In yet another example of its dedicated support for Team Fortress 2, Valve released yet another update for the multiplayer game yesterday. Highlights of the patch include the elimination of “duck spamming” (a tactic used to by ducktards to deny snipers headshots), more accurate hitboxes, and, most notably, the re-introduction of spy side-stabbing (removed in the recent Scout class update).

March 5, 2009, 3:34 pm - Valve - Product Update

Gameplay changes

• Added a duck timer that prevents duck spamming while running around on-ground
• In-air, players are only allowed to duck once before they touch ground again
• Fixed several bounding box issues with jumping, falling, and rocket jump air-walking. Bounding box should be much more accurate there now
• Increased backstab check so that Spies can side-stab again
• When disguising, Spies now always start showing the primary weapon in their disguise, and can then switch it with the last-disguise key

Source

Yesterday’s TF2 update is the 12th patch the game has received since November of last year, which should be enough to convince any sane person of Team Fortress 2’s excellent developer support. In fact, the game has received 7 updates in the past month alone, including new weapons and maps added in the Scout Update, released 2/23/09. Further patches were issued within days of the initial release to fix newly discovered exploits and other bugs.

In contrast, Left 4 Dead, released November 21, 2008, has only received 6 game updates the same amount of time, which sounds absurd considering the number of serious bugs and exploits that were present at the game’s release. It would not be unreasonable to expect that Valve would prioritize support for a successful recent release over a an older, well-polished game, however they have done just the opposite.

What gives, Valve?

It has been argued that the developer is putting its time and effort into the upcoming DLC, the Left 4 Dead Survival Pack, supposedly set for release this Spring. But does that really excuse not only an uncaring attitude towards fixing game-breaking exploits, but also complete and utter silence with regards to keeping to keeping the community informed?

It seems to many that L4D is getting far less attention from Valve than it deserves, given its successful sales and budding community. However, without more developer support L4D runs the risk of losing a lot of dedicated players, many of which (myself included) have completely burnt out on playing No Mercy over, and over, and over, and over again.

Even a blog post or Twitter update now and again would be enough to pique my interest. I’m looking at you, Chet. Mosey on over to your keyboard and bang out some news with those big ol’ sausage fingers.

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