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View Full Version : Right Model for Teamwork: L4D or TF2?


erislover
01-15-2008, 06:27 AM
Hi everyone. First post here. This isn't an intro thread but I want to state here that I've not lately been a strong gamer, and pretty much never a PC gamer--apart from CivII/III and Dune 2000/Emperor I don't touch the stuff. So I'd never head of TFC, for example. Please bear that in mind.

Personally, I've always enjoyed games which encourage teamwork, or at least political wranglings. Chess 4, the Jyhad (later, Vampire: TES) card game, RTS with friends, co-op Halo, Mario Party, and so on. I like the competition without the need for domination. So when I got my hands on TF2 through the Orange Box, I thought I'd finally found a game made by people who knew exactly what I was so tired of in FPS deathmatching.

As we probably all know, TF2 pushes players to cooperate by having specialized classes with limited--should I say focused?--capabilities. I love it. The depth of this system is really amazing me.

But I've also been extremely excited about the model TRS has come up with for this game in a genre that I've been in love with ever since I first saw the original NotLD. As we probably all know, L4D pushes players to cooperate by overwhelming them unpredictably from all sides, making Charlie Bronson types unable to win the game on their own merits. I'm extremely excited about the synthesis of this idea with the new Director managing the experience.

The question I would like to ask you all is: which model do you think is better, overall, or would some kind of synthesis be even better? If some kind of synthesis would be better, what form would it take?

For the record, I'm kind of undecided, but leaning towards TF2 at the moment. I know I will be playing TF2 for a long time to come, but will L4D simply devolve to another shooter after a few months? This is my concern, as I've not seen enough evidence to suggest that the strategizing behind the Boss Infected will generate enough "user-created content," so to speak. I mean, co-op Halo was really fun, I'd imagine randomizing some battles in co-op Halo would add some replayability, and I'd imagine an orchestrated director guiding the battles would add some improvements on that, but will player-controlled Boss Infected strategies be enough to carry the game?

Armored_Zombie_Cow
01-15-2008, 11:40 AM
yes, i believe...luckily, since the infected dont have guns, it keeps the game from being an FPS "rambo" game

squerl
01-15-2008, 12:18 PM
To preface, of course we'll all have to wait and see.

I'm excited for L4D because being a team doesn't make you give up anything. In a game like TF2, as a Medic you have no choice but to cooperate and heal, you have nothing better to do. In L4D all of the Survivors will be able to do the same things, so it's not going to be which team actually uses medics and the right classes that wins, but if the team chooses to works together or not.

As for the Boss Infected side, I think it'll be really interesting to see how the game evolves from launch. Survivors and bosses will be bad at first, but once people start getting better, I think bosses will need to evolve and be forced to work together if they're going to do anything effective at all.

I don't know, as a player I like having power, and I like not having the rock-paper-scissors excuse that I was just beaten because of class limitations/weaknesses vs a certain other class. I know that teamwork results in that not happening, but I haven't seen much of that in my experience.

Again, I'm not saying one is better than the other, I enjoy both, this is just being said because the current topic is to compare.

dontleave
01-15-2008, 12:57 PM
Left 4 Dead, normal TF2 matches require little teamwork sometimes. You can't say that with Left 4 Dead. Also, most of the teamwork in TF2 comes from the fact that everyone is invested in one direction/object/point by the map or gamemode. You can play the game entirely on your own and score successfully/win. Not so in Left 4 Dead.

Although asking for the 'right' model is a tad bit obscure, just my two cents.

Stickgore
01-15-2008, 01:11 PM
Im ganna hate the fucks on my xbox with no mic, their annoying.

dontleave
01-15-2008, 01:33 PM
Im ganna hate the fucks on my xbox with no mic, their annoying.

Damn, you sound so much better than them.

Skeetles
01-15-2008, 01:43 PM
because he is

Armored_Zombie_Cow
01-15-2008, 02:08 PM
Damn, you sound so much better than them.
lol cuz they cant talk...ironic maybe?

dontleave
01-15-2008, 02:13 PM
lol cuz they cant talk...ironic maybe?

*Ding*

erislover
01-16-2008, 02:50 AM
limiting[/i] factors on your play. Good spin :) And a little convincing. <div class="quote"><div class="quoting">Quoting: dontleave;]Left 4 Dead, normal TF2 matches require little teamwork sometimes. You can't say that with Left 4 Dead.Maybe not the survivor side...