[SPOILERS] What was Aperture testing *for*, exactly?

[dreadedcandiru99]

Well, I don't think this has come up in the forums yet. Or maybe it has and I didn't see it.

Anyway, I was just putting off work by replaying Portal 2 for like the fifth time, and it occurred to me: by the point in Aperture Science's history where Cave Johnson starts complaining about how broke he is, his company has created all sorts of physics-defying gels and a handheld quantum-space-hole generator. What's more, it seems like they'd pretty much worked the bugs out (the occasional skeleton-related mishap notwithstanding). It seems to me that any one of those inventions could've made Cave the richest man who ever lived.

...so...why wouldn't the company just go ahead and sell some of them, then? Did Aperture's shareholders just get a kick out of watching hobos injuring themselves with science? Or am I overthinking this a bit?

 

[CrashBang]

I've wondered this myself. Also, whats the point of a portal gun that only works on one type of surface?

Spoiler: Every smooth white surface and

the moon. Cos, y'know, exceptions can be made when they're totally awesome

...there's a demotivational poster in there somewhere

 

[Lilani]

Yup...that's pretty much it.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

I've wondered this myself. Also, whats the point of a portal gun that only works on one type of surface?

I don't think it only works on those pretreated panels--Chell was portaling through plain concrete walls and stuff at the end of the first game, right? I think Cave said the moon gel was, like, extra-good at holding a portal. Or something.

But yeah, even if the gun did only work on moon-ish surfaces, you could still go from Cleveland to the lunar surface in like four seconds. Surely that'd be worth something...

 

[Harmondale2]

To quote Cave himself "Science isn't about why, it's about why not. You ask: why is so much of our science dangerous? I say: why not marry safe science if you love it so much. In fact, why not invent a special safety door that won't hit you in the butt on the way out, because you are fired."

Its just a mad house of science, Its his passion, don't read too much into it

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

The point is that Aperture was always incompetent and studying stupid things.

Do Portal 2's Chapter 5 Dev Com, and you'll see that vacuum tubes, etc were designed EXPLICITLY to show that Aperture was incompetent and over funded.

 

[Avatar Roku]

They're so inefficient, they create a breakthrough (like, for example, the long fall boots), then use invention A to test invention B to test invention C ad nauseum. They never release anything, they just keep testing how the gels, and the portal gun, and the lasers, etc, all work in any given circumstance.

 

[Spartan448]

Yeah, but if Aperature has a working Portal Gun, Repulsion Gel, Speed Gel, Arial Faith Plates, Turrets, Long Fall Boots, Thermal Discouragement Beams, Companion Cubes, Rounded Safety Cubes, Test Robots, GlADos, Portal Gel, Combustable Lemons, Ect. .... That's quite enough to market. The problem is that the Portal Gun works fine but is somehow still in testing. Everything else could be marketed, but there's no-one left alive to market... thanks to GlADos.

 

[Aidinthel]

Aperture was just really bad at marketing. Half the amazing stuff they made was only used to test the other half because it just never occurred to anyone to try selling it. The long-fall boots alone could have made millions but they were only used to help test the portal gun. And then you have the repulsion gel, which was originally marketed as a diet aid. The reason Black Mesa did so much better commercially despite being less creative was that BM actually sold stuff instead of running endless tests.

 

[PlasmaFrog]

1. Because it's a video game
2. Because SCIENCE!

 

[Avatar Roku]

Aperture was just really bad at marketing. Half the amazing stuff they made was only used to test the other half because it just never occurred to anyone to try selling it. The long-fall boots alone could have made millions but they were only used to help test the portal gun. And then you have the repulsion gel, which was originally marketed as a diet aid. The reason Black Mesa did so much better commercially despite being less creative was that BM actually sold stuff instead of running endless tests.

You said it better than I. It wasn't that Black Mesa "stole" their inventions, it was just that they discovered them independently much later, then actually MARKETED them,

 

[kortin]

Well, i believe originally they were just trying to beat black mesa in creating portal technology. Then they made GLaDOS and all hell broke loose. GLaDOS is meant to test so she tests.

 

[Discrodia]

Well, they were testing how subjects responded when given numerous 'impossible' substances and devices and asked to solve puzzles with them. (In short: the tautology answer)

Alternatively, GLaDOS was testing to see how long it takes to drive people to insanity. (The evil AI theory)

 

[Vexik]

In one of the testing spheres (1970s, I think), Cave comments that 'someone' keeps stealing their inventions. We could thereby posit that any valuable breakthroughs have been usurped, preventing Aperture from getting any cash.

 

[Aidinthel]

Black Mesa opened a portal to an effing hostile alien race.

In their defense they seem to have been manipulated into it by the G-man.

 

[Dr. Paine]

Aperture was just really bad at marketing. Half the amazing stuff they made was only used to test the other half because it just never occurred to anyone to try selling it. The long-fall boots alone could have made millions but they were only used to help test the portal gun. And then you have the repulsion gel, which was originally marketed as a diet aid. The reason Black Mesa did so much better commercially despite being less creative was that BM actually sold stuff instead of running endless tests.

Very much this. And I believe this was confirmed in an interview somewhere else...