GlaDOS@Home

remi

<div class="IPBDescription">Help Portal 2 release early!</div>1. Buy the Potato Sack pack:
<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/sub/7586/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/OdhQD.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/sub/7586/" target="_blank">http://store.steampowered.com/sub/7586/</a></a>

2. Run the games in the background that are not yet completed here:
<a href="http://aperturescience.com/glados@home/" target="_blank">http://aperturescience.com/glados@home/</a>

3. ???


4. Portal 2 releases early! Maybe we can get it early enough so us working folk can actually play it this weekend!


More pages to stat progress pages:
<a href="http://www.hasportal2launchedyet.com/" target="_blank">http://www.hasportal2launchedyet.com/</a>
<a href="http://cpucount.zapto.org/" target="_blank">http://cpucount.zapto.org/</a>

DiscoZombie

Portal 2 is one of the only games I've pre-purchased in the last 10 years, so it's safe to say I'm psyched about it. However it shows a lot of hubris on their part to expect people to buy an entire other pack of games and play them to death just to get Portal 2 to launch a day or two early. ARG's are neat, but not when they cost money and time wasted running games you're not interested in playing.

remi

I'm torn on that one because though it could be seen as a money grab, it is also a really cool way to support Indie devs both in money as well as exposure of their games.
3 of the games in this pack were made by a guy I know so I didn't feel too bad buying one of them. I'm probably not going to buy the whole pack, but even just helping out with one potentially could help get Portal 2 in my hands on a day I can actually play it.

spellman23

Already own half of the Potato Pack. =p

Still, I think I'm gonna wait to see if Portal 2 turns out to be all it's claiming to be. And saving $5 on the pre-order isn't worth it to me imo.

That and I won't have time to play it for another few months anyways.

remi

<!--quoteo(post=1841186:date=Apr 16 2011, 07:52 AM:name=spellman23)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (spellman23 @ Apr 16 2011, 07:52 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1841186"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Already own half of the Potato Pack. =p

Still, I think I'm gonna wait to see if Portal 2 turns out to be all it's claiming to be. And saving $5 on the pre-order isn't worth it to me imo.

That and I won't have time to play it for another few months anyways.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you already own any part of the Potato Pack you can just skip part 1 and load up one of the games to run in the background. :)

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/TJVGn.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />

ZiGGY

good old vgcats :P unfortunately the price of portal2 was more than I was willing to spend, I'm sure it'll be awesome. x

remi

<!--quoteo(post=1841193:date=Apr 16 2011, 09:48 AM:name=ZiGGY)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ZiGGY @ Apr 16 2011, 09:48 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1841193"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->good old vgcats :P unfortunately the price of portal2 was more than I was willing to spend, I'm sure it'll be awesome. x<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Even with the Co-op?!

ZiGGY

co-op is for people in relationships :p I get enough team rage in hon tyvm

Monkfish

That's a pretty stupid thing to say.

ZiGGY

that's a pretty ambiguous thing to say ; ;.

JediYoshi

<!--quoteo(post=1841186:date=Apr 16 2011, 10:52 AM:name=spellman23)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (spellman23 @ Apr 16 2011, 10:52 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1841186"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Still, I think I'm gonna wait to see if Portal 2 turns out to be all it's claiming to be. And saving $5 on the pre-order isn't worth it to me imo.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Best Buy/Amazon have the PC version pre orders up at $35.

It's a real shame they're trying to support indie devs at the expense of releasing a game even earlier than the release date. Those monsters.

Thaldarin

"help" release portal 2 "early".

AKA. Marketing ploy to make you buy games most of you will never play.

What a bunch of crap.

Aldaris

Apart from the fact that in order to help release it early, you would have to play them. As JediYoshi said, how dare they help indie devs, make a bit of money themselves, and give the gamers a bit of a reward for their hard work in the ARG.

ZiGGY

Thaladrin's objection is not with the practice but the pseudo-moralism. /argument.

Aldaris

I have no idea what you mean by that.

lolfighter

By the way, this isn't going to be a weekend launch or anything, forget all about that. When The Wonderful End of the World maxed out I did some quick figures, and at the time my best estimate was that they were gunning for something like 660 minutes early provided all games were "weighted" equally. Those figures are somewhat off now so they seem to be weighted differently (TWEotW cut about 50 minutes off the countdown, while 123 etc. only cut about 40 minutes), but we're looking at somewhere around 10-12 hours maximum.

The original launch was scheduled at 14:00 UTC on tuesday, and the earliest likely launch will be shortly after midnight. It's not going to make a world of difference. For anyone in Europe who has to work on tuesday, it will make no difference at all.

remi

<!--quoteo(post=1841247:date=Apr 16 2011, 05:56 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ Apr 16 2011, 05:56 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1841247"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->By the way, this isn't going to be a weekend launch or anything, forget all about that. When The Wonderful End of the World maxed out I did some quick figures, and at the time my best estimate was that they were gunning for something like 660 minutes early provided all games were "weighted" equally. Those figures are somewhat off now so they seem to be weighted differently (TWEotW cut about 50 minutes off the countdown, while 123 etc. only cut about 40 minutes), but we're looking at somewhere around 10-12 hours maximum.

The original launch was scheduled at 14:00 UTC on tuesday, and the earliest likely launch will be shortly after midnight. It's not going to make a world of difference. For anyone in Europe who has to work on tuesday, it will make no difference at all.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, this isn't going to make much of a difference. Either way I don't really get to play until next weekend. I still find the whole ARG pretty interesting, and I am totally psyched to play Portal 2.

Aldaris

Lolfighter, I disagree slightly. The bar moved past 1/4, 1/3 and is nearly 1/2 done off Saturday's work alone. While a Sunday release is very unlikely, I can easily see a mid day/evening Monday release. Not totally different from your times really, but enough for some people to enjoy it through Monday.

Thaldarin

<!--quoteo(post=1841241:date=Apr 17 2011, 01:29 AM:name=Aldaris)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Aldaris @ Apr 17 2011, 01:29 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1841241"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Apart from the fact that in order to help release it early, you would have to play them.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Well worth one weekend.. to get a game 12-24hours early.

It's a great marketing strategy, it really is, because a lot of people have bought in to it. In reality, if it's a released a day or two later, it doesn't matter.

lolfighter

Currently, the difference at four "completed" games is three hours, twelve minutes and ten seconds from the original launch. 03:12:10. That's 2882.5 seconds per game, or roughly 48 minutes. Again presuming that this is a fixed rate, the game would be released 624 minutes early if all thirteen are completed. That's 03:36 UTC. Middle of the night/early morning across Europe. Or 23:36 on monday in New York. A new yorker who has to work on tuesday will be able to boot the game up, see what the title screen looks like, then go to bed.

But okay. If you live in Hawaii, it'll be released at 17:36 on monday and you'll be able to play it all evening. Have fun.

ZiGGY

or you could just hunt down WHOThem and beat a retail client out of him :p

[WHO]Them

<!--quoteo(post=1841295:date=Apr 17 2011, 10:41 AM:name=ZiGGY)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ZiGGY @ Apr 17 2011, 10:41 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1841295"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->or you could just hunt down WHOThem and beat a retail client out of him :p<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Easier said than done. I've been working out.

remi

I think you are right lolfighter. It's a little deceptive because the way this all was framed it seemed that Portal 2 would be released when all the games are finished, rather than the release timer being decreased by a static amount for each completed game.

If that was the case it could be released about a day to a day and a half early according to the tracker sites, but it does look like your calculations are more likely to be true.

Aldaris

We'll see what happens when Cogs gets finished. Looks like it's requiring a lot more work than the previous ones. Might knock off a lot more time.

remi

<!--quoteo(post=1841301:date=Apr 17 2011, 08:57 AM:name=Aldaris)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Aldaris @ Apr 17 2011, 08:57 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1841301"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->We'll see what happens when Cogs gets finished. Looks like it's requiring a lot more work than the previous ones. Might knock off a lot more time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
3.2 ahead to 4.05 ahead

lolfighter

<!--quoteo(post=1841298:date=Apr 17 2011, 07:46 PM:name=Psyke)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Psyke @ Apr 17 2011, 07:46 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1841298"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I think you are right lolfighter. It's a little deceptive because the way this all was framed it seemed that Portal 2 would be released when all the games are finished, rather than the release timer being decreased by a static amount for each completed game.

If that was the case it could be released about a day to a day and a half early according to the tracker sites, but it does look like your calculations are more likely to be true.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It doesn't seem to be entirely static either. When the first game, TWEotW, was completed, it reduced the timer by about 50.8 minutes. Currently, at five completed games, the timer has been reduced by four hours, three minutes and one second. That's 04:03:01, or 14581 seconds, or 2916.2 seconds per game, or 48.6 minutes per game. So the average amount of minutes per game has gone down since then. I can't really figure out the exact formula they're using, but "somewhere around 50 minutes per game" seems like a reasonably safe guess at this point.

Unless any currently unforeseeable changes occur, full completion means a release somewhere between 03:00 and 04:00 UTC, tuesday. That means:<ul><li>Hawaii: 17:00 - 18:00 monday</li><li>New York: 23:00 monday - 00:00 tuesday</li><li>UK: 04:00 - 05:00 tuesday</li><li>Central Europe: 05:00 - 06:00 tuesday</li><li>Eastern Europe: 06:00 - 07:00 tuesday</li></ul>
The message you can take home from this is as follows: Play what you like, because chances are no matter when P2 releases, you won't be able to play it until you come home from work tuesday. Unless you live in Hawaii, in which case you should be enjoying the beach or something, not be a pasty nerd. Seriously, you've got some of the nicest beaches in the world, why the ###### do you care about vidja games?

Kouji_San

<!--quoteo(post=1841295:date=Apr 17 2011, 05:41 PM:name=ZiGGY)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ZiGGY @ Apr 17 2011, 05:41 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1841295"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->or you could just hunt down WHOThem and beat a retail client out of him :p<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think we can all agree that man is quite unbeatable with the overpowered muscleman powers (NERF WHOTHEM!)

TychoCelchuuu

I wouldn't try to beat up [WHO]Them with anything less than a tire iron. From the trunk of my car. Which is a tank. That I am driving. Also I would need some backup. Like, more tanks.

Kouji_San

<!--quoteo(post=1841320:date=Apr 17 2011, 08:23 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TychoCelchuuu @ Apr 17 2011, 08:23 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1841320"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I wouldn't try to beat up [WHO]Them with anything less than a tire iron. From the trunk of my car. Which is a tank. That I am driving. Also I would need some backup. Like, more tanks.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And if that don't work... Use even more tanks!

Thaldarin

Seriously the early release is like A DAY at most... it's not like we're getting it a month in advanced... otherwise then it's worth while going over it all.

ZiGGY

That's your opinion, stop ###### on the emotions of people infinitely sadder than you! *points* If only we had hats :O.