Highlights

  • Dying Light 2's Techland deserves a Community Support award for transparency, responsiveness, and outstanding updates.
  • With over 10 post-launch updates, Techland has significantly improved combat, AI, and added new content to Dying Light 2.
  • Techland's clear communication through roadmaps, developer blogs, and community input shows dedication to player satisfaction.

The Game Awards currently has a total of 32 categories that all serve to highlight important parts of the gaming industry. Though cutting the number could streamline the show, a handful of Game Awards categories should never be removed, and its Community Support category is one of those. At a time when some developers and publishers are not only using controversial practices to take advantage of players but their own workers too, it's more important than ever to highlight studios that try their best to remain open and transparent. Dying Light 2's Techland does just that.

The official description for The Game Awards' Community Support category in 2023 reads, "Recognizing a game for outstanding community support, transparency and responsiveness, inclusive of social media activity and game updates/patches." As things stand, Dying Light 2's Techland ticks all of those boxes, making it a worthy pick for The Game Awards 2024's Community Support trophy.

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Dying Light 2 Is Worthy of the Community Support Award This Year

Dying Light 2's Updates Have Been Extensive

First released back in February 2022, Dying Light 2 has continued to receive updates and patches at a consistent rate. Initially, these patches helped to balance and refine Dying Light 2's already-solid combat and traversal mechanics, along with its enemy AI, and the game's co-op feature. But after this initial wave of patches was done, Techland really started to go to work.

Over the course of the last couple of years, Dying Light 2 has received over 10 major post-launch updates, all of which have significantly improved various aspects of the base game, and added a smattering of new content to keep fans coming back for more. Some of the more recent updates have completely overhauled combat in Dying Light 2, adding new weapons, new enemy AI behaviors, new animations, and firearms, a feature that fans had been asking for since release. Techland's dedication to making Dying Light 2 the best possible game it can be is truly outstanding, but updates alone aren't enough to give Techland that TGA Community Support award.

Techland's Communication Has Been Clear and Responsive

As The Game Awards' official description of the Community Support category reads, "transparency and responsiveness" are vital prerequisites for winning this award. While getting consistent game updates and patches is an important factor in winning best Community Support, it's equally important how these updates are presented to the player-base. It's no good if a game is updated consistently but players are never told when they can expect them or what's included in them.

Thankfully, Techland's communication has been excellent over the last few years, and it's only getting better as time goes on. As well as releasing several roadmaps over the years, Techland posts fairly consistent developer blog updates on its official website and on its X account, ensuring that the player-base is always up-to-date with the latest information on patch notes and new content drops. Techland even has a dedicated Community Ideas feature, where players can suggest new features or changes to the game and vote on each other's to push them to the top of Techland's to-do list.

When Techland originally said it'd be supporting Dying Light 2 for at least five years, many didn't believe it. Two years in, it really seems as though Techland is determined to stand by its original promise, and it would be great to see the studio earn its flowers for doing so.