Red vs. Blue Contradictions

I found a list of RvB contradictions while going through some of my documents back from the original run of the series, so I decided to post them.

• Eulogy
• Episode 17: Tucker says 'eulogize'.
• Episode 51: He says he does not know what the word means.
• Spanish
• Episode 16: Donut says, "Am I the only one not understanding any of this?" on Lopez speaking. 
• Episode 75: He says, "I took four years of high school Spanish."
• Sex
• Episode 21:"Sometimes at night when I think about my parents having sex I get really mad for some reason."
• Episode 76: He says, "Maybe we should have the doctor explain, uh, just how babies are made you know..."
• Armor
• Episode 21: Caboose is shot in the foot. Episode 89: Simmons says, "You are wearing state-of-the-art biomechanical  body armor. It's designed to deflect bullets and absorb explosions.
• Sniper Rifle
• Episode 26: Caboose uses the sniper rifle.
• Episode 82: He says he does not know how to use the sniper rifle.
• Episode 100: Yellow Church is pushed out of Caboose's body not as a ghost but as a physical body.

Also as an additional note Church from Episode 51 can be seen in Episode 23.

Worst Gaming Organization of the Week: Pub Gaming

Technically this is another WGOW (pronounced "w go w") from last week, but the slot was taken for a shorter post.

Alright, so on 2011 October 9 at 11:40pm, ttt_losttemple_v1, I went idle to go to the washroom before the next round started. The moment I return, I am killed in spawn as a traitor. When the round ends I accuse my killer, -[PuG]-Bounty (STEAM_0:0:7854799), of RDM. Not only was my claim dismissed, but I was also ridiculed by several members, most notably Monp whom I assume to be the leader of the organization (ranked Head Admin). They said that Bounty was allowed to kill me because my traitor buddy did not kill me.

I posted an admin complaint/ban request on their forums, my main argument being:

Are neither of these individuals aware that on the majority of TTT servers it is illegal to kill AFKs?

Why is it illegal to kill AFKs on most servers? Because most TTT servers have it set to default for players to be moved to spectator after 45-90 seconds of inactivity (default is 180). This way, you have people in spec instead of potential stalemates (i.e. the last innocent and the last traitor are both idle), or stagnated games.

To which they responded:

tacosx22 (STEAM_0:1:23922408): ive been killed for that reason tonnes of times.. dont be such a bitch

Monp (STEAM_0:0:14987480): Good job filing a complaint because your traitor buddy got you caught. Too bad it was a legit reason to kill.

If my traitor buddy was any sort of TTT regular it is entirely plausible that he did not kill me based on the reasoning that killing AFKs is illegal on most servers.

---

It gets worse. We are playing dm_richland and I have my first traitor round. A little ways in -[PuG]- Charr Legion (STEAM_0:0:13399606) says, "It's PatPeter; it's PatPeter!" To which I responded, "What's your evidence? What's your evidence?" He never gave his evidence.

I (STEAM_0:1:7366484) can only conclude based on this night of gaming with this organization that Pub Gaming is a favoritism-centered, ghosting organization whose server should not be visited.

Worst Gaming Organization of the Week: HeLLsGamers

I was just now, not more than 10 minutes ago, banned from HeLLsGamers' Trouble in Terrorist Town server:

[HG] 24/7 Trouble in Terrorist Town | Custom | FastDL | HeLLsGa
75.126.83.194:27015

During the first round, I was RDMed by an innocent, HG |`john [L] #BF (STEAM_0:0:3118430), with a scout to the head. The detective killed him. All right, the detective killed him, it's fine right? Wrong. During that round as well, -hg- Green Ranger#TRR (STEAM_0:1:11466320) camped in a bush on the other side of the map as a Terrorist.

I asked Green Ranger if he knew it was a rule not to camp as a traitor, to which they responded it wasn't a rule. Fine. I told them it was the general consensus of the TTT community, but they blew me off with "yeah, whatever kid".

Next round, I'm a traitor. I (STEAM_0:1:7366484) walk around a little, buy a radar, do nothing traitorous, kill not a single person. What happens? HG |`john [L] #BF RDMs me again. When the next round began I posted this link:

http://hellsgamers.com/threads/43175-Trouble-in-Terrorist-Town-Rules

The first rule of which is: "- No Random Death-Matching (No RDMing)". The admin rocketed me up and killed me pre-round. In-between the transition between pre-round and the round itself I said, "So that's why only HeLLsGamers members are in the server."

Disconnect: BANNED: No reason specified.

Bugs, Glitches, Exploits, and Shortcuts

A negative opinion lurks over those deemed 'exploiters' in most games, but is this really just? Do such individuals who use said tactics really deserve to be looked at in such a poor fashion? Rather, there is a difference between bugs, glitches, exploits, and shortcuts that are strewn together under the umbrella of 'exploit'. Therefore, I will differentiate these so that such a misinterpretation no longer occurs:

• Bugs - Bugs are an unintentional, uncontrollable, serious problem that can either allow a player or team to automatically win or can kill a player or the entire team.
• Glitches - Glitches are also unintentional and uncontrollable, but much more minor compared to bugs. Glitches might stop a player from reloading or restart the respawn timer.
• Exploits - Exploits give a holistic advantage over the enemy team or player in a game. This means that the exploiter can have no risk of backfire otherwise it is a shortcut.
• Shortcuts - Shortcuts are the usage of map-specific mechanics that allow a player to skip a certain part of it (shortcuts are only applicable to games such as Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, whereas the other three can apply to any game). Shortcuts are differentiated from exploits in that they can kill a player or team. If a player has to jump from one platform to another and the possibility of falling off exists, then it is a shortcut. If no threat to the player exists, it is an exploit.

Left 4 Dead vs. Left 4 Dead 2

This post began on October 9, 2010, but I have only just now completed it today. I have, many a time, partook in the year old argument (stemming from the Boycott), of the similarities and differences between Left 4 Dead (1) and Left 4 Dead 2 (to which I will refer as L4D and L4D2 respectively), along with which constitutes as a better game.

Read my BioShock 2 review for my abbreviated synopsis of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.

Plot

The first and most important aspect of both L4D and L4D2 easily identifies as plot, followed by character development. Left 4 Dead was known as a game with no plot. The player could decide for him or herself the predicament of the survivors. The player could either think of the campaigns as a chain, a series of separate events all linked up, or individual instances of "What would happen if?" scenarios, such as, "What would happen if the survivors were stranded in an urban area at the time of the outbreak?", or "What would happen if the survivors were stranded in a rural area at the time of the outbreak?".

The Left 4 Dead comic portrays a time-line of No Mercy, Crash Course, Dead Air, Death Toll, and then Blood Harvest (The Sacrifice, The Passing) based on this page, which contradicts the inevitable storyline caused by the Crash Course DLC: No Mercy, Crash Course, Death Toll, Dead Air, and finally, Blood Harvest (The Sacrifice, The Passing) based on this webpage. The Crash Course DLC also leaves Dead Air and Blood Harvest swappable, without the influence of the comic.

Left 4 Dead 2 has no such freedom. All campaigns have a regimented connection with the other campaigns. The survivors start at Dead Center, (meet the original survivors in The Passing,) take Jimmy Gibb's car to Dark Carnival, crash the helicopter in Swamp Fever, get gas for Virgil in Hard Rain, and have the military pickup in The Parish. Because of the control Left 4 Dead gives the player over deciding the storyline for oneself, it has a greater plot, a great plot in no plot.

Character Development

Now it may not be fair to compare the original survivors to the new survivors seeing that the original have a comic and an ending to their adventure, so I will try to constrain characters to the game and DLC.

Simply put, the original survivors have very general personalities that can be applied deductively to the player, whereas the new survivors have very specific personalities that, to the contrary, cannot be applied inductively.

For instance, Bill is a old military veteran; he represents the leader and veteran gamer type or simply the senior member of a team. Francis is the dark-humored biker who represents the trolls and punk gamer types, or a player with a darker sense of humor. Louis is the light-hearted minority who can represent either the minority gamer or players who play games to have fun. Finally, Zoey represents the casual gamer or the female gamer.

Left 4 Dead 2 can have no such comparisons: Coach is a high school football coach, Nick is a gambler, Ellis is a redneck, and Rochelle is a news reporter. There is no leader, no one character represents minorities, and Rochelle cannot represent the female gamer as a news reporter (female college students represent the female gamer best for obvious reasons). Nick is closest in representing a character type with the mystery of his 'profession' similar to the mystery surrounding the Left 4 Dead survivors before the comic, as well as his pessimism. It is only to Nick that I will concede successful character development, which is why by this objective reasoning he is my most played character.

User Interface

Left 4 Dead 2 tries to look the part with a rugged, bloody, and raw interface. The consequence is that it does not look as polished as Left 4 Dead's user interface. The first-aid kit and pain pills are much better looking in Left 4 Dead compared to Left 4 Dead 2. This is good for comparison.

In addition the user loses small things such as not being able to see his or her feet in Left 4 Dead 2, as well as the 'vocalize' command. Left 4 Dead 2 also has the 7/8 glitch, where a server reports to Steam that it has 7/8 players but upon connecting to the server the server believes it is full and kicks that player.

Sound

Left 4 Dead 2 uses themes from Left 4 Dead's music except with a Georgian/Louisiana. This is disgusting not because of the region it takes after, but because Left 4 Dead 2 bastardized Left 4 Dead's music.

Gameplay

Just as two is better than one, seven is better than three. Left 4 Dead only has two tier 1 weapons: pump shotguns and submachine guns, and three tier 2 weapons: auto shotgun, assault rifle, and the hunting rifle, whereas Left 4 Dead 2 has four tier 1 weapons: pump shotgun, chrome shotgun, submachine gun, and silenced submachine gun, and seven tier 2 weapons: tactical shotgun, combat shotgun (SPAS), hunting rifle, sniper rifle, M-16 Assault Rifle, Combat Rifle (SCAR), and AK-47. Left 4 Dead 2 also has tier 3 weapons (special tier): the M79 Grenade Launcher and the M60 Machine Gun.

Left 4 Dead does, however, have superior pistols. The default pistol in Left 4 Dead 2 is the P220 and, when duel-wielded, the Glock as well. These two pistols are vastly inferior to the M1911 from Left 4 Dead, as they usually are in modern warfare games as well. The Magnum almost makes up for this when incapacitated, but when standing duel-M1911s dominate overall.

Left 4 Dead 2 obviously has the addition of melee weapons, so no comparison can be made. No comparison can be made to laser sights, incendiary ammo, or explosive ammo either. It did, however, add bile bombs on top of molotovs and pipe bombs.

Everything health-related is multiplied by two. In addition to health packs are defibrillators and in addition to pills are adrenaline. Adrenaline is, in my opinion, the greatest addition to the Left 4 Dead universe. It is because of this and all the aforementioned additions to Left 4 Dead 2 that allow it to dominate over Left 4 Dead in terms of gameplay.

Scoring

Left 4 Dead's scoring system is based on survival and health. Health packs and used pain pills add onto your score once you've reached the safe room. This, in contrast to Left 4 Dead's system based on distance and survival, is far superior. Left 4 Dead 2's scores should have been hidden so that score is only shown at the end of the map, like Left 4 Dead. The result is that a player joins and sees his or her team down by 300-2000 points, which results in a 25-50% rage factor.

Community

The Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 communities have many of the same gamer types. Amongst L4D and L4D2 a gamer will find: hardcore (CEVO) players, casual players, griefers, exploiters, shortcutters, rushers, trolls, and punks. The difference is the quality and quality of such groups and individuals. Left 4 Dead 2's features such as Team Versus brought a plague of hardcore players along with the game appealing

To play a game a L4D or L4D2, a player not only has to ensure that his or her team wins, but that the other team does not lose so much that they leave. This creates a large difference between Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. In L4D, if the enemy team ragequits, the game goes on just as it would. In L4D2, if the enemy team leaves, the server shuts down. Thus, these two ways of playing identify as:

1. A game to win.
2. A game of politics.

If a good player or a good team wipes the floor with pubs, they disconnect and the server shuts down. Server shutdowns are the worst change between Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 that has only increased trolling and griefing.

Overall

In comparing Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, I grant each the following in which is better than the other:

Quality	Left 4 Dead	Left 4 Dead 2
Plot	✓
Finales		✓
Character Development	✓
User Interface	✓
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Director		✓
Events		✓
Sound	✓
Gameplay		✓
Gametypes		✓
Scoring	✓
Community	✓