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[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

This obscene waste of resources is unethical.

All the good cause of saving electricity in Earth Hour is ruined in 3 nights, lol.

 

[The Elite]

To avoid this being a complete disaster I have to imagine Valve pushing the button at some point today. If they do it in the evening, it's a waste for me anyways. I could have grabbed it from a store tonight and I also have class.

Oh Valve...

 

[Bliddo]

No one can say I didn't do my part. And it only cost me my ENTIRE FUCKING WEEKEND FOR NOTHING. It was fun though, like a gaming iron man triathlon. Except, thirteenathlon. Or whatever.

Yeah I hope this potato thing won't expire once Portal 2 released. My OCD enjoys collecting this stuff.

 

[Gandie]

VALVE'S POTATO SCAM: As a honest buyer, you are entitled to one cow. The cow is already a grown adult, healthy and ready to be milked. However, Gabe Newell takes it hostage and will release it only after a certain arbirtary date. Moreover, he says that if you want it back sooner you'll have to buy another (mangy, haggard and BSE-ridden) cow from one of Gabe's friends, pump out lots of undrinkable milk for hours on end and then offer it to Gabe as a sign of loyalty and goodwill. Depending on star alignment and what the weather is like, Gabe will decide if it's enough or not.

Oh wow.

 

[Sent]

To avoid this being a complete disaster I have to imagine Valve pushing the button at some point today. If they do it in the evening, it's a waste for me anyways. I could have grabbed it from a store tonight and I also have class.

Oh Valve...

I hope Gabe walks into his office today and just says "you've done enough" and hits the button cause damn man. As much as I love Valve, having it come down to a few hours is a failure of the last mile and a slap in the face.

 

[StuBurns]

Bu-bu-but those starving indiedevs?

Fucking bet my ass that they're 10x wealthier than people dare realize.

Well regardless this was an insane way to end it. I think the potato sack and hidden potatoes were good ideas, but it should have just be ended much more efficiently.

They could have put like five potatoes in each game, and require the amount of potatoes to equal sales (so a fifth of the sell base could theoretically do it) to unlock that bar. This CPU cycle variant is just very poorly thought out to me. Saying that this is the first real fuck up from Valve for me, so maybe it's just that I can't see it in context yet.

 

[Luigison]

All the good cause of saving electricity in Earth Hour is ruined in 3 nights, lol.

I run BOINC so my cycles are never completely wasted. http://boinc.berkeley.edu/ It's funny that one of the projects is actually about saving energy.

 

[Woffls]

The people who are into ARGs will still bother, because they love solving the puzzles. And the people like me who are into following ARGs will still bother, because we love watching people solve the puzzles.

But if they even pretend to try another grindy thing like this weekend again, yes, you're right, people won't bother - with that part.

Yeah that's what I was referring to, I should have been clearer. I really enjoy the ARG stuff as well, but the GlaDOS reboot thing was a massive anticlimax after all the work that people put into solving the ARG. It's like navigating an obscenely complex maze for a magic sword, then being told you can't use it for another 20 levels or some shit xD

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

I love some of the awful analogies we can find in this thread.

 

[Jintor]

I love some of the awful analogies we can find in this thread.

Let's make more!

 

[Twig]

Let's make more!

the arg is like a sticky note that lost its sticky ):

Fun fact: That is actually the saddest thing I can think of right now.

 

[ArjanN]

I don't even know what to reply to moronic statements like these. All I can say is if I ever manage to run a multimillion software company, then dear God let my future clients gobble up any kind of treatment and eat it up like ArjanN. That revenue.

If someone payed 30$ only to speed up the process with no intention to play the games they were stupid to begin with.

IMO Super Meat Boy alone is worth the 30$, not to mention Amnesia, Defense Grid, Bit.Trip Beat, Killing Floor etc.

I also had a lot of fun playing the extra free content for the potato sack games, plus I get to play Portal 2 (at least) several hours earlier. Since I never counted on Portal 2 being released on friday, there has been no real downside to this ARG for me.

 

[Takamura-San]

I think think that peoplr wount be pissed if valde didn't mention anything regarding portal being released early

 

[shuyin_]

Because the only people who are frothing at the mouth are the people who already bought the game (lack of financial fail) and even this won't dent Valve's permenant record as being the best dudes in the industry, especially if they apologise for fucking up.

I never said Valve isn't the best in the industry, if by any chance that's what you understood. I'm just saying that sometimes they are also the worst (if this 'obey and play these games if you want this from us' trend is picked-up by other companies, you can blame Valve for starting it).

Also, you really think Valve will apologise? ))))))))))
This reminded me of that dude: "Square should publicly apologise or they could kiss their business goodbye" )
You're being naive. They won't apologise.

 

[theinfinityissue]

Honestly, at this point it would have been better if the GlaDOS timer had reached 0 and nothing had happened. No promises, no bars, nothing. There'd be more hype left than now. I had fun with the potato hunt, and still enjoyed the ARG immensely (minus this misstep), but this thing is like a bad joke now. I guarantee that every Valve thread in the future, every awesome achievement and promising new title, someone is going to post the god damn bars and it will be at least moderately funny.

I'd email Gabe about it, but what's the point in sending one more internet missive to the giant recycle bin over at Valve hq.

 

[Nab]

Let's make more!

This ARG was like finding a magical Unicorn, but then when you try to ride it, it impales you with it's horn, and as you lay very slowly bleeding on the grassy earth, the unicorn begins to laugh at you.

Then, after hours of immeasurable pain, you hear an ambulance and you begin to believe that maybe you will be saved, then it turns out it was just the evil Unicorn doing an impression of an ambulance and you continue to slowly die and it returns to laughing.

That brings us to about here.

 

[Twig]

[arbitrary complaint]

):

The ARG is like a thread that starts out really cool with a bunch of people super excited about the topic, and having a jolly ol' time with each other, but then something goes wrong and suddenly the thread is filled with nothing but hatred and vitriol, and some people flail around, trying to save it, but no, it's too late, the thread is over and done with. The mods have the power to save it, but choose instead to watch and laugh at the pitiful participants.

 

[The Elite]

I think think that peoplr wount be pissed if valde didn't mention anything regarding portal being released early

I personally believe they broke the 4th wall when they posted on the front of the store "Hey, buy and play these games to get Portal 2 released early." They should have left that shit alone and left the speculation of an early release up in the air. Instead, they created an expectation that simply couldn't be fulfilled.

If you tell people on Friday that a game is going to be released early, they are going to expect that release to happen sooner than later. This isn't about whether it's stupid or not to buy the Potato Sack just to get Portal 2 released early but it has a lot to do with the level of expecation Valve created when they posted their little banner on the front of their store.

Not many expected to be waiting until Monday (possibly evening) for this early release. And while they didn't have to give us those few extra hours, the level of expectation they created with that banner was much more. That's where they made the mistake and that's why this ARG is backfiring now.

If they had left well enough alone and just let the ARG play out without telegraphing the potential for an early release, this may not have looked as bad.

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

Let's make more!

This whole ARG scenario was like navigating a complex maze and then fighting the minotaur then defeating him, then following the trail you made with potatoes but the minotaur injured your leg and so you have to crawl and consume potatoes so that you don't die as you follow this potato trail out. You thought you'd be out by Sunday but the injury was so bad it slipped to Tuesday.

And then portal 2 releases.

Spoiler

then

 

[Mister_Bubbles]

This whole ARG debacle is like a blue portal without an orange exit portal. It looks like it should go somewhere, but when you jump in, you just hit a wall.

 

[Baha]

It's sad that some people hate AudioSurf because they played the same song over and over for hours on end. Try playing some of your own music and you'll realize how much fun the game is when you're not forcing yourself to get a damned potato.

 

[Campster]

Yeah, at this point that's more or less a certainty. By the time I wake up tomorrow Audiosurf will hopefully either be done or nearly done, but that still leaves the 5 most challenging games left.

I love how even this modest prediction has let me down.

 

[The Elite]

I love how even this modest prediction has let me down.

I expected Audiosurf to be done. I think it's hardly moved since I went to sleep.

 

[TheExodu5]

What can we expect...Audiosurf, The Ball, and maybe Defense Grid? That's another 3 hours off at best. 1.5 hours off at worst.

edit:

http://cpucount.zapto.org/

Looks like CPU count actually did matter in the end. Look it's slowing down!

 

[Twig]

It's sad that some people hate AudioSurf because they played the same song over and over for hours on end. Try playing some of your own music and you'll realize how much fun the game is when you're not forcing yourself to get a damned potato.

Yeah, but I have to believe that for every vocal manbaby who hates a game because of a potato, there are multiple nonvocal human beings who discovered a new game to love.

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

What can we expect...Audiosurf, The Ball, and maybe Defense Grid? That's another 3 hours off at best. 1.5 hours off at worst.

edit:

http://cpucount.zapto.org/

Looks like CPU count actually did matter in the end. Look it's slowing down!

Audiosurf is the only game that is expected to finish in time. The others are all estimated to finish after the main timer.

 

[The Elite]

What can we expect...Audiosurf, The Ball, and maybe Defense Grid? That's another 3 hours off at best. 1.5 hours off at worst.

edit:

http://cpucount.zapto.org/

Looks like CPU count actually did matter in the end. Look it's slowing down!

We were moving at a game completed every five hours for the last few but Audiosurf broke that projection so I'm not sure to tell you the truth. I imagine a lot of people are going to throw in the towel now that the weekend is over.

 

[JaseC]

I never said Valve isn't the best in the industry, if by any chance that's what you understood. I'm just saying that sometimes they are also the worst (if this 'obey and play these games if you want this from us' trend is picked-up by other companies, you can blame Valve for starting it).

Also, you really think Valve will apologise? ))))))))))
This reminded me of that dude: "Square should publicly apologise or they could kiss their business goodbye" )
You're being naive. They won't apologise.

Except Valve won't do this again. They're going to learn from this backlash and will take that into account when they plan their next ARG. That's what they've always done and it's the primary reason why they can stuff up and yet still be very highly regarded and respected by both gamers and those actually in the video game industry.

Will they apologise? Probably not. Will they learn from this? Absolutely, and that's more than you can say for virtually every other developer/publisher. Just watch EA do another social network-athon when they're due to release the next 'full trailer for Bf3.

 

[webrunner]

IT's funny how everyone is 100% sure of their own personal theory on Valve's plans before and after as well as their failure status, no question. It's also funny how nobody can agree on it.

 

[marrec]

I personally believe they broke the 4th wall when they posted on the front of the store "Hey, buy and play these games to get Portal 2 released early." They should have left that shit alone and left the speculation of an early release up in the air. Instead, they created an expectation that simply couldn't be fulfilled.

If you tell people on Friday that a game is going to be released early, they are going to expect that release to happen sooner than later. This isn't about whether it's stupid or not to buy the Potato Sack just to get Portal 2 released early but it has a lot to do with the level of expecation Valve created when they posted their little banner on the front of their store.

Not many expected to be waiting until Monday (possibly evening) for this early release. And while they didn't have to give us those few extra hours, the level of expectation they created with that banner was much more. That's where they made the mistake and that's why this ARG is backfiring now.

If they had left well enough alone and just let the ARG play out without telegraphing the potential for an early release, this may not have looked as bad.

As soon as you break the game like that in any ARG it's all downhill. Unless you can bring it around back into the story which it doesn't seem like they are trying to do. Perplex City was successful at breaking the 4th wall as soon as the game launched because it was part of the game. But Valve shitting the bed and saying 'Kay, now the ARG is done and we want yall to play games!' is really dissapointing because the ARG didn't have any closure. Just a countdown to a countdown.

 

[The Elite]

IT's funny how everyone is 100% sure of their own personal theory on Valve's plans before and after as well as their failure status, no question. It's also funny how nobody can agree on it.

Financially they've probably succeeded. I'm curious to see their Potato Sack sales over the weekend. Image wise, this is going to be one of those screwups Valve is known for. It will blow over, but as someone else mentioned here, we're going to see some colorful .gifs of bars filling up over the next few years.

ARG wise, it ended at noon Eastern on Friday and the rest was just a big mistake with unfulfilled potential.

 

[Jintor]

Also, you really think Valve will apologise? ))))))))))
This reminded me of that dude: "Square should publicly apologise or they could kiss their business goodbye" )
You're being naive. They won't apologise.

I said 'Especially if'. Not a predictive statement.

That said, I think Valve might. They generally know when to fold 'em.

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

Cannot wait when the day doesn't unlock straight away and we're all left waiting for it to happen.

In before the meltdown.

 

[theinfinityissue]

Yeah an ARG definitely has to have a mostly intact fourth wall, this is the same problem with Marble Hornets. Once the spell is broken, you kinda look around and go, well this isn't really that special.

 

[Cheech]

I had a lot of fun this weekend playing some sweet indie games. The Ball, Defense Grid, Amnesia, Audiosurf, Bit.Trip, Killing Floor, and Super Meat Boy all gave me hours of fun and I even have 11 potatoes to show for it. How about you guys? Fellas? Hello?

I just like having fun, don't hurt me.

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

I certainly won't forget this, and the next time Valve hypes something up I'll know to have low expectations.

 

[Twig]

IT's funny how everyone is 100% sure of their own personal theory on Valve's plans before and after as well as their failure status, no question. It's also funny how nobody can agree on it.

It's pretty simple: the negative nancies are wrong. (teehee)

 

[The Elite]

I had a lot of fun this weekend playing some sweet indie games. The Ball, Defense Grid, Amnesia, Audiosurf, Bit.Trip, Killing Floor, and Super Meat Boy all gave me hours of fun and I even have 11 potatoes to show for it. How about you guys? Fellas? Hello?

I just like having fun, don't hurt me.

I don't think anyone is saying that there is anything wrong with having fun. The structure of the ARG and the level of expecation they created are the problems being discussed. Valve created a level of expecation when they put the banner up on their front page on Friday.

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

What can we expect...Audiosurf, The Ball, and maybe Defense Grid? That's another 3 hours off at best. 1.5 hours off at worst.

edit:

http://cpucount.zapto.org/

Looks like CPU count actually did matter in the end. Look it's slowing down!

Yeah, it seems legit and technically possible to have unlocked it at any time based on participation now. Just exceedingly difficult.

 

[JaseC]

I certainly won't forget this, and the next time Valve hypes something up I'll know to have low expectations.

That's easy to say when you're disappointed. Once that passes, when they begin cooking something up you'll be in the GAF thread with the rest of us assuming it's something to do with Episode Three.

 

[marrec]

I had a lot of fun this weekend playing some sweet indie games. The Ball, Defense Grid, Amnesia, Audiosurf, Bit.Trip, Killing Floor, and Super Meat Boy all gave me hours of fun and I even have 11 potatoes to show for it. How about you guys? Fellas? Hello?

I just like having fun, don't hurt me.

I had a great time too, I posted above talking about all those games that I played that otherwise I wouldn't have and being someone who loves ARGs just as much as Video Games this was a perfect intersection for me. The only thing that casts a bit of a black cloud over the whole thing is how they've handled the End Game.

Really, they need to hire someone who knows how to finish an ARG, because obviously they have no idea.

 

[Twig]

I don't think anyone is saying that there is anything wrong with having fun. The structure of the ARG and the level of expecation they created are the problems being discussed. Valve created a level of expecation when they put the banner up on their front page on Friday.

disclaimer: not directed at you specifically

mother of god, this is like the hundredth post to say the exact same thing with different words nnngrrrarhhhh people know they don't need it explained again and again

or maybe they do!

i don't know

 

[Fletcher]

I personally believe they broke the 4th wall when they posted on the front of the store "Hey, buy and play these games to get Portal 2 released early." They should have left that shit alone and left the speculation of an early release up in the air. Instead, they created an expectation that simply couldn't be fulfilled.

If you tell people on Friday that a game is going to be released early, they are going to expect that release to happen sooner than later. This isn't about whether it's stupid or not to buy the Potato Sack just to get Portal 2 released early but it has a lot to do with the level of expecation Valve created when they posted their little banner on the front of their store.

Not many expected to be waiting until Monday (possibly evening) for this early release. And while they didn't have to give us those few extra hours, the level of expectation they created with that banner was much more. That's where they made the mistake and that's why this ARG is backfiring now.

If they had left well enough alone and just let the ARG play out without telegraphing the potential for an early release, this may not have looked as bad.

I agree with this completely. They were in the clear until they put thatbanner up on steam. It seems as if they were going to release after the countdown on Friday, but something happened? Doesn't make sense.

 

[JaseC]

I agree with this completely. They were in the clear until they put thatbanner up on steam. It seems as if they were going to release after the countdown on Friday, but something happened? Doesn't make sense.

They were in the clear until the countdown timer ended and gave way to another countdown timer. That's when virtually everybody began feeling betrayed and started sharpening their pitchforks.

All that work culminating in a plausible theory that Portal 2 would be released notably early, only for there to be a brick wall at the end of the path? It was never going to end well.

 

[EatChildren]

Here's something that I haven't understood about this ARG all this time, specifically the GlaDOS@home.

You've got all these tags like "Projected Launch" and "Glados Textual Output", but what of "Active Test Subjects"?

It's always been a big fat "ZERO" text. Never changed. Never moved.

Thing is, if you look at the background image, the "ZERO" isn't part of it. All the tags are, as is the general page layout. But not the "ZERO".

This to me implies it should move, or change, or do something. It has the tag "Active Test Subjects" after all. Why did it never move or change? Did it have a purpose?

 

[Twig]

I just assumed it was referring to Chell without coming right out and saying "Chell!"

They were in the clear until the countdown timer ended and gave way to another countdown timer. That's when virtually everybody began feeling betrayed and began sharpening their pitchforks.

Yep. The disappointment would have happened, 4th wall or no.

 

[Mister_Bubbles]

I had a great time too, I posted above talking about all those games that I played that otherwise I wouldn't have and being someone who loves ARGs just as much as Video Games this was a perfect intersection for me. The only thing that casts a bit of a black cloud over the whole thing is how they've handled the End Game.

Really, they need to hire someone who knows how to finish an ARG, because obviously they have no idea.

You're assuming it's ending. This may well just be a disappointing phase in a tale that is yet to be completed.

 

[Cheech]

I don't think anyone is saying that there is anything wrong with having fun. The structure of the ARG and the level of expecation they created are the problems being discussed. Valve created a level of expecation when they put the banner up on their front page on Friday.

What WAS the expectation, exactly? Having a bunch of indie devs put Portal content (most of which was REALLY well done) into their games, along with the potato metagame wasn't good times? I didn't even participate in the ARG itself, just collected my potatoes and played sweet games.

I think the bigger problem is quite a few of the potatoes were just too damn hard to get. A buddy of mine bought the potato sack on Friday, and he had fun playing the games, but got disheartened because of the difficulty. He tried for the potatoes in the minor games first (i.e. in order the community was trying to unlock them), which may have been a mistake. I don't own, and didn't play any of those. Just the ones I listed above.

In retrospect, the hardcore puzzle part of the ARG should have ended a week prior, so it was nothing but sweet potato collecting and GlaDOS@Home since then. The way it all jam piled over this weekend, with no time to really map out what games were going to be hit first and give people more time to collect potatoes, could have been done better.

At the end of the day, though, it was a good time. I'm sure as with anything else, the next crack at this from Valve will be better.

 

[webrunner]

Here's something that I haven't understood about this ARG all this time, specifically the GlaDOS@home.

You've got all these tags like "Projected Launch" and "Glados Textual Output", but what of "Active Test Subjects"?

It's always been a big fat "ZERO" text. Never changed. Never moved.

Thing is, if you look at the background image, the "ZERO" isn't part of it. All the tags are, as is the general page layout. But not the "ZERO".

This to me implies it should move, or change, or do something. It has the tag "Active Test Subjects" after all. Why did it never move or change? Did it have a purpose?

The zero is here:
http://media.steampowered.com/apps/portal2/gladosathome/numbers/zero.png

There's no http://media.steampowered.com/apps/portal2/gladosathome/numbers/one.png but it's odd that it's in a folder called "numbers"...

 

[Hylian7]

Here's something that I haven't understood about this ARG all this time, specifically the GlaDOS@home.

You've got all these tags like "Projected Launch" and "Glados Textual Output", but what of "Active Test Subjects"?

It's always been a big fat "ZERO" text. Never changed. Never moved.

Thing is, if you look at the background image, the "ZERO" isn't part of it. All the tags are, as is the general page layout. But not the "ZERO".

This to me implies it should move, or change, or do something. It has the tag "Active Test Subjects" after all. Why did it never move or change? Did it have a purpose?

I think it refers to number of people playing Portal 2, which is obviously zero and won't change til late tonight/early tomorrow.