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Valve's fake, rigged, waste of time Progress Quest troll Portal 2 ARG

B

Blizzard

Banned
God's Beard said:
http://cpucount.zapto.org/

According to this graph, the release is fixed like the golden wrenches and nothing anyone does will release this game sooner than Monday.

Have fun grinding out nothing for Valve's wallets.

http://i.imgur.com/PHeCl.png
Click to expand...
The overall one, sure, because the number of people participating has been pretty much 20k-25k, so the overall CPU man-hours is going to decrease at a fairly steady rate I think.

The individual games do seem to be linked to the CPU. See:
rushqu82.png
 
S

Spire

Subconscious Brolonging
God's Beard said:
Come on man, just think a few steps further. It's not complicated.
Click to expand...

Valve is leveraging the popularity of their titles to sell indie games. What exactly is evil about this?
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Fuck sakes, just reach Test Chamber 6 in The Ball and I alt-tabbed.

At this rate, I'll be spending more time with the game than Audiosurf.
 
C

CrookedRain

Member
JaseC said:
Fuck sakes, just reach Test Chamber 6 in The Ball and I alt-tabbed.

At this rate, I'll be spending more time with the game than Audiosurf.
Click to expand...
Ouch. I've alt-tabbed a lot in The Ball and have had no crashes.
 
R

Red

Member
Spire said:
Valve is leveraging the popularity of their titles to sell indie games. What exactly is evil about this?
Click to expand...
Silly to think that Valve aren't benefiting as well, though sure they're helping out indie devs in the process.
 
G

"God's Beard!"

Member
Spire said:
Valve is leveraging the popularity of their titles to sell indie games. What exactly is evil about this?
Click to expand...

Who says that Valve is straight up evil? They're a company that wants to make money. They get a cut from the potato pack. They get major marketing from the ARG, which leads to more Steam users for later games. They build goodwill by pretending to do fun things for the fans. This isn't a charity.

Valve made this up. The game is coming out Monday, and Valve's gonna issue a release that congratulates everyone on doing such a good job. No matter how hard you play or how many potatoes you find, the game is coming out Monday. The only thing you're doing is free marketing.
 
D

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
JaseC said:
Fuck sakes, just reach Test Chamber 6 in The Ball and I alt-tabbed.

At this rate, I'll be spending more time with the game than Audiosurf.
Click to expand...
I alt tabbed out of the ball a ton and hand no problems, but I am assuming yours crashed or bugged out.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
CrookedRain said:
Ouch. I've alt-tabbed a lot in The Ball and have had no crashes.
Click to expand...
Drkirby said:
I alt tabbed out of the ball a ton and hand no problems, but I am assuming yours crashed or bugged out.
Click to expand...

The game doesn't crash per-se (that's to say nothing causes it to shut down), I just can't get back into it. Clicking on its taskbar icon or switching to it using the Task Manager does absolutely nothing, but the CPU and memory usage fluctuate, so the game is still running.
 
E

evlcookie

but ever so delicious
Looks like they have removed information regarding the potatoes again.

Let's see if any of these bars do some serious movement over the next 90 mins.
 
J

Jenga

Banned
God's Beard said:
Who says that Valve is straight up evil? They're a company that wants to make money. They get a cut from the potato pack. They get major marketing from the ARG, which leads to more Steam users for later games. They build goodwill by pretending to do fun things for the fans. This isn't a charity.

Valve made this up. The game is coming out Monday, and Valve's gonna issue a release that congratulates everyone on doing such a good job. No matter how hard you play or how many potatoes you find, the game is coming out Monday. The only thing you're doing is free marketing.
Click to expand...
is obama behind all this?
 
R

Red

Member
evlcookie said:
Looks like they have removed information regarding the potatoes again.

Let's see if any of these bars do some serious movement over the next 90 mins.
Click to expand...
Cogs and Rush are visibly moving every few minutes, but it could be because of the new influx of players.
 
G

"God's Beard!"

Member
Jenga said:
is obama behind all this?
Click to expand...
This isn't a conspiracy, man. Valve did this before with the golden wrenches, now they're doing it with Portal 2. Maybe Neogaf likes to "believe", but steam users sure as hell don't.

If you're going to waste your computer resources idling in games, you might as well do folding at home or whatever that actually contributes to something.
 
S

Spire

Subconscious Brolonging
Crunched said:
Silly to think that Valve aren't benefiting as well, though sure they're helping out indie devs in the process.
Click to expand...

Who said I didn't know that? Trust me, this ARG has raised the profile of the indie games a lot more than it's raised the profile of Portal 2. It's basically aimed directly at hardcore Portal fans, I doubt many people who didn't know Portal 2 was coming out were drawn in by the ARG.


Valve made this up. The game is coming out Monday, and Valve's gonna issue a release that congratulates everyone on doing such a good job. No matter how hard you play or how many potatoes you find, the game is coming out Monday. The only thing you're doing is free marketing.
Click to expand...

Yes, we're all victims for being introduced to new games. Discovering some of these great indie games thanks to the ARG has scarred me for life, I'll need therapy for years.

You're getting awful pissy over an assumption that you don't even have much evidence for. And I can't get too worked up over a possible lie where the worse case scenario is that a bunch of people play video games.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
So for those of us new to this thread, God's Beard is irrationally bitter and we don't really understand the progress bars at all, that about right?
 
L

Liu Kang Baking A Pie

Member
God's Beard said:
Who says that Valve is straight up evil? They're a company that wants to make money. They get a cut from the potato pack. They get major marketing from the ARG, which leads to more Steam users for later games. They build goodwill by pretending to do fun things for the fans. This isn't a charity.

Valve made this up. The game is coming out Monday, and Valve's gonna issue a release that congratulates everyone on doing such a good job. No matter how hard you play or how many potatoes you find, the game is coming out Monday. The only thing you're doing is free marketing.
Click to expand...
The whistle has blown everyone. Give it up, all of you suckers playing videogames and enjoying yourselves.
 
A

autobzooty

Member
God's Beard said:
This isn't a conspiracy, man. Valve did this before with the golden wrenches, now they're doing it with Portal 2. Maybe Neogaf likes to "believe", but steam users sure as hell don't.

If you're going to waste your computer resources idling in games, you might as well do folding at home or whatever that actually contributes to something.
Click to expand...


....darn it
 
G

"God's Beard!"

Member
Look, if you want to play the games for the games' sake, fine by me. But if you think that sitting around playing games that you wouldn't necessarily be playing right now is going to help Portal 2 come out faster, then stop and play something you like. Like Deus Ex or something.

Just don't pretend that this is some reward for being good puzzle solvers from Valve. Because it's not. You can click the button in your Skinner box all day, but this time it doesn't make the treat fall out.
 
W

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
The whistle has blown everyone. Give it up, all of you suckers playing videogames and enjoying yourselves.
Click to expand...

I'm doing what?!

GODDAMIT!

z6vt0.gif
 
L

Liu Kang Baking A Pie

Member
God's Beard said:
Look, if you want to play the games for the games' sake, fine by me. But if you think that sitting around playing games that you wouldn't necessarily be playing right now is going to help Portal 2 come out faster, then stop and play something you like. Like Deus Ex or something.

Just don't pretend that this is some reward for being good puzzle solvers from Valve. Because it's not, and you can click the button in your Skinner box all day, but this time it doesn't make the treat fall out.
Click to expand...
Have you considered using this argument on yourself in reference to how pointless it is to repeatedly type the obvious?
 
K

KScorp

Member
Stabby McSter said:
what the fuck, i can't find the stupid folder to replace them saves. i don't wanna play through cogs :(
Click to expand...

Appdata is a hidden folder. You have to unhide it (google it if you must).
 
C

CarbonatedFalcon

Member
So....

the graph may or may not be a lie?

This would definitely be more entertaining if the bars moved faster. Heck, I'd take that and then have bonus bars pop up later over the current rate.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
KScorp said:
Interesting post by a Valve employee: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21851599&postcount=244

Summary: More CPUs does in fact increase the rate of change of the main progress bar.
Click to expand...

...lol

Hawkian says: whether Portal 2 comes out one second early or not, I was exposed to an awful lot of PC-exclusive content for a variety of high quality games, some of which I would never even given their deserved attention if not for this project, and all of which are in some way tied to the Portal universe in ways that are enjoyable for a fan. The best of these actually give some detail or clues about things that may be in the game, provide bizarrely awesome crossover experiences (like GlaDOS and the narrator bantering in Defense Grid), or, in the case of Amnesia,
explore the character of GlaDOS in an entirely new and bizarre setting
, to compelling effect.

I think the ARG is awesome and I really want to get all the potatoes.


TheExodu5 said:
Potato collecting is going well. After 6 hours, I have Amnesia, Killing Floor, Defense Grid, and The Ball left.
Click to expand...

Enjoy... it's brilliant. Though I can't imagine any of them will be more difficult for me; this thing really played to my fears, even with the lights on. =P and for some reason I had to do it twice to get the potato.
 
G

"God's Beard!"

Member
KScorp said:
Interesting post by a Valve employee: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21851599&postcount=244

Summary: More CPUs does in fact increase the rate of change of the main progress bar.

Post is from the same thread God's Beard posted before.
Click to expand...
Hmm... I'm having trouble understanding this. Why do the graphs show completely different information when he plugs in the same data for rate of change? The first graph shouldn't be so different, right? There's nothing to suggest that the rate is accelerating from the progress log.

heyf00L said:
Well the line don't look straight no more: http://cpucount.zapto.org/game/38720
Click to expand...

...that's not the same bar, man.
 
K

Kritz

Banned
Stabby McSter said:
what the fuck, i can't find the stupid folder to replace them saves. i don't wanna play through cogs :(
Click to expand...

windows key + r
%appdata%

problem solved

Alternatively, if on W7 or Vista,

hit start menu
type in "show hidden files" in the search field
click relevant option
enable!

If not on W7 or vista, go into any folder and go tools > folder options or something similar. Or find folder options in control panel.

:( I used to get paid for this
 
G

"God's Beard!"

Member
KScorp said:
Sorry, edited my post. I thought it was for the main progress bar, but I misread his post. It refers to RUSH.
Click to expand...

I see, well that's expected, then. The situation is that it seems like the individual bars don't accelerate the main bar.
 
F

Forkball

Member
I hope after Portal 2 comes out Valve does an interview or Q&A session about the ARG ala how it came about, what they thought of the fan reaction, if they thought the potato thing was fair/unfair etc.
 
C

CarbonatedFalcon

Member
Hakkuei said:
Maybe but then you're doomed to have 2 terrible games in your steam library for the rest of your life.
Click to expand...

It'd be like having demos permanently in your Xbox live history. At least they fixed that so it doesn't add them anymore >.<
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
To anyone who doesn't want to do the potatoes because they think it will take too long: I'm at 29/36 after 6.5 hours. Not too much longer to go now. If someone has the day tomorrow, they could do it before the game comes out.
 
K

KScorp

Member
Was the morse code in The Steamcast stream mentioned yet? It's been decoded as "it's not over the others have been compromised". Folks at ARG wiki are interpreting it as "GLaDOS@Home and the release of Portal 2 aren't the end of the ARG".

If that's true, I wonder what comes after. 0.0
 
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