The gamers against L4D2 have formed a boycott group on the Steam Community which within two weeks has grown to number over 30,000 members. The gamers fear the community being split in to two and that the sequel does not warrant for a standalone release.

Valve has responded:

Doing a sequel in one year is new for Valve. But providing ongoing support for our titles after the initial launch isn’t – it has been part of our philosophy since Half-Life was released ten and half years ago,” said Valve president Gabe Newell in a statement to Kotaku. “We see no reason to change that and will continue to support the over three million customers in the L4D community.

Valve has assured the community that it will continue to support the original game with continued updates.

Some in the community are concerned that the announcement of L4D2 implied a change in our plans for L4D1. We aren’t changing our plans for L4D1.

However, it seems that community is not convinced.

In addition to the recently released Survival Pack, we are releasing authoring tools for Mod makers, community matchmaking, 4×4 matchmaking, and more new content during the coming months for L4D1. We also agree with our customers that there needs to be an interoperability plan for players of L4D1 and L4D2, as multiplayer games are driven by the cohesiveness of their community.

The general sensus among the boycott group is that the sequel does not have enough new content or gameplay changes that would make it necessary to release it as a standalone. Valve’s announcement of the release states the following.

Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more.

Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D’s dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players’ performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.

Featuring new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch.

Let’s see how the events unfold over the next few weeks. Perhaps new material and footage is released that will convince the community that it might not be the end of the world, but a beginning of something amazing.

They community has started a group on the steam community called L4D2 Boycott (NO-L4D2), which has already rounded up over 30,000 gamers that vow to not purchase the sequel.

The Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott is a group of individuals who have pledged to boycott Valve’s upcoming release of Left 4 Dead 2 on November 17th, 2009. We have assembled a manifesto outlining the basic concensus of many members of our community. (Note: this manifesto is a new version, which we have recently posted to keep our manifesto in line with the middle ground of our members. This is the correct group for the boycott)

Their arguement is somewhat reasonable; however, Valve is obviously well underway with the game and it will definitely not be canned now. They group suggests alternatives like discounts on the sequel for owners of the original or that the sequel is released as an expansion for free. Time will tell…

Valve announced Left 4 Dead 2 on June 1st:

We’ve just announced that Left 4 Dead 2 is coming later this year! It’s a much larger game than the original, and features new co-op and versus campaigns, all-new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, as well as melee combat. Check out the teaser trailer, and watch this space for more news in the coming days.