In the interest of getting Portal 2 released ASAP

[lemiel14n3]

I'm sure by now most of you are familiar with Valve's latest ARG [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109286-Valve-ARG-Gives-Fans-Power-to-Release-Portal-2-Early] which, in states that by playing games on The Potato Sack bundle [http://store.steampowered.com/sub/7586/] Gamers will provide "computing power" to aid GLaDOS in rebooting her systems and releasing Portal 2 earlier. Players can track the progress on GLaDOS@Home [http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/]

The System for accelerating GLaDOS' systems is simple. On the website is the following: A timer, counting down (At the time of posting from:55:13:30), a list of the games bundled in the Potato Sack, and a counter of the total number of Potatoes everyone on Steam has collected.

Now, thanks to This Wiki [http://valvearg.com/wiki/Valve_ARG_Wiki] I've found out how the system works in depth.

First: The number of potatoes collected directly affects the rate at which every bar progresses, basically the more potatoes collected, the faster we get Portal 2

Second: what counts here is total man hours. The more people playing, the faster those hours rack up.

Third: The more popular a game is, the longer it takes to fill the meter. Since games like Amnesia, Killing Floor, and Super Meat Boy sold so well, they will take the longer to fill up the meter than the other games if the CPU count is the same.

Fourth: Filling a bar quickens the release date. When a bar turns blue it has reached 100%, and the release date counter takes a leap forward.

That's it, that's the ARG. According to the site, Portal 2 is currently scheduled to be released Monday (8:00 AM where I am). But I think we can do better, maybe even Sunday evening if we get enough involved.

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So, this is a call to arms, first step, bring up the potato sack games that you own and find potatoes [http://valvearg.com/wiki/Potato_Sources] not only do you accelerate the release of this hotly anticipated title, but you also get a nice little potato sticker for your profile.

Then, play some games that aren't done yet. anything other than 1,2,3 Kick it, the Wonderful Endo of the World or AAAAA!

If you don't have the time, or want to sleep, then cheat the system! bring up a popular game like Amnesia or Super Meat Boy, or any game you have that hasn't reached 100% and just leave it running for as long as you're willing.

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Please reply in the interest of keeping this thread alive, at least as long as Monday.

 

[Radeonx]

I'm all for the exposure for the indie developers, but this seems ridiculously unnecessary for a game that is coming out in a few days.
Ah, whatever. I got some great indie games for a cheap price, so I'm happy with this.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

This promotion has become so ridiculous, and yet, I guess it speaks to the brilliance of the folks over at Valve. As for me, well, strangely enough I'm not even all that interested in Portal 2. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Portal, but is Portal 2 really going to be so earthshakingly different that you feel the need to devote yourself heart and soul to getting the release date moved up by some tiny amount?

 

[lemiel14n3]

This promotion has become so ridiculous, and yet, I guess it speaks to the brilliance of the folks over at Valve. As for me, well, strangely enough I'm not even all that interested in Portal 2. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Portal, but is Portal 2 really going to be so earthshakingly different that you feel the need to devote yourself heart and soul to getting the release date moved up by some tiny amount?

I just want to play it over the weekend, A LOT

And apparently there's over 21,000 people that agree

 

[Korten12]

I'm all for the exposure for the indie developers, but this seems ridiculously unnecessary for a game that is coming out in a few days.
Ah, whatever. I got some great indie games for a cheap price, so I'm happy with this.

Yeah it is a bit unnecessary, since they basicaly will get it like a day or so early, almost to the point where it doesn't even really mattr.

 

[lemiel14n3]

I will admit, it does seem like a lot of extra effort, just to get the game a day early. If it were a week, I'm pretty sure everyone would be on board.

But they're good indie games, and I suspect that this is more for their benefit than Valves.

 

[Baneat]

I will admit, it does seem like a lot of extra effort, just to get the game a day early. If it were a week, I'm pretty sure everyone would be on board.

But they're good indie games, and I suspect that this is more for their benefit than Valves.

I think valve just wanted to do the most epic of epic pre-marketing promotions, blow everything out of scale and everything prior to that out of the water. People will remember this shit for a long time, how many other games have you chasing the internet like Robert Lang trying to solve an intricate puzzle?

 

[lemiel14n3]

I think valve just wanted to do the most epic of epic pre-marketing promotions, blow everything out of scale and everything prior to that out of the water. People will remember this shit for a long time, how many other games have you chasing the internet like Robert Lang trying to solve an intricate puzzle?

I can't think of any that weren't ALSO made by Valve. I know they exist though, but no names spring to mind.

 

[Baneat]

I think valve just wanted to do the most epic of epic pre-marketing promotions, blow everything out of scale and everything prior to that out of the water. People will remember this shit for a long time, how many other games have you chasing the internet like Robert Lang trying to solve an intricate puzzle?

I can't think of any that weren't ALSO made by Valve. I know they exist though, but no names spring to mind.

And then, the fact that valve's previous efforts reminded you of their name and none of the others did, is a mark that they're doing it 100% right.

 

[gideonkain]

Seems like a cool metagame, would be better if I could just replay Half-Life 2 Episodes or any Valve game to unlock it rather than 13 games I've either already played or didn't because I didn't want to in the first place

 

[Serioli]

So, given that potatoes could be considered analagous to a score multiplier or interest rate, the guys who have hammered/are hammering games to completion of the bar are actually shooting themselves in the foot. (i.e. that hour you didn't enjoy playing a game because you were treating it as a job would have only taken 1/4 of an hour if you'd let potatoes build up. Better to keep as many bars as possible red and equalised.)

Hehe, it makes their whinging about 'wasting time' on their 'pass-time' 'worth-less', (Looking at it from a time vs payment perspective rather than an enjoyment), even funnier.

 

[callmegreen]

I could give a crap.... i mean i want portal 2 but i dont use steam...

 

[gubbin]

You can't idle, steam knows if you aren't there if you aren't making keystrokes, and it doesn't count. You can, however, make a macro.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I found all of that extremely confusing... (feels old and stupid)

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

I still would have loved it if there was a way to increase the wait time on portal a few days like:

Earliest possible release---------------Projected Release day----------------Delayed Release

I'm not a jerk and I actually want to play P2 I just think it would be fun to have a element running counter operations. Also it'd get the indie games even *more* exposure from everyone who enjoys playing the bad guy, those in it for laughs, trolls etc. You'd have to warn people ahead of time so you didn't get the rage response though.

EDIT-Perhaps using different indie games and collecting coal rather than potatoes.

 

[EllEzDee]

I'm all for the exposure for the indie developers, but this seems ridiculously unnecessary for a game that is coming out in a few days.
Ah, whatever. I got some great indie games for a cheap price, so I'm happy with this.

Yeah it is a bit unnecessary, since they basicaly will get it like a day or so early, almost to the point where it doesn't even really mattr.

Nope, we're talking hours earlier. Not days, just hours.

Also, the OP is wrong: the number of potatoes has no effect right now. Apparently, according to someone over at Valve, once a certain target number of potatoes has been reached, then the potatoes will multiply the CPU power generated.

I only got my 6 potatoes because i'm hoping for some kind of reward and because i want to reach 100% achievement status with Killing Floor. I'm not putting in a ridiculous amount of man hours just to knock a few hours off the countdown.

 

[Asehujiko]

Actually, it could easily be day(s). Given that three games are completed and that's half the computations needed right there, only three more need be completed before launch. Rush is maybe two hours away from being done, and by that time, Cogs will be at 75% and Bit.Trip.Beat will be around 60%. So at the current rate, I'd say we might get to play by 8PM tonight (Sunday) at the earliest, 11AM Monday at the latest. Roughly one day earlier than the originally scheduled launch.

Wrong. The white bar is the average of all the others.

And all of this is bullshit to annoy legal customers anyway since pirates and consoletards are playing Portal 2 since Saturday because of broken retail release dates.

 

[Dunvi]

This promotion has become so ridiculous, and yet, I guess it speaks to the brilliance of the folks over at Valve. As for me, well, strangely enough I'm not even all that interested in Portal 2. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Portal, but is Portal 2 really going to be so earthshakingly different that you feel the need to devote yourself heart and soul to getting the release date moved up by some tiny amount?

I can't be the only person who's participating because it's an excuse to play Audiosurf instead of researching 17th century Italian thoroughbass methods...