Have you ever felt disapointed?

Have you ever been disappointed in a video game because a carefully marketed commercial misleads you to believe it had more features, better graphics, and new creative game play only to leave you with "the same old thing"? This is why I created RunTimeErrorBoy's Game Shelf to review games from an angle unbiased perspective free from large impersonal gaming companies pressuring me to rate games from zero to ten rarely giving below a six, and I am RunTimeErrorBoy.

I have my problems with many games and their developers, but Left 4 Dead's marketing and Valve's development strategy continues to confuse me. When I purchased the game in early November they had already announced that a SDK would be released by December. This has yet to be fully released with a beta version that appearntly satisfied the community into feeling it is worth the wait, but yet they have already announced the release of Left 4 Dead 2 on November 17th, 2009?!

A major problem behind this decision to release a new "stand alone game" instead of an "expansion pack" is because much of the current L4D community purchased this game under the impression an SDK would be released promptly allowing enough time for user created additions to be not only created but appreciated by a large fan base. There is a Steam Communty with 35,00 users calling for the boycott of Left 4 Dead 2 largely on the premise that a new stand alone game would destroy any chance of major developments on L4D as its community vanishes to play L4D2.

As a company participating in a free market they do have the right to create a new stand alone game, and if the enchanced material is worth the likely $59.99, perhaps by adding duel chain saws for melee weapons, even I will purchase the game. Unfortunately this feels like another "Fable 2" conspiracy, and while boycotting games makes reviewing them difficult I will admit to agreeing with many of the principles of the steam L4D2 Boycott group. Left 4 Dead is still a very good game and will always have a place on my shelf, but with more experimentation using the SDK the comunity could significantly enhance the product that will be L4D2.