I think you mean "big" egos. A high opinion of yourself is to have a large ego isn't it?
But I guess you were just using "little" as a random derogatory term.
Admittedly the puzzles aren't that challenging, but if they were they would definitely alienate a lot of people. I like to think portal found a good balance in terms of difficulty.
No, I mean exactly what I wrote... small ego's.
If someone needs a video game to validate their intelligence then they have a very small and fragile ego, regardless of how much bravado they tag onto it, they are still insecure, have a low self esteem and small ego's highly susceptible to flattery and other such deceptions.
Now this is not true for
everyone who enjoyed Portal, Portal was a very fun game, solid in design with some exceptionally witty dialogue. But there is a disturbing number of people for whom my original statement holds true.
Its the same reason that Monty python has such a prevalence in nerd culture, the same people quoting "The cake is a lie the cake is a lie the cake is a lie!!!" are the same sort of people who would sit around and repeat various Monty Python sketches at one another until any semblance of humor and wit, let alone spontaneity had been wrung dry long ago.
The subtext of such exchanges should read like:
"You are smart like me, because you know the same joke and/or reference so we can identify with each other and bond in safety knowing that there shall be an unwritten contract between us that you will never expose my weakness and I shall never expose yours."
Portal was a way for old school nerds to stand out in the sea of Halo/Madden fratboys, and identify themselves to one another without being shoved into their metaphorical gym lockers, because their was a high chance that the Madden/Halo Fratboy rather enjoyed Portal enough to gloss over the hardcore nerd populace that was being drawn to it like flys to shi...honey.