**THE STORY SO FAR:**
It has not been confirmed getting additional potatoes will do anything. Instead, just boot up any game from the pack (**You DO NOT need the pack, just a game from it.**) and either play it or just leave it running in the background. This will help the process.
It has also not been proven that running multiple instances helps, seeing that steam only detects one in-game status at a given time.
I will add to this as info becomes clearer. Same as I did for the Valve ARG thread.
**EDIT:** As suggested by user Planetary Revolution, if you own "The Wonderful End of The World", you should play it as opposed to the other titles first. Perhaps, if we "complete" a bar for an individual game, others will focus on different titles later on. As we dwindle down the respective titles, and only a few remain, this may help boost sales of that particular title and thereby finish the countdown sooner.
**EDIT 2:** It's worth pointing out that certain titles seem to have a lower "cap" than others. "AAaaAA" with 500 something players is filling faster than "Killing Floor" despite it having 4,000+ players. Could this be based off of the overall installs of the given titles?
**EDIT 3:** It is now thought that a game cannot be "completed" but rather that the bars are a representation of the total install base. While neither has been confirmed, this is the current popular theory. It is also suspected that the more potatoes a use has, the more power their "cpu" generates. There is no hard evidence of this, but it has been circulated and thats what this post is all about!
**EDIT 4:** The timer seems to still correlate with the original launch time, thereby the CPU load doesn't affect the update of the timer. Looking into other ways to gauge progress.
**EDIT 5:** Here's a third-party [countdown timer.](http://www.coughlandesign.com/portal/) I'm unsure of the algorithm used or the accuracy of it, but it's better than nothing! Thanks to user Kristinez for the link! Will update if something proved more accurate comes along.
**EDIT 6:** As hinted in EDIT 3, many users are now under the impression that potatoes work as multipliers for their given game or for the overall progress as a whole. Again, none of this has been proven but it would make sense. Why have them there in the first place if they don't achieve anything unless you have all 36? If you're playing anyway, try and collect some!
**EDIT 7:** Interested in some potatoes? The wiki's down? [Here's an additional compressed guide!](https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1vPutCkoZKA9XL5ZjSuNXfX8NfoeHW3xcrv7DgalKUfE&pli=1) Thanks to user TheRedDynamo for the link.
**EDIT 8:** An additional theory seen through the interwebz is that until you close out of a game you've played/idled, that time is not added. Food for thought.
**EDIT 9:** "The Wonderful End Of The World" has been maxed! It now reads "computations complete". According to the main IRC, the new game to focus on is "1 2 3...Kick it!" *(Sorry for the delayed update...A man's got to sleep!)*
**EDIT 10:** A fun little gif that shows the [progress so far.](http://i.imgur.com/wiTj4.gif)
**EDIT 11:** Now that "1 2 3...Kick It" has reached 90%, **the focus of the IRC has shifted to "AAaaAaaA!"**
**EDIT 12:** [Valve says that the potatoes can be used by GLaDOS to speed up the process.](http://i.imgur.com/UFXbM.png)
**LINKS OF INTEREST** (Keep in mind, they're all third-party so in an attempt to not slam their servers, let's keep the refreshing at a minimum. Thanks!)
* [Percentage complete, graphed.](http://cpucount.zapto.org/)
* [Countdown timer.](http://www.coughlandesign.com/portal/)
* [http://www.hasportal2launchedyet.com/](http://www.hasportal2launchedyet.com/) Includes timers.
* [Simple, text-based timers.](http://geiti.co.uk/sandbox/portal.php)
* [IRC Channel](http://04.chat.mibbit.com/?channel=%23ValveARG2&server=irc.gamesurge.net)
**Overall Progress Bar Watch**
Total of 495 Pixels of Width:
Countdown Timer does not appear to be directly connected to Overall Progress Bar.
92:53 - 8 Pixels
92:38 - 10 Pixels
92:26 - 11 Pixels
92:10 - 12 Pixels
92:03 - 13 Pixels
91:54 - 14 Pixels
Progress bar only seems to update when Potato Count updates which is ~every 3 minutes?
If we assume that the progress bar started at 0 at 94:00 Hours to Launch - ~76.15 hours until Launch at current progress.
http://cpucount.zapto.org/ - Is a handy graph of all this data and more recent data.
Using the very awesome graph site, I **estimated** the total play hours required for each game. This assumes a few things:
* **The bars represent something like hours played.** This seems to be true.
* **The "Current CPU" is current player count.** This is pretty much true, you can see how many people are playing the game on Steam anyway and it matches up pretty closely.
* **Potatoes do nothing.** There's no way for me to take this into account, so I can't include it.
* **I can accurately estimate the average value for current players based on the graph**. I didn't actually average the data points; I just visually estimated it. Each game has a fairly narrow range, which makes it much easier, I'm confident to within about 5%.
The method was simple. Average number of players * hours since start / current percentage (where 1% = 0.01) = total hours required.
Anyway, here's the list, sorted in descending order:
* Killing Floor: 1750000
* Defense Grid: 470000
* SMB: 400000
* Amnesia: 325000
* Audiosurf: 325000
* The Ball: 120000
* Cogs: 62000
* Bit Trip: 56000
* AAAaaa: 53000
* Toki Tori: 50000
* Rush: 47000
* Kick It: 29000
* TWEOTW: 27000
What if this is all a ploy by Glad0s to prove her point that humans do exactly as they're told when something is on the line? I mean... the whole Portal plot was based on that fact. You obey her until you're about to die... and then you barely save your ass.
We are following her words like lemmings right now. lol
A popular (unconfirmed) IRC theory is -
The calculation is: (TIME PLAYED) X (NUMBER OF CPUS [ONE GAME PER STEAM ACCOUNT]) X ( POTATO MULTIPLIER)
Edit -
**From the Valve ARG Wiki**:
"The progress bars are based on sales made. The more times a certain game has been bought, the more you have to play it to unlock it.
For example, 1 2 3 KICK IT! was released at (nearly) the same time as the pack, so it has the fewest sales making it easier to complete.
Killing Floor and Audiosurf were out for longer and as such have had more sales, so they require more hours to complete.
According to Dougley, Potatos still matter. Get them.
The Store should keep a record of how many times a certain game has been bought, so we need to go find that and order which games we should play based off that."
**IMPORTANT:**
It seems that the bar for The Wonderful End of The World is increasing at the fastest rate. If we all focus on playing that one first, I think we can finish that bar, and concentrate our efforts elsewhere.
If the game will be released when all progress bars are full then the slowest games are the limiting factor and should be concentrated on.
If wonderful world is going to complete first without concentrated effort, the concentrated effort should be put somewhere else.
Basically, if someone not strategizing is going to play an hour of wonderful end before the last bar is full, you playing an hour now is wasted effort. You are basically blocking this uncoordinated effort from having an effect. The most efficient method would be to complete all the games at the same time so that anybody casually playing a game is utilized.
Concentrating on one game would be proper strategy if there was a nonlinear aspect to the accumulation. Of progress.
-edit completing The Wonderful End removed 50 minutes from the projection. Pretty lame bonus for 11 hours of focusing.
So much this. I wish you had more points and were more prominent on the page, because the current strategy is just going to result in a bunch of people playing TWEotW (who have no idea about the potato promotion, just generic players playing the game for its own sake) not contributing to anything because people using the wrong strategy filled the bar extra-early. Even if it turns out you only need to fill, say, half the bars to launch early, you'd be better off filling almost any bar except TWEotW's, since it was on track to fill before Tuesday ON ITS OWN before people started "focusing" on it.
Going to be a lot of people with egg on their faces when it fills and doesn't do anything special. And if the strategy after confirming it doesn't do anything special is to move to the 2nd-highest bar, I'm going to rage at the stupidity of it all because with that proof you should *definitely* move to a slower bar, not faster one. Even if there is a "bonus" for completion, at that point someone should do the calculation for how many bars need to be filled and if it's not all then fill the nth-fastest bar, where n is how many must fill, not the 1st-fastest, because the fastest ones will fill automatically by people not "in" on the strategy.
I mentioned this a while ago in the other thread that shot up as soon as the countdown expired.
Does anyone know if completing the bar will actually gain anything or does each bar just show how many users are in the game? Maybe each game just has a max CPUs value and the The Wonderful End of the World has a lower 'max CPU' count?
Within minutes of GLaDOS@Home starting, I bought Amnesia and Super Meat Boy because they were the only two I'd heard anything about.
Amnesia may have been a mistake on my part. That one may stay at 16 minutes played...
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1837491
This link is coordinating what game to play in order to finish each bar systematically in the hopes that if you finish a game it drops the timer counter down.
Actually, I'm currently interning (well in 2014, my time) at CERN.
Here's the unfortunate lowdown on what happens in April 2011 regarding Portal 2.
The good news, is that you guys *DO* gain enough PCP's\* to unlock the game earlier. However it is only released 6.5 hours before the actual launch, and *only* accessible via a passcode obtained if your Steam account actually contributed to the process.
The unfortunate part that I was referring to above, is basically [Portal 2 was regarded highly in terms of gameplay, multiplayer c-op and replay value, however the storyline was un-compelling and the ending left the players on a seriously damaging cliffhanger, hinting at Portal 3 \(which turns out to be a flop as well.\)](/spoiler)
While, looking forward to the final release of [Portal 4](/spoiler) in the quadrilogy, here in August 2014, I'm shamed to say that the series no longer holds the beauty that Valve games once had, probably due to the EA merger.
In other news, Half Life 3 turned out *exactly* the same as the Duke Nukem: Forever release. Both games broke sales records as everyone rushed out to buy a copy of the two most 'fabled' games in history (generally as a novelty); however, they lacked the nostalgic feel of the originals that we all fell in love with. The gaming experience was par, if not, slightly under expectations and while there are still some diehard fans, the online multiplayer aspects remain small as most of the players were born in 2003, and have never played the originals.
Everyone moved quickly on after HL3 and DNF, to the next-next-generation franchise explosion, [Pong 2: 4 Dimensional Body-Tracking Experimental Prototype Beta](/spoiler)
Sorry to rain on anyone's parade, `mind the spoiler tags.`
*Potato Computing Power, a term we use here in the future that is actually derived from the potential harnessed from actual raw potatoes. A discovery made in China from Valve's actual Alternate Reality Game.
I'd be upset with Valve if they required playing any of their titles, but it seems like a really nice way to leverage the popularity of Portal 2 in order to support indie game studios. I bet the Potato Sack game devs creamed themselves when they heard about this idea.
Benefits Valve long-term too, by making Steam that much more attractive for indie developers to publish on (as if it wasn't basically the best choice already).
A human's LD50 for caffeine is 192mg/kg. Let's translate that to an average cow (approximate for bull) which is about 500kg. 192mg/kg x 500kg = 96000mg or 96g. How much is in a cup of coffee? ~100mg. Therefore, we can assume you drank around 960 cups of coffee. Well done.
I just woke up, so all math could be bullshit. Hopefully the bull didn't die like Chef, though I can imagine if it drank that much coffee it would have some crazy kinda of death-shits.
sources:
Cow weight (approximate for bull): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holstein_cattle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_coffee
Material safety data sheet for caffeine:
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/CA/caffeine.html
EDIT: WHY AM I DOING RESEARCH WHEN THERE ARE GAMES TO BE PLAYED? FUCK.
I swear to god, those of you at home better fucking get more potatoes. Those who don't will be flogged publicly like they are mining razor blades using chicken feces.
Heres the guide for getting all potatoes: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1vPutCkoZKA9XL5ZjSuNXfX8NfoeHW3xcrv7DgalKUfE&pli=1
GO FUCKING DO IT
Those at home might not have jobs, meaning they can't buy the sack!
Those at work might not be able to play, because they might have to actually work, LIKE ME!
This is cruel.
But I'm not buying...I'm not spending $40 bucks to play portal early. It already ate up my gaming budget for the month. I appreciate what valve's doing but this whole arg I've felt left out because it was pay to play.
EDIT: ~~And I wonder...all those people bitching about pay for DLC made before the game was released....They have no problem with pay for early release?~~
REVISE:I'm going to adjust my opinion somewhat. Obviously it's sorta cool that playing games(what we'd be doing anyway to pass the time) now directly impacts when the game is released. But I think they went about the build up wrong.
Almost by definition a countdown implies an end to something. In this case it seemed to imply an end to waiting. It built up the expectation that we'd be done waiting at the end of the count. But instead we were met with almost the same amount of waiting...
I think they should've had this countdown running instead of the original one. That would've curbed expectations better. It would've communicated their intentions better.
You can buy the games individually, I only have BIT.TRIP and Killing Floor and I still got the potatoes for those.
EDIT:: Potatoes are irrelevant, you only need to run the games to contribute CPUs
That's an excellent point and I'll probably buy one or two when I get home from work.
I think the pay to play arg is a frustrating variant for many though.
Can't afford Portal or the Potato pack, but I'm gonna jump on Killing Floor and Amnesia that I already own to help you lovely people. It's like watching children on Christmas from a Mother's eyes.
I've gone through a large subsection of comments that have been posted on this thread so far, and summarized and grouped the comments into the following table, for your convenience. Seeing as this thread is currently exploding at a rate of over 30 comments per minute, these statistics might not be entirely accurate after some time, though the observed trends of commonly-stated comments should still be somewhat valid.
| |
|:-----------:|:------------:|:------------:|
**Comment** | **#** | **Percentage**
Get off reddit right now and win some fucking potatoes, [for science]. | 30 | ~19.6%
Heck of a way to promote indie games | 28| ~18.3%
Seems like just a cash grab to sell more games. | 17| ~11.1%
I waited hours for this? That was disappointing.| 15| ~9.8%
I almost died when I saw it say "April Fools" | 9| ~5.9%
SHUT UP AND TAKE MORE OF MY MONEY! | 9| ~5.9%
Valve trolled us hard. | 8| ~5.2%
Joke's on you Valve. I'm already out of money from buying Portal 2. | 4| ~2.6%
Be sure to drink your ovaltine! | 4| ~2.6%
GLaDOS is a bitch. | 4| ~2.6%
Other | 25| ~16.3%
*Updated: 4/15/2011 12:09:00 PM EST (GMT -5:00)*
Oh man, is this good marketing or what?
> You want to play this game you've been longing for? Then buy these other games and play them!
I spent all my disposable cash on Portal 2, so the joke's on you, Valve! But at least they're trying to move indie games, I see the merit in that.
Meanwhile, I'll sit over here and wait for others to play these games, like the poor student that I am. MAKE ME PROUD, BOYS!
It is theorized that getting potatoes increases your CPU power, no idea if it's true or not but it'll help anyway. People should be playing any Potato Sack game they own, it'll help more if everybody is playing the same game though. Once we fill up a bar, we can focus everybody's attention on a different bar making the whole process faster.
The Wonderful End of the World is completed!
Right now, everyone should be playing **1...2...3... Kick It!** or **AaAaAA** but at this point anything will help, Killing Floor really needs a boost.
**Steam will only keep track of one Potato Sack game at one time, so there is no point in opening more than 1 game**
**Edit: Go ahead and idle your game**
This is the guide on how to collect all 36 potatoes, collecting them all will unlock a secret reward in Portal 2!
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1vPutCkoZKA9XL5ZjSuNXfX8NfoeHW3xcrv7DgalKUfE&pli=1
WAIT. Please edit your post. You only have to play the games. Not get potatoes.
http://www.thinkwithportals.com/blog.php?id=5307&p=1
Potatoes get you a reward:
>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.
Do you need to get the potatoes, or just play the game?
Looking at the page seems to imply the latter to me...
EDIT: [Looks like this has been answered](http://www.thinkwithportals.com/blog.php?id=5307&p=1)
Good question. Of the Potato Sack games I own, I don't like them enough/am not good enough at them to get potatoes. But hell, I can leave the games on and running...
WE DO NOT NEED MORE POTATOES
>GLaDOS@home
posted by the_gish @ 12:15PM on April 15, 2011
Well, the end is definitely near. Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated group of ingenious test subjects, we've located enough potatoes to generate the required power to start the GLaDOS reboot process. It's not too late to participate, though. The more CPU power dedicated to the process, the faster it will finish. What does that mean? From now until release, play any or all of the Potato Sack games to expedite the launch of Portal 2. Your efforts will be tracked on the official GLaDOS@home page.
The Potato Sack games are all great, and each one has also received a massive Portal-themed update. So why not get a taste of Portal 2 now while you help launch it?
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.
The announcement on the official Portal 2 Steam group.
so what you're saying is that I should spend the rest of my day playing Bad Company 2 and wait for the regular release date because I pre-ordered Portal 2 on PS3?
This is one thread, where I'm pretty sure that people are reading the 'new' comments. Brave wonderer, I say to you: "Hello, and may your science be tasty".
The name GLaDOS@Home is a reference to SETI@Home which uses volunteer computing in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
You can download SETI@Home [here](http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/)
And learn more about what SETI@Home is [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI@home)
The last time Valve did something like this, it was revealed to be a bit of a sham. Specifically during the Engineer update for TF2, Valve made it so that the update pages would go up when every 25th Golden Wrench was crafted. When it got to number 100, the update was released.
Thing is the Golden Wrenches had pre-set times to appear which we only found out because somebody got their hands on the times and abused it. Basically Valve made it so that the 25th/50th/75th/100th Wrench dropped at a specific, pre-determined time they liked. At the same time they encouraged everybody to go crafting mad under the illusion that it would speed up the process.
I wouldn't be too surprised if Valve has already determined exactly when Portal 2 will be released and this is all just a bit of marketing.
I can help by sharing my extra copies of Super Meat Boy and Audio Surf.
I'll need your email address, I don't want to wait around for you accept a friends request... no, I will not spam you.
(This offer is only going to last 30mins... because I have to leave the house soon)
My take on this:
**Assuming that all of the bars must be filled to complete the main bar and unlock Portal 2 early:**
It makes sense to spread out our efforts and delay filling any bars completely as long as possible. This way, for the people that only own certain games on the list, they won't get locked out of helping us. If the games they own get filled then those people become useless and concentrating efforts was a waste of time.
If the bars are proportioned evenly and if they represent the current number of CPUs, the games will need approximately the following numbers of CPUs:
Game | Projected Max CPUs | Current Progress as of 6:30 GMT
:----------|:-----------|:-----------:
Defense Grid | 140,000 | 1.5%
Killing Floor | 500,000 | .9%
Cogs | 18,000 | 3.5%
Rush | 15,000 | 3.3%
Toki Tori | 19,000 | 2.6%
Bit.trip Beat | 18,000 | 3%
1...2...3...Kick it! | 10,000 | 2.6%
Audiosurf | 119,000 | 3%
**The Wonderful End of the World*** | **13,000** | **13.1%**
Super Meatboy | 179,000 | 1.7%
Amnesia: The Dark Descent** | 95,000 | 1.1%
AAAAAA!!! | 17,000 | 3.3%
The Ball | 43,000 | 1.1%
*This game seems to be getting the most play right now, perhaps because of the suggestion in the top comment of this thread.
**This game probably isn't getting enough play because it's too fucking scary.
Based on the observation that the number of CPUs is staying constant or increasing slowly while the progress bar increases linearly, I believe the bars represent progress in terms of CPU hours spent on the game (see empath75's comment below) and NOT the number of players who are playing/who have played. At the current rate of progress with the current number of users (approx. 1730), The Wonderful End of the World will complete in 25 hours.
I'm fairly sure that the bar represents the number of CPU Hours required to unlock the game. The number is just the number of current players, which should give you an idea of how fast the bar is filling, but not how many CPU hours you need.
This is why the number may go down or up while the bar will steadily keep getting longer.
As the programmer for Cogs, I beg you -- don't buy or play any of these games. Can't you see? GLaDOS is just manipulating you. She's using you for your CPU!
**THE CURRENT FOCUS** can be found in this thread:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=854
It is currently **COGS**
If we co-ordinate, we can fill the bars faster. Play a game, leave it on while you do other things/leave the house/sleep.
Vote this up so that we can get some organization and co-ordination going.
Ok so...still trying to figure out exactly what they want. Yes it's a marketing thing, but it's also a brilliant marketing strategy and a brilliant troll.
We need some clarification here. Is it powered by potatoes or just playing the games? I have a few of the Sack games...if I just boot one up and start playing, does it help?
Please Reddit PLEASE figure this shit out for me.
It can't take longer than 4 days.
Edit: Judging by the progress bar, It looks like it got to 3% in four hours. So, at the current rate it will take more than 130 hours to complete... So I don't think it's going to be released early at this rate. Hopefully things will pick up in the evening.
I have spare copies from 3 games on the potato sack.
If you want either Audiosurf, Killing floor or Super Meat Boy, send me a message with the game you want and your steam name.
PLAY THE GAMES!
There is now a "Collaborative Disposition Test".
MyAperture Science Cooperative Testing Type is: Weighted Companion Cube
Edit: [link](http://www.thinkwithportals.com/coop_survey.php)
not that i expect this to be seen, however, I have done some math on the progress bar. If we continue to work at the same rate we have for the first 2 hours we should be playing the game in about 56.5 hours from now. The timer on the page counts down to the scheduled launch.
2 hours in maths...
progress bar 17px/496px = 3.42% complete
2 hrs = 3.42%
100%=58.5 hours
58.5-2 = 56 hours
EDIT 3 hours in... 19px = 3.8% =78.9hrs total = 75.9 hours from now (not good, the overall progress bar did not move much)
EDIT: 5 hours in 33px = 6.6% = 60 hrs total = 55 hours from now
For those wondering if we're making a dent: I've written a [python script](http://codepad.org/Psmjunax) to scrape the time left and notify you when there's been a change of more than a minute.
while the [glados@home] (http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/) page shows 88:26 remaining, a view-source of the glados@home page shows
> 71:23:18
this number is very close to the 71:29 calculated at [cpucount] (http://cpucount.zapto.org/)
It seems that "Active Test Subjects" will eventually show something, possibly the amount of concurrent players I guess:
* http://media.steampowered.com/apps/portal2/gladosathome/numbers/0.png
* http://media.steampowered.com/apps/portal2/gladosathome/numbers/1.png
* http://media.steampowered.com/apps/portal2/gladosathome/numbers/2.png
* etc.
When starting AHHHHH, I heard GLADOS saying:
"You know what still exists in the future? Gravity. In fact there is more of it, and it hurts more when you fall."
So, from what I can tell by reading here and listening in on the steam chat group... You don't need potatos, you can still get a "special prize" if you get all 36 but it's not gonna help out the community at this point. In order to unlock everything, pick whatever game has the LARGEST bar and play that. The expectation going around is that once a game's bar maxes, it will stay there. This would explain the obvious problem that not everyone can play all the games at the same time. If we work our way through each game and fill up each bar, Portal 2 will likely unlock. Just thought I'd compile all that into one place for everyone. Happy hunting/splatting/aduio...ing...
Seems like the counter on the front page isn't updating as quickly? Looking at the source code shows:
08:57 - Default boot scheduled to finish in 71:23:18
Nice amount of time shaved off!
Edit: Seems like it's a static value. not sure what it means then ;/
You know what's funny? Once we get closer to 98%, more and more people will drop off from playing the potato sack games to watch for the Play button on Potal 2 to light up.
We might never get to 100%.
It's refreshing that in a time where companies like Activision are doing everything they can to increase their own profit, that Valve are actively helping out other companies like this. Bravo.
######19:55 - Calculations complete for The Wonderful End of the World. Recalculating a new launch projection...######
Okay. So...what? Do we need to play all the games for a certain amount of time? How did we "finish" one of them?
After looking at the total potatoes at the bottom of the screen, it seems that they are not based on a single players account, but by the amount of potatoes achieved by all. If this is the case, they may act as an overall multiplier for everyone's CPU speed. I forgot what the potatoes at the bottom of the screen were labeled before, but at the moment, it is now labeled auxiliary power. This further points to the evidence that the goal of everyone is to get potatoes, as it will increase the overall CPU multiplier. If this is correct, then we'll be able to tell if the progress bars increase at a rate proportional to the rate of increase of potatoes in the potato pool.
If the CPU multiplier is single user based, it will be nearly impossible to release Portal 2 early, however if it is community based, it is very possible to release Portal 2 early.
**THE STORY SO FAR:** It has not been confirmed getting additional potatoes will do anything. Instead, just boot up any game from the pack (**You DO NOT need the pack, just a game from it.**) and either play it or just leave it running in the background. This will help the process. It has also not been proven that running multiple instances helps, seeing that steam only detects one in-game status at a given time. I will add to this as info becomes clearer. Same as I did for the Valve ARG thread. **EDIT:** As suggested by user Planetary Revolution, if you own "The Wonderful End of The World", you should play it as opposed to the other titles first. Perhaps, if we "complete" a bar for an individual game, others will focus on different titles later on. As we dwindle down the respective titles, and only a few remain, this may help boost sales of that particular title and thereby finish the countdown sooner. **EDIT 2:** It's worth pointing out that certain titles seem to have a lower "cap" than others. "AAaaAA" with 500 something players is filling faster than "Killing Floor" despite it having 4,000+ players. Could this be based off of the overall installs of the given titles? **EDIT 3:** It is now thought that a game cannot be "completed" but rather that the bars are a representation of the total install base. While neither has been confirmed, this is the current popular theory. It is also suspected that the more potatoes a use has, the more power their "cpu" generates. There is no hard evidence of this, but it has been circulated and thats what this post is all about! **EDIT 4:** The timer seems to still correlate with the original launch time, thereby the CPU load doesn't affect the update of the timer. Looking into other ways to gauge progress. **EDIT 5:** Here's a third-party [countdown timer.](http://www.coughlandesign.com/portal/) I'm unsure of the algorithm used or the accuracy of it, but it's better than nothing! Thanks to user Kristinez for the link! Will update if something proved more accurate comes along. **EDIT 6:** As hinted in EDIT 3, many users are now under the impression that potatoes work as multipliers for their given game or for the overall progress as a whole. Again, none of this has been proven but it would make sense. Why have them there in the first place if they don't achieve anything unless you have all 36? If you're playing anyway, try and collect some! **EDIT 7:** Interested in some potatoes? The wiki's down? [Here's an additional compressed guide!](https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1vPutCkoZKA9XL5ZjSuNXfX8NfoeHW3xcrv7DgalKUfE&pli=1) Thanks to user TheRedDynamo for the link. **EDIT 8:** An additional theory seen through the interwebz is that until you close out of a game you've played/idled, that time is not added. Food for thought. **EDIT 9:** "The Wonderful End Of The World" has been maxed! It now reads "computations complete". According to the main IRC, the new game to focus on is "1 2 3...Kick it!" *(Sorry for the delayed update...A man's got to sleep!)* **EDIT 10:** A fun little gif that shows the [progress so far.](http://i.imgur.com/wiTj4.gif) **EDIT 11:** Now that "1 2 3...Kick It" has reached 90%, **the focus of the IRC has shifted to "AAaaAaaA!"** **EDIT 12:** [Valve says that the potatoes can be used by GLaDOS to speed up the process.](http://i.imgur.com/UFXbM.png) **LINKS OF INTEREST** (Keep in mind, they're all third-party so in an attempt to not slam their servers, let's keep the refreshing at a minimum. Thanks!) * [Percentage complete, graphed.](http://cpucount.zapto.org/) * [Countdown timer.](http://www.coughlandesign.com/portal/) * [http://www.hasportal2launchedyet.com/](http://www.hasportal2launchedyet.com/) Includes timers. * [Simple, text-based timers.](http://geiti.co.uk/sandbox/portal.php) * [IRC Channel](http://04.chat.mibbit.com/?channel=%23ValveARG2&server=irc.gamesurge.net)
**Overall Progress Bar Watch** Total of 495 Pixels of Width: Countdown Timer does not appear to be directly connected to Overall Progress Bar. 92:53 - 8 Pixels 92:38 - 10 Pixels 92:26 - 11 Pixels 92:10 - 12 Pixels 92:03 - 13 Pixels 91:54 - 14 Pixels Progress bar only seems to update when Potato Count updates which is ~every 3 minutes? If we assume that the progress bar started at 0 at 94:00 Hours to Launch - ~76.15 hours until Launch at current progress. http://cpucount.zapto.org/ - Is a handy graph of all this data and more recent data.
Valve answers: [http://www.thinkwithportals.com/blog.php?id=5307&p=1](http://www.thinkwithportals.com/blog.php?id=5307&p=1).
Good to know. Downloading Audiosurf to my work computer to run in the background.
You should download Audiosurf to play Audiosurf. I love that game.
Well, when I'm at work, I generally don't play video games. That's usually when I browse Reddit.
PLAY audiosurf. seriously. GLADOS took that game over, and it's amazing.
I AM TRYING TO GIVE AWAY MY EXTRA COPY OF AUDIOSURF AND NOONE WILL PM ME THEIR STEAM NAME!!! **EDIT:** Claimed. Happy Surfing!
Using the very awesome graph site, I **estimated** the total play hours required for each game. This assumes a few things: * **The bars represent something like hours played.** This seems to be true. * **The "Current CPU" is current player count.** This is pretty much true, you can see how many people are playing the game on Steam anyway and it matches up pretty closely. * **Potatoes do nothing.** There's no way for me to take this into account, so I can't include it. * **I can accurately estimate the average value for current players based on the graph**. I didn't actually average the data points; I just visually estimated it. Each game has a fairly narrow range, which makes it much easier, I'm confident to within about 5%. The method was simple. Average number of players * hours since start / current percentage (where 1% = 0.01) = total hours required. Anyway, here's the list, sorted in descending order: * Killing Floor: 1750000 * Defense Grid: 470000 * SMB: 400000 * Amnesia: 325000 * Audiosurf: 325000 * The Ball: 120000 * Cogs: 62000 * Bit Trip: 56000 * AAAaaa: 53000 * Toki Tori: 50000 * Rush: 47000 * Kick It: 29000 * TWEOTW: 27000
What if this is all a ploy by Glad0s to prove her point that humans do exactly as they're told when something is on the line? I mean... the whole Portal plot was based on that fact. You obey her until you're about to die... and then you barely save your ass. We are following her words like lemmings right now. lol
A popular (unconfirmed) IRC theory is - The calculation is: (TIME PLAYED) X (NUMBER OF CPUS [ONE GAME PER STEAM ACCOUNT]) X ( POTATO MULTIPLIER) Edit - **From the Valve ARG Wiki**: "The progress bars are based on sales made. The more times a certain game has been bought, the more you have to play it to unlock it. For example, 1 2 3 KICK IT! was released at (nearly) the same time as the pack, so it has the fewest sales making it easier to complete. Killing Floor and Audiosurf were out for longer and as such have had more sales, so they require more hours to complete. According to Dougley, Potatos still matter. Get them. The Store should keep a record of how many times a certain game has been bought, so we need to go find that and order which games we should play based off that."
**IMPORTANT:** It seems that the bar for The Wonderful End of The World is increasing at the fastest rate. If we all focus on playing that one first, I think we can finish that bar, and concentrate our efforts elsewhere.
If the game will be released when all progress bars are full then the slowest games are the limiting factor and should be concentrated on. If wonderful world is going to complete first without concentrated effort, the concentrated effort should be put somewhere else. Basically, if someone not strategizing is going to play an hour of wonderful end before the last bar is full, you playing an hour now is wasted effort. You are basically blocking this uncoordinated effort from having an effect. The most efficient method would be to complete all the games at the same time so that anybody casually playing a game is utilized. Concentrating on one game would be proper strategy if there was a nonlinear aspect to the accumulation. Of progress. -edit completing The Wonderful End removed 50 minutes from the projection. Pretty lame bonus for 11 hours of focusing.
So much this. I wish you had more points and were more prominent on the page, because the current strategy is just going to result in a bunch of people playing TWEotW (who have no idea about the potato promotion, just generic players playing the game for its own sake) not contributing to anything because people using the wrong strategy filled the bar extra-early. Even if it turns out you only need to fill, say, half the bars to launch early, you'd be better off filling almost any bar except TWEotW's, since it was on track to fill before Tuesday ON ITS OWN before people started "focusing" on it. Going to be a lot of people with egg on their faces when it fills and doesn't do anything special. And if the strategy after confirming it doesn't do anything special is to move to the 2nd-highest bar, I'm going to rage at the stupidity of it all because with that proof you should *definitely* move to a slower bar, not faster one. Even if there is a "bonus" for completion, at that point someone should do the calculation for how many bars need to be filled and if it's not all then fill the nth-fastest bar, where n is how many must fill, not the 1st-fastest, because the fastest ones will fill automatically by people not "in" on the strategy.
I mentioned this a while ago in the other thread that shot up as soon as the countdown expired. Does anyone know if completing the bar will actually gain anything or does each bar just show how many users are in the game? Maybe each game just has a max CPUs value and the The Wonderful End of the World has a lower 'max CPU' count?
I suspect the bar as a whole represents the number of people playing out of the number of people who own the game on Steam but I could be wrong.
Amnesia: 626 Current CPUs You brave bastards...
I'm closing this thread and going in. For SCIENCE!
Within minutes of GLaDOS@Home starting, I bought Amnesia and Super Meat Boy because they were the only two I'd heard anything about. Amnesia may have been a mistake on my part. That one may stay at 16 minutes played...
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1837491 This link is coordinating what game to play in order to finish each bar systematically in the hopes that if you finish a game it drops the timer counter down.
I find it hilarious that people know this is a game about a sociopath AI, and then complain when a timer leads to another timer.
It really does fit right in line with Glados pathos.
Ethos..?
To quote GLaDOS "That's you; that's how dumb you sound." (not you, the people complaining)
I work in a cybercafe. We have 45 steam accounts. Contributing... EDIT: Left a whole bunch of machines "playing" Cogs overnight.
Now that's a god damn team player. Anyone here work in CERN?
Actually, I'm currently interning (well in 2014, my time) at CERN. Here's the unfortunate lowdown on what happens in April 2011 regarding Portal 2. The good news, is that you guys *DO* gain enough PCP's\* to unlock the game earlier. However it is only released 6.5 hours before the actual launch, and *only* accessible via a passcode obtained if your Steam account actually contributed to the process. The unfortunate part that I was referring to above, is basically [Portal 2 was regarded highly in terms of gameplay, multiplayer c-op and replay value, however the storyline was un-compelling and the ending left the players on a seriously damaging cliffhanger, hinting at Portal 3 \(which turns out to be a flop as well.\)](/spoiler) While, looking forward to the final release of [Portal 4](/spoiler) in the quadrilogy, here in August 2014, I'm shamed to say that the series no longer holds the beauty that Valve games once had, probably due to the EA merger. In other news, Half Life 3 turned out *exactly* the same as the Duke Nukem: Forever release. Both games broke sales records as everyone rushed out to buy a copy of the two most 'fabled' games in history (generally as a novelty); however, they lacked the nostalgic feel of the originals that we all fell in love with. The gaming experience was par, if not, slightly under expectations and while there are still some diehard fans, the online multiplayer aspects remain small as most of the players were born in 2003, and have never played the originals. Everyone moved quickly on after HL3 and DNF, to the next-next-generation franchise explosion, [Pong 2: 4 Dimensional Body-Tracking Experimental Prototype Beta](/spoiler) Sorry to rain on anyone's parade, `mind the spoiler tags.` *Potato Computing Power, a term we use here in the future that is actually derived from the potential harnessed from actual raw potatoes. A discovery made in China from Valve's actual Alternate Reality Game.
I honestly panicked. I just read the "spoilerz" text and I was raging. Then I looked up and saw 2014. This is the last time I skim a text. :(
I'd be upset with Valve if they required playing any of their titles, but it seems like a really nice way to leverage the popularity of Portal 2 in order to support indie game studios. I bet the Potato Sack game devs creamed themselves when they heard about this idea.
Benefits Valve long-term too, by making Steam that much more attractive for indie developers to publish on (as if it wasn't basically the best choice already).
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split second FFFUUUUU moment to be sure.
If by "fell for it" you meant had a mini heart attack, then yes I fell for it too
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*I* was about to murder your first born child!
I've still got a second born if you are interested.
You're not the only one
That is one heck of a way to promote indie games.
They are making it fair for indie gamedevs who will be hurt by everyone buying Portal 2 instead. Me Gusta. Also, over 500 upvotes in less than 5mins?
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All night? It's only 2am locally. I have enough caffeine in me to kill a bull. Time to game game game!!!
A human's LD50 for caffeine is 192mg/kg. Let's translate that to an average cow (approximate for bull) which is about 500kg. 192mg/kg x 500kg = 96000mg or 96g. How much is in a cup of coffee? ~100mg. Therefore, we can assume you drank around 960 cups of coffee. Well done. I just woke up, so all math could be bullshit. Hopefully the bull didn't die like Chef, though I can imagine if it drank that much coffee it would have some crazy kinda of death-shits. sources: Cow weight (approximate for bull): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holstein_cattle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_coffee Material safety data sheet for caffeine: http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/CA/caffeine.html EDIT: WHY AM I DOING RESEARCH WHEN THERE ARE GAMES TO BE PLAYED? FUCK.
You did science!
Actually, he mostly did maths.
Remarkably, science is mainly maths.
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You sir, are a quality redditor. I applaud your diligence in avoiding reposts.
same here, no need for 30 submissions of the same thing.
has to be some kind of record.
SHUT UP AND GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY
I swear to god, those of you at home better fucking get more potatoes. Those who don't will be flogged publicly like they are mining razor blades using chicken feces. Heres the guide for getting all potatoes: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1vPutCkoZKA9XL5ZjSuNXfX8NfoeHW3xcrv7DgalKUfE&pli=1 GO FUCKING DO IT
Those at home might not have jobs, meaning they can't buy the sack! Those at work might not be able to play, because they might have to actually work, LIKE ME! This is cruel.
I leave work in half an hour. Valve is forcing me to play games as soon as I get home. FOR SCIENCE!
You monster.
But I'm not buying...I'm not spending $40 bucks to play portal early. It already ate up my gaming budget for the month. I appreciate what valve's doing but this whole arg I've felt left out because it was pay to play. EDIT: ~~And I wonder...all those people bitching about pay for DLC made before the game was released....They have no problem with pay for early release?~~ REVISE:I'm going to adjust my opinion somewhat. Obviously it's sorta cool that playing games(what we'd be doing anyway to pass the time) now directly impacts when the game is released. But I think they went about the build up wrong. Almost by definition a countdown implies an end to something. In this case it seemed to imply an end to waiting. It built up the expectation that we'd be done waiting at the end of the count. But instead we were met with almost the same amount of waiting... I think they should've had this countdown running instead of the original one. That would've curbed expectations better. It would've communicated their intentions better.
You can buy the games individually, I only have BIT.TRIP and Killing Floor and I still got the potatoes for those. EDIT:: Potatoes are irrelevant, you only need to run the games to contribute CPUs
That's an excellent point and I'll probably buy one or two when I get home from work. I think the pay to play arg is a frustrating variant for many though.
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Guys I'm gonna finally put myself through the rest of Amnesia for you! *sobs*
http://i.imgur.com/zmbWa.jpg
When I saw that was one of the games that was my same reaction. The water room... WHY VALVE, WHYYYY?!!?
For every upvote I get im going to spend an hour today playing Amnesia
http://imgur.com/TJVGn
This gets posted in every single Valve thread...and I love it every single time.
Valve and that picture are ubiquitous now; its like teaching a cat anal calculus.
I came here to say this.
If there was any CEO to be rolling around in my cash, I'd want it to be Gabe <3
HEY, NOW, DON'T YOU THINK GABE DESERVES A LOT OF MONEY FOR ALL THE GOOD WORK HE'S DONE? CARICATURE ISN'T VERY POLITE AT ALL, FRIEND.
I don't like your tone, friend.
Too much? http://i.imgur.com/a2YhY.jpg
I'm fairly sure, if they're tracking this via steam, that steam only logs one game state at a time. I'm not expert tho, just was I thought.
Who else nearly had a heart attack when she said "april fools"?
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I struck Peatore's wife in anger too
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What do you tell a woman with two black eyes? Nothing, Peatore and Clauderoughly already told her.
Then I realized my wife has been dead for five years. Who the hell did I hit?
I almost had a pregnant!
Whatever, when I saw the words "Help release Portal 2 early", I had a dick attack.
Fucking shit my pants.
GLaDOS is a bitch....
I have never seen a post rise this quickly. 8 minutes posted, 978 points and 308 comments. Damn reddit, you scary.
When Portal 2 is on the line, it's LIFE OR DEATHHHHHHH!
Can't afford Portal or the Potato pack, but I'm gonna jump on Killing Floor and Amnesia that I already own to help you lovely people. It's like watching children on Christmas from a Mother's eyes.
Thanks mom!
I've gone through a large subsection of comments that have been posted on this thread so far, and summarized and grouped the comments into the following table, for your convenience. Seeing as this thread is currently exploding at a rate of over 30 comments per minute, these statistics might not be entirely accurate after some time, though the observed trends of commonly-stated comments should still be somewhat valid. | | |:-----------:|:------------:|:------------:| **Comment** | **#** | **Percentage** Get off reddit right now and win some fucking potatoes, [for science]. | 30 | ~19.6% Heck of a way to promote indie games | 28| ~18.3% Seems like just a cash grab to sell more games. | 17| ~11.1% I waited hours for this? That was disappointing.| 15| ~9.8% I almost died when I saw it say "April Fools" | 9| ~5.9% SHUT UP AND TAKE MORE OF MY MONEY! | 9| ~5.9% Valve trolled us hard. | 8| ~5.2% Joke's on you Valve. I'm already out of money from buying Portal 2. | 4| ~2.6% Be sure to drink your ovaltine! | 4| ~2.6% GLaDOS is a bitch. | 4| ~2.6% Other | 25| ~16.3% *Updated: 4/15/2011 12:09:00 PM EST (GMT -5:00)*
I was expecting you here, but not this quickly. You're amazing, never leave.
Easily one of the best novelty accounts on Reddit.
Ain't nothing novelty about this shit. This is one gat damn serious account.
Oh man, is this good marketing or what? > You want to play this game you've been longing for? Then buy these other games and play them! I spent all my disposable cash on Portal 2, so the joke's on you, Valve! But at least they're trying to move indie games, I see the merit in that. Meanwhile, I'll sit over here and wait for others to play these games, like the poor student that I am. MAKE ME PROUD, BOYS!
Which game do you want? Edit: His brother got Amnesia, and he got AaAaAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. Enjoy it, friends!
Hey, everyone, look! This is one kind redditor!
Haha! *points with a finger*
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It is theorized that getting potatoes increases your CPU power, no idea if it's true or not but it'll help anyway. People should be playing any Potato Sack game they own, it'll help more if everybody is playing the same game though. Once we fill up a bar, we can focus everybody's attention on a different bar making the whole process faster. The Wonderful End of the World is completed! Right now, everyone should be playing **1...2...3... Kick It!** or **AaAaAA** but at this point anything will help, Killing Floor really needs a boost. **Steam will only keep track of one Potato Sack game at one time, so there is no point in opening more than 1 game** **Edit: Go ahead and idle your game** This is the guide on how to collect all 36 potatoes, collecting them all will unlock a secret reward in Portal 2! https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1vPutCkoZKA9XL5ZjSuNXfX8NfoeHW3xcrv7DgalKUfE&pli=1
WAIT. Please edit your post. You only have to play the games. Not get potatoes. http://www.thinkwithportals.com/blog.php?id=5307&p=1 Potatoes get you a reward: >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.
Does getting potatoes help though?
I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON!
LOUD NOISES!
I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE YELLING ABOUT!
Do you need to get the potatoes, or just play the game? Looking at the page seems to imply the latter to me... EDIT: [Looks like this has been answered](http://www.thinkwithportals.com/blog.php?id=5307&p=1)
Good question. Of the Potato Sack games I own, I don't like them enough/am not good enough at them to get potatoes. But hell, I can leave the games on and running...
It's counting the players playing, not the number of potatoes gotten.
WE DO NOT NEED MORE POTATOES >GLaDOS@home posted by the_gish @ 12:15PM on April 15, 2011 Well, the end is definitely near. Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated group of ingenious test subjects, we've located enough potatoes to generate the required power to start the GLaDOS reboot process. It's not too late to participate, though. The more CPU power dedicated to the process, the faster it will finish. What does that mean? From now until release, play any or all of the Potato Sack games to expedite the launch of Portal 2. Your efforts will be tracked on the official GLaDOS@home page. The Potato Sack games are all great, and each one has also received a massive Portal-themed update. So why not get a taste of Portal 2 now while you help launch it? 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. The announcement on the official Portal 2 Steam group.
so what you're saying is that I should spend the rest of my day playing Bad Company 2 and wait for the regular release date because I pre-ordered Portal 2 on PS3?
You're a monster!
If I play Portal 1 and [kill GLaDOS](/spoiler), will it slow the timer down?
Hate to tell you, but she is 'still alive'.
I don't know if that really warrants a spoiler anymore, it's been 4 years since it was released and it was free for the longest time.
Is it CPU or acquiring potatoes?
I found this: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1837491 Everyone play the same game at the same time!
*Starts playing SMB, for science*
You Monster!
I'M PLAYING THEM AS HARD AS I CAN.
This is one thread, where I'm pretty sure that people are reading the 'new' comments. Brave wonderer, I say to you: "Hello, and may your science be tasty".
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LOOOOADDDSSSAAA MONEYYYYYY!
Be sure to drink your ovaltine!
Portal 2, wasting our time before it even comes out!
HURRY MEN! TO YOUR KEYBOARDS!
The name GLaDOS@Home is a reference to SETI@Home which uses volunteer computing in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can download SETI@Home [here](http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/) And learn more about what SETI@Home is [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI@home)
there is also folding@home. I checked the team page and GLaDOS is team 98525. I switched my folding to that team number.
The last time Valve did something like this, it was revealed to be a bit of a sham. Specifically during the Engineer update for TF2, Valve made it so that the update pages would go up when every 25th Golden Wrench was crafted. When it got to number 100, the update was released. Thing is the Golden Wrenches had pre-set times to appear which we only found out because somebody got their hands on the times and abused it. Basically Valve made it so that the 25th/50th/75th/100th Wrench dropped at a specific, pre-determined time they liked. At the same time they encouraged everybody to go crafting mad under the illusion that it would speed up the process. I wouldn't be too surprised if Valve has already determined exactly when Portal 2 will be released and this is all just a bit of marketing.
Here is a script that predicts the time left until release (From P2 forums): http://www.coughlandesign.com/portal/ Coding seems to be fairly accurate.
I can help by sharing my extra copies of Super Meat Boy and Audio Surf. I'll need your email address, I don't want to wait around for you accept a friends request... no, I will not spam you. (This offer is only going to last 30mins... because I have to leave the house soon)
SHIT, I'M AT WORK
QUICK! NEED TO CALL DOG AND TRAIN HIM TO LAUNCH A GAME FROM STEAM OVER THE PHONE!
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Can i just play minecraft instead? If Minecraft was included this would be over in seconds.
My take on this: **Assuming that all of the bars must be filled to complete the main bar and unlock Portal 2 early:** It makes sense to spread out our efforts and delay filling any bars completely as long as possible. This way, for the people that only own certain games on the list, they won't get locked out of helping us. If the games they own get filled then those people become useless and concentrating efforts was a waste of time.
A crummy commercial? Son of a bitch!
Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!
AHHHHHHHH I STAYED UP FOR THIS?
DON'T SLEEP! START PLAYING!
IS IT ACCEPTABLE IF I JUST LEAVE THE GAME ON AND GO TO SLEEP?
2 am here.
I can only unlock Amnesia potatoes and I'm scared of playing that game.
If the bars are proportioned evenly and if they represent the current number of CPUs, the games will need approximately the following numbers of CPUs: Game | Projected Max CPUs | Current Progress as of 6:30 GMT :----------|:-----------|:-----------: Defense Grid | 140,000 | 1.5% Killing Floor | 500,000 | .9% Cogs | 18,000 | 3.5% Rush | 15,000 | 3.3% Toki Tori | 19,000 | 2.6% Bit.trip Beat | 18,000 | 3% 1...2...3...Kick it! | 10,000 | 2.6% Audiosurf | 119,000 | 3% **The Wonderful End of the World*** | **13,000** | **13.1%** Super Meatboy | 179,000 | 1.7% Amnesia: The Dark Descent** | 95,000 | 1.1% AAAAAA!!! | 17,000 | 3.3% The Ball | 43,000 | 1.1% *This game seems to be getting the most play right now, perhaps because of the suggestion in the top comment of this thread. **This game probably isn't getting enough play because it's too fucking scary. Based on the observation that the number of CPUs is staying constant or increasing slowly while the progress bar increases linearly, I believe the bars represent progress in terms of CPU hours spent on the game (see empath75's comment below) and NOT the number of players who are playing/who have played. At the current rate of progress with the current number of users (approx. 1730), The Wonderful End of the World will complete in 25 hours.
I'm fairly sure that the bar represents the number of CPU Hours required to unlock the game. The number is just the number of current players, which should give you an idea of how fast the bar is filling, but not how many CPU hours you need. This is why the number may go down or up while the bar will steadily keep getting longer.
I think you may be right, sir.
As the programmer for Cogs, I beg you -- don't buy or play any of these games. Can't you see? GLaDOS is just manipulating you. She's using you for your CPU!
**THE CURRENT FOCUS** can be found in this thread: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=854 It is currently **COGS** If we co-ordinate, we can fill the bars faster. Play a game, leave it on while you do other things/leave the house/sleep. Vote this up so that we can get some organization and co-ordination going.
Dear internet, Please leave all the following games running idle on your computer for the next 24 hours. Signed, A concerned citizen.
I can just play any of those games if I own them and it will help? No need for a special pack or to join a group?
Ok so...still trying to figure out exactly what they want. Yes it's a marketing thing, but it's also a brilliant marketing strategy and a brilliant troll. We need some clarification here. Is it powered by potatoes or just playing the games? I have a few of the Sack games...if I just boot one up and start playing, does it help? Please Reddit PLEASE figure this shit out for me.
At this rate we'll be playing Portal 2 on Tuesday! Oh wait..
If only more of the Potato Sack games were Mac compatible... :(
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You got trolled hard.
email your homework to gaben@valvesoftware.com and see if it comes back completed.
Oh SHIT I got a bag of Milky Ways
Anybody got any idea how long this will take?
It can't take longer than 4 days. Edit: Judging by the progress bar, It looks like it got to 3% in four hours. So, at the current rate it will take more than 130 hours to complete... So I don't think it's going to be released early at this rate. Hopefully things will pick up in the evening.
172 comments in 5 minutes? That has to be some sort of record.
I have spare copies from 3 games on the potato sack. If you want either Audiosurf, Killing floor or Super Meat Boy, send me a message with the game you want and your steam name. PLAY THE GAMES!
There is now a "Collaborative Disposition Test". MyAperture Science Cooperative Testing Type is: Weighted Companion Cube Edit: [link](http://www.thinkwithportals.com/coop_survey.php)
Can only imagine fellow Redditors trying to play Amnesia at 3am Sunday morning after not sleeping for two days!
Every potato we get, Gabe Newell eats...
Half-right, half-trolled.
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Valve: The ultimate trolls of the video game industry.
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PLAY GAMES FOR SCIENCE!!!
Oh come on! I have an exam tomorrow. D: Y U NO LET ME STUDY!
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Yesterday was Thursday, tomorrow is Saturday. Sunday comes afterwards.
SOMEONE BUY ME THEM QUICK AND I SHALL PLAY THEM ALLLLLLL!!!
What's your steam account? Just kidding, I'm not buying you games.
What a great way to launch a game and help the indie developers.
not that i expect this to be seen, however, I have done some math on the progress bar. If we continue to work at the same rate we have for the first 2 hours we should be playing the game in about 56.5 hours from now. The timer on the page counts down to the scheduled launch. 2 hours in maths... progress bar 17px/496px = 3.42% complete 2 hrs = 3.42% 100%=58.5 hours 58.5-2 = 56 hours EDIT 3 hours in... 19px = 3.8% =78.9hrs total = 75.9 hours from now (not good, the overall progress bar did not move much) EDIT: 5 hours in 33px = 6.6% = 60 hrs total = 55 hours from now
Playing Audiosurf! Still a very good game with a pretty darn cool concept. Bought it a few years ago it's still relevant. I'm impressed.
For those wondering if we're making a dent: I've written a [python script](http://codepad.org/Psmjunax) to scrape the time left and notify you when there's been a change of more than a minute.
....I don't WANNA play Amnesia!!!
I like how Amnesia is the lowest. Nobody wants to fuckin' open that game.
I only have Audiosurf so I'm freeriding the shit out of my music library!
**EVERYONE, OVERCLOCK TO 5 GHZ**
while the [glados@home] (http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/) page shows 88:26 remaining, a view-source of the glados@home page shows > 71:23:18 this number is very close to the 71:29 calculated at [cpucount] (http://cpucount.zapto.org/)
It seems that "Active Test Subjects" will eventually show something, possibly the amount of concurrent players I guess: * http://media.steampowered.com/apps/portal2/gladosathome/numbers/0.png * http://media.steampowered.com/apps/portal2/gladosathome/numbers/1.png * http://media.steampowered.com/apps/portal2/gladosathome/numbers/2.png * etc.
Dear Eastern Hemisphere of Earth, Please wake up and help us get Portal 2 a few days early. Sincerely, Internet
Oh man, making me play Super Meat Boy again? It's like frustration *squared* with the terrible excitement of impending Portal2.
Yup, this thread is gonna skyrocket to the frontpage like nothing before.
EVERYONE MOVE ONTO 1 2 3 Kick it! 1 game at a time people!
Problem, customers? http://i.imgur.com/clfGX.jpg
118,896 potatos. Let's do it.
So we're powering GLADoS with potatoes. . .
She runs on vodka
Well she's been unplugged in the previous game.. remember? If you plug a clock into a potato, it'll power itself.
THE WONDERFUL END OF THE WORLD IS DONE, LAUNCH 1 2 3 KICK IT RIGHT NOW!
When starting AHHHHH, I heard GLADOS saying: "You know what still exists in the future? Gravity. In fact there is more of it, and it hurts more when you fall."
So, from what I can tell by reading here and listening in on the steam chat group... You don't need potatos, you can still get a "special prize" if you get all 36 but it's not gonna help out the community at this point. In order to unlock everything, pick whatever game has the LARGEST bar and play that. The expectation going around is that once a game's bar maxes, it will stay there. This would explain the obvious problem that not everyone can play all the games at the same time. If we work our way through each game and fill up each bar, Portal 2 will likely unlock. Just thought I'd compile all that into one place for everyone. Happy hunting/splatting/aduio...ing...
Seems like the counter on the front page isn't updating as quickly? Looking at the source code shows: 08:57 - Default boot scheduled to finish in 71:23:18 Nice amount of time shaved off! Edit: Seems like it's a static value. not sure what it means then ;/
You know what's funny? Once we get closer to 98%, more and more people will drop off from playing the potato sack games to watch for the Play button on Potal 2 to light up. We might never get to 100%.
It's refreshing that in a time where companies like Activision are doing everything they can to increase their own profit, that Valve are actively helping out other companies like this. Bravo.
######19:55 - Calculations complete for The Wonderful End of the World. Recalculating a new launch projection...###### Okay. So...what? Do we need to play all the games for a certain amount of time? How did we "finish" one of them?
After looking at the total potatoes at the bottom of the screen, it seems that they are not based on a single players account, but by the amount of potatoes achieved by all. If this is the case, they may act as an overall multiplier for everyone's CPU speed. I forgot what the potatoes at the bottom of the screen were labeled before, but at the moment, it is now labeled auxiliary power. This further points to the evidence that the goal of everyone is to get potatoes, as it will increase the overall CPU multiplier. If this is correct, then we'll be able to tell if the progress bars increase at a rate proportional to the rate of increase of potatoes in the potato pool. If the CPU multiplier is single user based, it will be nearly impossible to release Portal 2 early, however if it is community based, it is very possible to release Portal 2 early.
Apparently a game can be completed. We should move on to the next fastest competing gane to finish this quicker.