Valve ARG Gives Fans Power to Release Portal 2 Early

[SenseOfTumour]

Yeah, I can't understand the rage, personally, either you join in, or you don't and you get Portal 2, preloaded, ready to play the moment the release date passes.

If you do join in, you're joining in a massive multi-game puzzle spread over 13 games, yet you only need 1 to participate.

I'd also suggest the reason the first game beaten only took 50 minutes from the release date is down to the potato multiplyer. Anyone who's played pinball, or some arena shooters, knows that multiplyers are everything. Assuming everything grows at the same rate, the time knocked off would ramp up with each succesive game, according the potato multiplyer growing over time.

They're not holding it back to annoy people, release dates are usually carefully selected by the marketing team, this time they've found a way to make it interesting, is all.

On top of that, they could have said 'Buy anything in the Valve pack to accelerate the release date' but instead they're supporting 13 indie developers instead, in exchange for them joining in with adding the new puzzle elements, extra content etc.

Last of all, it's FREE DLC for 13 games, all for no money and no effort, please explain the web rage, unless it's the usual 'der I dont get it, so it must be bad' reaction.

I didn't in fact buy the potato sack pack, as I already own about 8 of the games, but I did buy Borderlands, Bioshock 2, and Magicka complete this week instead. I in fact spent more money on Magicka than I would have just buying it full price, as I bought it twice with full DLC for me and a friend at discount.

 

[fierydemise]

it works best to coordinate the masses..

The best thing is to join in on the game that has the longest bar.
Unless its nearly complete, then switch over the the next longest bar.

on this moment focus is on Rush

Yep. It's accelerating with each game knocked down, so the most efficient way possible would be every single person on the fastest - bar filling game.

Actually its not accelerating. The graph site I was using is currently down but suffice it to say, if it is increasing its certainly not doing it at a noticeable rate. Similarly there is no evidence for the potato multiplier idea that gets bandied about so much.

I'd also suggest the reason the first game beaten only took 50 minutes from the release date is down to the potato multiplyer. Anyone who's played pinball, or some arena shooters, knows that multiplyers are everything. Assuming everything grows at the same rate, the time knocked off would ramp up with each succesive game, according the potato multiplyer growing over time.

The problem with that theory is the 2nd completed game only knocked off 40 minutes and the third 60. There isn't a provable pattern yet of time knocked off. That said I think most people are operating under the assumption that filled bar means release and based on that we're looking at early to mid afternoon (3-5 PM pacific) on Monday for release, about 18 hours ahead.

 

[Baneat]

it works best to coordinate the masses..

The best thing is to join in on the game that has the longest bar.
Unless its nearly complete, then switch over the the next longest bar.

on this moment focus is on Rush

Yep. It's accelerating with each game knocked down, so the most efficient way possible would be every single person on the fastest - bar filling game.

Actually its not accelerating. The graph site I was using is currently down but suffice it to say, if it is increasing its certainly not doing it at a noticeable rate. Similarly there is no evidence for the potato multiplier idea that gets bandied about so much.

I'd also suggest the reason the first game beaten only took 50 minutes from the release date is down to the potato multiplyer. Anyone who's played pinball, or some arena shooters, knows that multiplyers are everything. Assuming everything grows at the same rate, the time knocked off would ramp up with each succesive game, according the potato multiplyer growing over time.

The problem with that theory is the 2nd completed game only knocked off 40 minutes and the third 60. There isn't a provable pattern yet of time knocked off. That said I think most people are operating under the assumption that filled bar means release and based on that we're looking at early to mid afternoon (3-5 PM pacific) on Monday for release, about 18 hours ahead.

Are you sure it's not accelerating? I don't think the community have that much drive to spike certain parts. I think they jsut use the blue marker things as an opportunity to re-assess the power that's been added to glados, i.e refresh the timer. The fact is, that it *must* accelerate it cause what I'm hoping they were hoping for is a concerted nuke of the easiest game, and everyone progresses to the hardest game (killing floor) with an acceleration that allows them to clear it and release the game. That would make sense to me.

 

[fierydemise]

Are you sure it's not accelerating? I don't think the community have that much drive to spike certain parts. I think they jsut use the blue marker things as an opportunity to re-assess the power that's been added to glados, i.e refresh the timer. The fact is, that it *must* accelerate it cause what I'm hoping they were hoping for is a concerted nuke of the easiest game, and everyone progresses to the hardest game (killing floor) with an acceleration that allows them to clear it and release the game. That would make sense to me.

Look here [http://cpucount.zapto.org/].

There are no obvious spikes on the chart (other then odd dip which I think was a bug on Valve's end because all the graphs have it) nor are we seeing an obvious increase in rate that we would expect with 3 games completed now. Another graph site thats down now showed all the games on the same graph and its pretty clear that the progress on other games did not increase after the the completion of others.

The strategy being pursued at the moment basically exists because someone came up with the completed game acceleration theory and it now has a head of steam behind it. There is that email on the ARG wiki which suggests that hitting the easy ones first is optimal but as of yet there is no mathematically provable reason to follow that strategy.

 

[Baneat]

Are you sure it's not accelerating? I don't think the community have that much drive to spike certain parts. I think they jsut use the blue marker things as an opportunity to re-assess the power that's been added to glados, i.e refresh the timer. The fact is, that it *must* accelerate it cause what I'm hoping they were hoping for is a concerted nuke of the easiest game, and everyone progresses to the hardest game (killing floor) with an acceleration that allows them to clear it and release the game. That would make sense to me.

Look here [http://cpucount.zapto.org/].

There are no obvious spikes on the chart (other then odd dip which I think was a bug on Valve's end because all the graphs have it) nor are we seeing an obvious increase in rate that we would expect with 3 games completed now. Another graph site thats down now showed all the games on the same graph and its pretty clear that the progress on other games did not increase after the the completion of others.

The strategy being pursued at the moment basically exists because someone came up with the completed game acceleration theory and it now has a head of steam behind it. There is that email on the ARG wiki which suggests that hitting the easy ones first is optimal but as of yet there is no mathematically provable reason to follow that strategy.

I'll admit mine's wishful thinking, this whole thing is pretty annoying to me, they should have put in a difficult, really difficult ARG puzzle, and the one person to solve it (and have to go IRL to solve it) would unlock it for everyone for great justice and glory.

 

[Helios_(DEL)]

*snip*

The thing is, none of those bars will be filled until very close to the release date anyway, not even close. Killing floor's current projection is 2 days AFTER the official release date, and that's using the current dpixels/dt, which is inevitably higher than tomorrow when people stop giving a shit.

They may have overestimated the enthusiasm generated by this (not much)

Perhaps. But:
1. Nowhere does it state all the bars need to be filled for an early release.
2. The current "early launch" is still earlier than the actual release date. Admittedly, little over an hour earlier, but having been in the sort of situation where I'm sitting about doing nothing, counting down the seconds for games to release on steam, I'll take what I can get =p

The community surrounding the ARG seem to have a plan in place to get these bar filled up quicker. And if we can get some good content cheaper in the meantime, not much to argue against is there?

And its just plain fun? new levels in the chosen games, valve and the indie game designers puts effort into this event.Who cares that its a cash cow!

 

[DementedSheep]

I don?t get why people are upset over this. Yes It?s a stupid marketing gimmick to promote portal 2, indie games and get you to buy more things from steam. It's also fun and has given us some awesome sales. Why is this a problem? Marketing of any kind is bad? if you want to get involved you can. You do not have to buy anything and it doesn?t really hurt you. I am just happy I got Amnesia on sale and some extra content. I would have bought and started playing it anyway. Most people probably aren?t that obsessed that they would buy and play a ton games they don?t want just to release portal 2 a few hours sooner.

 

[ezeroast]

Gotta say i was not happy, I waited for the countdown which finished at about 2:30am. Then got this crap...
I cant say i care about waiting another couple of days it just seemed the way it was put that the game would be released at the end of the countdown. oh well

 

[scott91575]

nm, already been stated.

 

[Plurralbles]

it'd be funny if an early release caused a system destroying bug to be overlooked...
IMpossible, but it'd be hilarious.

Anyway, I'm getting hte PS3 version so...

oh and I already have almost every game in the sack and got htem for the current sale price.

 

[Sofus]

I think that it is nice of VALVe to help boost sales of indie developers, that said I already have Amnesia, which is the only game in the sack that I would ever toss money at.

BioWare and EA were on the right track when they offered some items if people played the DA2 demo. I would have liked to see steam offer an earlier release based off of the same concept, namely something that doesn't involve money.

"You can get three for the price of two, don't you want one/two more?" I always ponder why shopkeepers continue to ask things like that, if I had wanted more of the same product in the first place I would have bought it.

None the less, I still think that it is nice of them to promote indie developers, especially because it can easily be ignored, unlike those pesky shopkeepers (who will continue to ask, even if you ignore them).

 

[x434343]

You know, the people behind the wikia/organization of this entire thing are the wonderful folks over at Something Awful, so if you just join the SA IRC Chat. . .

Oh yeah, I forgot, you guys don't go to Something Awful. You choose to be a bit more uncouth.

 

[wammnebu]

I really dont understand what the problem is here.
-VALVe is offering a way to release portal a few hours earlier, (which i know is important considering how many people wait for the clock to tick down on release).
-All of the indie games receive bonus content (free), it works if you already own them (the aperture kf map is awesome).
-if you don't want to participate you don't have to. You will have portal 2 at the scheduled release time that they announced months ago. (with no penalty to free-riders)

If you are upset about it being a marketing ploy for money, no shit. i would recommend that you look at their name again and see that VALVe Corporation, not The Newell Foundation for Troubled Man-children

if they were to do something like threaten to delay the game if you didnt participate, then yes you could complain. But they are fulfilling their promise they are not obligated to you when they are offering something more. If they want you to make you work for your few hours of releasing AHEAD then they can.

grow up you vieners

 

[Alon Shechter]

Amnesia needs to be filled....
We gonna fail.

 

[kinky257]

Ok, here's the scenario:

Buy on steam, get ARG, buy additional games to participate, spend weeks solving puzzles to unlock last minute grind fest to "earn" "early" release of 12 hours.

Buy at store, go to midnight release, get game "early".

That's why people are upset here.

Except the game will be steam works intergrated. So people buying at bricks and morter will come home, install the game, and be told that it wont unlock for x more hours. Unless of course they buy the Xbox version.

 

[beema]

This utterly failed due to everyone being complete chicken shit and too scared to play Amnesia.
LOL

 

[Drago-Morph]

Valve, you magnificent bastards.

This is a win/win, really. Indie developers get support, gamers could get Portal 2 a bit early, Valve gets tremendous publicity, and if you don't want to buy the games, you don't need to put in the effort. If you do, you get creative, quirky indie games for a low price.

God I love Valve.

 

[daftnoize]

Pretty anoyed that everyones given up... It actually makes a difference for me as even though the timer is too late to help the realese of the american game its great for me living in the UK...

 

[redisforever]

So, pay $34, to get Portal 2 a day early.

Meh. I'll buy it when it's cheap.


I also noticed, that the game with the least playtime is Amnesia. I got Penumbra from the Humble Bundle, and I never played, not even installed it, based on Yahtzee's guarantee I will piss my pants.