombies.

You are armed with the only thing you need to survive a Zombie Apocalypse, a chainsaw. Rip apart thousands of zombies on your way to safety.

This Mutation is available in Campaign Mode.

Encore Week Voting On the Xbox 360 Chainsaw Massacre won the voting by a large margin. Chainsaw Massacre earned 44% of the vote, Last Man On Earth 26%, Headshot! 20% and Room For One 10%.

On the PC the voting was much closer with Chainsaw Massacre winning by only 500 votes! Chainsaw Massacre earned 33% of the vote, Headshot! 32%, Last Man On Earth 22%, and Room For One 13%.

Do you play on more than one platform? We often hear people say that they play Left 4 Dead 1 or Left 4 Dead 2 on both the PC and Xbox 360. We are curious, for how many people is this true? Do you own either L4D1 or L4D2 on the Xbox 360 and the PC?

Have You Earned a New Friend? Xbox 360 owners who have been playing the Mutations may have noticed a new Avatar award. You only need to play 6 Mutations to earn everyone’s favorite Gnome. With 8 Mutations released and 12 more to go, time to get cracking on that Avatar award. How cool does the Gnome look with your Avatar? Does he clash with your cat makeup? Show off your Avatar and Gnome by posting a screen shot of both on our Left 4 Dead 2 Facebook page.

Next Week's Mutation: Versus Survival

Wednesday June 23rd 2010
Voting is going strong for next week's Encore Mutation Poll.

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq150/Jo_The_Marten/pc.png http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq150/Jo_The_Marten/360.png On the 360 side, Chainsaw Massacre is the runway leader with 43% of the vote. On the PC side, we are quite a bit closer with Headshot! leading with only 33% over Chainsaw Massacre's 32%. This is a close race, so make sure to get your vote in by Thursday night!

What happens if the PC and Xbox 360 have different picks? They each get what they voted for. We created the system to accommodate this scenario. The different platforms can be running different Mutations.

When you are done voting, check out what the Left 4 Dead 1/2 community has been up to this past year.

We have been busy playing I Hate Mountains in L4D1 while we wait for the L4D2 version.

Gravitybomb has created a simple but very cool Left 4 Dead 1 poster.

Do you have visions of a Cheeseburger Apocalypse?

With the Portal 2 announcement at E3, we have all had cake on our mind. This google image search returns plenty of tasty images along with our favorite.

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq150/Jo_The_Marten/cake.jpg

You can also always check out the L4D1 or L4D2 photo pages on Facebook for a ton of cool community pics.

Friday June 18th 2010
Week 9 of the in game blog: Headshot!, This is my Rifle, Pick Your Mutation

New Mutation: Headshot! The only shot that counts is the one in the head.

Shoot them in the arm, shoot them in the leg, shoot them in the chest - it just doesn't matter! The only way these zombies are going down is with a head shot. Other hits will stumble them back, but only a head shot or decapitation will kill them.

This Mutation is available for Campaign Mode.

This is my Rifle Last week's poll results for the question: Pick your favorite Weapon Class.

The results were very similar between the PC and Xbox 360. Everyone picked the Assault Rifle class as their favorite and Auto-Shotguns next. The third choice is where the two platforms differed. Xbox users preferred Melee weapons and PC users went with Sniper Rifles. Is this where the controller Vs mouse/keyboard makes a difference?

The rest of the field in order of popularity: Shotguns, Grenade Launcher, SMG and Pistols.

Also in This Update We have the first of our planned Versus Changes. These changes will appear on the PC and later on the Xbox 360.

While not removing Defibrillators, we have made some changes to them. We scaled dynamic Defibs based on map length. This means unless the Defib was expressly set by the level designer to have more, the Director will only spawn them on a long map. The Director will also cap the number to one per map.

Using the Defibrillator is no longer free; there is now a 25 point scoring penalty for using a Defib. That means each time you use one, you will have 25 points removed from your final score. Will your revived Survivor make it far enough to be worth it?

Health kits will also be less numerous as we have removed the Director's dynamic Pill conversion. Previously if the first team was injured, the Director would spawn First Aid Kits instead of Pills for both teams. Now the Director will always just spawn Pills.

The Jockey received some minor buffs. His damage per second was increased and we removed his damage delay.

Pick your Mutation It's time to pick your favorite Mutation! Vote for next week's Encore Mutation. Last Man On Earth, Chainsaw Massacre, Room For One, or Headshot!

Next Week's Mutation: ???

Friday June 11th 2010
Week 8 of the in game blog: Room For One, Everything Must Go, Favorite Weapon Class

New Mutation: Room For One Only room for one survivor in this rescue vehicle.

You need to work together only long enough until you can survive on your own. First person to the rescue vehicle wins!

This Mutation is available for Campaign Finales Only.

Everything Must Go Last week's poll results for the question: If you could remove one item from the Survivors in Versus, what would it be?

PC Results 23% Nothing 19% Medkits 19% Defibs 18% Grenade Launcher 14% Explosive Ammo 7% Incendiary Ammo

Xbox 360 Results 27% Nothing 21% Medkits 18% Defibs 16% Grenade Launcher 11% Explosive Ammo 7% Incendiary Ammo

Only 14% you answered this poll correctly.

In this kind of Poll we don't consider "Nothing" the winner, as nothing to anything loses 23 to 77. What it does say is there are many things that people feel strongly about, maybe not strong enough to remove but strong enough that we should make some adjustments. So we are going to be making adjustments.

On the PC this week we are testing increased self-inflicted friendly fire damage for the Grenade Launcher. Will this change balance the Grenade Launcher? Time will tell. We will continue to experiment with changes on both platforms through this process.

Poll What is your favorite weapon class?

Next Week's Mutation: Headshot!

Friday June 4th 2010
Week 7 of the in game blog: Chainsaw Massacre, Loving the Dark, Is Less More?, and Last Video on Earth.

New Mutation: Chainsaw Massacre 4 chainsaws, millions of zombies.

You are armed with the only thing you need to survive a Zombie Apocalyse, a chainsaw. Rip apart thousands of zombies on your way to safety.

This Mutation is available in Campaign Mode.

Loving the Dark

Last week's poll results for the question: What is your favorite campaign?

PC Results:

27% Dark Carnival 21% The Parish 16% Dead Center 16% Hard Rain 15% The Passing 5% Swamp Fever

This compares to what was actually played the most last week on the PC:

26% Dead Center 21% Dark Carnival 20% The Parish 15% The Passing 8% Hard Rain 7% Swamp Fever 3% Community Maps

360 Results:

33% Dark Carnival 21% The Passing 17% The Parish 13% Hard Rain 12% Dead Center 5% Swamp Fever

This compares to what was actually played the most last week on the Xbox 360:

27% Dark Carnival 23% Dead Center 21% The Parish 11% Hard Rain 9% The Passing 9% Swamp Fever

Our stats are based on play minutes across all game types.

Is Less More?

If you could remove one item from the Survivors in Versus, what would it be?

Last Video on Earth

We have picked our top 3 videos from all those submitted. With over 700 videos submitted we had our work cut out for us. Thanks to everyone who submitted a video and helped us select the winners. Please visit www.l4d.com/blog for more information and to view our favorites.

Next Week's Mutation: Room For One.

Friday May 28th 2010
Week 6 of the in game blog: Last Man On Earth, Special Infected Love, Favorite Campaign, and Last Video on Earth.

New Mutation: Last Man On Earth

You will become legend to the infected as the last human left.

You are the only Survivor left in the world. No co-op help. No Survivor bots. But don't worry, you aren't entirely alone. While there are no common Infected, Special Infected will hunt you down and become close, close friends with you.

This Mutation is available in Single Player Mode.

Special Infected Love

The results from last week's poll are in and the Hunter clawed his way to the top.

Here are the numbers from the PC:

20% Hunter

17% Charger

15% Tank

13% Spitter

12% Smoker

11% Witch

7% Boomer

5% Jockey

And the 360:

22% Hunter

18% Tank

14% Smoker

14% Witch

13% Charger

7% Jockey

7% Spitter

5% Boomer

Favorite Campaign

So now that we know what creatures you like, what campaigns do you like? Tell us in this week's poll - What's your favorite campaign?

Last Video on Earth

Since this week's Mutation is Single player only, we can't really play it with you. How about this? You play by yourself. Record a video of your best 60 seconds. Upload that clip to Youtube with the tag "L4D2LastSurvivor". We will wade through the submissions and feature the best in next week's web blog. For more information please visit www.l4d.com/blog.

Next Week's Mutation: Chainsaw Massacre.

Friday May 21st 2010
Week 5 of the in game blog: Return of the Gnome and Realism Versus plus pick your favorite Infected.

Encore Week: 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!

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP PUTTING HIM DOWN HE IS THE LAST GNOME ON EARTH!!!

This Mutation is available in Campaign Mode.

Return of the Gnome

Last week was the first of a regular poll we will be running. After every four Mutations, we will have a vote to bring one back for an encore week. Last week The Last Gnome on Earth won handily, followed by Bleed Out and Follow the Liter.

Thanks to your votes on a previous poll, Realism Versus has graduated from a Mutation to a permanent Game Mode.

Favorite Infected

This week's poll question is simple. Which Special Infected is your favorite?

We will continue the Play with Devs games this weekend. 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. And on the Xbox 360 these gamer tags - L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5.

Next Week's Mutation: Last Man On Earth

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. And on the Xbox 360 these gamer tags - L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5.

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. And on the Xbox 360 these gamer tags - L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5.

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.