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Valve's fake, rigged, waste of time Progress Quest troll Portal 2 ARG
- Thread starter V_Ben
- Start date
civilstrife
Member
Ok, there's new 3-digit numbers to decode in the new Investment opportunities video.
Starting at 0:17, below the lifeline in the upper right corner.
Don't know if anyone's already noticed them. Just thought I'd point them out.
Starting at 0:17, below the lifeline in the upper right corner.
Don't know if anyone's already noticed them. Just thought I'd point them out.
Mister_Bubbles
Member
Baha said:
Thanks to JaseC's awesome generosity, I've been discovering the joys of AudioSurf. Pure brilliance.
dock said:
I'm fairly sure this was a mutual decision after brainstorming. Valve could have used more successful IP's to cross promote Portal2 with, and they already have a massive real world advertising push (London is literally covered in Portal 2 billboards/signs/codes all over the place now). They certainly did not have to weave their latest ARG within these indie games.
Much like the App store, Valve have to prove that they can keep long term sales going and products relevant on Steam, and this pack has a lot more weight behind it than others (and hopefully, sold a lot more because of it)
I guess its a difference of opinion. They get some awesome new content, plus lots of sales and a Valve seal of approval (no-one who knows the company would imagine allowing their licence to be used in a product they thought was bad) for very little work. It's win win for everyone. Sounds like you disprove of cross-promotion advertising in general, which I don't really understand. But, free world and all that.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
There was a ridiculous amount of effort put into The Ball bonus content, I doubt Valve got them to do it just to sell more copies of the game.syoaran said:
I'm not against cross-promotion, it's just seldom you see an initiative this aggressive. It's great that Valve are a fondly loved company and have done great things with Steam, and certainly everyone involved will benefit greatly from the promotion.syoaran said:
That's okay though, I think it is only me that finds this a little weird. I wonder whether I'd have to be more of a fan of Valve games or Portal references to appreciate their campaign fully.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Well uh, that is who this is made for so yes.dock said:
Stallion Free said:
That's not what I'm saying. They didn't "get" them to do anything, they worked together. The Ball's developer likely wanted to product additional content to spur sales, and the portal cover was part of the cross promotion. Valve likely produced the assets, and left the level design and implementation to the developer. This happens with a lot of cross-promotion.
So, if Call of Duty references/adverts started appearing in your games, this is also cool so long as there's new content? What about Sonic references? Toyota references? Mountain Dew references?Stallion Free said:
I do think it's only me that finds this all a bit strange, and I admit that I tend to find aggressive marketing offputting, especially when it starts to exploit irregular channels and encourages people to act like conduits.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
Holy mother of fuck, audio surf is incredibly awesome, and the portal 2 song is just nuts!
If you have the Speed Racer OST by Michael Giacchino, play Casa Cristo and Reboot. Its like fucking F-Zero with music!
FUCKING THIS!
If you have the Speed Racer OST by Michael Giacchino, play Casa Cristo and Reboot. Its like fucking F-Zero with music!
Chavelo said:/wants to get more potatoes
/buys Audiosurf
/plays special track
/thinks audiosurf is neat
/starts playing other songs
/plays for hours
FUCKING THIS!
MasterShotgun
brazen editing lynx
Damn that Audiosurf track is beautiful.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
Can someone explain the potatoe thing, played the track in audiosurf and played the beat trip beat level and it seem i didnt get nothing?
Its not like the treasure hunt were I could know how many achievments I had, in the the store in steam I see nothing.
Its not like the treasure hunt were I could know how many achievments I had, in the the store in steam I see nothing.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Eh, you act like the advertising is blatant. If someone went into The Ball having no clue what Portal was, they would still have no clue afterwards.dock said:
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
epmode said:
Ahhh, you need to get all the games. Fuck that sir.
What do they give you as a price this time if you find all the potatoes?
The problem with your ridiculous hypotheticals is that the developers have to approve of whatever marketing campaign comes their way. Especially in the case of indie developers, where they aren't at the whim of some overlord publisher.dock said:
So as long as they approve, who are you to say it's wrong?
I would wager that every single one of the developers involved in this Potato Pack happens to simultaneously love Valve and Portal.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
Nabs said:
Fuck, would love to have Alien Hominid.
BuddhaRockstar
Member
dock said:
The difference is that literally everyone loves Portal.
dock said:
Indie developers want to sell more into the people that are not tempted by price (because most of these items have already appeared in other packs/sales), but by desire. Tagging yourself with Portal 2 helps your product appeal to those who were not interested before. I personally don't see this to be any different than the Hats from TF2. I play the game a lot, and there are ton's of hats/weapons from different pre-order bonuses appear in my game. It's quite aggressive and in my face, but it doesn't affect me all that much when I play the game.
If your not a fan of the content, then I can see you displeasure. But the large majority of Steam users are Valve fans, so the backlash is certainly in the minority. I do not have access to any sales data to back this up, but even using GAF to read how this is working, it certainly has had its desired effect to boost sales to long time Steam users, but first time buyers.
The items you gave make 0 sense in the current context, but on a larger scale I understand your concern. But all of those have already occurred in different ways as product placement. Mountain Dew cross promoted with Halo3 I believe, and made 0 sense. Sonic cross referenced with Nintendo in the Olympic games, to huge success. No-one really complained, despite the fact that it was a very aggressive push to instil character names and traits into the mind of the young demographic. Toyota exist in racing games, which makes sense in context, and helps the games have a foothold in realism.
Ninja edit (and keeping relevant to the OP): Finally got round to my first potato in audosurf - got told by Glados the first time I tried to open my MP3 folder that "my tastes were good, but old fashioned" and proceeded to play the Still Alive remix instead. Curse you!!
CarbonatedFalcon
Member
I installed and booted up Audiosurf for the first time the other day for the potato after buying it when it was on sale for $2.50 once (would have played it sooner, but switching to Windows 7 partition is annoying.)
Great game. Vortal Combat from the Orange Box OST is a great track already included, and playing the tracks from Tron: Legacy has been a lot of fun as well.
I did get the top score on the easy mono for the track needed for the first potato (the full-length song) before realizing that I needed to do that with the Ninja Mono. Got dethroned a few hours later though.
Great game. Vortal Combat from the Orange Box OST is a great track already included, and playing the tracks from Tron: Legacy has been a lot of fun as well.
I did get the top score on the easy mono for the track needed for the first potato (the full-length song) before realizing that I needed to do that with the Ninja Mono. Got dethroned a few hours later though.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Yes, and you come off like a bitter/jealous Indie dev.dock said:
Treefingers
Member
Yay I got the TWEotW potato! This one was pretty easy
Dog Problems
Banned
TheOGB said:
Yeah, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Are you talking about the world where the first level is a smallish 8-bit level with two sawblades? That's been around for a few days at least.Nabs said:
edit: Oh, I guess you mean the individual levels, not any of the map packs. I saw an impossible level with invisible blocks (which I only noticed because of the spraying blood from my corpse splashed against them).
SpacePirate Ridley said:
You dont need to own every game. Audiosurf is easy, just download the Icy Murderous I.mp3 from one of the hundreds of mirrors out there, play it in game and win the gold medal, then put the password in when it asks (the one it shows on the wiki), then you'll get a complete message. After its processed, check your community page and you should have it. Just did it about 5mins ago, only own Audiosurf and Super Meat Boy out of those games.
dave is ok
aztek is ok
There is a Toki Tori level like that too. I'm guessing they'll spell something outSalsaShark said:
Really? That's certainly a shame, and it's not true. I'm trying to open up the topic for discussion, I'm not just saying that it's a bad thing. I find it more fascinating than negative.Stallion Free said:
I'm sorry if my position as a developer precludes my involvement in this sort of discussion.
My own relationship with viral marketing and publicity initiatives is something I'm trying to get a stronger feel for, and generally recognising the breadth of opportunity within alternative marketing. However, from some of my experiences and those from others, I'm curious to the point at which it becomes a bit too much.
For example, I find it a bit much that I haven't been able to shop at Amazon for the last few months without the kindle advert being in front of me all the time. I also find leveraging charity to be an incredibly positive but also slightly curious way of driving products forward.
I apologise if I sound as I though I'm raining on anyone's parade. Your response shows that you're thoroughly happy to enjoy valve's drive, especially when participation is relatively inexpensive and it's a brand you're keen on.
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