Valve has announced that Steam Workshop support is coming to Left 4 Dead 2. The developer said the suite of mod and community tools will be compatible with Mac, PC and Linux, starting from “the middle of next month”, which suggests Steam’s Linux beta isn’t too far away.

Intriguingly, Valve said the Left 4 Dead 2 version of Steam Workshop will include an experimental feature designed to “allow content to appear in the L4D2 world even more seamlessly based on the community’s response”. Valve is also working on a new scripting tool to allow modders to really get their hands dirty building all new experiences. These scripted creations will be applicable to current and new maps just as Mutations are.

Source: L4D Blog

With Valve forced to remove at least 1,400 copycat items from the Steam Workshop last week, our resident gaming lawyer Patrick Vuleta asks: can free mods get away with copyright infringement – even if they’re not making any money out of it? All the answers inside.

Valve has issued a stern warning to its lively community of modders and creators following a copyright infringement case. Someone had the bright idea of copying a mace design from MMORPG Aion and making it available in DOTA 2; the weapon, called Timebreaker, was very highly rated and purchased nearly 25,000 times before it came to Valve’s attention. The offending item is no longer for sale, the creator has been banned and won’t see any proceeds, and unlucky buyers have received an alternate weapon, but Valve is getting tired of wasting its time on such skullduggery, with over 1,400 copycat items identified and removed so far.

“Please help us out by contributing only original work, and continue to help us to spot these issues when they do appear on the Workshop,” the publisher asked, which seems fair enough to me.

Source: Steam