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["God's Beard!"]

Also some responses from that thread for Elnarez's "proof", it's not like the valve dude convinced anyone of anything:

You're probably not going to respond to this, but I'd like to know the time interval for this. Also if you look at the graph again now, the progress is still growing exponentially even though the amount of users topped out about 3 hours before this post. I sincerely believe that the results of this were predetermined and it's extremely unethical of Steam to continue to advertise the Potato Sack like they are.

I really don't care if we all got Portal 2 earlier or not, we were all gonna play it on the 19th and were happy with that. Myself included. I've always been a big fan of Valve/Steam though and this is seriously bothering me.

Nah I remember the emails from when Valve said the golden wrenches were truly random. So yea I would not believe them so easily again

By the way, the staff poster did not establish that the big bar was moving any faster. Only that the small ones move faster with more CPUs, something we already know.

Except he didn't really prove that. They could very easily have rigged the whole thing to increase at certain times.

The fact that that increase was almost entirely linear and then magically, oh look at that, it ramps up exponentially...while the majority of the playerbase is ♥♥♥♥ing asleep...yeah. I see nothing that proves this is anything other than a marketing ploy.

What that Valve guy basically said was: Nothing.. Just some hard to understand data that doesn't prove that the rate isnt fixed or anything

 

[Durante]

I just wanted to point out that after listening to and reading Glados lines from the Portal comic and Defense Grid, I can conclude that ElNarez is at least 47% Glados.

"I'd ask you to think outside the box on this, but it's obvious your box is broken. And has schizophrenia."

Even if nothing else at all comes out of it, the extra level in Defense Grid with the fantastic Glados lines was worth it. Best part of the ARG.

 

[TheBez]

Is the best way to cheat Amnesia to use the no monster hack? If so where can I find said hack?

 

[Ozone]

We just hit over 350k potatoes.

Nothing will change.

 

[JaseC]

Even if nothing else at all comes out of it, the extra level in Defense Grid with the fantastic Glados lines was worth it. Best part of the ARG.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the Defense Grid CHAS level, I'd say The Ball has the best ApSci/Portal-based content.

 

[JaseC]

Is the best way to cheat Amnesia to use the no monster hack? If so where can I find said hack?

Load up the game, alt-tab out at the profile selection screen (make sure the Steam overlay is active before you do this; I wasn't able to move the mouse otherwise), go to the Steam\steamapps\common\amnesia the dark descent\entities\ptest directory, and finally rename the folder enemy_suitor to something else. Probably best to just add a number or letter at the end so you can easily restore the monsters once you're done with the potato.

Edit: Derp, double post.

Edit 2: Clarity.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I liked Justine. I thought the bonus stuff was cool until the ARG wound up in this mess. You'd think all that themed content would be enough.

 

[TheExodu5]

One potato left to go.

AMNESIA

*gulp*

Load up the game, alt-tab out (make sure the Steam overlay is active before you do this; I wasn't able to move the mouse otherwise), go to the Steam\steamapps\common\amnesia the dark descent\entities\ptest directory, and finally rename the folder enemy_suitor to something else. Probably best to just add a number or letter at the end so you can easily restore the monsters once you're done with the potato.

Edit: Derp, double post.

When you say load up the game, do you mean go to the main menu or actually go into the game?

 

[TheBez]

Load up the game, alt-tab out (make sure the Steam overlay is active before you do this; I wasn't able to move the mouse otherwise), go to the Steam\steamapps\common\amnesia the dark descent\entities\ptest directory, and finally rename the folder enemy_suitor to something else. Probably best to just add a number or letter at the end so you can easily restore the monsters once you're done with the potato.

Edit: Derp, double post.

Many thanks to you!

 

[ElNarez]

This was brought up and addressed. The problem was that the number of PCs and potatoes don't contribute to the acceleration of the actual progress bar for the Portal 2 launch. The graph you're showing me is for an individual game, which we already knew was being tracked appropriately. The problem is that it doesn't matter. What you have isn't proof, it's nothing.

The progress bar for Portal 2 is global. Since there's been little variation in the total number of players running the games, of course the bar is going to be steady. If anything, sudden changes would've actually been more suspect.

On your next point : of course, as long as there's gonna be liars such as yourself to seduce people with lies they want to believe in, there will be people to repeat said lies, trying as hard as they can to prove it's fact. But it's not. It's a little fiction you have written in your head to show how better than everyone else you are, because you saw the big bad meanie corporation's strings, pulling the little puppets that we are into doing their bidding. Well I'm sorry but I'm not buying it. Sure, they're manipulating us into doing their bidding. But they're absolutely not doing so by outright lying to us like you're so gung-ho on showing us.

But since you're a liar and lies are all you seem to give credit to : I am the king of Norway and I order you to shut the fuck up, or else my deadly squad of assassin elks will come to your house and murder you by activating the deadly neurotoxin dispenser Valve has put inside of your computer screen. Have a nice day.

 

[GABDEG]

I liked Justine. I thought the bonus stuff was cool until the ARG wound up in this mess. You'd think all that themed content would be enough.

They should've just started this last phase later and made it go by quicker so people could actually feel some sense of progress. And track achievements instead of game time, so people actually play the games instead of running them in the background.

 

[CrookedRain]

You owe it to yourself to just play through the Amnesia DLC without ruining it by removing the monsters. Honestly, it's the best DLC to come out of this ARG.

 

[JaseC]

When you say load up the game, do you mean go to the main menu or actually go into the game?

The guide I read recommended alt-tabbing out at the profile selection screen, but the initial loading is done well before then so I really doubt it matters. I fixed the post just in case.

Many thanks to you!

No worries. With the monsters disabled you can just run through the levels. Shouldn't take you more than 20-25 minutes, perhaps half an hour at most.

 

[JaseC]

You owe it to yourself to just play through the Amnesia DLC without ruining it by removing the monsters. Honestly, it's the best DLC to come out of this ARG.

I initially intended to do just that, but I decided I'll play through the content properly when I'm done with The Dark Descent. To avoid the story, I muted the game so I wouldn't hear the phonograph messages and stuffed around with the Steam web browser when I realised disabling subtitles didn't disable the subtitles for said messages.

Edit: Missed the edit post tab again. I'm hopeless.

 

[CrookedRain]

I initially intended to do just that, but I decided I'll play through the content properly when I'm done with The Dark Descent. To avoid the story, I muted the game so I wouldn't hear the phonograph messages and stuffed around with the Steam web browser when I realised disabling subtitles didn't disable the subtitles for said messages.

It's pretty much self contained though and you won't ruin anything in the main campaign by playing it.

 

[Blizzard]

I initially intended to do just that, but I decided I'll play through the content properly when I'm done with The Dark Descent. To avoid the story, I muted the game so I wouldn't hear the phonograph messages and stuffed around with the Steam web browser when I realised disabling subtitles didn't disable the subtitles for said messages.

Edit: Missed the edit post tab again. I'm hopeless.

Just be aware that (unfortunately), the Portal content may be removed from these games once Portal 2 comes out, or maybe shortly thereafter. Unless there's been some confirmation otherwise I'd play through it before it's gone if you're interested.

 

[JaseC]

Just be aware that (unfortunately), the Portal content may be removed from these games once Portal 2 comes out, or maybe shortly thereafter. Unless there's been some confirmation otherwise I'd play through it before it's gone if you're interested.

Removing the Portal content seen in the other Sack games is something I can understand, but the the only thing tying the Justine DLC to this ARG is the occasional potato sack.

Edit: From an asset perspective, I mean. Obviously the ApSci log-in stuff will likely be removed.

The Amnesia DLC is permanent, and will be coming to non-Steam versions at some point as well.

Best news I've heard all day!

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

Just be aware that (unfortunately), the Portal content may be removed from these games once Portal 2 comes out, or maybe shortly thereafter. Unless there's been some confirmation otherwise I'd play through it before it's gone if you're interested.

The Amnesia DLC is permanent, and will be coming to non-Steam versions at some point as well.

 

[Covfan]

Rush is above 90% now, the main focus is on Cogs.

 

[dwebo]

The progress bar for Portal 2 is global. Since there's been little variation in the total number of players running the games, of course the bar is going to be steady. If anything, sudden changes would've actually been more suspect.

On your next point : of course, as long as there's gonna be liars such as yourself to seduce people with lies they want to believe in, there will be people to repeat said lies, trying as hard as they can to prove it's fact. But it's not. It's a little fiction you have written in your head to show how better than everyone else you are, because you saw the big bad meanie corporation's strings, pulling the little puppets that we are into doing their bidding. Well I'm sorry but I'm not buying it. Sure, they're manipulating us into doing their bidding. But they're absolutely not doing so by outright lying to us like you're so gung-ho on showing us.

But since you're a liar and lies are all you seem to give credit to : I am the king of Norway and I order you to shut the fuck up, or else my deadly squad of assassin elks will come to your house and murder you by activating the deadly neurotoxin dispenser Valve has put inside of your computer screen. Have a nice day.

But there hasn't been. It's gone from 17k to 26k (and back again) with no discernible change in the completion % rate. I'm not sure why I'm responding though, as judging by the rest of your post, you may or may not be a crazy person.

 

[Animator]

So after two days of thousands of people playing those games like a dog all it did was to shave off 2.5 hrs from the launch. Good job valve. smh...

 

[Drkirby]

One potato left to go.

AMNESIA

*gulp*



When you say load up the game, do you mean go to the main menu or actually go into the game?

Just get to the main menu. The reason why is that it checks for all the directories when you first boot the game, but not once in.

 

[Salsa]

VALVE SUCKS IM NOT BUYING MORE GAMES FROM YOU WAAA PRE-ORDER CANCELLED

 

[GABDEG]

keep the discussion at an acceptable intellectual level

I am the king of Norway and I order you to shut the fuck up, or else my deadly squad of assassin elks will come to your house and murder you by activating the deadly neurotoxin dispenser Valve has put inside of your computer screen. Have a nice day.

Ok.

 

[hamchan]

So after two days of thousands of people playing those games like a dog all it did was to shave off 2.5 hrs from the launch. Good job valve. smh...

They totally overestimated how many people would participate. Or maybe they didn't and this was all planned out, a pretty depressing thought actually.

 

[Drkirby]

I would hope if it was going to "slowly" valve would flip some switch to speed it up. So my guess is this is the right speed and at best something will happen to speed up a lot.

 

[Jex]

VALVE SUCKS IM NOT BUYING MORE GAMES FROM YOU WAAA PRE-ORDER CANCELLED

Is misrepresenting other peoples position via exaggeration in any way helpful to the general level of discourse? It's not specifically you either, there have been plenty of posts in this vein.

 

[autobzooty]

playing games like a dog

smh

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

smh

Well dogs don't know how to play games, so they would probably just idle too.

 

[ElNarez]

But there hasn't been. It's gone from 17k to 26k (and back again) with no discernible change in the completion % rate. I'm not sure why I'm responding though, as judging by the rest of your post, you may or may not be a crazy person.

Or you just are blind. Looking at the graphs, there are variations on the % completed bar, which do match up with the active CPU bar. It's small, yeah, but you can't really deny their existence. Of course it's not as dramatic as a bar crashing down, but we aren't losing progress, so of course the bar isn't crashing down. What I'm saying is, there's no such thing as a fixed rate for this.

Also, glad you noticed.

 

[ElNarez]

P.S : We're getting close to the RUSH -> Cogs switch. Please get ready to change what you're running when we hit ~95%

 

[syoaran]

They totally overestimated how many people would participate. Or maybe they didn't and this was all planned out, a pretty depressing thought actually.

This is what I'm thinking. It will come under "live and learn" at Valve, but it reduced the impact of launch for me. At the current rate, it will be done very late Monday night (GMT), so it makes 0 difference. Despite a lot of play time, Portal 2 will not be coming out early for me, unless the rules change. So either they over-calculated, or they thought the reaction would have been positive even with a fail. Who knows.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

So after two days of thousands of people playing those games like a dog all it did was to shave off 2.5 hrs from the launch. Good job valve. smh...

Nobody forced anyone to play. Most of us played as an excuse to get rid of backloggatory fuckup and also because these games are fucking fun. This is gaming forum, isn't it? GTFO.

 

[Hylian7]

How are the potatoes for Cogs? I've heard people complaining about them being difficult. Are they as tedious to get as Rush's potatoes? I've already decided I'm not going to go after Rush's because you have to play through nearly the whole damn game, and puzzle games like that bore me. Will I run into the same problem with Cogs? If so, that means that I'm missing potatoes from 123 Kick It, Amnesia, Audiosurf, Killing Floor, and Toki Tori.

 

[Ferrio]

They totally overestimated how many people would participate.

That's what I've been thinking as well. And i'm guessing they probably have a deal with retailers they can't change the rules either.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

How are the potatoes for Cogs? I've heard people complaining about them being difficult. Are they as tedious to get as Rush's potatoes? I've already decided I'm not going to go after Rush's because you have to play through nearly the whole damn game, and puzzle games like that bore me. Will I run into the same problem with Cogs? If so, that means that I'm missing potatoes from 123 Kick It, Amnesia, Audiosurf, Killing Floor, and Toki Tori.

Audiosurf and Killing Floor are easy breezy.

 

[dimb]

Nobody forced anyone to play. Most of us played as an excuse to get rid of backloggatory fuckup and cause these games are fucking fun. This is gaming forum, isn't it? GTFO.

Forced, no. Misled, yes.

And anecdotally, most people on my friends list who seemingly cared about this idled. These games fall out of the top 100 on Steam stats almost as soon as the bars get filled up. Sorry, but nobody actually wants to play these games.

 

[ElNarez]

How are the potatoes for Cogs? I've heard people complaining about them being difficult. Are they as tedious to get as Rush's potatoes? I've already decided I'm not going to go after Rush's because you have to play through nearly the whole damn game, and puzzle games like that bore me. Will I run into the same problem with Cogs? If so, that means that I'm missing potatoes from 123 Kick It, Amnesia, Audiosurf, Killing Floor, and Toki Tori.

It's sliding tile puzzles all the way, and I think they require you to get a buttload of stars in the earlier levels. Plus it's sliding tile puzzles.

 

[Hylian7]

It's sliding tile puzzles all the way, and I think they require you to get a buttload of stars in the earlier levels. Plus it's sliding tile puzzles.

FFFFFFFF, sounds as tedious as Rush then. May be skipping those.

Audiosurf and Killing Floor are easy breezy.

I've attempted the Audiosurf ones a few times without success. I just have to keep trying at those. I haven't touched Killing Floor since the ARG started, so maybe I need to play some of that tomorrow.

Also, I am honestly surprised people want to cheat Amnesia to get it's second potato. I need to play through Justine myself (started it the other day, had to go do something so I shut it down, didn't get very far though). I thought mostly everyone enjoyed that game (read: enjoyed getting the shit scared out of them). Is it very difficult (other than the "You die you go back to the beginning" part)?

 

[Feep]

I never said that it wasn't good for Team Meat, and and I never said the game would be released on Tuesday. So don't go burning those straw men. The game is coming out on Monday because Valve programmed it to happen that way. Not because of how many people are playing indie games.

Well, your "magical charity" line made it seem disparaging toward that particular facet of the ARG. Honestly, it IS a magical charity. What they're doing for these developers is unbelievable; I'm an indie dev myself, and I can't even fathom such a reward. It's like candy and gold coins are falling from the fucking sky for these guys, and I can't help but be happy for them. Even if the games themselves aren't great, the sales this past week sure were.

I would argue that for public awareness, something like this brute forcing is required. As clever as the pre-countdown ARG was, no one outside of the community who was already going to buy the game gives a shit; it's too esoteric.

And finally, as far as the "preplanned" thing, I have external reason to believe you're actually right. (don't ask me for details) But I also don't really care. They set me up for the 19th, and I'm going to get it on the 17th/18th. I didn't buy the Pack and I'm certainly not contributing. I'm fine with it.

 

[Jintor]

What is it with Valve and inadvertantly encouraging idling?

 

[Salsa]

Is misrepresenting other peoples position via exaggeration in any way helpful to the general level of discourse?

yup


edit: ok not gonna be that much of an asshole, but some of the meltdowns here are pretty embarrasing, like Valve was delaying the game or something.

 

[CrookedRain]

Is this the first time ever that people actually expected a Valve game to release early? I thought we had all learned to expect Valve time by now.

 

[ElNarez]

Is this the first time ever that people actually expected a Valve game to release early? I thought we had all learned to expect Valve time by now.

Taking unlocking into account, it'll end up being playable on tuesday anyway.

 

[Jenga]

so apparently valve is removing potatoes from cheaters


it takes effect monday I believe

the way the mod worded it was that it still counted towards the ARG tho

 

[Max]

You owe it to yourself to just play through the Amnesia DLC without ruining it by removing the monsters. Honestly, it's the best DLC to come out of this ARG.

For real. You guys shouldn't ruin your experience with GOTY 2010's free official addon for one silly potato

Spoiler

that shit gets frustrating though

 

[JaseC]

so apparently valve is removing potatoes from cheaters


it takes effect monday I believe

the way the mod worded it was that it still counted towards the ARG tho

I wasn't even aware that there was/is a website handing out potatoes.

 

[CrookedRain]

By the time I wake up tomorrow, it looks like both Rush and Cogs will be finished. Hopefully some kind of bonus will have kicked in by then as well.

 

[TheExodu5]

The vast majority of people going for potatoes will have cheated in some way. How many people grinded money in Killing Floor? Used their own legit Cogs save? Valve is going to have to deal with yet another backlash if they remove those potatoes. I doubt that's going to happen.

On that note:

edit: oh, the post in question...

Some people worked very hard to obtain their potatoes and it's not fair to them to let other users click a button to get 15.

For now, you can hold on to the potatoes. But any potatoes that were obtained through the cheating site will be removed tomorrow.

That seems to be referencing something else...

 

[IceMarker]

I wasn't even aware that there was/is a website handing out potatoes.

There's a website which I won't post that seems very sketchy that authenticates your steam account and gives you around 13 potatos from the games even if you don't own the games they belong to, it's basically an exploit in the Steam Web API.