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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 66.207.82.96 (talk) at 22:01, 1 June 2009 (→‎Mike Patton?). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Good articleLeft 4 Dead has been listed as one of the Video games good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
February 21, 2009Good article nomineeListed

AI

Here's a possible citation for the AI segment of the Wiki, but I don't know if it qualifies as one: [1]

"The developers are working on an AI system that tries to make the two indistinguishable from each other - at least in the context of Left 4 Dead - and I have to say that they have done a great job so far."

Plot section?

Should we add a Plot section? The game has its plot seeded throughout. For instance, writing on the wall of the church in Death Toll indicates that the game takes place in October 2009. It's probable that we'll get videos as new maps are released which explain more of the backstory, maybe from each survivor's point-of-view. Smurfy 22:51, 31 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I would have to agree to this idea. The game has subtle hints of the back story, and a compilation of that information would make for a great article. Although, backing up the information would be difficult if there is a lack of sources we can use.--Hooligans (talk) 15:21, 1 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Valve is known for the hints at backstory in their games, but especially in this one, there's not much to say except little snippets here and there. It's not really encyclopedic to mention it.  Xihr  06:39, 2 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I think it would be possible (and maybe better) to have a new section entitled backstory. Valve people have hinted a lot of things about this in various interview. Hervegirod (talk) 22:13, 2 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
he he, sorry if I used this word, Valve people have said a lot of things about the games backstory. Hervegirod (talk) 01:38, 3 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
They're hinted subtly in the game, not stated outright in a referenceable way. Without a reliable, third-party source articulating the backstory in a useful way, as Dp76764 says, it's original research.  Xihr  05:42, 3 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
There's screenshots on the internet of the writings on the wall.We can use those back the "hints" up,if the copyright stuff will let us.Besides,sometimes the survivor talk about stuff in the beginning of the campaign. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.52.197.62 (talk) 21:31, 3 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I don't really see how there could be a real Plot section. This is pretty much the whole concept of the game: "Here diseased zombie-thingies; KILL THEY ASS." Groundlord (talk) 16:40, 13 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have not put it in the main article, because I can't source it, but was it not confirmed that the HUNTERS are/were members of the guild of assassins that were shown in the game ASSASSINS CREED, how one of the programmers from that game came to Treyarch to work on LEFT-4-DEAD ,and how essentially the Assassins' guild was in town when the outbreak hit and for some reason, they were turned into HUNTERS instead of common infected?

As to the Plot....well, the fact is, this game is about Survival, not a Resident evil game where we find out exactly whom and why was behind the outbreak. This game is about Surviving, although yes, the religious implication of the game is certainly there. 69.230.169.210 (talk) 16:39, 14 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Are you joking? Assassins Creed? Valve only created one type of hunter. I think your idea is completely wrong.
One of the points of the game is not to focus on game play. A infection happened, the US sent rations to people, as you can see in death toll a lot. There is no cure, and the four survivors have little background. You can see the background by looking in the game manual. You are just trying to survive and get to the next safe spot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.161.59.58 (talk) 22:45, 2 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]


Someone recently added a plot section (diff), but it is arguably WP:GAMEGUIDE material that goes into excessive detail. For that reason, I'm moving it here and perhaps we'll get some feedback on its appropriateness in the article.

Although there is minimal dialogue plot, graffiti can be found mainly at safe-houses which describe what has happened.

No Mercy

The survivors are walking through an alleyway before they find a ruptured Boomer corpse among zombie bodies. Bill examines it before Francis makes a comment and Bill smears Boomer blood on Francis. They hear a cry and Zoey and Bill investigate. They slowly open a door before crouching with flashlights-on, before lightning strikes elsewhere and reveals that the person crying is a witch. Bill tells Zoey to turn flash-lights off. Louis spots a small group of zombie silhouettes running at them before shouting then quickly going to Bill & Zoey accidentally shining the flashlight onto the witch. Louis quickly closes the door before a hand bursts through and he fires his SMG at it. After dispatching the zombies, Louis hears a helicopter and quickly runs out onto the streets. He waves to the helicopter and shouts before it leaves and he says "Damnit". A hunter pounces onto him and Zoey shoots him off. Louis fires a pistol bullet onto the hunter and he dies on a car. The car alarm goes off with a horde of zombies coming along with a Tank. The tank smashes through infected and flings cars. They go back-into the alley-way with the tank incapacitating Francis before Bill shoots it before it can kill him. The tank is killed while Francis and Bill attempt to go up to the top of a building. Zoey kills it. At the top, Louis says "We made it! I can't believe we made it" before Bill says "We just got off the street. Lets not throw a party until we're out of the city". The camera then shows zombies around them on the streets and alley. This is where the intro ends. The helicopter searches again for survivors with a survivor (mostly Bill) telling how they can get to Mercy Hospital (the evac point) via subway. They reach the evac spot on top of Mercy Hospital and holds out until the helicopter, News Chopper Five arrives. In the middle of the defense, on the radio, the pilot says "Just had an incident...", before saying "Survivors, you are going to be my final run". He arrives and the survivors get to him on the other side of the roof. They get in and the copter flies away. The commentary says that originally Left 4 Dead was going to have a continuous story, however, the end of this campaign was "that the pilot would tell them how he had just done a street pickup and was not feeling well." The chopper was going to go down, however the ending was "kept more upbeat". The second campaign is called Dead Air and is set in the same city, hinting that some of this is still apparent.

Dead Air

Death Toll

Blood Harvest

—LOL T/C 11:16, 18 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Unfinished, unnecessary, unsourced, unencyclopedic. I don't think L4D needs a big plot section, since it doesn't have a big plot. --PenguinCopter (talk) 15:25, 18 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed. Poorly written, very speculative, very crufty. DP76764 (Talk) 20:50, 18 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Light House

There's an article on IGN that says there will be a new campaign level for the Xbox and PC called "Light House" in the new update.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/959/959549p1.html

I think some one should add the info about Light House into the dlc section, I would my self but I don't know how to do it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.119.151.198 (talk) 02:12, 29 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'll give it a shot. Modul8r (talk) 16:53, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Oops, looks like someone already had Lighthouse-related info in the Game modes section. Feel free to revert my recent change, or remove the other one, or whatever. Just trying to help. Apologies for any confusion. Modul8r (talk) 17:43, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It is not a campaign. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.161.59.58 (talk) 22:37, 2 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A class nomination

It seems about that time. The B class assessment recommended we go through GA to improve the article in some smaller ways and we should be good for A-class, which has been accomplished. Two independent editors who haven't contributed to the article must agree on the assessment with no significant opposes Skeith (talk) 17:33, 15 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I would prefer to wait a few days after the DLC because I expect the article to become unstable around its release. —LOL T/C 17:51, 15 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
When will the DLC be released? — Levi van Tine (t – c) 07:15, 18 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
April 21st I believe. LOL is probably right, I had forgotten about that. However all of the information about the upcoming Survival Pack has already been added to the article, unless there are surprises waiting we'd just need to do minor rewrites to reflect its release.Skeith (talk) 16:52, 18 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm more worried about the volume of inexperienced users chuming in to edit the article, which would probably require frequent maintenance. —LOL T/C 18:46, 18 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If there are many anon IPs making bad faith edits then you can request permanent semi-protection for this page. Extremepro (talk) 11:14, 20 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I know about WP:RFPP, but I expect to see many good-faith edits that are poorly written, get into excessive detail, or violate policies (especially WP:GAMEGUIDE); I would prefer to take my time with managing the influx of edits over trying to patch everything up during the nomination. —LOL T/C 17:48, 20 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It seems that the wave is pretty much over; according to these statistics, the number of hits on April 21 almost doubled, but it's almost back it normal now. I tried to fix some of the inaccuracies that resulted from the update, but I definitely recommend that an experienced* L4D player scan it as well. * And by experienced, I mean preferably somebody who's gotten a few gold metals by now ;) —LOL T/C 10:07, 24 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

Prose/Style/Layout

Lead
  • In the infobox, "Steam download" is listed under Media. Could it simply be "download" or "digital distribution" because Steam is already mentioned on the infobox as a distributor?
  • I'm not sure the system requirements need to be in the infobox. If they do, could it be auto-collapsed like the release dates?
  • The critics' choice and Windows download release dates have no region listed, are they worldwide?
Gameplay
  • Some information in this section isn't strictly gameplay related. "Over 1000 unique lines have been recorded for each Survivor," for instance, could be somewhere in Production. Rearranging lines like these may also help trim the Gameplay section, which is kind of big.
  • The Survivor characters and Infected characters subsections could be slightly rewritten to form a Plot section, which the article doesn't currently possess.
    Disagree, the game purposefully avoids a plot to go with the B zombie movie theme Skeith (talk) 03:41, 3 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Game modes is a good addition, but it sorely needs references. A handful of reviews, or even one comprehensive review, is all it would need.
Demo
After release
  • There is no information given, besides the infobox, about the game's release. The dates at least could be included here, along with downloadable content and planned additions, and the subsection could possibly be renamed "Release and beyond" or something similar. Also, there is no information about the "critic's choice" release mentioned in the lead infobox. The single-sentence paragraph in Production could also be added here.
Reception
  • The second paragraph here should maybe be moved to the top, followed by a "Critical reception" subsection.
  • There's only one decent-sized paragraph with commentary from reviewers. With such a high-profile, popular game, it could support another paragraph or two. There's little mention of the game's multiplayer, graphics, and audio, for instance,
  • There's only one reference for the Gamerankings score in the reviews infobox, despite both platforms being listed.
    Ref added. —LOL T/C 07:59, 1 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Awards
Miscellaneous
  • Many of the references need to be cleaned up. Wikilinking publishers, adding missing information, etc. The 1UP afterthoughts article is written by Thierry Nguyen, for instance, but the reference doesn't mention that.

Images

  • There are quite a few images in the article, maybe an excessive amount. The AI one doesn't add much, honestly.
Just making suggestions for reducing the number of images. — Levi van Tine (t – c) 08:41, 2 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The article looks pretty good. It just has some issues with layout mostly, as described above. If it can be trimmed down/consensed/rearranged I'll have no problem supporting A-class. — Levi van Tine (t – c) 10:39, 26 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the advice Skeith (talk) 18:03, 28 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Sure, just let me know when you've finished everything and I'll take another look. — Levi van Tine (t – c) 05:59, 29 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]


I added a condensed version of "AI and the Director" under development, but every time I try to remove the subsection a bot reverts it and yells at me. How do I stop this? Skeith (talk) 03:57, 3 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
AI and the Director fits under gameplay more than production I would have thought (by the way, none of the three who reverted your edits were bots). — Oli OR Pyfan! 04:03, 3 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Statistics

I know valve recently enabled the stats for L4D, is it worth mentioning in the article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Newmansan (talk • contribs) 16:07, 8 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It is if you can find a reliable, notable source to prove its notability, though I don't see it as likely. --PenguinCopter (talk) 23:29, 8 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Mike Patton?

Pretty sure he has better things to do than lending his voice to video games. Removing that vandalism. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.202.234.73 (talk) 10:02, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's backed up by IMDb, so I'm not sure it qualifies as vandalism. —LOL T/C 13:00, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Added back in and cited Skeith (talk) 16:12, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
"Pretty sure he has better things to do than lending his voice to video games." Yeah, because he certainly didn't do voice work for The Darkness and the new Bionic Commando game. Oh, wait... 66.207.82.96 (talk) 22:01, 1 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools

Any thought of a mention of the newly released Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools? [2][3] Surv1v4l1st (Talk|Contribs) 13:02, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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