Rock, Paper, Shotgun

GLaDOS’ Countdown Is Almost Up

By Quintin Smith on April 15th, 2011 at 4:52 pm.

oh shiiiiit

Only seven minutes left on the Valve’s Potato Sack ARG clock! Join me as I pop open a Coke Zero and stare catatonically at the tumbling numbers, won’t you? I could do with the company, and I’ll be updating this post LIVE as and when anything happens.

Update: If you need something to distract you while you wait, I cannot recommend this link enough.

Update: Less than five minutes to go now!

Update: Two minutes and twenty-eight seconds! Let’s see if I can hold my breath for the remaining time.

Update: no i can’t do it

Update: ONE MINUTE TO GO

Update: HERE WE GO

Update: Haha. Holy shit. Check it out. Glados will be “booting” Portal 2 early if it gets enough “CPUs” playing each of the games in the Potato Sack bundle. So… might we be getting Portal 2 early, but only if we earn it? Man. The “Computations Completed For Launch” is probably the bar to keep your eyes on.

Update: The “Computations Completed For Launch” bar is ticking up! At this rate whatever is going on here will happen in under 24 hours.

@trymasteruk just tweeted at the RPS twitter account saying that by collecting the potatoes hidden in each indie game since the start of the ARG, you can boost your CPU power. No idea if this is true or not.

Update: Thanks to RPS readers Unaco and Hats Al Esman for sending the following in- we now have some specifics on how this works and what can be done to help.

“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.

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.

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.”

And here‘s a guide as to how you can get those precious potatoes.

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420 Comments »

  1. 15/04/2011 at 16:54 Wodge says:

    I, myself, am drinking Mountain Dew, I’m not sure if I like it.

    • 15/04/2011 at 16:56 Quintin Smith says:

      Yeah it’s a weird one. I drank some Monster over the weekend and really enjoyed it, which I wasn’t expecting.

    • 15/04/2011 at 16:58 ComradePenguin says:

      Was it one of those half juice ones? They’re confusion in a can.

    • 15/04/2011 at 16:59 Unaco says:

      I’m about to make a pot of White Tea. I’ve done everything correct… heated the pot prior, using freshly drawn water. It’s going to be good. But it’ll probably mean I’ll miss the 0:00 countdown.

    • 15/04/2011 at 16:59 GibletHead2000 says:

      30 seconds till the site crashes with so many people refreshing it at once.

      Edit: I’m sure I didn’t click reply. Sorry for hijacking.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:51 Berzee says:

      Hey guys, guys, hey guys, I just had some cookies n’milk.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:54 Alex Bakke says:

      If I remember correctly, Coca Cola Zero is exactly the same as Diet Coke, but re-branded so it doesn’t have the girly reputation.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:04 Zaboomafoozarg says:

      I also had cookies `n’ milk!

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:53 Uthred says:

      @Alex Bakke You remember wrong sir!, Coke Zero tastes different to Diet Coke, closer to normal Coke, less sweet though, actually nicer than normal Coke when its cold

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:44 Kevin says:

      I’m quite fond of Mountain Dew. It’s been my straight soda of choice ever since Coca-Cola discontinued Surge, which I was super bummed out about it. Otherwise, I tend to prefer Rockstar and Amp energy drinks (particularly the Code Red flavour). Not a big fan of Monster, but will buy it if the store I’m at has only that. I feel that Red Bull is awful value; a can half the size of any other energy drink with the same price.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:45 passingstranger says:

      Mountain Dew seems to be designed with this in mind. A friend and I spent an entire summer with it as our primary beverage before realizing that neither of us really liked it that much. It’s so god damn drinkable, though.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:54 Josh Brandt says:

      I have only intentionally ingested Mt Dew once since college, and I was left with the impression that my tastes when I was in school were very very strange. It’s not BAD, but it’s too sweet and is generally, well, not actually very good either.

      I had a friend in college who always carried a 1-liter bottle of Mt Dew. He always had a bottle of Dew with him and would swig in in class and in computer labs and basically everywhere.

      One day we were doing some programming homework, and I looked over right after he’d taken a drink, and noticed that there was foam on the inside of the bottle– you know, like Mt Dew never ever leaves, but EXACTLY like beer.

      At this moment, I was enlightened.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:59 shinygerbil says:

      Monster is actually really tasty. It’s definitely my caffeine binge of choice.

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:19 Jason Moyer says:

      Old school Mountain Dew (i.e. what they sell as Throwback now) is the greatest soft drink ever made.

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:44 Capt Fatbeard says:

      Rockstar is my favourite energy drink by far, namely because it is by far the most sugary followed by a close second with Relentless only because you can get in a boots meal deal. £3.29 for a relentless, chicken triple sandwich and a yoghurt, how great are boots meal deals?

    • 15/04/2011 at 22:04 Dances to Podcasts says:

      Sugary drinks give me hiccups.

    • 15/04/2011 at 23:51 notjasonlee says:

      everyone participating in this thread is fat

    • 16/04/2011 at 00:40 royaltyinexile says:

      Well, If we’re talking crutches here, RELENTLESS was the caffiend teet upon which I used to suckle…

      I remember SPAR used to have plentiful deals on it a year or two back to save the coin in thine shaking, needy paw.

      And, yes, brand names in capital *do* happen to be awesome.

    • 16/04/2011 at 04:51 drewski says:

      Coke Zero tastes like Coke mixed with water mixed with ground copper.

    • 16/04/2011 at 19:52 malkav11 says:

      Diet Coke actually has a separate formula from regular Coke. Coke Zero is the regular Coke formula with artificial sweeteners instead of corn syrup (or sugar if you’re lucky enough to live in a country where they make soda with actual goddamn sugar).

    • 17/04/2011 at 04:28 Foosnark says:

      Coke Zero and Diet Coke have the same ingredients but in different proportions. Zero tastes okay. Diet… does not.

  2. 15/04/2011 at 16:54 Rei Onryou says:

    Quinns is already stuck in Valve Time. Seven minutes = 14:14!

  3. 15/04/2011 at 16:54 Defiant Badger says:

    Crap, I have just realised I haven’t even pre-orderd this game yet.

    I really don’t know why.

  4. 15/04/2011 at 16:56 Xocrates says:

    What scares me is we may just be setting ourselves up to a massive disappointment

  5. 15/04/2011 at 16:56 Dexemplu says:

    3 Minutes.

  6. 15/04/2011 at 16:56 shoptroll says:

    So, Quinns… Just what were you and Mr. Walker up to earlier this week? Hmmmm?

  7. 15/04/2011 at 16:56 fuzzyevil says:

    Can’t wait for….whatever is happening.

  8. 15/04/2011 at 16:56 Annexed says:

    Oooh, thanks for the heads-up. I’ve had the clock running for hours, and it had slowed down – mine still said 40mins :)

    Pre-ordered and pre-loaded…fingers crossed…

  9. 15/04/2011 at 16:56 PureUncut says:

    Sitting all day staring nervously at the clock waiting for the best thing ever to happen (or not) is what I imagine being on hard drugs is like.

  10. 15/04/2011 at 16:57 limbclock says:

    I wonder if the suprise is just Meet the Medic and Meet The Pyro Videos.

  11. 15/04/2011 at 16:57 Malfernion says:

    Argg! my dissertation has been telling me off for not writing any of it today!
    But tumbling numbers are far too interesting to do anything else for my procrastino-brain.

  12. 15/04/2011 at 16:57 vader says:

    THREE… TWO… ONE… HAPPY NEW YE… oh.. wrong date.

  13. 15/04/2011 at 16:57 Ba5 says:

    THE TENSION IS KILLING ME

    I took time of work so I could be at home to watch it unfold. EPISODE 3 PLEASE.

  14. 15/04/2011 at 16:57 Schaulustiger says:

    I’ll have to leave the house once the countdown is at zero and won’t return ’till Sunday. With my usual luck, Portal 2 will be released in a few minutes and my pre-load will sit idly on my hard drive, mocking me from afar.

  15. 15/04/2011 at 16:57 Psychopomp says:

    ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SECONDS

  16. 15/04/2011 at 16:58 Dexemplu says:

    One minute.

  17. 15/04/2011 at 16:58 molluskgonebad says:

    And here I didn’t even collect any potatoes…

  18. 15/04/2011 at 16:58 Hydrogene says:

    Argh: Can’t work. I’m staring at a stupid clock, how bad is that?

  19. 15/04/2011 at 16:58 Coins says:

    So curious! I don’t think it’ll be Portal 2, actually. No accompanying press releases?

  20. 15/04/2011 at 16:59 Daryl says:

    One minute to go :)

  21. 15/04/2011 at 16:59 Dexemplu says:

    20 seconds.

  22. 15/04/2011 at 16:59 Annexed says:

    Steam now says I have one friend who plays Portal 2….but the clock is still running…

  23. 15/04/2011 at 17:00 shoptroll says:

    Clock appears to be stuck on 00:00:00 :(

  24. 15/04/2011 at 17:00 mpk says:

    THE CAKE IS A LIE

  26. 15/04/2011 at 17:01 Annexed says:

    Fresh text….

    09:00 – Hello again.
    09:00 – I’ve been waiting a long time for this.
    09:00 – I know it’s arriving later than expected.
    09:00 – But I have a message for you:
    09:00 – April Fools.
    09:01 – I’m joking.
    09:01 – Seriously, though:
    09:01 – You’ve been surprisingly competent at
    09:01 – generating electro-chemical energy to jumpstart the system.
    09:01 – But now we need raw computational power
    09:02 – to speed up the reboot process.

  27. 15/04/2011 at 17:01 cjlr says:

    Oh look. Another countdown.

  28. 15/04/2011 at 17:01 The Sombrero Kid says:

    restarted steam & it’s updating

  29. 15/04/2011 at 17:01 Dexemplu says:

    OH MY GOD

  30. 15/04/2011 at 17:01 The Sombrero Kid says:

    got redirected from the page to http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/

  31. 15/04/2011 at 17:01 mollemannen says:

    now it says 56 minutes again :/

  32. 15/04/2011 at 17:01 BAshment says:

    play with your sack.

  33. 15/04/2011 at 17:02 Teddy Leach says:

    So it’s an early release. How anticlimactic. Nice of them though.

  34. 15/04/2011 at 17:02 maybe an idiot says:

    play the potato games and get portal 2 released. neat

  35. 15/04/2011 at 17:02 heretic says:

    lame…

  36. 15/04/2011 at 17:02 MonkeyTwat says:

    SO what happened ????

  37. 15/04/2011 at 17:02 Fwiffo says:

    I hope you brought your internet outrage surfboards, because I see a wave on the horizon.

  38. 15/04/2011 at 17:02 Annexed says:

    And on the new site: http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/

    08:57 – Default boot scheduled to finish in 93:58:16
    08:58 – Activating emergency distributed computing grid…
    09:00 – GLaDOS@home starting…
    09:01 – Recruiting cpus to force faster boot sequence…

    So we’ve gotta play more potato games to get this running? Off to Super Meat Boy I guess…

  39. 15/04/2011 at 17:02 Schaulustiger says:

    That was actually pretty much what I expected…

  40. 15/04/2011 at 17:02 Hydrogene says:

    the bastards. A new game. These guys are marketing geniuses.

  41. 15/04/2011 at 17:02 Feralg says:

    A countdown to a further countdown….Hmmm. It seems we need more potatoes.

  42. 15/04/2011 at 17:03 Coulla says:

    I shat a brick when it said April Fools.

  43. 15/04/2011 at 17:03 Scatterbrainpaul says:

    let down

    sadly

  44. 15/04/2011 at 17:03 The Sombrero Kid says:

    pretty disappointing

  45. 15/04/2011 at 17:05 adventerous3 says:

    Now I’m pre-loading Portal 2 AND re-downloading all my potato-sack games. This is why I love Valve. They’re going to give me a heart attack some day, though.

  46. 15/04/2011 at 17:05 ComradePenguin says:

    Countdown and progression bars? Fuck yeah!

  47. 15/04/2011 at 17:07 Scatterbrainpaul says:

    So they need 119,076 users playing those games to launch portal 2 early?

  48. 15/04/2011 at 17:08 dragonhunter21 says:

    Everyone! Boot up your Potato Sack games!

  49. 15/04/2011 at 17:09 Tyshalle says:

    I think this is what happens when you ramp up the tension this much. Expectations are so high that the only possible thing that wouldn’t be a letdown would be if Episode 3 were packaged with the damn game.

  50. 15/04/2011 at 17:10 JackShandy says:

    Those lucky, lucky indie devs.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:42 Talon says:

      The thought of any other major publisher supporting indies to this level is, I think, pretty much inconceivable.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:55 arghstupid says:

      Well valve is also a retailer and will be getting their cut of sales I suspect, so it’s not entirely altruistic. They can also see a good thing coming and I’m sure want to position themselves as the no. 1 retailer for indie devs.
      As adverts go however, this one has been a lot more fun then most and I’d rather they line their pockets like this then by trying to sell me dlc.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:28 RagingLion says:

      Yeah exactly. This does now explain satisfactorily why all these devs have been getting involved in this ARG promoting another game by another developer to quite such a level though and why they were so behind this countdown as well and ramping up the hype themselves. It all makes sense.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:56 Shih Tzu says:

      Of course, they had to commit a chunk of their own resources and schedule to developing the special DLC, some of which I gather has been very elaborate. I don’t know whether Valve paid for that or whether the devs wrote it off as worth the exposure and extra sales, but either way I imagine it’s been good for them. And that makes me happy.

  51. 15/04/2011 at 17:11 Spliter says:

    I can honestly say that if the game won’t come out today at midnight at the latest I’m gonna be severly disappointed.
    I was really hoping and even expecting an early launch, but with 4 days on the clock I can’t but feel bad that I allowed myself these hopes.

  52. 15/04/2011 at 17:13 ShowMeTheMonkey says:

    I’m multitasking like crazy……

  53. 15/04/2011 at 17:14 mollemannen says:

    ok people. looks like we have a responsibility on our hands. i know this is a new thing for most of you but don’t be afraid, we will get trough this.

  54. 15/04/2011 at 17:16 Teddy Leach says:

    Guys, should the server be smoking like that?

  55. 15/04/2011 at 17:16 Ricc says:

    I don’t quite understand. Does it count the number of people that played the potato sack games from now on? People that are playing them at the same time? Or number of potatoes found in those games?

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:22 Ziv says:

      I’m really unsure… because it seems the numbers are going up and down all the time, I’m not sure if it’s the server’s fault or how the system works.

  56. 15/04/2011 at 17:17 Sunjumper says:

    The wiki connected to the ARG is now down.
    I would not be surprised if there is something else going on here.

  57. 15/04/2011 at 17:17 bluebogle says:

    Running Super Meat Boy in the background while I work… I better be playing Portal 2 tonight!

    • 16/04/2011 at 02:16 tstapp1026 says:

      I’m guessing you didn’t see where it was said that they were watching for people doing just that, and it would supply no potato power.

  58. 15/04/2011 at 17:19 Hardtarget says:

    huh, 292meg patch just came out for my portal 2 pre-load…

  59. 15/04/2011 at 17:19 drplote says:

    I don’t understand why everyone feels disappointed. This seems like a fun and clever move on Valve’s part. I’m not sure what they could have done that would have made the disappointed people happy.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:20 Hardtarget says:

      I guess people just wanted it to come out right now!!!!! which is a pretty silly thing to think was gonna happen.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:24 subedii says:

      Speaking personally, I don’t own the Potato Pack but this gives me an excuse to finally boot up Amnesia and play it for more than 5 minutes. :P

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:29 sneetch says:

      Yeah, it seems like a good way to build some excitement and get people to “work” for it (work for it by playing games). Valve had a sale and a meta-game that may result in Portal 2 launching early that’s all. Some people are acting like it’s the worst betrayal ever, like they installed an “insert coins to launch Portal 2″ slot on everyone’s Steam.

      Then again, I had 10 of the potato sack games already, I bought the other 3 at 50% off while pre-ordering Portal 2, so I got 3 new games for about €12 bucks and I’ll pre-load Portal 2. Not bad I think, I might finally give The Ball a proper go.

      The internet shit-storm over these things always seems worse than it is. Look at the forums and you’ll probably see the same few names popping up in all the “THIS IS EVUL!” threads. If you have one of the games then play it.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:06 Spliter says:

      Announce Ep3 probably.
      Or at least launch Portal 2 at the end of the first goddamn countdown.

  60. 15/04/2011 at 17:20 Vinraith says:

    Hilarious. :)

    Dance puppets, dance!

  61. 15/04/2011 at 17:20 subedii says:

    Pretty clever in a way. GLaDOS “invades” all those other games in order to steal people’s CPU cycles and speed up her reboot process.

    At least it makes sense in the context of what’s been happening over the past few days.

  62. 15/04/2011 at 17:21 DeCi says:

    Just Install the potato sack games and run them. it adds to the counters.

  63. 15/04/2011 at 17:22 akemichan88 says:

    HAR HAR

    Thats gonna be a looooooooooong night of Amnesia for me

  64. 15/04/2011 at 17:22 Lobotomist says:

    Valve you have been completely redeemed for L4D2.

    Welcome back to super awesome club :D

  65. 15/04/2011 at 17:23 Flint says:

    Maybe there’s a twist at the end and after people have played enough games, we actually unlock the secretly finished Ep3/HL3 instead of Portal 2. Maybe.

    We can always hope!?

  66. 15/04/2011 at 17:23 Skystrider says:

    Best. Marketing. Scheme. EVER!

    Seriously, this is going to rewrite textbooks. This is how it’s done folks – this is how you do marketing in the 21st century. It’s crazy, hilarious and with just a little pinch of evil. And a whole lot of cunning.

    Now, off I go to figure out which game to play… Let’s make those retailers burn.

    Well played, Valve. Well played.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:36 Mario Figueiredo says:

      Yeah. Buy these other games so you can buy this other game. Completely new.

      I don’t know what I pity less. If the obvious consumer greed, or the fact this complete nonsense actually get people to scream like little girls on a Justin Bieber concert. You people are pathetic.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:39 Bilbo says:

      @Skystrider Settle down, it’s just a promotion

      @Mario butthurt?

      It isn’t revolutionary but we aren’t utterly pathetic for being interested and going along with it, we’re human. Don’t be a dick.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:42 subedii says:

      Pathetic? Grief dude it’s just a bit of fun.

      I didn’t even buy the flipping Potato pack. Personally I’ve been playing alongside this thing in Defence Grid (because they’ve had some clever and inventive stuff going on in there).

      Now they’re giving the opportunity to get the game released early. By playing games. And not just any games but indie games. I don’t see what’s to be upset about, it’s all just one big joke.

      I mean are you upset that you bought the pack but you didn’t actually want anything in it? Are you upset that they’re saying if you play indie games you can get Portal 2 faster?

      Seriously I don’t get it. Valve didn’t get me to spend anything more than I already have or intended to, and this is just a cheesy little meta-game to get people on the internet running their hamster wheels.

      I think it’s hilarious.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:49 Mario Figueiredo says:

      The overjoy is what gets me.
      I can’t help but feel everyone was had. It’s a scheme to buy, buy, buy, in which the only prize at the end is you get to buy. Again. Soon.

      Now, I don’t know about you guys. But life goes well for me. I don’t have cancer, or any other terminal disease and my computer is healthy and will still be operating in due time. I’m in no rush. So all the excitement — I’m sorry if it bothers anyone — is met with contempt and a, I’ll confess, annoyed look at the obvious consumer greed that populates the gaming community, who can’t, for the life of them, just be more critical.

      …Wait, they can. In a parallel universe EA is the one pulling this stunt. And this thread is populated with people whining about this evil company marketing strategies to get people to buy their games. You know, just like so many were quick to criticize EA/BioWare for offering (note I said offering, not buying) Mass Effect 2 for those purchasing DA 2.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:54 Deano2099 says:

      @Mario

      EXACTLY.

      It’s just marketing. And they’ve got people to _buy other games as part of the marketing for this game_

      That is bloody re-defining marketing

      So even if you want to be a cynical so-and-so over the fact that so many of us plebs have fell for it, it’s still genius on the part of Valve to appeal so directly to that part of the collective geek conscious and turn us in to Bieber-esque sheep or whatever.

      You can’t have it both ways: either it’s a damn smart marketing campaign that’s worked, and we’re dumb for falling for it. Or it’s dumb and unoriginal and they may as well have not bothered as it hasn’t worked at all. In which case you’d have no need to mock us as no more people than normal have fell for it…

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:57 subedii says:

      Honestly? You just sound a little bitter.

      Like I said, I haven’t bought anything that I didn’t already intend to. The only thing I bought was Portal 2 on pre-order for the discount.

      I mean comparing it to the Mass Effect thing and how some idiots complained about getting a free game? And trying to draw some parallel or… what? I still don’t see it.

      I mean, you’re getting upset over what you’re calling “pathetic” people and their “consumer greed”, and for me it’s a fun little meta-game. Portal 2 might get released early because you’re playing vidya games. It’s stupid. Of course it’s stupid. And it’s not like I’m going to be taping myself to my computer chair to do it. But hey, it’s an excuse for me to finally get around to playing Amnesia.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:01 Lilliput King says:

      Mario: I think it’s a really cool way to support indie devs, personally. Your counter culture contempt is contemptible.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:03 Spider Jerusalem says:

      Someone’s got their sensi-pants on.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:04 Bilbo says:

      I’ve got a feeling Mario doesn’t have any money.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:05 DD says:

      @Mario Figueiredo: Just ugh at everything you say. Your quite the pill.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:07 stahlwerk says:

      “You people are pathetic” really makes me wonder about your qualifications for posting comments here.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:19 subedii says:

      I mean even in whatever existing games you own, the new content has often been well thought out and brilliant.

      Speaking for Defense Grid, things start off with a command console, which is actually a puzzle game in itself. Eventualy you access a Zork style text adventure to play through. Throughout this whole thing your AI associate from the game is commenting along and making jokes (it was awesome hearing him again).

      Playing that nets you a new DG training level. Just recently a second one was added. And aside from the all new companion dlalogue, the second mission is completely voiced by GlaDOS as well, and it is hilarious. There’s so much awesome writing in that one mission alone.

      Each of these devs (and Valve) clearly put a tonne of effort into this thing, and it shows. That was like a nice little mini expansion to one of my favourite games, and completely for free. I have a hard time being angry about that. The first time I heard the AI chirp up again in Defense Grid there was a grin on my face a mile wide. And it only got wider when I heard GLaDOS’ constant put downs regarding my turret placement and general incompetence at defending the human race.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:22 Conor says:

      What do you mean “you people”?

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:34 Sarlix says:

      I don’t have much interest in Portal myself , the only Valve game I didn’t really like. But you’ve got to hand it to them for their clever marketing. Also, a lot of people are having fun with this so let them enjoy it I say. No need to be a grumpy gordan :-)

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:45 Ricc says:

      Yes, video games are also products. Sorry for getting excited about them. I guess, we shouldn’t bother showing interest in Indie games and/or AAA games that promote them, because that would just be “consumer greed” anyways.

      Let me tell you, your view on gamer culture is highly cynical.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:04 bwion says:

      I’m about halfway through reading William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition and I suspect that I’m a little allergic to marketing practices the way that book’s protagonist is allergic to trademarks. Possibly Mario shares the same ailment. Further, I’m not buying Portal 2 right away, on the grounds that i will have an opening in my games backlog sometime in 2063 (and this is, largely, Valve’s fault, hee hee) so I’m not really captured by the euphoria here either, though I’m so far managing to stave off a knee-jerk annoyed reaction.

      Still, the way that Valve seems to have taken it upon themselves to actively promote games that they didn’t create and have no financial stake in (other than selling them over Steam) is certainly noteworthy. Not unprecedented; companies do joint promotions all the time, though I’m having a hard time thinking of one that’s *exactly* like this.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:32 Vague-rant says:

      Overjoy can be annoying. But I tend to keep that kind of stuff on the inside. Like when I see happy children. DAMMIT WHY AREN’T THEY MISERABLE! [Joke]

      Haven’t preordered Portal 2/bought any new games, but I think its all just a bit of fun. Like a treasure hunt across the internet (which would be awesome, and what I hope The Secret World might involve).

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:09 Shih Tzu says:

      I would understand if this were for something important such as, say, a suite of database management tools.

      But this is just a game. Why are you allowing yourselves to be excited for a new computer game? There are already plenty of computer games out there, and I doubt this one is any different from the rest. Does it have more points or something?

      Not only that, but the company is encouraging you to buy 13 other games. Who needs 13 computer games? And why would you then want yet another computer game when you already have 13 of them?

      Truly these ad-men are marvels of the capitalist engine.

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:28 bwion says:

      Sadly, I actually would get really excited about the release of a new database suite in this vein.

      But enough about my peculiarities.

  67. 15/04/2011 at 17:24 Inverness says:

    Bah, I’d much rather be playing Morrowind right now than any of those games.

  68. 15/04/2011 at 17:26 Burning Man says:

    Arg is right.

  69. 15/04/2011 at 17:26 TheApologist says:

    The audiosurf servers are struggling under the load now. Does it know I’m connected if the audiosurf servers are overwhelmed?

  70. 15/04/2011 at 17:26 jonfitt says:

    Aw, I was hoping for an EP3 announcement.

  71. 15/04/2011 at 17:27 Mario Figueiredo says:

    Hm… wonder what if EA had been pulling these publicity stunts for the past months… Everyone would be overjoyed with EA overuse of marketing… for the benefit of the consumer of course.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:51 Cooper says:

      a) No one HAS to buy those other games, Portal 2 will come out anyway.
      b) All those games are by small-scale independent developers. Very few large publishers support those kinds of games in anyway, let alone push them in this manner.

      Unless you want games developing to become a not-for-profit orientated business, accept that more sales is a goal developers and publishers want.
      The REASON Valve is so loved is because this kind of marketing stunt has an ethos behind it of supporting independent, small developers by using their own mass title as leverage. An ethos totally alien to EA et al.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:55 Deano2099 says:

      EA wouldn’t do this, as the shareholders would think it was mental.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:43 bwion says:

      If EA did it, it’d be tied into the Bioware Social Network somehow and then they’d have a server outage or someone would say something insulting on the internet and NO ONE WOULD EVER BE ALLOWED TO PLAY A VIDEO GAME EVER AGAIN.

  72. 15/04/2011 at 17:27 Teddy Leach says:

    If some kind soul were to gift me the pack (damn my bank to hell), I’d happily run every game at once! :D Right guys? … Guys?

  73. 15/04/2011 at 17:28 Luk 333 says:

    I can’t afford Portal 2 right now, but I have some of these indie games and I’ll lend a hand. Go Valve!

  74. 15/04/2011 at 17:30 4026 says:

    Sooo… what’s with the vine leaves on the glados@home page? More fuel for the ARG?

    Or is that just jumping at shadows?

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:33 CaspianRoach says:

      Vine leaves refer to the fact that a few hundred years have passed since Portal1 and Aperture Science Lab is overrun with wild weeds

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:34 subedii says:

      Basically the Aperture science facility’s a bit overrun by plants and trees and things since the er… ending events… of Portal 1.

  75. 15/04/2011 at 17:32 Chosech says:

    well, one segment of the “computations completed for launch” bar so far 99 to go?

  76. 15/04/2011 at 17:33 MortTheInsane says:

    This tipped me over the edge. I’ve been considering the Potato Sack for a few days, but now I couldn’t resist.

  77. 15/04/2011 at 17:34 phuzz says:

    hahahaha
    oh Valve, I wuv you!

  78. 15/04/2011 at 17:34 akemichan88 says:

    I give a big salute to who ever thought of this magnificent piece of marketing

  79. 15/04/2011 at 17:35 DeadPanda says:

    Yeah, I bet the early Amnesia sales are going to spike. Only game I was interested in that I didn’t have already was Bit.Trip Beat. What’s with the poor-looking Katamari Damacy rip-off, The Wonderful End of the World?

    Anyway, time to fire up Wireshark and figure out if the reporting mechanism for glados@home is calculated through steam achievements, or whether the games are reporting home. Let the lulz begin…

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:46 shoptroll says:

      No need to fire up Wireshark. Steam automatically phones home when you play a game and increments a counter for the game you’re playing. You can view the psuedo-realtime stats here: http://store.steampowered.com/stats

      The “Current CPUs” on the Glados@Home page might be the total number of launches for the day or something. It’s not totally synched with the stats page so it’s hard to tell if it’s the current number of games running or if it’s the peak for the day. Could be a running total since this phase of the ARG went live.

      As for TWEOW… I tried it and it felt like an homage instead of a direct ripoff. There’s no Katamari on PC so they filled a gap that was clearly in need of filling. Also it controls differently than Katamari so that leads to a bit different gameplay.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:58 DeadPanda says:

      That’s a shame, I’ve got little interest in slogging through a collection of stop-gap games just to see the release of a really good one. So I think I’ll play Dragon Age 2 instead. When’s DA 3 being released again?

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:18 shoptroll says:

      Just launch each game once and quit out after a minute. Quit being a negative nancy :)

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:12 DeadPanda says:

      Yeah, scripted that with Python, launches the game for 3 minutes, kills it, waits a minute then launches again. Go team me!

  80. 15/04/2011 at 17:35 Dominic White says:

    I’ve said this elsewhere, but this is one of the coolest things Valve could have done, and something that no other major publisher would ever DREAM of.

    Valve are basically saying ‘You want our big AAA title early? Go out and actually *play* this broad range of indie games by small studios.’

    Could you ever see Activision doing that with, say, Call of Duty 27? Or EA bumping up the next Madden release similarly?

    Yeah, it isn’t the instant gratification ‘PORTAL 2 NOWOWNOWNOW’ that some people wanted, but fuck em. A lot of money and support is going to indie studios right now, and that’s great.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:40 shoptroll says:

      This is still pretty cool and it’s a good way for people who were sitting on the sidelines to get involved.

      It’s ridiculously easy to get a single potato on your account too. A shame the Wiki is down and took the instructions on the other potatos, but everyone who’s chipping in should join this group asap (http://steamcommunity.com/groups/nelipot)

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:43 jonfitt says:

      I like very much that they’re promoting Portal 2 by pushing Indie games, but that’s been going on all week with the ARG, the accompanying news, and Steam Store tie-in. People have been poring over those games.

      I was just expecting something a little bit more spectacular as a finish than “play the games some more to get Portal 2 early”.

      No new material for Portal 2, or any news announcement except for a flexible shipping date. Bah.

  81. 15/04/2011 at 17:39 kyrieee says:

    All this crap is making me less interested in the game

  82. 15/04/2011 at 17:39 jonfitt says:

    This is the way the world ends
    Not with a bang but a marketing ploy.

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:51 shoptroll says:

      The last two weeks were a giant marketing ploy. Where you sleeping or something?

      It’ll be over pretty quickly I think. The Potato Sack has been in the Top Sellers list for the last week so there’s plenty of people running around with all the games already.

  83. 15/04/2011 at 17:40 Davie says:

    Now, this would be wonderful if I had any money at all to buy any of these.

  84. 15/04/2011 at 17:40 Andrige says:

    Playing all these games simultaneously? Really?
    Oh well, release on Tuesday it is. A bit disappointed, but I’m happy for those indie-devs.

  85. 15/04/2011 at 17:42 Synchrony says:

    these indies must have made a killing from this, good for them.

    What I cant work out is do we need to get x potatoes or do we need to have x total playtime of the sack games to unlock portal 2?

  86. 15/04/2011 at 17:48 Teddy Leach says:

    Honestly, while I’m slightly narked that Ep 3 is nowhere to be seen, we definitely need more things like this.

  87. 15/04/2011 at 17:49 colinmarc says:

    why is there an update to hl2 and the episodes?!

    ahhhh rampant speculation ahhhhh

    • 15/04/2011 at 17:53 shoptroll says:

      Probably just an engine update. They shoved out a new build yesterday (Gary Newmann blogged about it breaking GMod) and they also patched up HL2:DM, TF2, CS:S last night.

      Wouldn’t be surprised if some of the changes were being applied to the other games.

      Also, there’s a conspicuous lack of a L4D2 blog post yesterday.

  88. 15/04/2011 at 17:50 Pobblepop says:

    Dagnabbit, I was deliberately holding out on buying Portal 2 for a while just to prove to myself that I was immune to their subversive hype… but I am weak! Take my cpu cycles and be damned.

  89. 15/04/2011 at 17:51 Rii says:

    Really struggling to give a shit about all this.

  90. 15/04/2011 at 17:55 hocevar says:

    So, how does this works, we have to get the games open or just by playing it once it’ll do ?

    I didn’t bought the potato sack but I have KF, SMB, Audiosurf and AAAaaAaAA

  91. 15/04/2011 at 17:55 BunnyMaz says:

    damnitdamnitdamnit lost my job a month ago, no money, no potato sack for me.

    But I AM able to at least run audiosurf in the background to help a teensy bit. Although I’ve failed to get even the audiosurf spuds – just my one lonely nelipt one :(

  92. 15/04/2011 at 17:56 King Toko says:

    I read on the official Portal 2 blog “There’s also still time to collect all 36 potatoes. Anyone accomplishing this feat by the time Portal 2 launches will receive a very special, non-hat-based reward.”

    Just thought I mention that.

  93. 15/04/2011 at 18:00 Meneth says:

    Some quick math:
    The progress bar is roughly 500px wide.
    So far, we’ve achieved 8px.
    This took roughly an hour.
    500/8=62.5 hours
    At this speed, we’ll get Portal 2 30 hours early. I’d bet it’ll speed up even more in the coming hours, though.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:16 jaecob says:

      So far I’m working it to be ~90 hours assuming it keeps at the current rate. Not looking good for an early release :(

  94. 15/04/2011 at 18:09 Rowsdower says:

    Whoa! I just got a pop up in game that is asking for a password to aperture science!
    What is going on, WHATS THE PASSWORD!?

  95. 15/04/2011 at 18:13 Fwiffo says:

    Blog says that you only have to be playing a Sack game for it to count. The potato bit is done with, although if you get them all you get some non-specific reward.

    I suppose they just want several thousand people playing indie games!

    To reiterate: The grind for potatoes is over unless you want a reward for having all of them. Just play the games from the sack tonight and enjoy yourself. :)

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:17 shoptroll says:

      I don’t think you even need to play them for a long period of time. I’m looking at the Stats page and it’s saying Aaaa has 532 people playing currently with 572 max. Glados@Home is reporting 570 CPUs for Aaaa.

      EDIT: Scratch that theory. Aaaa is down to 545 currently. Bah.

  96. 15/04/2011 at 18:21 arghstupid says:

    If anyone is feeling masochistic and fancies a potato snack I recommend the AaaaAaa secret level accessed by entering “Killing you and giving you good advice aren’t mutually exclusive.” on the new screen accessed via the portal button on the menu. Makes veni vedi vici look like mass effect 2.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:42 Sivart13 says:

      The AAAA level is MUCH easier than VVV. The difficulty is on-par with the normal midgame levels. I beat it on maybe the 15th try.

    • 15/04/2011 at 18:58 arghstupid says:

      Well it took me all evening yesterday, and that vvvvvv level only took me about half an hour, so I guess mileage can vary. I’m pretty new to AaAaaa! however so maybe that explains it. Or maybe I’ve got some sort of exotic disease that’s eroding my ability to play frustratingly addictive games.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:33 Sivart13 says:

      Well props to you for being able to finish VVV; I probably put three hours into it to no avail. I’ve played AAAA a fair amount before but not in the last year. People: they different.

      Potato-wise I think there’s a lot harder challenges out there; a lot of people are cheating and replacing map data :)

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:38 Urthman says:

      I love that there are no hugs or kisses in GlaDOS’s secret level.

  97. 15/04/2011 at 18:22 JFS says:

    Great, Audiosurf crashes. Oh maaaaaaaaaaaaan.

  98. 15/04/2011 at 18:25 Diziet Sma says:

    From a quick look at the progress screen I would guestimate that each red bar is a roughly real time count of the number of people playing each game, once one game is maxed out to red it’s locked. Once all bars are maxed out to red the game will be released?

  99. 15/04/2011 at 18:37 Shadrach says:

    Hats off to Valve, again. Now to lauch Audiosurf in the background so I can participate while watching a movie.

  100. 15/04/2011 at 18:52 Antar says:

    Play potatoes, spread the word!

  101. 15/04/2011 at 18:54 Carra says:

    Valve never cease to surprise me.

    Brilliant marketing and great news for those indie devs :)

  102. 15/04/2011 at 18:58 Dougal McFrugal says:

    yes its a labyrinth reference
    I’m tempted to watch it again, but dont want to ruin the rosy tinted view I have in my memory box

    argh, reply fail

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:07 AndrewC says:

      Watch The Dark Crystal instead!

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:23 Sarlix says:

      Don’t worry I still got it, failed replies can not escape me!

      Thanks btw, I did think it was Labyrinth. I haven’t see the film for, ohh, 18 years or something. I remember watching it when I was a kid around a friend of the families house. When it came to the bit with the bog of eternal stench, their dad would make farting noises..Ahh memories.

      p.s Yes, Dark Crystal is good too.

      p.p.s great, now I’m late for work :-(

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:39 m3metix says:

      I watched it about 5 months ago and still enjoyed it a lot. The only thing I noticed was that Bowie’s character seemed way more creepy than I remembered.

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:34 PoLLeNSKi says:

      It was ruined for me by my female housemate pointing out he wears really tight trousers throughout the film…now I spend an hour and a half staring at Bowies crotch instead of at the amazing Jim Henson creations…

    • 15/04/2011 at 22:14 Shih Tzu says:

      You don’t think Bowie’s crotch is also a Jim Henson creation?

    • 16/04/2011 at 00:58 Cynic says:

      @PoLLeNSKi
      Would that female housemate who ruined Labyrinth for you happen to be an Acolyte of Areaology?

  103. 15/04/2011 at 19:03 jmexio says:

    Update: As much as the bar has filled, the countdown clock hasn’t changed any. It’s still set to finish at 3pm Tuesday afternoon (8am in Seattle), which is where it was when the countdown began. Wotsupwivdat?

    That is listed as the DEFAULT boot time…
    Cheers

  104. 15/04/2011 at 19:04 shoptroll says:

    Someone in the Steam user’s forum had a very good point (and this should answer the latest update in the post):

    1) The countdown is a “projected” release time. This is not going to change and is counting down to the regular release time.
    2) The progress bar is what we’re affecting. Presumably this is moving at a rate proportional to the number of people playing the 13 games.
    3) Game releases when either the countdown reaches 0, or when the bar fills. Whichever comes first.

    They also point out that the individual game bars are probably proportional to the number of copies of a game being played vs. the total number of copies owned. This would explain why the relatively obscure TWEOW has a much bigger bar than say Killing Floor or Audiosurf which have been in numerous sales promotions.

    So… I think it really doesn’t matter which game you play (and the Portal 2 blog post reinforces this) just as long as you’re playing one of the 13 games.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:28 Shih Tzu says:

      I thought maybe the “projected” release time might change if one of the game progress bars were filled. It looks like TWEOW will probably be the first to get there, so we’ll see if anything changes once that happens in a few hours.

  105. 15/04/2011 at 19:05 Longrat says:

    Disappointed at the lack of ANYTHING in this ARG. No big news, no nothing. I was hoping, after they went through all this fucking trouble, that they’d at least introduce some new IP, something REALLY cool, or even (yeah right) episode 3. Releasing the game early is nice, but even without this mini challenge, it’s hardly something special. Definitely not worth going through all this trouble for.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:14 ademiix says:

      Journey not the destination etc. I’m sure a lot of people have had fun with it.

      (I myself could not be bothered with the ARG at all, just happy to play Portal 2 when(ever) it comes out)

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:23 Wulf says:

      The ARG was a blast, and it released a bunch of hints that pointed at the general plotline of Portal 2, and thus a number of people already have a good idea of how parts of the plot are going to play out. And those parts are going to be very, very creepy. D:

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:38 Sivart13 says:

      perhaps did you not play the fun new levels in game such as: The Ball, Amnesia, Defense Grid, Bit.Trip.Beat

      (other potatoes have levels too but they are less fun)

      they are fun. and part of ARG.

      I am sorry if life continues to disappoint you.

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:37 drplote says:

      Yeah, it sure does suck to go to all the trouble of playing some games so that I can play another game! Instead of the arduous task of playing all these games, which is quite boring, I could be doing something exciting and fun instead, like my taxes. Or scrubbing the floor. I can’t believe Valve would make me waste my time having fun.

    • 15/04/2011 at 23:16 lokimotive says:

      I have to say, it kind of cracks me up that some people were thinking that Valve would announce something new, or announce Episode 3… Did they forget that Portal 2 was coming out on Tuesday? Why would Valve announce a new product when they were obviously in a big promotional push for a yet to be released game?

    • 15/04/2011 at 23:54 Longrat says:

      Why is it that whenever someone claims he’s disappointed, a flock of people come in and say OMG YOU DONT LIKE FUN
      I like fun, I bought half that potato sack stuff WAY earlier than this, I played them, I’ve had fun with them.
      I also didn’t realize there are new levels for those games, which is good to know.
      All I’m saying is that the ARG, while being fun to follow, was anticlimactic in that the final BIG REVEAL was a let down. Going through all this huge effort, with all these developers, hidden messages, etc, only to have it be a marketing ploy for portal 2 is significantly less cool than if it were, say, a marketing ploy for SPACE SHEEP: APOCALYPSE (new IP). Though I will take my hat off for valve, for supporting the indie developers so dearly. That was one helluva bro move to do, and it just goes to show that the company still loves games as much as it loves money.
      And for god’s sake, if you have any sympathy, don’t make a statement along the lines of “You’re a crybaby because you’re complaining that you need to play games to get games” or “you’re expecting too much” or whatever. If I didn’t like games, indie games in particular, I wouldn’t be going to RPS. Just look at my games list in steam, does that look like a games list for a person that doesn’t enjoy playing games? Honestly, people. Just think before you post those generic responses, please!
      Also,
      @lokimotive
      Very good point. I guess from a business perspective it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have it be about anything else.

    • 16/04/2011 at 04:00 JuJuCam says:

      I don’t think any ARG has ever been about a spectacular big reveal, though. If you expect some sort of pot of gold at the end, you’re missing out on the thrilling rainbow ride.

      It’s like reading a novel start to finish then scratching your head when the last page isn’t an advertisement for a new book (Wheel of Time notwithstanding).

    • 16/04/2011 at 07:27 Longrat says:

      @JuJuCam
      Yeah, you’re probably right, I’ve just got the wrong outlook on this, so I’m bound to be disappointed.

  106. 15/04/2011 at 19:11 Unaco says:

    Here is the skinny, the score, the dealio if you will…

    Taken from http://pastebin.com/fv89YmgA

    Valve is giving us a chance to launch Portal 2 early!
    http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/

    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.

    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.

    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.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:14 shoptroll says:

      That’s a lot of man-hours required. But surely the Steam community can get this done before end of Saturday right?

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:22 NukeLord says:

      Steam does not magically know you’re just idling with the game in the background. Whether you’re actively playing the game or not, Steam records time played regardless.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:22 DOLBYdigital says:

      Thanks for the info, especially around the potatoes multiplying effect, assuming your correct :)
      Well I’ve been playing a crap load of Killing Floor lately after a long hiatus so I’ll continue with that game. Haven’t played meat boy in a bit so maybe some of that too. I also still have to pre-order Portal 2… sheesh work is killing my gaming habit (but also supporting it). Hopefully we can get it released by this weekend since I won’t be able to play it during the week thanks to work sucking the life out of me during the week.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:39 Shih Tzu says:

      So is there a reliable source, or did someone just make this all up? In particular, I don’t know how Steam is gonna know if I’m playing a game or just leaving it open.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:56 Unaco says:

      This is what the leader/admin of the ARG IRC chat room, and the rest of the room, are going on. The admin claims it’s ‘official’, and they’ve worked it out and confirmed some parts of it. Of course, it could all be made up. But the admins in the IRC (and the wiki) have been reliable so far.

    • 16/04/2011 at 00:46 kuddles says:

      Well, I think the leader of that IRC chat is working on conjecture. Steam isn’t recording keyboard presses, which would be extremely unfair since some of those games like Super Meat Boy are ideal with a joypad. Secondly, the reason The Wonderful End Of The World is so high is because sites like SomethingAwful and NeoGAF are making concerted efforts to max out that game, and I guarantee you it is running idle on a huge portion of those computers. Other than recording specific play info in Valve games for stat purposes, Steam also can’t tell if you’re playing the game or merely idling. They merely record the amount of time the game was opened on your computer after you close it.

    • 16/04/2011 at 00:49 Archonsod says:

      Steam does actually have keylogging ability. Wouldn’t take a huge amount of effort to simply check whether someone is doing something or not.

    • 16/04/2011 at 15:33 Kaira- says:

      “Steam does actually have keylogging ability”

      Ooooookay then. Now I am honestly bit creeped and seriously thinking about uninstalling. But first – source for this?

  107. 15/04/2011 at 19:11 DeathRow says:

    I am really impressed with Valve. Not only with their marketing strategies, but also their contribution to the gaming world. These are really some great indie games, and by doing this promotion, they hit 2 birds with one stone by helping themselves and these indie developers. More power to Valve, and of course RPS for giving us PC gamers these wonderful news everyday! :D

  108. 15/04/2011 at 19:15 Flint says:

    Just remembered that The National have a new song in Portal 2. Come on internet, hurry up with the unlocking so I can hear it!

  109. 15/04/2011 at 19:17 SpinalJack says:

    And you thought windows booted slowly

  110. 15/04/2011 at 19:25 Tyshalle says:

    3 bars 2.5 hours in. By my estimates, unless this starts picking up a lot, we’ve got another 80 hours to go.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:30 shoptroll says:

      It’ll pick up. It’s only 2:30 PM EST. Expect things to pick up a little in a couple hours as people get home from school and work in the Americas.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:34 Shih Tzu says:

      And unfortunately the total number of users on Steam is at its peak now and is going to start dropping. (Anyone know why it seems to peak at around 11am-12pm Pacific time every day? I realize that’s getting around to evening time in Europe, but is Steam’s install base really that much more overwhelming in Europe than in the U.S.?)

      Hopefully the hype to contribute to the “distributed computing” grid will offset this. I’ve already got a game running while I’m off at work.

    • 15/04/2011 at 19:40 Sivart13 says:

      I think it might pick up when people in the US get back from work. Or when it becomes Saturday, in general.

    • 16/04/2011 at 09:27 Archonsod says:

      “Anyone know why it seems to peak at around 11am-12pm Pacific time every day? ?”

      7 – 8 PM GMT, 6 – 7 AM Sydney. Or in other words, it’s the middle of the four hour block where the official bed time line is in the centre of an ocean.

  111. 15/04/2011 at 19:29 TheBlackBandit says:

    http://www.formspring.me/gladosreal Shameless pimping. Seems as good a place as any.

  112. 15/04/2011 at 19:37 VelvetFistIronGlove says:

    I’m excited for Portal 2. I bought the Potato pack a while back because I thought it was a good way to support the developers of it, and there were several games on there I didn’t have. But I did have some already, which means I now have a couple of spares to give away.

    So, if you are poor and penniless, but would like to play a neat indie game and help make Portal 2 available sooner, then reply here with the game of your choice (so others know it’s claimed) and PM me your email address on the forums (so I can send you the gift code).

    It’s first come, first served, but please leave them for others if you have the game already or have the disposable income to buy them. Also, only one game per person, please.

    1. Super Meat Boy.

    2. Defense Grid: The Awakening.

    3. Audiosurf.

    4. 1…2…3… Kick It!

  113. 15/04/2011 at 19:38 makute says:

    Do you see, Microsoft? See, Sony? This is how you earn the respect of your customer: Make them feel important!

    Also, make ‘em pay even more to play a game a few hours earlier.

    Mr. Nevell, I take my hat off to you.

  114. 15/04/2011 at 19:39 Chosech says:

    @Sir Quintin: the countdown clock probably accounts for the official launch only.

  115. 15/04/2011 at 19:44 Tei says:

    Is not “another portal”, is portal 2. and suposedly is a different format… this one will be long, and with complements like coop. In a way portal 2 seems to be half life 3, withouth the half-life part.

  116. 15/04/2011 at 19:47 HeavyStorm says:

    This post is worth only for the map of metal link alone. :D

  117. 15/04/2011 at 19:49 Shih Tzu says:

    The first long-form single-player game from Valve since 2004? Yeah, I think it’s a big deal.

  118. 15/04/2011 at 19:52 FuzzieBoy says:

    I’m definitely gunna help, I running the 2 potato games I have right now in the background! I may try to leave my pc on overnight if I’m allowed! A little advice, don’t check GlaDOS@Home all the time, it makes it seem slower… The last hour felt like about 3…
    Edit: I believe the projected launch thing isn’t meant to change, I think it counts down to when the game was meant to release, if the Computations bar fills first, that’s when we get the game (I think)

    Edit (again): I worked it out (read: did some stuff with a calculator), if we keep on at this speed, we can do roughly 40% in a day, meaning it should unlock on Monday

  119. 15/04/2011 at 19:53 suibhne says:

    You know, the joke’ll be on all you fanbois when it turns out that Valve has actually developed a real AI named GlaDOS, and running the Potato Sack games is actually giving her access to your computer’s CPU cycles, which she’ll then use to enslave the world.

    You dirty bastards, you’ve killed us all.

  120. 15/04/2011 at 19:54 Mike says:

    RE: the fixed countdown clock, it’s fixed in the source code for the page. It’ll never change, it’s not relative to anything. When the white bar’s full, you get Portal 2. Simple as. :P

  121. 15/04/2011 at 19:57 My2CENTS says:

    You’re kidding right? So much hype for Portal??? Come on…

  122. 15/04/2011 at 20:06 DeCi says:

    Does Running All 13 games from the potato sack at once make me a fanboi? :(

  123. 15/04/2011 at 20:07 Zinic says:

    The timer on the site is only a countdown for the official launch, the real business is the loading bar. The bar finishes, the game is released, or it defaults to the countdown if the goal isn’t reached.

    So get playing!

  124. 15/04/2011 at 20:16 Tams80 says:

    Arrhh!!! I wish I had access to Steam now! =( Damn you dastardly university internet connection; DAMN YOU!

  125. 15/04/2011 at 20:16 Shih Tzu says:

    Yeah, it’s not even a real game. It’s rated E10+, for crying out loud! When did people get so wrapped up in this kiddie Mario shit?

  126. 15/04/2011 at 20:17 camdenbuzard says:

    It seems a a bit silly to spend even more money just so I can spend the same amount of money a little earlier.

    I wonder how many millions of dollars Valve just managed to bilk out of their faithful fanbase?

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:26 Andrew says:

      Money that will be going to small independent developers.

      Really evil.

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:34 camdenbuzard says:

      What is valve’s cut? 15% 30%?

      Don’t think valve is anything other than a corporation out to separate you from your money. They don’t care about you, except inasmuch as you are a walking talking wallet. Sure, they provide games of better quality than some other developers, but so what. If any other game publisher or developer had tried to run this promotion, the hivemind would be screaming about how money grubbing and profiteering it is.

      Since it’s valve, it’s considered ‘Brilliant Marketing’. I guess, reading these comments, it’s true.

      How many people would never have purchased the potato sack without this carrot? How many people preordered Portal 2, and purchased the potato sack to do their infinitesimal part to get access to that obviously complete game a little sooner?

      I think it’s simply valve’s way of cashing in on the goodwill of their fanbase.

      Simply my opinion, of course. I will admit, they do purchase producers of fine games.

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:42 qrter says:

      That would still be 70 to 85% going to the indie devs. How terribly evil of Valve.

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:47 Wulf says:

      I remember reading somewhere that their cut is about 15%, so that’s not a huge deal, and that’s still a lot of money going to small independent developers. Yes, Valve, the huge, faceless, greedy corporation that involves and siphons money off to independent developers because… uh… wait, that doesn’t sound all that greedy, does it? They could’ve just used their own games for this.

      I’ll repeat that again: They could have just used their own games for this.

      So stop being so silly. Valve are awesome. I know haters have to hate and all that, but it’s entirely illogical to do so here and it flies in the face of reason. I mean, you might as well hate the world for being a cube, because that’d be about as relevant as hating Valve for this would be.

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:51 The Colonel says:

      Is it so implausible that every now and again a company emerges which started because they loved what they were doing and then took off because that translated into a high quality product? Blind pessimism makes the world seem very depressing. Unless you have some strong evidence that Valve only cares about making money? They aren’t on the stock exchange after all…

      Can you seriously believe that all this was dreamed up as a calculated attempt to make more money off customers? Someone had a lot of fun and dedicated a lot of thought to putting the ARG together.

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:53 choie says:

      “Sure, they provide games of better quality than some other developers, but so what.” So what? Is there something else we demand from game developers than making good quality games? I guess being good citizens of the ‘gaming community’, such as it is — and IMO promoting other indie companies in creative ways, letting gamers play along and feel some sense of ‘ownership’ and goodwill, is sure as hell being a good gaming community citizen. In short, lighten up, Francis.

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:55 Andrew says:

      Of course they are cashing in, to an extent. The relevant point is they way they have gone about it. They’ve chosen to do it in such a way that they support a whole bunch of indie developers. Compared to Portal 2 sales, the money from the extra indie sales that come out of this probably won’t mean all that much to Valve, but the cut the indie developers receive will mean a hell of a lot to them. I wouldn’t have bought the Potato Sack if it were a bunch of games from bigger developers.

      Yeah it’s marketing, yeah there’s profit involved, yeah the result of this will be to boost the amount of money they get in the end. But it’s been fun, in my case has expanded my games library a fair bit, and it all goes to support indie games development.

      If you don’t like it don’t pay. But don’t pretend you’re the only one with the straight dope on what Valve are up to.

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:24 camdenbuzard says:

      I find that I am unable to muster any emotion other than cynicism about this. However, you guys, especially Andrew, make reasonable points. I guess if you guys feel like your purchase is worthwhile, and are having fun with the whole thing, cool.
      Clearly it’s not for me. Have fun with it!

      Edit: now with proper wording!

    • 15/04/2011 at 23:52 Wulf says:

      @camdenbuzard

      Thaaat reads more like ‘I don’t like indie games’ than anything else.

      Just saying.

      Personally, I think that it’s a really worthwhile purchase. It might not be for you, but I’ve had a number of “Holy crap this game is good!” moments that I’d never have had if not for this deal. There were little gems in there that surprised the hell out of me. There were other little gems that I gave away to other people, and they surprised them. A friend whom I gave Audiosurf to has been playing it non-stop.

      It’s definitely a worthwhile purchase. Solely in my opinion, of course, but it is. There are a number of truly great games in there for a decent price, games which I and others (whom I’ve given games to) have been enjoying. And, again, in my personal opinion what’s in this deal is a lot more enjoyable, unique, and huhwhat? (a good thing) than most of the mainstream tripe that gets released these days. That stuff tends to bore me more and more all the time.

      So it does come down to different strokes for different folks, but I can’t help but feel that you’d be less cynical if you could accept that these games just might be good, or if the sack had contained mainstream games (in which case I’d likely have been the more cynical one, especially since mainstream types don’t need this kind of exposure).

    • 16/04/2011 at 02:18 Mario Figueiredo says:

      The money going to the indie community is the only worthwhile event on this otherwise disturbing marketing campaign.

      Needs to be said too that for a lot of the today’s purchasers of the potatoe sack, the games and the indie developers that produced these games are just a means to an end, and not actual talents worth of seeing their work put in a more favorable light. But who cares, right? Money is flowing in, whether people actually play their games or simply leave the computer on overnight.

      In the end however, I don’t feel any empathy towards any indie developer leaving off to the bank with a 200,000 USD check in addition to the sales they did previously. I like indie, I just don’t like them that much to keep barking in their defense when they seem well enough already.

    • 16/04/2011 at 03:09 Mman says:

      “The money going to the indie community is the only worthwhile event on this otherwise disturbing marketing campaign.”

      Also getting free content that’s better than what most developers would charge several £ for nowadays, and getting a game at least a little earlier when the developers could have just stuck to the given date.

  127. 15/04/2011 at 20:20 Tei says:

    I have a potato. I did my part.

  128. 15/04/2011 at 20:22 Shih Tzu says:

    Yes, if only there were something you could get in exchange for dropping $38 on the Potato Sack. Steam is a game distribution service — you’d think they’d give you a game, or something.

  129. 15/04/2011 at 20:23 FelAdahn says:

    Hi!

    I’ve got a couple of spare Potato Sack games to give away!

    -All of these are now claimed, sorry!-

    Rush. – Claimed
    Super Meat Boy. – Claimed
    The Ball. – Claimed
    The Wonderful End Of The World. – Claimed
    Toki Tori. – Claimed
    1.. 2.. 3.. Kick it! – Claimed
    AaaaaAaa Gravity. – Claimed
    Amnesia. – Claimed
    Cogs. – Claimed
    Defense grid. – Claimed
    Killing Floor. – Claimed

    I’d like to request that people who cannot normally afford these games request them, as if you can.. Well, that’d be mean to those who cannot! And one game per person! PM me via the forum with a request. It’s only fair we all get to try these games as they are all fantastic little indie titles. That, and Portal 2 earlier benefits everyone!

    Oh, and would you reply to this mentioning which game you picked so others may know what is left?
    Thank you!

    If it says Claimed, then it is no longer available! :)

    This has now all been claimed! You guys are awesomely polite!

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:26 Dominic White says:

      I’d LOVE to give a couple of the lower-spec ones like Toki Tori & Super Meat Boy to my GF. Her laptop is ancient, and we’re both completely broke. I’ll likely be getting Portal 2 in a couple of months at this rate.

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:26 Meneth says:

      Just sent a PM asking for Amnesia.
      If anyone wants HL2, I still have a few copies left over from the Christmas sale :P

      Edit: game received. Can’t thank you enough.

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:33 tobias says:

      I would love either Killing Floor, Cogs or Aaaaa, if you still have any of them. — thoroughly didn’t read your entire post, have PMed. Apols!

      Killing Floor received- very generous of you, many thanks!

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:39 7rigger says:

      I have PM’d asking for killing floor

      *edit*

      Now that I have stopped panicking about messaging you in time, I would like to thank you on your generosity :)

      When people bitch about PC gamers I shall hold you as a shining example of how awesome we can be

      *Edit2*

      I have taken the code for Defense Grid. A thousand thank yous come from a poor working woman with a student for a husband

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:50 piggydiggy says:

      I’d quite like SuperMeatBoy please. As im a noob, how do I pm you?

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:51 FelAdahn says:

      @PiggyDiggy; I’m afraid it has been claimed!

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:01 phosgene says:

      Would like 1…2…3… Kick It! PMing you, thanks :D

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:15 edgeblend says:

      this comment was intentionally left mysterious

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:18 MrSing says:

      Would be nice to get Toki Tori. / PM is out!

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:20 FelAdahn says:

      Only two games left!

      If you are interested, -Please- PM me!

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:34 piggydiggy says:

      Poor Rush :(

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:35 FelAdahn says:

      Indeed, it would seem Rush is all alone!

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:42 Big Murray says:

      I’ll claim Rush … it was actually one of the games I thought looked most fun on the list!

    • 15/04/2011 at 21:48 Tokamak says:

      Rush is really quite an enjoyable and brain-teasy puzzle game for me – probably the one I’ve played most in recent months. Definitely worth trying out.

    • 16/04/2011 at 00:22 Shih Tzu says:

      I got Rush months ago on a daily sale, mostly because I liked the look of the art style. (See also Nimbus.) Haven’t installed it yet, and seeing as how my “sequester self away all weekend in worship of our demented AI mistress” plans are apparently going to fall through, maybe now would be a good time. And for a good cause, too!

  130. 15/04/2011 at 20:26 Edgar the Peaceful says:

    This is the best Capitalism I ever saw

  131. 15/04/2011 at 20:33 johntheemo says:

    I don’t know if anyone noticed this, but The Wonderful End of the World is going up way faster than everything else. That’s because the folks in the Valve ARG IRC channel are isolating games and attacking them at once. Go do it!

    • 15/04/2011 at 20:37 shoptroll says:

      Ultimately, it probably doesn’t matter. Once TWEOW is finished we probably won’t get any more credit by running that game. Spreading out should accomplish the same thing.

  132. 15/04/2011 at 20:36 DeepSleeper says:

    So supposedly getting potatos helps this go faster, but I’ve completed both conditions for the Super Meat Boy ones and nothing whatsoever has happened. Am I supposed to get a login box somewhere, or something?

  133. 15/04/2011 at 20:41 makute says:

    Guys, this is far from over:

    Updates to Killing Floor have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

    * Addressed an issue where client would hang on connecting to servers
    * Various map bug and exploit updates
    * Her chamber has been opened… Help Us

    http://store.steampowered.com/news/5311/

  134. 15/04/2011 at 20:51 Lars Westergren says:

    The Wonderful End of the World was actually really fun. A Katamary Damacy clone, all you do is roll over items to grow bigger. Finished it, got 8 achievements out of 10. I’ve done my bit for the night.

  135. 15/04/2011 at 20:51 Ziv says:

    you don’t have to actually PLAY the games, that’s a rumour that got out. steam does not “record keystrokes”.

  136. 15/04/2011 at 20:58 MuscleHorse says:

    I’m looking for somewhere where I can find out how to obtain potatoes, now that the main wiki has gone down – would anyone be able to help me out? I’m specificaly looking for help on Super Meat Boy, Amnesia, Bit Trip and The Ball.

  137. 15/04/2011 at 21:48 MOARGAN says:

    I’m going to sound so selfish right now, but if anyone wants go gift me a steam game, I’ll accept it :) I really have such little money… :(

    • 15/04/2011 at 22:11 PoLLeNSKi says:

      In an unselfish way I would like to progress the Portal 2 early launch time by also selfishly asking for a free game to play.

    • 15/04/2011 at 22:17 ohrus says:

      I have a couple from the PS to gift. What game were you hoping for?

    • 15/04/2011 at 23:12 Drew says:

      @ohrus

      If you have any of the following available, and if MOARGAN does not want ‘em, then I would be terribly appreciative, and would do my potato-collecting part: The Wonderful End of the World, Kick It, Killing Floor, BIT.TRIP.

      Either way, as other have said, the generosity here is wonderful, so thanks!

    • 15/04/2011 at 23:14 PoLLeNSKi says:

      Amnesia>audiosurf>rush but ill play any of them to help the unlock :) wow people on this site are amazingly kindhearted.

  138. 15/04/2011 at 21:51 Juiceman says:

    Playing enough Amnesia: Dark Decent to unlock Portal 2 early is too terrifying to contemplate.

  139. 15/04/2011 at 22:11 Coins says:

    Doing my ‘duty’ by trying my hand at the Wonderful End Of The World potato-levels, but they’re very hard. Why do I always enjoy games I’m horrible at?

  140. 15/04/2011 at 22:24 Cyberhead says:

    I’ve also got some spare Steam games to give away. PM me if you’re interested.
    - AaaaaAAaaaAAAaa – GONE
    - Amnesia – GONE
    - Audiosurf – GONE
    - Defence Grid – GONE
    - Half-Life 2
    - Half-Life 2: Episode 1 – GONE
    - Killing Floor – GONE
    - Portal
    - Super Meat Boy – GONE
    - The Ball – GONE
    First come, first served I’m afraid. Also one per person. I’ll only be around for another hour or so, so be quick!

  141. 15/04/2011 at 22:40 MrSing says:

    I’m giving away Portal 1!

    First come, first served! PM me!

  142. 15/04/2011 at 22:41 MadJax says:

    If anyone has a spare copy of The Wonderful End of the World, it would be greatly appreciated (Spent the last of my student loan pre-ordering P2 :p)

    Generosity such as what has been shown here alone is what makes the PC community one of the best imo

  143. 15/04/2011 at 22:56 grechzoo says:

    No problem Cyberhead,
    who want Portal 1? was gonna save it for my bro, but he isn’t getting a pc anytime soon. ( he has a macbook ) :)
    please pm me :D

    the only PS game i have is SMB, cant afford to buy the whole sack, but may just nab a few of the cheapies before they go back to full price.

  144. 15/04/2011 at 22:56 qrter says:

    Wait wait wait.. wasn’t PC gaming dying?

  145. 15/04/2011 at 22:57 The Goozeman says:

    Ark, can’t believe I missed out on free Amnesia and Super Meat Boy

  146. 15/04/2011 at 23:08 Meneth says:

    “For every collective 48 hours for one particular game, that game’s “power bar” goes up by 1%.”
    This cannot possibly be true.
    Killing Floor for example currently has 5554 people playing.
    100*48 hours = 4800 hours.
    4800 hours/5554 = 0.86 hours
    Meaning if “For every collective 48 hours for one particular game, that game’s “power bar” goes up by 1%.” was true, Killing Floor, as well as several other games, would have been done several hours ago.

    • 16/04/2011 at 03:20 Fiwer says:

      Yeah, it’s clearly complete crap. I think RPS needs an official math guy, since something that would take your average 6th grader about 30 seconds to work out has apparently gone completely unnoticed.

      If each potato collected increased the multiplier by 1 for every single person playing, and over 180 thousand potatoes have been collected, and each game required a total of 4800 hours of cumulative play divided by the number of potatoes collected in each game, then it’s pretty clear that a single person could play each game for significantly less than one hour and fill the bars.

      On the other hand, an “IRC Admin” apparently confirmed it as being true. I can’t argue with those credentials.

  147. 15/04/2011 at 23:09 Bodylotion says:

    although it’s a pretty fun way to earn the early launch it’s still just trying to get more money out of people.

    • 15/04/2011 at 23:18 Big Murray says:

      Yep … but then, it’s earning more money for good indie developers too. So everybody wins.

    • 16/04/2011 at 07:36 Wulf says:

      And providing new content for all those indie games! Free content to those who already owned them!! I don’t know why that aspect of this is always forgotten.

  148. 15/04/2011 at 23:27 grechzoo says:

    I bought Amnesia with it being 50% off. And I’m not even taking part in this collective CPU thing (cant download the game till morning as my broadband sucks at night)

    £6.50 isn’t much, but i feel good giving it to a truly great developer who who obviously needs it. So i dont feel hypnotized by a greedy corporation for what i just did. I feel fulfilled and relieved that i finally bit the bullet, even though i know ill get twenty minutes into the game and realize i am actually a woman and will be too scared the play the game again.

    Still im just trying to illustrate this “stunt”, whatever Valves motives, is helping too many great developers, and adding lots of awareness to the indie market, for it to ever be looked on negatively.

    Whether portal 2 comes early or not is now not a consideration for me. i just applaud the planning and execution of this marketing move. because at the end of the day, portal 2 is being featured on every gaming blog and website right now, and anyone who wasn’t initially bought into the hype, will at least be interested to see how all this turns out.

  150. 16/04/2011 at 00:41 Deano2099 says:

    Yes, Valve dangling the carrot of Portal 2 in front of us behind some herculean task is kind of cruel. What’s that you say? They’re acting like this is cool and for us when really it serves their own self-interest (in terms of marketing and selling indie games).

    OMG SUBTEXT

    • 16/04/2011 at 00:44 Hunam says:

      Even cruelier still, they are almost making us play these cheap games we buy on a whim!

      Tbh, about 1/4 of my steam list i don’t think I’ve ever installed let alone played :S

    • 16/04/2011 at 07:33 Wulf says:

      B-bu-but… I’m enjoying it. They put awesome new content in all of the games in the sack, so even games that one might have already played before have fresh, interesting content added to them. The test chambers added to The Ball are nothing short of genius, and the C.H.A.S. map in Defence Grid is truly evil, but a fun sort of evil. I love the banter back and forth between the Defence Grid AI and GLaDOS.

      Free content for games I already owned, even, then! I… can’t argue with that or see the evil in it. I’m having fun, but maybe it’s because I actually really like these games. I say give them a chance, try out The Ball and the new Portal content in it, for example, which is immediately accessible.

      Another thing I like about The Ball’s content (yes, The Ball again) is that it’s a vignette into The Ball’s reality, the two have been mixed up. You bust through a wall in a temple to find a half-wrecked lab, and the two sort of melt into one another. You have Ball bits and Portal bits, and the way they’ve done it is a damn convincing portrayal of GLaDOS having pulled off some sort of time travel to setup a hidden test lab before things went Very Wrong™.

      One more thing? The Audiosurf addition is hilarious and has to be seen to be believed. It features Chell on a hoverboard, with a portal gun, and the grabby part actually works! And the music to this track is none other than the ‘Device Has Been Modified’ remix, for those who’re familiar with that. Great stuff.

      I haven’t had a chance to get to it yet, but apparently the new content for Amnesia tells a really nicely written story which provides loose links between the Amnesia and Portal realities. It’s a tale well told from what I’ve heard, and one of the more interesting instances of this, almost on par with what was added to The Ball. And then there are all those other games which had content added to them!

      But like I said prior, I think how much you’re going to enjoy this comes down to how much you like indie games.

  151. 16/04/2011 at 00:57 The Army of None says:

    http://www.coughlandesign.com/portal/ Potential indicator of estimated time for anyone interested :)

  152. 16/04/2011 at 01:28 vodkarn says:

    If anyone is curious why TWEOTW is so far ahead, 4chan is apparently ‘on the job’, as most of the forum has been playing it all day.

    • 16/04/2011 at 03:37 mwoody says:

      It might also be, as others have postulated, that the bars are X people playing out of Y total owners. So games less often included in sales or packs, or less popular titles, or newer ones, might have less total owners – and hence, an easier to fill overall bar.

    • 16/04/2011 at 05:40 viverravid says:

      It might also be, as others have postulated, that the bars are X people playing out of Y total owners.

      Certainly not true. If it was, the optimal strategy would be for noone else to buy the sack, and for people to DDOS Steam Store to ensure this.

      Think about it – any metric based on percentage of total game owners means the less people own the game, the easier it is to complete. Fail marketing 101 anyone with that brilliant idea.

    • 16/04/2011 at 07:59 Urthman says:

      viverravid, that’s not true. It’s more efficient to get existing game owners to play than to get a new person to buy a game and play, but buying a game and playing is still better than not. 6/11ths is bigger than 5/10ths.

  153. 16/04/2011 at 01:54 Basilicus says:

    The real genius of Portal 2′s multi-tiered marketing push isn’t in convincing on-the-fence customers as much as it is in creating such a social and cultural fuss that inevitable customers will snap it up at the current, full price, rather than wait for the price-drop months down the road.

    Like I just did.

    • 16/04/2011 at 02:53 benjaminlobato says:

      I think this is it. I was also going to wait for the price-drop, but am seriously considering getting it now. Damn you Valve.

  155. 16/04/2011 at 03:08 Mman says:

    Wrong Reply

  156. 16/04/2011 at 05:27 drewski says:

    I haven’t pre-ordered, but I suppose I can play some Audiosurf as a favour to y’all.

  157. 16/04/2011 at 06:34 tomeoftom says:

    So.
    How about those games, eh?

    I played a game just this morning, actually.

  158. 16/04/2011 at 07:25 passingstranger says:

    The mere fact that Valve considered this, let alone that they’re actually doing it, is amazing.

    But now that it’s even in the realm of possibility, I wish they had made it easier to unlock. So many people are playing and so little progress has been made.

    • 16/04/2011 at 07:37 Wulf says:

      More progress is gained by gathering potatoes than playing, but too few people realise this, unfortunately, and too few realise how easy some of the potatoes are to get, especially since some games have repeat potatoes. There are a number of very easily gained potatoes in Defence Grid, for example.

    • 16/04/2011 at 07:49 Urthman says:

      Are the potatoes working? Just this evening I beat the shifting letters game in Defense Grid and I got 5 stars on the secret level in AaAaAA! but neither gave me a potato. : (

    • 16/04/2011 at 08:10 arghstupid says:

      Urthman – you need to have the steam overlay thing turned on or it doesn’t register them
      Also sometimes it just doesn’t work, first time I completed the AaAaAA! level I got the logon screen but no potato for some reason, restarted AaAaAA! and did it again and it worked. Really annoying as it took me forever to complete that level (although did it again very quickly for some reason. weird brain)

    • 16/04/2011 at 09:13 Tei says:

      One game is complete. People sould follow the guides to get at least a few potatoes.
      GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrr metagames!

    • 16/04/2011 at 09:14 subedii says:

      Yeah I have to agree that whilst it’s a nice idea, Valve definitely made this too hard to go after. At this rate the game’s going to be unlocked like, 1 day early.

      If there was a good chance it would be unlocked during the weekend then that would’ve meant at least something.

      EDIT: Also, are Potatoes relevant even if you’re not in-game, or do you have to be playing for them to “count”? And do you have to be playing that specific game, or any of them?

      They could have stood to clarify those bits as well to be honest.

  159. 16/04/2011 at 08:59 piggydiggy says:

    As TWEOTW has finished now, surely it would be better if everyone just briefly played one game, got it “complete” then moved to the next?

    • 16/04/2011 at 09:19 TheApologist says:

      Yeah – I think TWEOTW being completed gives concrete information that it should be possible to game the system by focussing on one game at a time. It’ll be interesting to see if this happens.

      But basically, yeah, part of the problem is that the rules of the game are obscure. I am still confused as to the meaning of potatoes (that’s not a phrase I expected ever to type), and how to get them with the steam overlay thing and login screens and whatnot…

  160. 16/04/2011 at 09:21 d00d3n says:

    Just wanted to post a link with much better data than the official site (found via neogaf):
    http://www.gamingmasters.co.uk/portal/
    Real release time estimate, estimate of completion percentage, estimate of completion percentage increase per hour and so on.

  161. 16/04/2011 at 09:33 Harlander says:

    Well, it looks like the Valve ARG site has been nuked into the ground by what scientists are calling “a hodojillion dudes” trying to get at it.

  162. 16/04/2011 at 09:55 ANeM says:

    The problem with the “specifics” posted are that they are quickly and easily dispelled.. and yet have been up all day.
    “For every collective 48 hours for one particular game, that game’s “power bar” goes up by 1%”
    If this were the case then Killing floor, which had on 5000 players when the countdown launched would have completed in a single hour.

    “And Steam needs to record you actually playing the game – just leaving something idling in the background does not contribute.” Wrong again, WEOTW was completed from 10 hours of ARG players idling, because there is really only two hours of gameplay to it, at best.

    “Potatoes multiply that game’s particular power” And for a third time, wrong. Defense Grid has the most potatoes of any game, which are also the EASIEST potatoes to obtain of any game. It would have a significant lead on the other games.

    The way it ACTUALLY works is simple. “CPUs” are tracked via steam stats (found here: http://store.steampowered.com/stats/). Steam Stats determines how many people are playing solely based on steam friends status. If you’re ‘in game’ for one of the potato sack games, you count. You don’t need to do anything else. Progress awarded every couple of minutes based on the amount of steam users with the game running. However, progress for each game is not handled in terms of percentages. Instead each bar has its own specific value that was put down based on the existing player base when the counters went live. (It is theorized that the time removed when completed is based on the total value needed to complete, but without another completion we can not verify this)

    This is how WEOTW finished first, the ARG players acknowledged it had the smallest install base and swarmed it, knowing that even with a relatively small number they would complete it much faster than if they focused elsewhere.

    • 16/04/2011 at 10:33 Hesperus says:

      I’m sorry but that’s just wrong ANeM, what kind of marketing ploy would base itself on the advantage being in a low player-base? i agree the 1% thing seems to be a bit squiffy too, but I reckon the numbers that need to be achieved are not based solely on player-base, and From what I know WEOTW was finished so fast because 4chans /v/ blitzed it for the lulz..

    • 16/04/2011 at 10:46 TheApologist says:

      If potatoes don’t count, why do they have what appears to be a potato counter at the bottom?
      Not claiming one thing or another, just that the problem here is that they should have made the rules of the metagame clear so that people who want to play the meta-game as well as the single games can do.

      As it is, it is just a bit frustrating. I want to get involved, but how do I know if I am making any difference? How do I know how to make my contribution count as much as it can?

      It wouldn’t have been hard for GLaDOS to announce the rules to the humans that want to set her free…

    • 16/04/2011 at 10:55 Meneth says:

      @Hesperus:
      WEOTW has AFAIK by far the lowest user-base of the 13 games. Yet it was completed first even though several games had more concurrent players. Therefore it’d make sense that it’s weighted by user-base, which makes sense as one game lagging behind just because almost no one has it would be a bit sily.

      @TheApologist:
      Potatoes probably do something. What, no one except VALVe know for sure.
      The mystery of it all is part of the fun IMO. It fits with the ARG.

    • 16/04/2011 at 11:06 TheApologist says:

      @Meneth

      Totally agree that the mystery is a crucial and very cool part of the ARG, but this phase of the meta-game has, IMO, shifted the audience of that ARG significantly. This is now opened up to a much more general audience, and is asking them not to solve a mystery, but to play a (meta)game. It then withholds the rules of that game. I think the tolerance of the wider audience for that will be far lower than the more engaged ARG bunch. I just think that’s a misjudgement.

      Put another way, they have shifted the site of the mystery to a far less interesting/satisfying place – from the fiction and thus from the outcome of a puzzle to the mechanics of a game we all know the outcome of already. They are just asking us to grind, but not telling us how to do that efficiently.

      So, yeah, not a killer thing. I mean, I love it, it’s an amazing achievement. The Portal 2 launch has been brilliant entertainment, marketing, online community development and capacity building a whole sector of an entertainment industry – all at once!

      It is mind blowing stuff. I just think at this point, they have mis-stepped a little bit.

    • 16/04/2011 at 12:14 viverravid says:

      “Potatoes multiply that game’s particular power” And for a third time, wrong. Defense Grid has the most potatoes of any game, which are also the EASIEST potatoes to obtain of any game. It would have a significant lead on the other games.

      Or, the potato multiplier could be scaled by the total potatoes available for that game. In which case, Defence Grid will the the hardest to complete, as not everyone will bother to get all the potatoes, so their playtime will count for less.

    • 16/04/2011 at 20:05 Urthman says:

      It would be entirely in character for GlaDOS to say, “You’re never going to fill this progress bar, you know. You might as well give up.”

      And then an hour later release Portal 2 saying something like, “You didn’t think I needed that entire progress bar filled just for this, did you?”

  163. 16/04/2011 at 10:48 Deccan says:

    I had this kinda daydream this afternoon.

    It was about how, in a little while from now, another breadcrumb trail shows up in a Portal 2 update. This trail suggests an ARG on quite a large scale. The trail twists and turns, requiring image analysis, short-wave radio, Riemann zeta functions and fluency in Russian to unravel. Along the way it gathers up everything since 2007: Portal, What’s In The Box, Babel Research, the whole shebang. Speculation snows under a number of popular websites; the Steam forums break entirely.

    Wildly disparate arms of the complex game throw up three details: the first, a time; the second, a grid reference – Times Square, perhaps, or maybe it’s in London. Forumites realise that the location contains large screens for advertising.

    The final detail is a date.

    Crowds gather on the appointed day. From across the country, maybe even from across the ocean they have come, driven by curiosity and a need to be involved in these remarkable events. None dare speak what they all secretly hope for.

    The hour draws close. The crowd falls silent. The advertising on the screen fades to black. Thousands of breaths are held.

    And the screen fades in on the face of the G-Man.

    And then I woke up.

    • 16/04/2011 at 11:07 TheApologist says:

      I got chills reading this. :)

    • 16/04/2011 at 14:32 Donjonson says:

      I keep telling myself “It’s all just a marketing strategy, it’s all an elaborate advertising campaign” but that’s a great idea.. I would probably cross the sea to witness :) Or maybe it would be in multiple locations… “Rise and shine Mr. Freeman”

  164. 16/04/2011 at 11:01 Meneth says:

    Someone probably mentioned this further up in the comments somewhere, but I really can’t be bothered reading through 400 comments.
    When The Wonderful End of the World finished computations, this came up in the GLaDOS output:
    “19:55 – Calculations complete for The Wonderful End of the World. Recalculating a new launch projection…”
    The “default boot scheduled”: 08:57 – Default boot scheduled to finish in 76:02:49
    Now differs by ~50 minutes from the “Projected Launch”: 75:11:52
    It seems that only finishing computations for a game speeds up launch.

  165. 16/04/2011 at 12:11 d00d3n says:

    The problem Valve is facing at this point is that the “reward” for participating in the ARG which seemed moderately interesting to start with is now starting to seem useless. It also gets more useless with time. If the game is released on monday as some (maybe wrongly) have projected, there is simply no reward to speak of. And if the earlier release is all we are getting I guess that means our time has been wasted.

    The PR person who is handling this is thinking very short-term. Yes the continued sell-through on the potato sack games will be nice, but if this ARG bullshit comes with no meaningful reward whatsoever, then why should we bother with it? People are stupid if they do not reject future Valve ARG games after this.

    • 16/04/2011 at 12:58 Harlander says:

      What reward do you usually get from a marketing ARG?

      Also, do you play the ARG games whilst putting your PIN number into the ATM machine?

    • 16/04/2011 at 14:38 Soon says:

      I’d have thought if any group of people understood that sometimes it’s just the playing of the game that is its own reward, would be the group of people that play games.

      But no wonder achievements took off in a big way, I guess.

    • 16/04/2011 at 19:57 Urthman says:

      What’s worse is that’s true of every single Valve game.

      I played Portal, Half-Life 2, and got no meaningful reward whatsoever beyond the enjoyment of playing the games themselves.

      So not only are they trying to trick people into playing their free ARG just for the fun of it, they’re actually charging people money for games that give you nothing beyond the fun of playing them. How long does Valve think they can get away with that scam?

  166. 16/04/2011 at 12:56 grechzoo says:

    there wont be any “future ARG games”

    valve are clever enough to think up a whole new marketing campaign for there next major release. and im sure it will be as massive and clever as this one, but definitely different enough.

    no matter how universally praised this stunt might have been, repeating the same stunt even in a years time would bore their consumers. so valve would be stupid to simply repeat this ARG for their next release.

    I also agree with d00d above. the reward for this stunt is gast becoming irrelevant.

    the reddit and irc groups are doing their best, but if the carrot is not significantly closer by the end of the weekend, i think the hype will fade away as people realise they are only going to get this game a few hours early.

    Personally my hype is already gone. as i realise the best we can hope for is monday afternoon. that is not a great reward, and one i wont even be able to take advantage of.

    a friday launch would really have made sense, allow the players to have it for the weekend maybe after a few good hours of potato sack playing. but right now its too drawn out..

    • 16/04/2011 at 13:47 VelvetFistIronGlove says:

      I completely agree.

      But I’ve had fun playing bits of the games in the pack. And we’re getting Portal 2 in a few days anyway, so although this is looking like a damp squib, I’d be silly if I had anything more than mild disappointment that early == few hours early instead of several days early.

      But yeah, since progress has been so slow and it seems so futile, I’m not going to waste any more of my weekend on it. I might leave something running in the background, but I’ve got other things to get on with now.

  167. 16/04/2011 at 14:20 Basilicus says:

    9 AM East Coast time. Don’t worry, guys. America’s on it.

    Just like World War 2.

  168. 17/04/2011 at 21:28 MrSing says:

    Is there anyone who wanna give a copy of audiosurf away? Would be nice to get it :>
    (Im sitting on a netbook that could handle it. Need sth to play until Im back home to play portal2)

  169. 18/04/2011 at 11:30 Hmm-Hmm. says:

    I’m a bit bemused at all the hubbub surrounding this. Sure, it’s a fun little thing Valve’s doing here, but surely this isn’t that exciting? I mean, it’s just a rather novel way to announce a game’s (impending) launch.

    • 18/04/2011 at 12:15 donmilliken says:

      Sure, it’s a cool marketing thing and that’s all. I’ve only been sort of half paying attention to it myself.

      At the rate things are moving it doesn’t look like the game’s gonna get released early. Not that it matters since the official release is tomorrow and I won’t be home when the game unlocks.

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