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

R

Rapstah

Member
Mister_Bubbles said:
3. Remember the Potato Sack? GlaDOS is apparently drawing "power" from computers playing games in the potato sack. For every collective 48 hours for one particular game, that game's "power bar" goes up by 1%. And Steam needs to record you actually playing the game - just leaving something idling in the background does not contribute.

4. The potatoes we all frantically collected can still be collected - in fact, you are a major contributor if you even collect one potato in one game. Potatoes multiply that game's particular power, so if, say, you gathered 5 potatoes in Audiosurf and one in Bit.TRIP BEAT, you'd be multiplying EVERYONE's efforts in Audiosurf by 6x and BIT.TRIP BEAT by 2x.
Click to expand...
I really fucking doubt these two. Steam has never been able to track if you're playing or idling in games that aren't Source or Unreal engine. And multiplying everyone's effort is impossible, the Wonderful end of the World bar has been moving at the same speed with fluctuations of a couple of hundred players.
 
P

Phandy

Member
Mister_Bubbles said:
This, apparently, is the crack:

1. Valve is giving us a chance to launch Portal 2 early!

2. http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/

3. Remember the Potato Sack? GlaDOS is apparently drawing "power" from computers playing games in the potato sack. For every collective 48 hours for one particular game, that game's "power bar" goes up by 1%. And Steam needs to record you actually playing the game - just leaving something idling in the background does not contribute.

4. The potatoes we all frantically collected can still be collected - in fact, you are a major contributor if you even collect one potato in one game. Potatoes multiply that game's particular power, so if, say, you gathered 5 potatoes in Audiosurf and one in Bit.TRIP BEAT, you'd be multiplying EVERYONE's efforts in Audiosurf by 6x and BIT.TRIP BEAT by 2x.

5. Some people seem to think that launching multiple games is a good idea. This is in fact, not helping at all, because Steam only records keyboard activity in games launched through Steam, not through external launching.
Click to expand...


Id like to know how people are working stuff like this out.
I cant believe that counting pixels is an accurate way of reading how the numbers are affecting it.
And how can they know what the potatoes effects are - have people found something on other webpages that make it clear. Because the pages source shows nothing for me?
 
C

Cindres

Vied for a tag related to cocks, so here it is.
Aye it's mostly shit, Steam doesn't know whether or not you're doing anything in the games. They can't bloody track keyboard strokes.
 
D

DaBuddaDa

Member
People should stop trying to figure out how it works and just play games. By the time someone cracks the code, it'll be Tuesday anyway.
 
W

webrunner

Member
Mister_Bubbles said:
4. The potatoes we all frantically collected can still be collected - in fact, you are a major contributor if you even collect one potato in one game. Potatoes multiply that game's particular power, so if, say, you gathered 5 potatoes in Audiosurf and one in Bit.TRIP BEAT, you'd be multiplying EVERYONE's efforts in Audiosurf by 6x and BIT.TRIP BEAT by 2x.
Click to expand...

I dont think this is the case. If even 10 people have 5 potatoes, that's a 9765625 multiplier. That's ridiculous. Even one hour would be worth 203450 % of a bar.


If it multiplies by total number of potatoes and not individually, and we assume, let's say, 1/13th of the potatoes are for a given game, that means we have 10000 potatoes for a single game, approximately. That's still enough of a multiplier that it would only take half an hour or so to get to 100%, which again, is pretty ridiculous.
 
J

Joe Shlabotnik

Banned
Mister_Bubbles said:
This, apparently, is the crack:

1. Valve is giving us a chance to launch Portal 2 early!

2. http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/

3. Remember the Potato Sack? GlaDOS is apparently drawing "power" from computers playing games in the potato sack. For every collective 48 hours for one particular game, that game's "power bar" goes up by 1%. And Steam needs to record you actually playing the game - just leaving something idling in the background does not contribute.

4. The potatoes we all frantically collected can still be collected - in fact, you are a major contributor if you even collect one potato in one game. Potatoes multiply that game's particular power, so if, say, you gathered 5 potatoes in Audiosurf and one in Bit.TRIP BEAT, you'd be multiplying EVERYONE's efforts in Audiosurf by 6x and BIT.TRIP BEAT by 2x.

5. Some people seem to think that launching multiple games is a good idea. This is in fact, not helping at all, because Steam only records keyboard activity in games launched through Steam, not through external launching.
Click to expand...

The player-hours necessary have to vary by game, though, don't they?
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
I have Toki Tori's Map 7 worked out, except that I'm one teleport short, and because of the way Map 6 was, it's hard not to be entirely sure that wasn't on purpose. But I'm probably just missing something. I'd love it if the Wiki was still working.

Metalic Sand said:
Whats the password for the end of The Ball portal test? weighted companion is not working.
Click to expand...

flood

Edit: Took too long talking about Toki.
 
stuminus3

stuminus3

Member
Cindres said:
Aye it's mostly shit, Steam doesn't know whether or not you're doing anything in the games. They can't bloody track keyboard strokes.
Click to expand...
Not in the game specifically, but the Steam UI can tell if you're actually doing something, whether or not it's related to the game. How else would it know you'd shift-tabbed to get the overlay up?
 
W

webrunner

Member
stuminus3 said:
Not in the game specifically, but the Steam UI can tell if you're actually doing something, whether or not it's related to the game. How else would it know you'd shift-tabbed to get the overlay up?
Click to expand...

Does the steam UI capture mouse if it's not up?


If so that's a waste of CPU cycles.

If not it wouldnt know if you were playing a casual game of Defense grid without using the keyboard.
 
L

Littleberu

Banned
How come the clock doesn't change?

It seems improbable this will change anything to the release of Portal 2, if maybe getting it Sunday night instead of the real release date.
 
Z

Zerokku

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
FFFFFFFFFFFF.png


GOD DAMN IT
 
P

punkypine

Member
1...2...3... kick it dissapointed me

i mean, i get that its in alpha (which begs the question, why did i buy it), but it doesnt even play in full screen, it just gets stuck in the top left corner and i cant seem to find any options. on top of that, it goes behind my start menu (which i keep on the left side). pretty annoying that i have to move my start menu and play on a small portion of my screen, might as well play something else

unless i'm missing something
 
L

Lasthope106

Member
There is about 20k people playing potato games right now. Most people in the US go out on Friday nights. I'm still hopeful, but I don't expect to see much progress until tomorrow.
 
O

OmegaDragon

Member
btw, there has to be an easy way to estimate when Portal 2 will be released. It will be released when the bar is full. We know how big the bar is (494), we know how much it is filled at a certain point in time. So you can calculate the average speed of progress and from that you can estimate the when the bar is filled and thus the release date. Everything is available right? We only need someone to automate the process and voila, you have an way to estimate the release date.
 
B

bounchfx

Member
Littleberu said:
How come the clock doesn't change?

It seems improbable this will change anything to the release of Portal 2, if maybe getting it Sunday night instead of the real release date.
Click to expand...


I think it's all about the bar, not the clock.

but as it is, it feels like noon tomorrow, which may as well be fucking tuesday or wednesday for me :(
 
S

Salacious Crumb

Junior Member
Littleberu said:
How come the clock doesn't change?

It seems improbable this will change anything to the release of Portal 2, if maybe getting it Sunday night instead of the real release date.
Click to expand...

The timer is just counting down to the normal release date, it's the progress bar you want to watch, if/when that fills the game will be released.
 
R

Ramenman

Member
punkypine said:
1...2...3... kick it dissapointed me

i mean, i get that its in alpha (which begs the question, why did i buy it), but it doesnt even play in full screen, it just gets stuck in the top left corner and i cant seem to find any options. on top of that, it goes behind my start menu (which i keep on the left side). pretty annoying that i have to move my start menu and play on a small portion of my screen, might as well play something else

unless i'm missing something
Click to expand...

Alt + Enter.
 
F

Feep

Banned
OmegaDragon said:
btw, there has to be an easy way to estimate when Portal 2 will be released. It will be released when the bar is full. We know how big the bar is (494), we know how much it is filled at a certain point in time. So you can calculate the average speed of progress and from that you can estimate the when the bar is filled and thus the release date. Everything is available right? We only need someone to automate the process and voila, you have an way to estimate the release date.
Click to expand...
The rate, to our knowledge, has not changed, and so current pixel approximation will not yield any new results. Presumably, the clock will speed up when the individual games' bars are filled, and since we don't know by how much, it is currently impossible to know.
 
C

clip

Member
Lasthope106 said:
There is about 20k people playing potato games right now. Most people in the US go out on Friday nights. I'm still hopeful, but I don't expect to see much progress until tomorrow.
Click to expand...

What website do you think you're on?
 
K

KScorp

Member
Only 34 more potatoes to go for me. I want whatever it is you get for getting all the potatoes.

I wish the wiki was up, they had instructions on how to get gold easily in audiosurf.
 
C

Cindres

Vied for a tag related to cocks, so here it is.
Go on the glados page and whack this in the URL bar:
javascript:(function(){document.body.appendChild(document.createElement('script')).src='http://horst.v40.net/steam/js/counter.js';})();

To see the percentage.
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
I know I've posted about it too much already, but I got Toki Tori's Bonus 7, with a block to spare. Here's how I did it:

1. Throw a block on top of the inset one in the middle.

2. Connect a bridge to the right edge of the middle platform.

3. Climb up, and teleport over. Then drop down, and climb up the left ladder, to the second-to-top rung. (One step below the top.)

4. Walk to the right edge flush with the bit of bridge, turn left, and throw a block so it's on the same level as you. (I didn't know you could do this. I admit I haven't finished Toki's normal game.)

5. Step up, teleport left to get the egg, then back right. Climb down the right ladder.

6. Stand in the middle and teleport down. The block will fall under you and save you.
 
L

Lasthope106

Member
There are currently almost 3 million Steam users logged into Steam and only .006 of the users are participating in the potato games. We don't need more people to come and play at night, we need the people logged in to stop playing CS, TF2 and start playing KF since its the one that most people own.
 
S

SteveWinwood

Member
rac said:
They should have just released it. This whole go idle in a potato pack game is dumb.
Click to expand...
Yeah fuck that. I'm going to just wait till Tuesday and play it then because of my outrage that they didn't release it early enough!
 
F

fallengorn

Bitches love smiley faces
Lasthope106 said:
There are currently almost 3 million Steam users logged into Steam and only .006 of the users are participating in the potato games. We don't need more people to come and play at night, we need the people logged in to stop playing CS, TF2 and start playing KF since its the one that most people own.
Click to expand...
TF2 players should feel right at home idling.
 
G

gregor7777

Banned
Lasthope106 said:
There are currently almost 3 million Steam users logged into Steam and only .006 of the users are participating in the potato games. We don't need more people to come and play at night, we need the people logged in to stop playing CS, TF2 and start playing KF since its the one that most people own.
Click to expand...

Well, logged in does not mean playing a game
 
C

Campster

Do you like my tight white sweater? STOP STARING
shagg_187 said:
So wait... I was playing Audiosurf and it prompt me to enter password aka Aperture Science login screen. Does that mean I got a potato? Also, what IS the password? :/
Click to expand...

No you need to enter the password to get the potato. Use the link above.

Effectively, the challenges in each game get you access to the login screen. It's actually entering the proper password on that screen that gets you the potato.
 
L

Lasthope106

Member
I got two Killing Floor guest passes, for those who want to help out. Quote this message first. PM the e-mail linked to your Steam account or a link to your profile.

Note: Make sure you have a fast internet connection.
 
L

Liu Kang Baking A Pie

Member
Lasthope106 said:
There is about 20k people playing potato games right now. Most people in the US go out on Friday nights. I'm still hopeful, but I don't expect to see much progress until tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Not people that would follow an online ARG and play independent games in order to push up the release date of another game.
 
D

Datwheezy

Unconfirmed Member
Lasthope106 said:
I got two Killing Floor guest passes, for those who want to help out. Quote this message first. PM the e-mail linked to your Steam account or a link to your profile.

Note: Make sure you have a fast internet connection.
Click to expand...

Ill help. In gaf chat where everyone is playing

(can only play so much more End of the World without going crazy lol)
 
C

Campster

Do you like my tight white sweater? STOP STARING
Graphics Horse said:
Do the red bars simply represent the percentage of each game's total owners currently playing? That might make sense.
Click to expand...

The analogy Valve is using is distributed computing.

Think of "booting up" Glados as a very complicated task, and each game represents a part of that task. Once all of the game's red bars are filled, the game comes out! But to complete each task we'll need CPUs dedicated to performing the task, the more the better. It's not about how many people are on at once, or a percentage of the number of owners. It's about the number of people playing the game across time. So while playing the game you might give .001% of completion to a game per minute. So if you play for 10 minutes, you've helped move the bar .01%. We need as many people playing each game for as long as they can in order to unlock Portal 2.

It's basically SETI@Home, except instead of finding aliens we're releasing videogames early.
 
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