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

T

The M.O.B

Member
Zomba13 said:
Time until unlock: 71:23:18

The clock doesn't show the right time, the page's source code does however. We are helping.
Click to expand...

So we are guaranteed an early release then. As we slowly chip away at these games, the time to release is coming down yes?
 
P

Phantom Limbs

Banned
So this GLaDOS@Home is similar to the PS3's folding@Home I take it?
What exactly was folding@Home, basically the same thing we are doing here? Leaving our games running to combine power and computations to cure diseases?
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
MrMister said:
We've already boosted by 20 hours? What.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the counter shown on the page itself is busted.

Edit: Maybe not. Even refreshing the page and checking the source code again sees that particular counter at the same point as before.
 
Z

Zombie James

Banned
Phantom Limbs said:
So this GLaDOS@Home is similar to the PS3's folding@Home I take it?
What exactly was folding@Home, basically the same thing we are doing here? Leaving our games running to combine power and computations to cure diseases?
Click to expand...

Same idea, different execution.
 
C

CrookedRain

Member
Teknopathetic said:
"But then what's the purpose of the potato multiplier on the bottom of the site?"


Why are you assuming it's a multiplier and not a total of potatoes everyone's collected? At any rate, if you go to the Steam stats you'll see that the number of CPUs per game currently equals the number of people playing that game.
Click to expand...
It's probably because of the X next to the number of potatoes. My guess would be that the top bar is progress towards a certain amount of calculations completed and that the total number of potatoes of everyone currently playing one of the games determines the number of calculations completed over a certain period (one minute?) for each CPU (person in one of the games).
 
I

Igor Antunov

Banned
OK I'm starting to suspect it has nothing to do with how long you are in the game and the potato counter is just a counter of potatoes people have collected, nothing more.

What is happening is each game bar is filling up slowly, depending on how many maximum concurrent players it has managed to obtain at any one time. Less popular games require fewer players to fill up quickly.

The higher the concurrent players counter gets the quicker each games' progress bar will fill, if the number were to drop down to zero players for any game, the player count for that game would merely stay the same, and the bar for that game would grow at same rate.

Then the obvious, overall all these bars help speed up the main bar at the top. The bigger the bars get for the individual games the faster the main progress bar will fill.

We don't know the hard numbers so we can't estimate how much longer this will take, but I suspect the less popular games will contribute more simply because their bars are filling quicker and are thus bigger with smaller concurrent player value.
 
E

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Drkirby said:
That value is oddly static though.
Click to expand...
I AM ENTITLED TO DYNAMICALLY CHANGING VALUES BECAUSE I AM A VALVE FAN THAT BUYS GAMES. WHERE IS MY EARLY RELEASE THAT I DESERVE FOR OPTIONALLY TAKING PART IN THY ARG?!
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
enzo_gt said:
I AM ENTITLED TO DYNAMICALLY CHANGING VALUES BECAUSE I AM A VALVE FAN THAT BUYS GAMES. WHERE IS MY EARLY RELEASE THAT I DESERVE FOR OPTIONALLY TAKING PART IN THY ARG?!
Click to expand...
Has that value in the source changed at all since the countdown page launched, though? Or was it just an arbitrary value in the source that someone quoted once and people assumed was accurate?
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Zombie James said:
The page counter hasn't changed at all, though, even though people are playing.
Click to expand...

At all? Are we looking at the same counter? It hasn't move in a noticeable manner, but it's still moving. :p

The source code counter is completely static. I even loaded up the page in IE and the value was the same.
 
J

Jenga

Banned
Zombie James said:
71 hours brings it to Monday afternoon, ~12PM EST.
Click to expand...
we shaved off 20-30 hrs in about an hour and a half

if it's not unlocked by mid-afternoon, it'll be unlocked this evening when more people get off school/work
 
C

Campster

Do you like my tight white sweater? STOP STARING
Zombie James said:
The page counter hasn't changed at all, though, even though people are playing.
Click to expand...

Could mean that the timer won't got beyond the actual release date.

I.E., if it would take longer to play the games and unlock Portal 2 than it would to just wait until Tuesday, the timer just counts down until Tuesday. If enough people are playing to conceivably move the date up, show that date.
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
All that work put into The Ball levels, and they didn't even include a way to properly end your run, did they? You're just stuck in the terminal room?

That game really needs some UI work (and I'm not talking about the stylization of the HUD), not to mention fixing the bugs, some of them were pretty serious.

Okay, Toki Tori just updated again for me...
 
F

Feep

Banned
I don't know where people are getting this 71 hours number from. Counter remains the same here.

If I had to guess, I'd say the counter will decrease as normal until one of the individual game bars fills up completely, at which point the processing will "speed up" and the time remaining will suddenly drop by a significant percentage.

Just my guess.
 
E

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Blizzard said:
Has that value in the source changed at all since the countdown page launched, though? Or was it just an arbitrary value in the source that someone quoted once and people assumed was accurate?
Click to expand...
Not sure, what if valve is refreshing the page with their own internal calculated values on a time interval? Isn't that a possibility or would the updating bit be in the code somewhere?

@MT come at me bro.

@Feep people say it's in the page code. Can't check myself, posting from iPhone.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Yeah, I'm pretty sure what matters is that thick bar thats filling at the top.

Well, I've got class, Imma leave Cogs idling for the next few hours.
 
R

Rapstah

Member
Feep said:
I don't know where people are getting this 71 hours number from. Counter remains the same here.

If I had to guess, I'd say the counter will decrease as normal until one of the individual game bars fills up completely, at which point the processing will "speed up" and the time remaining will suddenly drop by a significant percentage.

Just my guess.
Click to expand...
Code: 
<div id="console">
		08:57 - Default boot scheduled to finish in <span id="console_clock">71:23:18</span><br>
		08:58 - Activating emergency distributed computing grid...<br>
		09:00 - GLaDOS@home starting...<br>
		09:01 - Recruiting cpus to force faster boot sequence...<br>
From the page source.

EDIT: And it's also the same number as before... yeah.
 
J

Jenga

Banned
i think my real complaint is that they launched the portal 2 special content a bit early

so instead of actually playing the new shit people are just alt-tabbing and idling
 
J

Jubbly

Member
SalsaShark said:
Might be up for this. I hate how Killing Floor doesnt support dual monitors though, it goes all crazy when i launch in fullscreen :/
Click to expand...

Really? Works perfectly on my NVIDIA Surround setup.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
enzo_gt said:
Not sure, what if valve is refreshing the page with their own internal calculated values on a time interval? Isn't that a possibility or would the updating bit be in the code somewhere?

@MT come at me bro.

@Feep people say it's in the page code. Can't check myself, posting from iPhone.
Click to expand...
It's possible, but unless someone has ever seen a different value in the page source, then I'd assume it's false hope.

Also, taking the fractional width of the energy bar unlocked so far, unless I'm doing my math wrong, it only looks like the game would be unlocked like an hour ahead of schedule, max, at this point. I could be totally wrong though.
 
I

Igor Antunov

Banned
Can anybody eek any hints out of this script?

Code: 
<script type="text/javascript">
	var g_endTimeLocal = 332552 + ( Math.round( new Date().getTime() / 1000 ) );
	var g_bEnded = false;

	function refreshClock()
	{
		if ( g_bEnded )
			return;
		
		var timeCur = Math.round( new Date().getTime() / 1000 );
		var secsRemaining = g_endTimeLocal - timeCur;

		if ( secsRemaining < 0 )
		{
			g_bEnded = true;
			secsRemaining = 0;
		}

		var remainHours = Math.floor( secsRemaining / 3600 );
		var remainMinutes = Math.floor( ( secsRemaining % 3600 ) / 60 );
		var remainSeconds = secsRemaining % 60;
		var str = (remainHours < 10 ? '0' : '') + remainHours + ':';
		str += (remainMinutes < 10 ? '0' : '') + remainMinutes + ':';
		str += (remainSeconds < 10 ? '0' : '') + remainSeconds;
		var clock = document.getElementById('clock');
		var consoleclock = document.getElementById('console_clock');
		if ( clock.textContent )
		{
			clock.textContent = str;
			consoleclock.textContent = str;
		}
		else
		{
			clock.innerText = str;
			consoleclock.innerText = str;
		}
	}


	refreshClock();
	document.getElementById('clock').style.display='';
	window.setInterval( refreshClock, 1000 );
</script>
 
F

fallengorn

Bitches love smiley faces
Jenga said:
i think my real complaint is that they launched the portal 2 special content a bit early

so instead of actually playing the new shit people are just alt-tabbing and idling
Click to expand...
Well, for anyone who hasn't followed the ARG, now's the time to check it out.
 
Z

Zombie James

Banned
JaseC said:
At all? Are we looking at the same counter? It hasn't move in a noticeable manner, but it's still moving. :p
Click to expand...

1DENe.png


The default boot timer and the projected timer still match. So...
 
D

DaFish

Member
Igor Antunov said:
Can anybody eek any hints out of this script?

Code: 
<script type="text/javascript">
	var g_endTimeLocal = 332552 + ( Math.round( new Date().getTime() / 1000 ) );
	var g_bEnded = false;

	function refreshClock()
	{
		if ( g_bEnded )
			return;
		
		var timeCur = Math.round( new Date().getTime() / 1000 );
		var secsRemaining = g_endTimeLocal - timeCur;

		if ( secsRemaining < 0 )
		{
			g_bEnded = true;
			secsRemaining = 0;
		}

		var remainHours = Math.floor( secsRemaining / 3600 );
		var remainMinutes = Math.floor( ( secsRemaining % 3600 ) / 60 );
		var remainSeconds = secsRemaining % 60;
		var str = (remainHours < 10 ? '0' : '') + remainHours + ':';
		str += (remainMinutes < 10 ? '0' : '') + remainMinutes + ':';
		str += (remainSeconds < 10 ? '0' : '') + remainSeconds;
		var clock = document.getElementById('clock');
		var consoleclock = document.getElementById('console_clock');
		if ( clock.textContent )
		{
			clock.textContent = str;
			consoleclock.textContent = str;
		}
		else
		{
			clock.innerText = str;
			consoleclock.innerText = str;
		}
	}


	refreshClock();
	document.getElementById('clock').style.display='';
	window.setInterval( refreshClock, 1000 );
</script>
Click to expand...
looks like a clock script to me, thats about it
 
Mikey Jr.

Mikey Jr.

Member
So lets say no one participated in the ARG.

By today, this site would have launched anyways regardless or participation or not.

Now, there is a chance of playing the game early, best case scenario Sunday, but probably Monday.

The arg was just the lead up to Portal 2, marketing it, even though everyone involved already had it pre-ordered.

No new actual information about a new game was released.

No new information about the Half-Life universe was released.

Followed all the info closely but don't have a decent PC, so I was never involved in buying the game/solving the puzzles, but I kept track. (getting it for PS3 though)

-If you enjoyed the puzzles, great. No problems here. But I'm glad I didn't invest so much time like a lot of people did. At the end of the day, there was no real worthwhile payoff that would have been worth my time. I guess I kinda hoped for an announcement of a new game or something mind blowing that was the culmination of 2 weeks of work.

-Not trying to troll or anything, just wondering why people like doing this stuff. Weren't you hoping for a final, grand reveal of something?
 
F

Feep

Banned
Igor Antunov said:
Can anybody eek any hints out of this script?

Code: 
<script type="text/javascript">
	var g_endTimeLocal = 332552 + ( Math.round( new Date().getTime() / 1000 ) );
	var g_bEnded = false;

	function refreshClock()
	{
		if ( g_bEnded )
			return;
		
		var timeCur = Math.round( new Date().getTime() / 1000 );
		var secsRemaining = g_endTimeLocal - timeCur;

		if ( secsRemaining < 0 )
		{
			g_bEnded = true;
			secsRemaining = 0;
		}

		var remainHours = Math.floor( secsRemaining / 3600 );
		var remainMinutes = Math.floor( ( secsRemaining % 3600 ) / 60 );
		var remainSeconds = secsRemaining % 60;
		var str = (remainHours < 10 ? '0' : '') + remainHours + ':';
		str += (remainMinutes < 10 ? '0' : '') + remainMinutes + ':';
		str += (remainSeconds < 10 ? '0' : '') + remainSeconds;
		var clock = document.getElementById('clock');
		var consoleclock = document.getElementById('console_clock');
		if ( clock.textContent )
		{
			clock.textContent = str;
			consoleclock.textContent = str;
		}
		else
		{
			clock.innerText = str;
			consoleclock.innerText = str;
		}
	}


	refreshClock();
	document.getElementById('clock').style.display='';
	window.setInterval( refreshClock, 1000 );
</script>
Click to expand...
Nothing is of note in this code except the number at the very top of the code when initializing g_endTimeLocal. That number LOOKS hard coded, but that's odd, since doing the math out (332552 / 3600) yields 92 hours and change, which is NOT what the original timer started at (94 hours). It's possible that number is dynamically generated via another script. Finding that script would yield actual results.
 
T

theinfinityissue

Member
I can't get the 2 potatoes for playing "mutation" in defense grid. I fulfill the requirements, press a or b for my surprise aaaand.. unrecognized user. If I can get those 2, I'm buying the rest of the pack so I can get my golden potato and my surprise. If I can't, no way I'm spending cash on something that might be bugged.
 
B

bounchfx

Member
so.. I assume it's whenever the bar fills up, and the timer is gonna count down to the standard release, right?

I love seeing how many people are playing, and it IS the middle of the day now which will change a lot by tonight.

but god dammit, I leave for the weekend and I want it now :(

time to play some games to help.
 
P

Phandy

Member
Rapstah said:
Code: 
<div id="console">
		08:57 - Default boot scheduled to finish in <span id="console_clock">71:23:18</span><br>
		08:58 - Activating emergency distributed computing grid...<br>
		09:00 - GLaDOS@home starting...<br>
		09:01 - Recruiting cpus to force faster boot sequence...<br>
From the page source.

EDIT: And it's also the same number as before... yeah.
Click to expand...


This is when stuff in web development drives me crazy. The source code actually says exactly the text that should be in there, in that bit on the real web page.
But somewhere its managed to add 20 hours, without any noticable scripts or anything.
WHERES IT COMING FROM???
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
There's at least two new Portal levels in Toki Tori.

Edit: Did you have to land before the level would credit a win? I don't remember it that way before, and it makes a big difference on this stage.
 
T

theinfinityissue

Member
Weird, I just randomly got the 2 potatoes. It's not bugged. I'm buying the sack. I'm leaving for 15 mins to get a pre paid credit card. When I return..

The first person who's quoted this post and said "survival horror isn't dead" gets Amnesia.

First one quoting and saying "I liek food" gets Super Meat Boy.

Aaaand the first one quoting this post and saying anything else will get Defense Grid.

You'll know if you've won. If you do, pm me your Steam name. Three different winners.

Oh and the first to denote that they want Portal 1 can get that as well. We sell them too.
 
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