#PotatoFoolsDay ARG

[TheCarpe]

Agreed, well worth the effort (for some). I'm sure there are several who are still disappointed over the lack of real HL3/HL2:EP3 news... myself included (It would have been a neat tie-in, though we'll see what the next couple weeks bring).

One huge release is enough for me, though I will admit I kind of got my hopes up from some of the hints that ended up being false.

Also, I still never got my gift copies, and the ARG wiki is saying you don't get them.

[Plinko]

My point is, gaining 12 hours of release time is basically pointless for a lot of us that work full-time. Not to mention that getting many, much less all, potatoes involved a lot of gaming time over a short period that was also all but impossible for a lot of people with families and full-time jobs.

[Boss Llama]

My point is, gaining 12 hours of release time is basically pointless for a lot of us that work full-time. Not to mention that getting many, much less all, potatoes involved a lot of gaming time over a short period that was also all but impossible for a lot of people with families and full-time jobs.

This.

Don't get me wrong, it's awesome that Valve did this big thing, but the payoff is a big let-down. The release time was blatently pre-scripted regardless of efforts, and getting all the potatos, even using lists of objectives that dictate the required tasks, wasn't remotely practical for folks with stuff to do. Basically, it feels like 95% of the community wasted their time (Even if some of it was fun), and the remaining 5% got disproportionately rewarded.

[TTHREAZ]

What about the 0.0001% of us who didn't even bother?

[Plinko]

You're good!

[TheCarpe]

So really, for all my efforts in unlocking all the potatoes, in the end I got a copy of Deathmatch Classic and Ricochet and got to play Portal 20 minutes earlier than everyone else.

Hell, if I get to keep that golden potato on my profile I'll be happy

[Bronze Fox]

So really, for all my efforts in unlocking all the potatoes, in the end I got a copy of Deathmatch Classic and Ricochet and got to play Portal 20 minutes earlier than everyone else.

Hell, if I get to keep that golden potato on my profile I'll be happy

Hey, Ricochet is a classic.

[Masakari]

Someone made an excellent point that they were more than likely contractually obligated not to release the game before Tuesday, which essentially made the whole thing a PR stunt.

[gator]

The release time was blatently pre-scripted regardless of efforts, and getting all the potatos, even using lists of objectives that dictate the required tasks, wasn't remotely practical for folks with stuff to do. Basically, it feels like 95% of the community wasted their time (Even if some of it was fun), and the remaining 5% got disproportionately rewarded.

I don't know that I'd say the efforts didn't have any impact, but they probably had a time range in which they wanted to release (anywhere from midnight-noon Tues EST), and also may not have been able to release before a certain time like Masa mentioned. A good number of people (at least 15 on my friends list) were able to play it at release time, that number probably would have been much smaller had it been released sometime mid-day.

Besides, the people who spent the time to get all the potatoes, have a high probability of being fans of Valve and thus would have already owned a large percentage (if not all) of the games in the Valve complete pack.

[Buzzy Beetle]

*sigh* Because I've seen other gaming companies being so incredibly eager to do a massive cross-game-and-real-life ARG that makes a story and includes their fans. It is only Valve where I see them pulling off such a large collaboration with other companies where the final payoff is a bunch of pissed off players over what they could have done better. You know what? They tried.

For those of us who got on board with the potato sack ARG before there was even a MENTION of Portal 2, it was fun. I know Carpe and I went potato hunting together and helped each other; after the initial 13 we were at a bit of a loss of what to do because we had be chasing potatoes solid three days prior. In that time we both played a bunch of new games in a way I'm quite sure I've never experienced before.

We didn't chase potatoes because GLaDOS was in it, we didn't chase them because of the promise of new games (that nobody knew was going to happen, by the way) or even at the promise of Portal 2 having an early launch. We did it because it was fun, and that it was its own means to it's own end. We want to see it through.

If you joined at the promise of early Portal 2 and bought the potato pack because of it, you did it for the entirely wrong reason. The games should have been enough; fun and challenging offerings by their developers (Remember? we aught to support indie developers? Those guys. Support them.) Personally, I would like to get my courage up a bit more and try my hand at the full Amnesia game. 40 minutes with a single monster had my hands shaking in fear and I would like to be braver than that. I also recall trying to encourage other people to join in on the potato gathering and was surprisingly refused, even by people who bought the potato pack. Some downright refused and went out of their way to show it, so perhaps the supposed failure of an early Portal 2 launch lies somewhere in between Valve and their fans who didn't want to work yet still wanted the payoff when it came to light.

This is assuming the ARG was a failure. It wasn't for me, I had a great time and now I get to play a fantastic game after being able to play a bunch of great games (except Cogs. Sliding tile puzzle games can die in a fire) People really need to lighten up and just enjoy Portal 2 now. The ARG isn't over, but I'm sure those who just wanted an early launch of Portal 2 will stop paying attention to it again. I will keep on it because it was fun, and like i said - there are those who want to see this through to the end.

That is all.

[Guardian]

I had to study for finals but I got one potato in Super meat boy.

From the sounds of all this, I think next time valve needs to make it more clear how much time they can shave off of a release if they want to try this again.

Besides the indie levels and all the support for indie games are a prize in and of itself.

[Ixtab]

I got the pack, not because of anyting at all to do with portal or the ARG. It was just a bunch of games for a really good deal, and I knew I wanted at least some of them... so it was still a great buy. The ARG was a nifty idea too, and actually implemented pretty well. My only complaint is that they gave a huge reward to the people who used workarounds to get every potato, had a ton of time to put into it, or are simply amazing at every game (most people are all three). There are some people who didnt have the time to put into potato getting, and/or are not really good at all of those games, and end up just raging at their computer when attempting the same thing over and over and over again... That ceases to be fun, it becomes more like work. Some of us put a lot of work into it becasue, yeah, it was fun overall, and most of the games are fun too.... but to basically say to the people who worked at getting most potatoes that becasue they arent good at a few of the games, they get nothing... it's a bit of a let down.

I wasn't expecting a reward, and I wasn't expecting to actually get portal 2 released early.... I was just having fun, and feeling like I was contributing to something, working towards something. Apparently becasue I am less than perfect, my contributions mean nothing, and apparently my gamerage was for naught.

I see your point, Buzzy, and yes, they tried, which is great, and it was still fun in a lot of ways. I'm not unhappy that I got nothing for it, I just think that they should have either given no rewards, or some sort of reward scaling. That part was not as well thought out as the rest of the ARG. Also, it isn't over? I don't see anything on the wiki or anything saying that there's more...

[Masakari]

I bought the Potato Pack on day one simply because I'm both a glutton for games, and I could give away extra copies. I got satisfaction from it in that I discovered a few new games from it, and while I had curiosity with the ARG at the start, it disappeared as it kept going on and on and things became so disconnected I didn't understand how the initial puzzles connected to the end. I mean no offense Buzzy, but I question your ethics in that you played games you didn't like simply to get all the potatoes. I tried Cogs, and it was a terrible terrible game that I'd never want to touch again (I despise sliding puzzles myself). If you're playing a game you don't like just to retrieve something on inconsequential value, then in my mind, you're not doing it for the right reasons because you'd simply not be having fun.

As I told Carpe when he made remarks to me about my complaints about loading screens in Portal 2, criticism is natural and healthy (When expressed properly). If people are being calm and making rational points about negative things in a game or ARG or anything, they're perfectly within their right to do so. A lot of people are going to be disappointed by this outcome, and it's perfectly valid. The reward for most people was games that they already had, the amount of time required to get such a reward was immense, and the promise was an early release was more than likely a calibrated PR stunt. Does that make it fa failure? I don't think so. It just makes it something that could have used improvement to be much better.

Also, the Razer potato was easily the dumbest thing in the world. The fact that probably 98% of people had to cheat to spoof the hardware was probably the dumbest thing in the entire ARG.

[NeanderDude]

What about the 0.0001% of us who didn't even bother?

Make that 0.0002% Now, if I'd had more time and inclination, things might have been different.

[Zork Nemesis]

Hey, i'm not complaining, I didn't follow the ARG completely, I did some of it, especially the Defense Grid parts, but in the end, the whole thing was a good excuse to buy a bunch of great games at a bargain. I could care less that I got the valve complete pack as a bonus, and don't get me wrong that's a nice bonus, but I went for it cause the indie games in the pack were well worth it. They could've left out the ARG and I still would've bought into it just cause they're great games.

In the end, despite the disapointing conclusion, it shows yet again why Valve remains one of the best indepentent developers out there, what with their massive collaberation over the project as well as the generosity to pretty much hand out all of their games to people who went for it all the way.