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

Cartman86

Banned
Opiate said:
I didn't do the renaming, but the implication should be obvious.

This ARG gave people the illusion of control: that through playing a variety of other independently developed games, players had the opportunity to release Portal 2 more rapidly.

It is clear, now, that audience participation does not actually have any effect, and that we all could have literally done nothing but watch and the result would have been identical.

That is not satisfying. Being given the illusion of control when your input is actually meaningless is frustrating in virtually any context. I'm not sure why that's confusing to people.

If true agreed. Obviously Valve has a ton of good will, so this isn't going to hurt my feelings or something, but I certainly don't think it's awesome.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
JaseC said:

I made a thread over at the Steampowered forums. Hopefully somebody responds.

Also, Portal 2 is done so I totally-for-reals will see you all in the OT. :)
 

Raxus

Member
Opiate said:
I didn't do the renaming, but the implication should be obvious.

This ARG gave people the illusion of control: that through playing a variety of other independently developed games, players had the opportunity to release Portal 2 more rapidly.
We are all Chell? Doomed to endless sets of testing chambers for as long as we live? Meta...
 

FStop7

Banned
JoeBoy101 said:
Unfucking believably weak. There's rigging it to fail, and then there's heavy-handed blatant manipulative bullshit that doesn't hold up even to their own logic. Jesus.

Christ, not even going to get it for midnight.

Reading this post while looking at your Valve-branded avatar is just too funny.
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
Mister_Bubbles said:
Just caught up on the last few pages, and dayum! It sounds like this thing is approaching...

david_caruso_sunglasses.jpg


... Critical mash.

I didn't get it. :p
 

Sibylus

Banned
On the 7th iteration of Final Countdown. Purge, purge, purge!

IchigoSharingan said:
It's better to make a title change like that than to pull out the laundry list of users who are officially eating crow for being Valve apologists.
I've no problem admitting I was wrong as wrong can be. This entire final phase is just baffling.
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
enzo_gt said:
ALL OF YOU NON-GOLDEN POTATO FUCKERS GET IN DEFENSE GRID NOW. 5 MINUTES IS ENOUGH TO SHAVE OFF.
you should know by this point it's not going to make a difference

it's a real shame the Glados@Home bit was such garbage. The rest of the ARG was so good.
 

daegan

Member
could be that they didn't realize they were bound by agreements and didn't want to break the fourth wall to that extent... I guess we'll find out soon
 
Opiate said:
I didn't do the renaming, but the implication should be obvious.

This ARG gave people the illusion of control: that through playing a variety of other independently developed games, players had the opportunity to release Portal 2 more rapidly.

It is clear, now, that audience participation does not actually have any effect, and that we all could have literally done nothing but watch and the result would have been identical.

That is not satisfying. Being given the illusion of control when your input is actually meaningless is frustrating in virtually any context. I'm not sure why that's confusing to people.

Someone else already pointed out that by now, it is not confusing, it is obvious. The only people still insisting that this hasn't been a poorly thought out marketing fraud are deliberately being assholes about it.
 

Sew

Member
dangerbyrnes said:
hahaha

707 test subjects.

flip the number over

EDIT: damn, i thought it stopped there... just forget i said anytthing.
But now it's stopped at 1119, and it hasn't changed for a little while which seems odd. Is this more ARG? Argh!
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
Htown said:
you should know by this point it's not going to make a difference

it's a real shame the Glados@Home bit was such garbage. The rest of the ARG was so good.

NO! IT WASN'T GARBAGE IT WAS THE BEST MARKETING EVER!

Valve fanboy in denial
 

KiKaL

Member
darthbob said:
Well, at least you had some fun, right?


Absolutely, I really liked the games in the Potato Pack and had a lot of fun getting the potatoes. I pre-orded from Amazon so I was never to hyped for an early launch.
 

MThanded

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
IchigoSharingan said:
Someone else already pointed out that by now, it is not confusing, it is obvious. The only people still insisting that this hasn't been a poorly thought out marketing fraud are deliberately being assholes about it.
So no one enjoyed the ARG? I understand people are frustrated but I enjoyed looking at the files and clues and wondering what was around the bend. I think its really unfair to say that. You are just being highly inflammatory for no reason. There are a lot of people who have a really positive experience along the way. Maybe I am the only one in the world who thinks this.
 

Luigi87

Member
Well it's finally here, and looking at the GLaDOS@home...

Now these points of data make a beautiful line.
And they're out of beta.
They're releasing on time.
So I'm glad we got burned.
Think of all the things we learned

... I got nothin' else.
 
Opiate said:
I didn't do the renaming, but the implication should be obvious.

This ARG gave people the illusion of control: that through playing a variety of other independently developed games, players had the opportunity to release Portal 2 more rapidly.

It is clear, now, that audience participation does not actually have any effect, and that we all could have literally done nothing but watch and the result would have been identical.

That is not satisfying. Being given the illusion of control when your input is actually meaningless is frustrating in virtually any context. I'm not sure why that's confusing to people.
additionally Walve mislead the entire community through the entire thing, and went into serious mode with this

i0OFJ.jpg


on their storefront. some people may have enjoyed the ride but there's no defense for the bait-and-switch here, Complete Pack or not
 

Opiate

Member
Cartman86 said:
If true agreed. Obviously Valve has a ton of good will, so this isn't going to hurt my feelings or something, but I certainly don't think it's awesome.

Absolutely. I'd add, also, that this is how Valve (and any good company, and any good person) learns. They try new things -- I really don't think any game company has made a sales pitch that's even remotely similar -- and sometimes those new things don't work. That's the nature of testing new approaches.

I think the general consensus seems to be that this sales pitch wasn't very appealing. Hopefully, they'll learn.
 

ghibli99

Member
Opiate said:
I didn't do the renaming, but the implication should be obvious.

This ARG gave people the illusion of control: that through playing a variety of other independently developed games, players had the opportunity to release Portal 2 more rapidly.

It is clear, now, that audience participation does not actually have any effect, and that we all could have literally done nothing but watch and the result would have been identical.

That is not satisfying. Being given the illusion of control when your input is actually meaningless is frustrating in virtually any context. I'm not sure why that's confusing to people.
I don't know... I think that's the whole point of Portal: giving the user the illusion that a reward awaits that may or may not be there, while playing mind games with you through the entire process. It does suck that it cost people money, though.

I'm not one of the many that sunk hours into this process though, so I don't have the attachment that some folks have, but as an outsider, I find it kind of humorous. At the very least, I think the extra Portal content that came with the Potato Sack was really cool, and the viral nature of it all was something that even I got caught up in today.
 
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