Portal is Free

[Owlslayer]

Thank you, Steam!
But i wonder, is this like a limited-time download?

 

[OrenjiJusu]

Actually i can see quite a few ways this could be used for an example during teaching.
it could be used to show how sound design can enhance an experience, Good use of literary devices (not just in video games), how art design can render graphical quality unimportant, how to make good game mechanics, and thats just of the top of my head.

 

[Zersy]

Valve knows how to win fans and make money , Other developers and publishers should take note.

 

[Beryl77]

What?! I just bought it four years ago and now they're giving it away for free?! I demand a refund!

Thank you, Steam!
But i wonder, is this like a limited-time download?

You can only get it for free until September 20 but you can keep the game if you get it in time.

 

[Denizen]

I hope this means I can get a 2nd copy again

I still have the free copy from the first time this was made free for a limited time.

 

[Denizen]

For the people wondering about Portal's use in education:
Even if Portal was useless at improving spatial reasoning this would still be pretty much the best field trip ever.

I saw a documentary the other day about a paradigm shift in education, which aims to turn children into creators instead of consumers. For example, instead of memorizing data in history class they get to make videos about, say, the industrial revolution. So apparently a couple of years in the future school will be much less of a boring, soul-sucking torture.

To say that I envy these kids would be a really short-sighted response. That was the first moment of reaction to this. Immediately after was the feeling of optimism for what education looks like and how these kids were reacting to it. There must be something really great on the way and seeing Valve be a part of it just brings me great solace.

 

[Daveman]

"Using interactive tools like the Portal series to draw them in makes physics, maths, logic, spatial reasoning, probability, and problem-solving interesting, cool and fun, which gets us one step closer to our goal-engaged, thoughtful kids."

That's odd, I'm certain the hours and hours I've spent replaying that game and in fact forcing my friend to play it during our revision period can only have had a negative effect on the outcome of my engineering course.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Saying Portal has educational value in a science class is like saying The Patriot (Mel Gibson movie, American Revolution) has educational value in a history class. Yes, it presents some accurate information and establishes a context through narrative. Yes, if you really try, you can "learn" something from it...

Actually, in High School, we watched The Patriot in history class. Yes, it's not historically accurate, but it got kids interested and that's the most important thing. We also watched Glory and Troy despite how horribly inaccurate they were because, like I said, kids are far more interested when there's a movie involved, especially a violent one. Now if only could have been in the class that showed Alexander, I still haven't seen that...

 

[MightyRabbit]

I got it despite already having it for my 360 because, well, it's free.

I can see what they mean by its educational potential. Having to think your way through a game can do wonders for a variety of skills. Professor Layton, Ace Attorney, Broken Sword, all of them and more sharpened my brain.

Heeeeeeey Capcom, why not give away copies of AAI2 & Layton vs Ace Attorney? Pretty please? It'd be sooooooo educational (A)

 

[luckycharms8282]

so, i just checked steam store it says portal is still 20 bucks. not sure why

Same here. Wuts goin on?

 

[Alexchaser]

When isn't portal free

 

[JET1971]

Can You Run It always says I can but I always get frame-rate issues or something similar.

I think CYR just looks at the hardware you've got installed. So it's giving you an estimation based on the optimal efficiency of your hardware. Not what you're PC is actually running like. Things like processors and graphics cards degrade after heavy use. Not to mention harddrives getting full and causing all sorts of nasty things such as defragmentation and running out of scratch data. So although a brand spanking new PC with the same hardware as you might run it. Your PC may be running a little under what is required.

Don't quote me on that though, that's always just the impression I got.

Hardware does degrade over time but when they do they just stop working or problems like artifacting start happening. performance degredation is caused by the OS/AV/RAM getting cluttered over time. A disk defrag though a good idea is far less needed than in win 95-98 days and performance gained from it today is almost negligable except in initial start times.

I would suggest first off a clean install, then complete update for all drivers and the OS for bringing the system back to full abilities.

@Dastardly

Thats the attitude that keeps schools locked down to textbooks and mass amounts of boring. Boring is part of the problem with the US education system. Portal and Portal 2 do have educational value, theres allot that can be learned in physics from the 2 games and the 2 games could be used during those lessons to show how it works in a way that is not only fun but educational.

 

[GeorgW]

I forced my physics professor to play portal, so why not the other way around?
I already have it, but not for steam, so I'm downloading now.

 

[The Funslinger]

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for games as educational tools but it's just VERY difficult to get administrators to go along with it.

Indeed it is, though back when I was at school (going back about 5 years ago now) we had The Sims and a Flight Simulator used as educational games... Don't know how Sims got passed with all the gracious sex involved but it was more about seeing how to cope with life out of school. Getting work, going to sleep on time for work, social life... Balancing dinner times and such. Costs of furniture, having a family... Stuff like that.

Flight Sim was there to teach us how to fly....

Or in the case of mine, to download the appropriate mod and fly around in a TARDIS with optional dematerializing.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

so, i just checked steam store it says portal is still 20 bucks. not sure why

Same here. Wuts goin on?

Click the link ("Steam") at the end of the article, that got me to the right page.

 

[the spud]

I doesn't say it's free on my steam account. Has the deal not gone into affect yet?

 

[JochemDude]

Nice didn't have a copy for my Mac yet.

 

[Dastardly]

Saying Portal has educational value in a science class is like saying The Patriot (Mel Gibson movie, American Revolution) has educational value in a history class. Yes, it presents some accurate information and establishes a context through narrative. Yes, if you really try, you can "learn" something from it...

Actually, in High School, we watched The Patriot in history class. Yes, it's not historically accurate, but it got kids interested and that's the most important thing. We also watched Glory and Troy despite how horribly inaccurate they were because, like I said, kids are far more interested when there's a movie involved, especially a violent one. Now if only could have been in the class that showed Alexander, I still haven't seen that...

Get excited in history class isn't the same as getting excited about learning history. That's the crucial difference people aren't seeing here. If I give a kid a candy bar for getting math problems right, that might make him more excited about being in math class... but it's no guarantee he's getting excited about math. Just candy.

Learning can't just be a "possible side effect" of the education process.

 

[jamesbrown]

I guess a little of both. Another teacher I know from a nearby district suggested that if Valve really wanted to push this for education they could release a version specifically FOR education without the plot and occasional blood splatters (blood being the biggest hindrance for administrators; we have to keep things 'school appropriate'). Don't get me wrong, I'm all for games as educational tools but it's just VERY difficult to get administrators to go along with it.

okay so here is how you could use this as an educational tool

for:

Physics
programming
computer skills
psycology <-- Seriously if you teach nearly anything to do with this you could make it work
Human studies
Narrative class
(maybe others)

Skills learned:

Promblem sloving
Timing
Hand-eye coordination
utilizing of tools
(also maybe others)

Simply assign it for homework, and have a paper or worksheet on it.

If you're in high school then you shouldn't worry about "questionable" things, but Elementary and Middle school would be difficult, If I figure out how to do it for Elementary school or Middle school I will post it in a reply

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Saying Portal has educational value in a science class is like saying The Patriot (Mel Gibson movie, American Revolution) has educational value in a history class. Yes, it presents some accurate information and establishes a context through narrative. Yes, if you really try, you can "learn" something from it...

Actually, in High School, we watched The Patriot in history class. Yes, it's not historically accurate, but it got kids interested and that's the most important thing. We also watched Glory and Troy despite how horribly inaccurate they were because, like I said, kids are far more interested when there's a movie involved, especially a violent one. Now if only could have been in the class that showed Alexander, I still haven't seen that...

Get excited in history class isn't the same as getting excited about learning history. That's the crucial difference people aren't seeing here. If I give a kid a candy bar for getting math problems right, that might make him more excited about being in math class... but it's no guarantee he's getting excited about math. Just candy.

Learning can't just be a "possible side effect" of the education process.

Yeah, but people did get excited about learning history. It was like, the expanded universe to the movies or something, lol. I'm not trying to make an argument, just pointing out how it kind of worked for kids at my school.