Spoiler Warning: Left 8 Dead

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jun 19, 2012

Filed under: Notices 103 comments

On June 21st (this Thursday) we’ll be teaming up to play some Left 4 Dead versus mode. We will live-stream the game in progress. It begins at 7PM East Coast time in the USA. (Midnight GMT.) EDIT: 11PM GMT. Stupid daylight savings.

While we’re still waiting for confirmation from some participants, the slated teams are:

TEAM JOSH

Josh, Glitch, Randy, Chris

TEAM BUTTSKARN

Rutskarn, Mumbles, Shamus, Jarenth

Eventually Josh will also be posting a highlight reel for those who miss the stream. But that will just be the highlight reel. If you want to see the whole thing you’ll have to tune in. I think Ruts and Josh will both be Livestreaming their respective POV, so you can watch from either perspective. Or both.

I’ll put up the links to the individual streams when the event goes live. Hope to see you there. Er. I guess won’t see you. I’ll be covered in boomer salsa. But I hope you’re there anyway.

 


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103 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning: Left 8 Dead

  1. Harry says:

    OH MY GLOB YOU GUYS

    A Spoiler Warning livestream… on the night I finish my exams and finally become free…

    Yes, this will do. This will do nicely.

    1. Zagzag says:

      That’s the night I finish my exams too… are you sure you aren’t spying on me?

      1. uberfail says:

        This is the morning after I finish my exams. However it’s also the morning I fly down to Dunedin. :(

    2. ferry says:

      the same for me. I just finished high school. What about you guys?

      1. Zagzag says:

        Same for me. University in the autumn if I did well enough.

  2. Sozac says:

    I hope I don’t miss this like I did with Saints Row 3 last time.

    How long do you think you guys will be going for?

    1. Blargh says:

      Speaking of Saint’s Row, was there any way we could watch that stream if we missed it?

      1. Sagretti says:

        You can watch the recordings on Rutskarn’s livestream: Chocolate Hammer Livestream.

          1. Blargh says:

            Oooh, thank you very much.

  3. Jace911 says:

    All of the laughs will be had. ALL OF THEM.

  4. 4th Dimension says:

    1AM? On a work day. Damn that will be brutal to us Europeans.

    Edit: Correction, when Daylight timesaving is taken into accoint it’s actually 2AM in Central European Zone.

    1. Jarenth says:

      It will be very brutal, yes. I expect to be absolutely worthless the next day.

      1. Aulayan says:

        My advice, Get two hours of sleep. Then finish up Warlock. You might be so out of it, you make many crucial but entertaining mistakes!

        1. Jarenth says:

          If I had the day off, and if I hadn’t already finished Warlock (spoiler: I already finished Warlock), I would totally consider that.

      2. Sekundaari says:

        Midsummer’s Eve. Ha!

  5. Littlefinger says:

    1 AM? I’ll pass thanks. Will this be on livestream.com? Or otherwise available for full (later) viewing ?

  6. JPH says:

    Hey, one of the two days I’m off this week! I WILL BE THERE.

  7. Daemian Lucifer says:

    “I think Ruts and Josh will both be Livestreaming their respective POV, so you can watch from either perspective. Or both.”

    So I can watch the endless bunnyhopping with my left eye and dicking around with my right?Yay insanity!

  8. Jarenth says:

    Shamus knows I exist on the Internet?

    Glee

    1. Zagzag says:

      You would certainly hope so by now.

      1. Sumanai says:

        I fully expect the Buttskarn side of the stream to start with everyone saying their names and ones “Jarenth” is said out loud Shamus goes “wait, who are you?”

    2. JPH says:

      I know, right? When it first happened to me I was like, whoa, awesome.

      And then the next day came. And I was like, yeah, that was pretty cool.

  9. Volatar says:

    >If you want to see the whole thing you'll have to tune in.

    That’s really mean to the Europeans. I am half tempted to record the whole thing and post it on Youtube.

    1. Stephen says:

      This would be greatly appreciated.

    2. Syal says:

      It’s also mean to those of us on the west coast who won’t be off work yet.

      1. Josh says:

        Unfortunately there’s no easy way to do it that will please everyone. Any earlier and lots of people on the west coast of the US won’t be able to catch any of it (and at least myself and Campster, if not Mumbles and Randy, would probably be unavailable due to work and/or sleep schedules).

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Well if you are going to stream the whole thing,wont it be recorded completely?Everyone should then be able to see it,right?

          1. DirigibleHate says:

            You could even do a splitscreen post-production.

            I’m going to be shaped until the 24th, so I won’t be able to catch it live.

        2. Mephane says:

          I think the complaints are not so much directed at the time, as no matter when you do it, some places are getting the shaft, but at the fact that there will be no recording.

          I find this also particularly annoying because unlike traditional TV, where you can watch something only when it is airing, the internet is appropriately built to host and deliver stuff persistently.

          I understand there might be technical reasons involved, like the service you’re using might not support recordings etc., but I hope this is not a deliberate decision in the hope to get people more involved by watching it live, because that might exclude more people than you think.

          1. Josh says:

            Livestream keeps recorded copies of the streams after they’re broadcast, so anyone interested in seeing the whole thing will be able to see it all after the fact on the respective livestream channels. Additionally, both Ruts and I will have our sides of the stream recording with fraps and ventrilo (as we would normally do if either of us were playing a Spoiler Warning episode, it’s just that we’ll both be doing it simultaneously this time).

            Ruts will then send me his side of the recording so I can composite the two into an episode. In effect, I will have the entire recording at my disposal. Generally when we’re doing episodes that we intend to make clip shows, we find the whole recordings to be incredibly boring to watch (especially after I’ve finished an eight hour editing binge of getting rid of all the boring parts), but if there’s enough of a demand for a youtube version of the full recordings, then I might be persuaded to do them.

            No promises though, that does take extra work. Well really it just takes a lot of time to encode and upload. But still.

            1. Aanok says:

              Maybe the best compromise would be to make the edited video longer than usual? Like an hour long. Should be fair since you got no Spoiler Warning at all to do this week :p

            2. Bubble181 says:

              Just remember not to cross the streams.

            3. Volatar says:

              Oh. Shamus’ post made it sound like you were going to remove the whole videos from Livestream. That’s why everyone got upset.

        3. sab says:

          Something you might consider next time, is planning it for a friday or saturday. Then there’ll be less Europeans (like myself) who need to go to work the next day.

    3. rayen says:

      yes please do i have work at that time.

    4. Eruanno says:

      That would be super-awesome!

  10. RTBones says:

    Need to set an alarm/appointment in my brain…er, phone. This should be…entertaining.

    Live and let fly….

  11. Stephen says:

    For the Australians in the audience, 21/6/12 21:00 for Shamus is 21/6/12 10:00 AEST over here.

    I think.

  12. Littlefinger says:

    Question: how does Left 4 dead VS work?

    1. Jace911 says:

      Four people play as survivors, four play as Special Infected. The infected respawn when killed as a random Special, and their goal is to prevent the survivors from reaching the safehouse in each level. Once the survivors are safe (Or get killed) their score based on how far they got is tallied up and the teams switch sides. At the end of the campaign the scores are compared and whoever gets the highest wins.

      1. Littlefinger says:

        So it’s a series of team-deathmatch arenas? Are these maps big/interesting, or are they small and relatively boring?

        1. Jace911 says:

          They’re the same maps as the campaign mode; it’s a relatively linear stretch from the starting safehouse to another. The environments depend on the campaigns; The Parish is in New Orleans, Swamp Fever is in a bayou, Dead Air is in and around an airport, etc etc. They tend to be fairly large and detailed.

          1. Wandring says:

            That’s a pretty air-tight breakdown of it. Though I will come along and chirp that the game’s maps are altered a small amount to be a little more conducive to versus.

        2. Aulayan says:

          What he said is completely accurate. And it is VERY fun to watch. Though I hear rather frustrating to play because one team member can screw things up badly.

          1. Eruanno says:

            There’s also a “realism versus” mode where all highlights of people, ammunition and other things are completely removed. You can still shout at eachother over chat/voice, though.

  13. TheAngryMongoose says:

    Moving down from London that day : /

    And then moving back UP to London that night.

    1. RTBones says:

      Assuming you mean London, England … a lovely town. I myself will be moving 70 miles northeast of there (Ely) in a little over a month from now.

  14. Azulsun says:

    Let’s see… 7PM east coast time is 4PM here. I don’t get off work until about 5:30PM, and it takes me an hour to drive home. Unless you’re in it for the long haul, I guess I’m stuck with the highlight reel. Still, I’m looking forward to however much of it I can get.

    1. Sumanai says:

      Since you might not notice it above, I’ll mention it here:

      Both of the streams will stay on the appropriate Livestream channels in full, so you can see the whole thing afterwards there. But right now their plan is that Youtube will only get the highlight reel.

      1. Azulsun says:

        Alright, I see that now. Sounds like a fair plan to me.

  15. Lame Duck says:

    It’s like an internet birthday present for me!

  16. Mr Guy says:

    Wait – Josh AND Randy on the same team? How does that balance? Chris must be really, really bad….:)

    1. JPH says:

      Are you kidding? Personally I can’t wait to see all the griefing/teamkilling Josh does.

  17. Steve Online says:

    You should have gone with “8 by zombies”.

  18. rayen says:

    damn i work 6-11 that day…

  19. Josh says:

    To clarify, the highlight reel will be given full Spoiler Warning Special Episode treatment – and there could potentially be more than one if things turn out to be just that funny.

    1. McNutcase says:

      I begin to wonder if we couldn’t get a Special Guest Star spot for viewers. Have one person sit out some sessions, to be replaced with a randomly selected viewer.

      That would surely up the hilarity level, right?

      1. Wandring says:

        That’s a pretty cool idea…

        By which I mean: oooh pick me pick me! :D

        1. JPH says:

          Pick me because I already have the vent server info!

          -ninja-

    2. RTBones says:

      You do realize…we are all going to laugh at you ANYWAY…right? I suspect this will be absolutely delicious. Me, sitting there with my headphones and Gatorade…watching you people doing…whatever the h3ll you people do. I suspect that I will laugh mightily…and you people will never know.

      Like the ring announcer says: Let’s get ready to Mumble….!!!!!!

  20. decius says:

    Currently the US East coast is on GMT-4; 1900 EDT is 2300 GMT, and Midnight GMT is 8 PM East coast time.

  21. Viktor says:

    Yeah, I hope the highlight reel is good. I work evenings, so I’ll miss the entire thing. Too bad.

  22. Wandring says:

    Oh my gosh it’s a dream come true!

    Seriously, I’ve wished out-loud for a Left 4 Dead Spoiler Warning like this! :D :D :D

    Sounds like a weird thing to wish for, I know, but I’m a competitive L4D player and I love Spoiler Warning; It’s like putting together chocolate & peanut-butter to me!

  23. ENC says:

    I love Spoiler Warning, but not 5AM love.

    1. ENC says:

      Also, Shamus, you are now my favourite internet celebrity for listing GMT as well (they never do) so I could easily work out +10 hours from there.

  24. Amnestic says:

    Need to set a reminder for this. Probably gonna be the peak of this week’s entertainment.

    /Almost finished my first ME3 playthrough. I just need to get my Galactic Readiness up then I can get on the final stretch.

    1. Alex says:

      It’s funny. I knew going into to ME3 that Galactic Readiness wasn’t really important in the long-run. But I still did whatever I could to get that number higher and higher.

      I guess it was just me staying in character. At least I could say I tried, right?

  25. Zaxares says:

    You neglected to address the most important question, guys!

    Left 4 Dead 1 or 2? :D

    1. Jexter says:

      Dear god, I hope it’s 2. Left 4 Dead 1 vs is hilariously unbalanced, since a team that doesn’t complete a map gets hardly any points for it. You can get a thousand points behind just because your team died at the tank, and theirs didn’t.

      1. Alex says:

        The versus scoring in L4D2 is worse.

        The first game’s scoring wasn’t perfect, but it encouraged team-work. Or rather, it discouraged being a jerk and refusing to help your comrades. If you get attacked by a hunter in the first game, your team-mates will probably help you. If you get attacked by a hunter in the second game, your “allies” just run through the entire stage, never looking back, and then kick you because “YER DRAGON TEH TEAM DOWN”.

        The first game gave you more points if more people survived. That’s fair, and consistent in a zombie-apocalypse scenario.

        In the second game, they f*cked this up by making your entire score based on distance travelled. And made survival bonuses so pathetic that they’re not worth the effort it takes to get them.

        In the first game, if a team of survivors were limping to the finish line, the special infected team still had a chance. They had to really work for it, but it wasn’t over until that safe room door closed.

        In 2, if the entire team is limping to the finish line, there’s no point in even trying to take them down. After getting 2/3 of the way through a map, they’ve already won. Heck, it only takes one person to betray his team and get to the end to get a good score boost, more than if they’d all only made it halfway. This eliminates any incentive to co-operate or use team-work, IN A GAME BUILT ENTIRELY AROUND TEAM-WORK.

        1. SleepingDragon says:

          I have never experienced versus but that sounds… bad. Still, while it does sound bad for gameplay it sounds hilarious for streaming. Especially with Mumbles and Rutskarn on the same team…

        2. Jexter says:

          Eh, have to disagree with you there. Losing just one person in L4D1 means you lose their multiplier at the end, so losing 1 person reduces the score not by 1/4, but more like 2/5. Losing 2 people reduced your score by 3/4. Losing everybody at the very end of a map meant you got hardly any points for the map at all, despite making it most of the way.

          2 made distance count, which is a major improvement, IMO.

          1. Sumanai says:

            Sounds to me like both are too far off into the extremes and are in need of balancing. Luckily it doesn’t matter here, since insane scoring would only add to the hilarity.

            1. Cineris says:

              This is correct, and competitive mods like Rotoblin/Confogl/Fresh/etc. typically implement their own scoring since the scoring system in both games is rather bad.

          2. Alex says:

            Jexter: Your chief argument is that it’s a bad scoring system because losing makes you… lose?

            What?

            Of course you get less points if you lose team-mates. That’s how games work. When you win, you get rewarded. When you lose, you don’t. I’m really not sure what you were expecting.

            The old system, for whatever its’ faults, emphasized team-work. It encouraged you to try and keep as many survivors alive as possible to the end. The 2nd game has no consequences for betraying your team, in a game where team-work is the entire point.

            I believe distance should be a factor, but it can’t be the ONLY factor. It should take into account how much health you have, how many people are alive, and it should do all of this in a way that’s actually substantial. Instead, it’s too easy for one person to abuse the system at the expense of his entire team, in the vain idea that he’s helping his team. It essentially gives one idiot the power to ruin everything.

            It’s like if you played “New Super Mario Bros. Wii” with your friends, but the game gave you an invincibility star every time you drop one of your friends into lava.

            You can’t tell me I have to help my team, and then reward me for sabotaging them. A game can’t say one thing and then expect the complete opposite. The whole point of L4D2 is undercut by the stupidity of its’ design.

            1. Jexter says:

              Not at all, and I agree with your points on teamwork. I was just saying L4D1’s scoring system was broken due to its tendency to give one team a huge lead early on. 2 has it’s scoring problems, certainly, it just got rid of the that glaring flaw from 1 in favor of introducing it’s own, lesser problems.

              Anyway, as others have said, scoring doesn’t really matter for a stream. They’re probably going to do L4D2 just because of the wider range of special infected, which makes for a better playing and viewing experience.

              1. Amnestic says:

                Wait, L4D Vs. had a score system? Seriously?

                Wow. I played a bunch of it and honestly I never even noticed. I was too busy shooting stuff or jumping on stuff.

              2. Alex says:

                Hmm… I think maybe what it needed to do was find a balance between Distance Travelled and the Health Bonus/Survivor tally.

                The first focused entirely on Health, and how many people were alive. The second focused entirely on how far you got. In each case, one aspect has total dominance over the other, and that’s where I see most of the problems occurring.

                If they could figure out a way to split that closer to 50/50, you might solve all of the problems inherent with both setups. That way if one team was wiped out just in front of the safe room, they’d still have something to show for it, but not enough to encourage breaking off from your team.

                The problem now is that there’s no way this will ever happen, because Valve can’t count to 3.

                1. JPH says:

                  Don’t worry, they’ll just make Left 4 Dead 2: Episode 1.

                  Or Left 4 Dead: Global Offensive.

  26. Even says:

    Talk about perfect timing. Having no obligations for the next three weeks starting tomorrow afternoon I can feel free to go through the night watching this.

  27. Taluien says:

    Hey, hope you enjoy the stream, double hope it goes down without much technical problems. And also, will there be a streamchat and if yes, moderated? Because those things turn into a freaking mess rather fast.

    1. ENC says:

      I’d be more worried about their steam nicks getting trolled whilst the game is going on as it’s easy to steam-stalk all of them and send them messages (assuming they haven’t blocked it already).

      Hopefully I can pull myself out of bed for a 5AM viewing start.

    2. Even says:

      The New Year’s eve stream with Josh and Jarenth playing SR3 wasn’t so bad and I don’t recall there being much need for moderation. It was active but you could still keep up with the flow of messages and it was most of the time just people making fun of Rutskarn and the various Cuftbertian hijinks they got up to.

      1. Aanok says:

        Well, fortunately, Shamus’ audience tends to be manily composed of people who are fairly recpecta… balan… matu… uhm, you know what I mean.

        1. Eruanno says:

          They could just turn off all message alerts…

  28. Alex says:

    L4D is one of those games that I think would make sense to be played professionally, like a sport. Because it’s more fun to watch than to play.

    Which is why I’ll try to tune in. If I must favour either team right away, it would likely be Team Buttskarn, since I have no idea who Glitch or Randy are.

    1. SleepingDragon says:

      You get -10 SW cred for not knowing who Randy is.

      On that note, go team Buttskarn! Though in all seriousness both teams loose and we, the viewers, are the ones who win.

      1. Alex says:

        For a second there, I thought you meant “Star Wars” cred.

  29. Eärlindor says:

    I might be able to catch the first hour live. :) I’ve got my own thing I’m doing at the Network… :/

  30. Deadfast says:

    Are you sure it’s midnight GMT/UTC Shamus?
    East coast is currently observing daylight saving time (EDT), therefore it’s offset by only -4 hours (instead of the usual -5).
    That would put it at 23:00 UTC then.

    Time of the event across different time zones (assuming it starts at 19:00 EDT).

    1. Shamus says:

      Yes, I forgot about DST. Sigh.

      Hate, hate, hate DST.

      1. Deadfast says:

        Daylight saving is horribly outdated and useless and makes everyone’s life painful and I hate it too.

        On the other hand, this time it allows me to both watch Spoiler Warning and get some sleep, all in one night. Hurrah!

        Also, don’t forget to tell Jarenth or he’ll be an hour late.

        1. Jarenth says:

          I was told. Thank you.

    2. Burek says:

      Thanks for this. Looks like I’ll have to wait for 1:00 in the morning to catch this live. Seems reasonable enough.

    3. Stephen says:

      Many, many thanks for this. I was an hour off.

      1. Amnestic says:

        Wait, one hour forward or backwards or…I thought I could forget about DST once all my gadgets knew how to update automatically. ;-;

        I’ll just tune in around 23:00 and keep trying to watch from then on. It may waste a few hours, but it’s easier than learning how this works.

        Also, this scene from the West Wing comes to mind.

        1. Deadfast says:

          Check out the link in my original post and you’ll get the exact time it will start for you. No hours need to be wasted.

    4. Mersadeon says:

      THANK YOU. I hate timezone shenanigans, especially since nobody EVER just talks in UTC/GMT. Wouldn’t that one be the easiest? It is marked on every timezone map and can easily be translated into any other timezone, assuming you know where on a world map you live. But nooo, it’s always some Eagleland-time, so that I first have to figure out what the acronym stands for and what time zone that corresponds to. Grrrrhh. Glad that Shamus remembered to put that in.

      So, 1 AM it is for me. That’s ok. I will definitely have both streams running at the same time, just to see the mayhem ^^

    5. Mike says:

      I tend to ask smartypants Wolfram engine about such things, it seem to be simplier than looking up huge time conversion tables, and more foolproof.

      Examples:
      http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=June+21%2C+7PM+EDT
      http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=June+21%2C+7PM+EDT+convert+to+GMT

  31. Jexter says:

    I’d really like to see the core Spoiling Warning crew try out some of the mutations (mods) for L4D2, especially Fully Charged. That one gets rid of the common infected, in favor of spawning only Chargers at about 3 times the normal special infected spawn rate. You’ll just walk into a room, and they’ll suddenly be 6 chargers in there. It’s hilarious, if brutally hard.

  32. retsam says:

    I don’t think I’d like to see a whole forum pop up, I sort of like the constrained topical discussion that occurs in the comments of posts.

    It would help, personally, if there were an option for email notification of replies, so I wouldn’t feel like I had to scan through all of the posts I had made.

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