Valve ARG Gives Fans Power to Release Portal 2 Early
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
- Start date
From the way the aperture science countdown website is set up, it looks like the "early release" is probably based on getting the new steam achievements for the potato sack games, not based on sales. Four days before the release, maybe three percent of the necessary achievements have been logged. So an early release is not going to happen, and probably never could have.
I've been working on the new achievements for Defense Grid, and when you finish it it gives you four login names and passwords and adds a console to the game menu. The console lets you log in to an old-school DOS interface where you can play a text-based mini-game and use your hacking skills to find out the passwords for several protected files and other logins. This is kind of fascinating, but unfortunately not my style of "gameplay", and I only managed to find one extra password. Still, extra content is extra content. I am impressed by how much work they put in on this, and looking forward to additional DLC that will be released later in the week.
I've been working on the new achievements for Defense Grid, and when you finish it it gives you four login names and passwords and adds a console to the game menu. The console lets you log in to an old-school DOS interface where you can play a text-based mini-game and use your hacking skills to find out the passwords for several protected files and other logins. This is kind of fascinating, but unfortunately not my style of "gameplay", and I only managed to find one extra password. Still, extra content is extra content. I am impressed by how much work they put in on this, and looking forward to additional DLC that will be released later in the week.
You just need to play the games to raise the counter, if you check the numbers you will see they match the number of people playing in the Steam statistics. But getting the potato achievements speeds things up.
It's the number of CPU's playing x the number of potato challenges.(Did this sentence sound retarded or what?) So just go play the games.
It's the number of CPU's playing x the number of potato challenges.(Did this sentence sound retarded or what?) So just go play the games.
There's also an extra campaign for Defense Grid if you haven't noticed.thehermit2 said:
I think the funniest thing about all this is all the people running around the internet telling everyone how it works because they are so smart and figured it all out. And yet, everyone has a different story. "Potatoes don't matter, just play!" "Potatoes are super important, go get lots of them!" "Just leave the game idling in the background, you don't have to play." "Idling doesn't count, you have to be actively playing for it to mean anything."
The only thing we really know for sure is that nobody knows anything specific about how it works. Yet everyone is acting like they know it all. Very amusing.
I'm just going to go do what I want to do today, and if the game doesn't come out until Tuesday, oh well. That's when it was coming out anyway.
The only thing we really know for sure is that nobody knows anything specific about how it works. Yet everyone is acting like they know it all. Very amusing.
I'm just going to go do what I want to do today, and if the game doesn't come out until Tuesday, oh well. That's when it was coming out anyway.
This ARG was pretty brilliant. It was thoroughly enjoyable to follow, and it was equally fun to try to get as many potatoes as possible (though I didn't get the ones that would've required me to power through a game to get to a certain point).
I'm running RUSH in the background right now to help the cause!
EDIT: Apparently there's some confusion about how the process is working. The way I understand it, if your profile is listed as "In-Game", your CPU is "recruited" to help with whatever game your profile is listed as playing. This also means that you can't help with 2 games at once. This is logical because this is the primary way Steam tracks your playtime.
Why do I think this? Why is it not solely based on potatoes/achievements? Because just look at the title of the page: GLaDOS@Home. It's a parody of Folding@Home, a Stanford-based program that just has you run their protein simulator (either in the background or in the forefront) as it performs calculations. It seems to follow that, due to the name, this Portal 2 countdown works the same way.
I'm running RUSH in the background right now to help the cause!
EDIT: Apparently there's some confusion about how the process is working. The way I understand it, if your profile is listed as "In-Game", your CPU is "recruited" to help with whatever game your profile is listed as playing. This also means that you can't help with 2 games at once. This is logical because this is the primary way Steam tracks your playtime.
Why do I think this? Why is it not solely based on potatoes/achievements? Because just look at the title of the page: GLaDOS@Home. It's a parody of Folding@Home, a Stanford-based program that just has you run their protein simulator (either in the background or in the forefront) as it performs calculations. It seems to follow that, due to the name, this Portal 2 countdown works the same way.
I think it stands for how many people are playing the games,therefore how much power GLaDOS is getting at onceZenode said:
I am so confused about the rage.
"i was expecting something more" i hear people say....
more then what?
THis contest is self correcting. If you WANT PORTAL 2 BADLY, here is a way to play a portal related game to get it earlier. If you HATE PORTAL 2.....then why the hell are you playing? I actually heard people say they were hoping for information ON A DIFFERENT GAME THEY LIKE.
what the hell? lol
I can imagine their disappointment when they play the game, too. "I just beat Portal, and it gave me extra levels.....but extra levels FOR PORTAL? I FUCKING HATE PORTAL!" bizarre, lol...
The reason for them doing this, im guessing, is because you dont release the digital version BEFORE the disk version normally because....well, you just dont. Thats just awkward. But if its released early because of some sort of CONTEST, well, then thats a fine enough excuse. Fine enough one indeed.
problem solved
"i was expecting something more" i hear people say....
more then what?
THis contest is self correcting. If you WANT PORTAL 2 BADLY, here is a way to play a portal related game to get it earlier. If you HATE PORTAL 2.....then why the hell are you playing? I actually heard people say they were hoping for information ON A DIFFERENT GAME THEY LIKE.
what the hell? lol
I can imagine their disappointment when they play the game, too. "I just beat Portal, and it gave me extra levels.....but extra levels FOR PORTAL? I FUCKING HATE PORTAL!" bizarre, lol...
The reason for them doing this, im guessing, is because you dont release the digital version BEFORE the disk version normally because....well, you just dont. Thats just awkward. But if its released early because of some sort of CONTEST, well, then thats a fine enough excuse. Fine enough one indeed.
problem solved
In the later parts of the ARG there were references to 1912, which was the year the Titanic sank when it hit an ice berg, which to me screamed Boriallis. Then there was one recent message that ended in "...this is where I get off" which most Half Life fans know as a G-man line. Then there was also several messages that talked of a "prelude". What would be a prelude to Portal 2 that isn't Portal, considering the amount of time lore wise between the two games?Zhukov said:
It was a long shot but still, it made sense to me. Valve are likely to announce Half Life 3 within the next 6 months anyway.
I checked the stats, the peak for "The Wonderful End of the World" on the countdown page is higher than the peak amount of people who have played. It might be linked to players CPU or the amount of time they spent playing.
Actually, I found that one game has less CPUs than players playing, so it must be on time.
Actually, I found that one game has less CPUs than players playing, so it must be on time.
Actually, it still counts hours on other games launched too. I opened up both Audiosurf and Super Meat Boy, left it for 2 hours, and then shut them both, and 2hours were added to both game playtimes.Timbydude said:
Still, I'm not sure whether opening 2 games at once actually helps at all, but considering it doesn't harm me anything to leave both games open, why not. Hell, I'm doing this for the sake of it anyway. I'm getting the PS3 version, and the release date for that here is the 21st, so I'll get it late regardless.
I'd like to participate, but I really just don't want to end up paying another $35 for Portal 2, which is what I would be doing in essence, as I'm not particularly interested in any of those games. But, for those folks who are, or people who do just want to spend the money, that's a great idea.
I guess people are angry that Valve isn't releasing the game as early as they could, and instead are, in their eyes, holding it hostage. But that's really not quite true, as Valve gets to decide when they want to release the game, and if people are going to play along with this 'early release' concept, more power to them.
I guess people are angry that Valve isn't releasing the game as early as they could, and instead are, in their eyes, holding it hostage. But that's really not quite true, as Valve gets to decide when they want to release the game, and if people are going to play along with this 'early release' concept, more power to them.