My only experience of Left 4 Dead 2 is a handful of sessions in my youth where a friend handed me a controller (me, a person whose shooter experience extended to Ratchet and Clank at the time), told me nothing, and let the chaos unfold. I did not do a good job. But it left a lasting impression! Though perhaps that impression would have changed had I seen its cinematic trailer as soon as Valve had wanted to release it. The problem was, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board weren’t so hot on the game, including its marketing materials, so that left Valve with one option: leaking the trailer themselves.
This comes from Left 4 Dead designer and former Valve writer Chet Faliszek, who recently dished up some details about cut lines from the game (ta, Ars Technica). Part of the reason why certain cuts were made came down to the game’s use of profane language in particular. “You have to remember, especially during Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 time, Valve was in fights with the ESRB, with Australia, with Germany, with a bunch of countries about the profanity in the game, or the violence,” Faliszek explained.
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“One of [Valve’s] lawyers stepped in and said that us writers needed to be babysat on this. And so [the] first thing we did was, well, we made sure there was no profanity in there that crosses the line; essentially F-bombs.” From Faliszek’s perspective, it made more sense to push back on what the ESRB wanted, but “the lawyer had different opinions. He’s a nice guy. I just fought with him a lot on this.”
It wasn’t just the game that was the issue, however, as the ESRB were also strict about trailers, meaning Valve couldn’t easily release the cinematic trailer for Left 4 Dead 2. And so with the sequel, Faliszek says they leaked their trailer “ahead of time, because they wouldn’t let us release the trailer. I’ll just admit that, I don’t think we can get in trouble for that now, it was like 20 years ago.” I sure hope you can’t, Chet! An amusing anecdote to go to jail for though (you go to jail for leaks, right?).