Support NeoGAF

[Ozone]

I kind of hope the next game to complete actually adds time to the counter. If you're gonna troll people, you might as well go all in.

Valve Time

 

[dollartaco]

Not even playing them, letting them IDLE.

It truly is a terrible thing.

 

[Twig]

Sarcasm is at times pretty hard to pick up in text. Going to be a nightmare for the person charged with with combing over the archives of this message board some indefinite amount of time from now.

Excuses!

You know, if this was what was said when the counter reached zero I think people would be less annoyed.

Seriously, imagine if GlaDOS's message stopped after "April Fools" and that was it. People would be pissed, sure, but it'd be hilarious and at least they'd be open about deceiving people, unlike this whole disaster.

I would cry both tears and laughter and tears of sadness. For a week straight.

 

[Hawkian]

Actually I am stuck on Audiosurf. Somehow this has become the most frustrating one so far, and I love this game.

 

[Joe Molotov]

It says auxiliary power right there on the page. Potato power . . . just like the TF2 hat.

Even the potato hat was lame.

 

[Drkirby]

Good lord, Kirby, what are you talking about?

Huh? Oh, don't mind me, I am a bit tired.

On non-ramblings, it looks like a few games are increasing in the pace the bar fills dispute the number of people playing going down, like Amnesia and Super Meet boy.

 

[corn_fest]

It says auxiliary power right there on the page. Potato power . . . just like the TF2 hat.

Yes, but if you look at the graphs, the rate of change has been constant even as the number of potatoes has more than quadrupled. I don't have the link, but it's around here somewhere.

 

[DrForester]

Valve essentially just trolled the gaming community and made them pay for the privilege.

Steam lets people download stuff right to their PC, so for their most anticipated game of 2011 they release it 7 hours later than Brick and Mortar stores doing midnight releases. Then then give their fans the honor of paying another $40 for a game pack that they have to play all weekend if they want to have the game at the same time as those people getting it at Brick and Mortar stores.

Way to go Gabe. He's a guy who does the thing right.

 

[Hawkian]

Right, but about the Audiosurf potatoes

 

[Nappuccino]

I think the overall growth rate is set in stone and is simply distributed to each game in accordance to the player ratios.

That theory doesn't fit with Killing Floor taking forever but always having the most players

 

[TheExodu5]

That theory doesn't fit with Killing Floor taking forever but always having the most players

Yes it does. The growth rate has nothing to do with the overall CPU cycles needed for each bar. Some bars are, in fact, longer than others.

 

[enzo_gt]

Wow, it's as if the bars are progressing even slower than before now. I wonder if people really have thrown in the towel completely.

GG Valve. Months later we're probably hear about how this ARG could've been handled better, and there will be a multipage article about it somewhere.

 

[scogoth]

GLaDOS you did it again...

 

[Jenga]

valve

now is the time

besides maybe audiosurf none of these will be completed before the game actually releases

now is the time

now is the time

 

[TheExodu5]

I think The Ball will make it.

 

[Hylian7]

Valve essentially just trolled the gaming community and made them pay for the privilege.

Steam lets people download stuff right to their PC, so for their most anticipated game of 2011 they release it 7 hours later than Brick and Mortar stores doing midnight releases. Then then give their fans the honor of paying another $40 for a game pack that they have to play all weekend if they want to have the game at the same time as those people getting it at Brick and Mortar stores.

http://i.imgur.com/ie26E.png

Way to go Gabe. He's a guy who does the thing right.

I thought if you buy hard copies of Steam games, they need to be activated on Steam and don't work until all of the Steam copies unlock, so if a retailer leaked the PC version and you went and bought, you wouldn't be able to play it yet. That is how it works, right? I've never bought a Steam game at retail before.

If that's the case, then only the console players would get it before us.

 

[Nappuccino]

Yes it does. The growth rate has nothing to do with the overall CPU cycles needed for each bar. Some bars are, in fact, longer than others.

Hmm... maybe. I still highly doubt it. I would have liked to see how long this would have taken more people knew about it/ were participating. I have a feeling the bars could have filled much faster than if more than 15,000 people were playing at once.

 

[TheExodu5]

Hmm... maybe. I still highly doubt it. I would have liked to see how long this would have taken more people knew about it/ were participating. I have a feeling the bars could have filled much faster than if more than 15,000 people were playing at once.

Again:

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I thought if you buy hard copies of Steam games, they need to be activated on Steam and don't work until all of the Steam copies unlock, so if a retailer leaked the PC version and you went and bought, you wouldn't be able to play it yet. That is how it works, right? I've never bought a Steam game at retail before.

If that's the case, then only the console players would get it before us.

Other people have said that's not how it works. Retail PC copies unlock when you install them.

 

[WEGGLES]

valve

now is the time

besides maybe audiosurf none of these will be completed before the game actually releases

now is the time

now is the time

The time was about 4 hours after the previous timer.....

 

[scogoth]

Other people have said that's not how it works. Retail PC copies unlock when you install them.

Nope. Locked.

 

[Lasthope106]

I'm calling it right now. The game will unlock at midnight, and Valve will claim that the fans made it possible. So everyone will spend an hour un-encrypting, open the game, look at the menu, and close the game because you have to go bed.

 

[Nappuccino]

Again:

http://www.thejayzone.com/pics/p2.png[/mg][/QUOTE]

I'm not blind. I've already said that it doesn't seem to be a 1:1 ratio and that they probably take samples of the user base every so often and add to the % complete accordingly.

hence my inertia metaphor

 

[morningbus]

I'm essentially at two places now:

1) Overclocking will begin at 500,000 potatoes, which should be 5 to 7 hours from now. At that point, things will be sped up and the game will unlock a few hours after. I anticipate a launch of 7 or 8 on Monday night (EST) in this scenario.

Now, the more plausible one:

2) We get the game at Midnight on Tuesday. My reasoning for this: I know a person that writes for a blog and has completed the main campaign. He is currently NDA'd until Tuesday. Why would Valve NDA a game until a day after the general public gets it?

 

[scogoth]

I'm calling it right now. The game will unlock at midnight, and Valve will claim that the fans made it possible. So everyone will spend an hour un-encrypting, open the game, look at the menu, and close the game because you have to go bed.

For EST maybe. PST are lucky sob's.

 

[corn_fest]

I'm calling it right now. The game will unlock at midnight

It's nice to want things.

 

[TheExodu5]

I'm calling it right now. The game will unlock at midnight, and Valve will claim that the fans made it possible. So everyone will spend an hour un-encrypting, open the game, look at the menu, and close the game because you have to go bed.

If it's midnight PST I won't have a chance to do even that.

 

[JaseC]

Why? The potatoes have done nothing.

Valve have said that GLaDOS will overclock the CPUs when there's enough auxiliary power.

 

[fallengorn]

I'm calling it right now. The game will unlock at midnight, and Valve will claim that the fans made it possible. So everyone will spend an hour un-encrypting, open the game, look at the menu, and close the game because you have to go bed.

Not if you're in college or unemployed!

Spoiler

I am neither of those people.

 

[Phantom Limbs]

Man this thing has really come to a halt. The Ball and Audiosurf are barely moving.

 

[maniac-kun]

Valve have said that GLaDOS will overclock the CPUs when there's enough auxiliary power.

but they are deleting like half the potatoes today.

 

[Nappuccino]

Man this thing has really come to a halt. The Ball and Audiosurf are barely moving.

Audiosurf barely moved this entire time and usually had about 3,000 ppl in it.

 

[corn_fest]

Valve have said that GLaDOS will overclock the CPUs when there's enough auxiliary power.

I am aware. I just don't believe it. It's too late for it to really matter, anyway.

 

[JaseC]

but they are deleting like half the potatoes today.

I've been in this thread, over at the Wiki and in the Wiki IRC chat for the past two weeks and even I didn't know about the website. Somehow, I doubt "like half" of the ARG participants did.

And as I've said time and time again, I don't believe Valve will go after those who unlocked their potatoes in-game. They made absolutely no mention or suggestion of such in the SPUF thread; it was specifically about the website.

I am aware. I just don't believe it. It's too late for it to really matter, anyway.

Are we really this cynical now? "Valve didn't release the game on Friday as we had assumed, so now we're going to take everything they say with a grain of salt!"

 

[TheExodu5]

but they are deleting like half the potatoes today.

They've said that they wouldn't touch the Glados potato counter.

Are we really this cynical now? "Valve didn't release the game on Friday as we had assumed, so now we're going to take everything they say with a grain of salt!"

Pretty much. I've always, always taken Valve estimates with a huge grain of salt. I just let the prospect of an early launch get the better of me. I should have known it would not be immune to the effects of Valve Time.

 

[corn_fest]

Are we really this cynical now? "Valve didn't release the game on Friday as we had assumed, so now we're going to take everything they say with a grain of salt!"

The guy who talked about the overclock was Jeep, right? The same guy who said that "nothing other than G@H was relevant" only to become "infected" and drop off the face of the earth. Yeah, I'm taking what he says with a heavy dose of salt.

 

[Campster]

but they are deleting like half the potatoes today.

I thought they had already done their wiping of 'illicit' potatoes?

 

[Lasthope106]

The guy who talked about the overclock was Jeep, right? The same guy who said that "nothing other than G@H was relevant" only to become "infected" and drop off the face of the earth. Yeah, I'm taking what he says with a heavy dose of salt.

Who is the Jeep guy?

 

[JaseC]

Pretty much. I've always, always taken Valve estimates with a huge grain of salt. I just let the prospect of an early launch get the better of me. I should have known it would not be immune to the effects of Valve Time.

Cynicism towards their release dates is unavoidable given Valve Time, but there's a difference between that and being cynical of everything they say because an assumption on our part didn't come to fruition.

The guy who talked about the overclock was Jeep, right? The same guy who said that "nothing other than G@H was relevant" only to become "infected" and drop off the face of the earth. Yeah, I'm taking what he says with a heavy dose of salt.

Or he said that because he was already compromised.

DUN DUN DUNNN.

 

[Nappuccino]

Cynicism towards their release dates is unavoidable given Valve Time, but there's a difference between that and being cynical of everything they say because an assumption on our part didn't come to fruition.

exactly

 

[TheExodu5]

Cynicism towards their release dates is unavoidable given Valve Time, but there's a difference between that and being cynical of everything they say because an assumption on our part didn't come to fruition.

We're being cynical when it comes to the overclocking thing, because we know that it really doesn't matter. It really, really doesn't matter. This game is releasing at midnight tomorrow regardless of what happens.

Quote me if you like. I'll happily eat some crow if I'm wrong.

 

[corn_fest]

Who is the Jeep guy?

A Valve employee who was providing some info on G@H before turning over to a bizarre, roleplaying side of the ARG which had seen little coverage outside IRC.

 

[Goon Boon]

I thought they had already done their wiping of 'illicit' potatoes?

They said they wouldn't remove them from the potato count, but that if they re-earned the potatoes it wouldn't cause them to increase the total anymore.

 

[Nappuccino]

They said they wouldn't remove them from the potato count, but that if they re-earned the potatoes it wouldn't cause them to increase the total anymore.

Did they change their mind then?

 

[classicdms]

Well, I quit. I'll see everyone on Monday night, waiting impatiently for the unlock. Gonna turn my computer off for the first time in 3 days.

It's been a grind.

 

[Phantom Limbs]

I think the lesson to be learned from all of this is....
Never call Gabe fat.
Not only is EP3 delayed beyond recovery, he got us back big time with this ARG. AND got us to spend more money.
Touche, Gabe.

P.S. I never called you fat for the record.

 

[Ozone]

I'm going to bed. Leaving Audiosurf running overnight to help the cause.

Keep on keeping, comrades.

 

[JaseC]

Did they change their mind then?

No. All they originally said is that they'll be removing the potatoes from the profiles of those who cheated, and it's only recently that they clarified what that means for the G@H counter.

Because of what they said initially - or rather, didn't say - any speculation about what those removed potatoes would do to the counter prior to Valve's clarification was simply that: speculation.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

Clearly Valve should have never announced Portal 2 and left it to be a surprise at the end of an ARG.

 

[Ozone]

Clearly Valve should have never announced Portal 2 and left it to be a surprise at the end of an ARG.

No, the real end of the ARG is Episode 3.

This is an ARG within the Half-Life ARG.