Blog: "The Portal 2 ARG Postmortem"

[Thomas]

A tale of our part in the Portal 2 arg.

http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2011...ortem.html

[mattwestwick]

Great read.

Frankly no one expected an add-on to the grand extent of Justine. That's partially why so little attention was given to the lovely images in the rar files. I thought it was just unreleased concept art.

Also the IRC channels tended to have very strict goals so a lot of time was spent being boggled over the hex codes. The frustrating difficulty in 3rd rar puzzle and the quantity of possible leads (words in pictures) compared to the other arg games, caused the irc group and its leading figures to get mad when someone tried to change the subject. Quite a hindrance.

You could see some people presenting potential solutions but quickly being quashed. It was only really the influence of, Harold, that could change the direction of the investigations.

Also yeh, I could safely play super meatball all day looking for clues but you can't expect an in-depth investigation of amnesia, it's just too freaky. You could have put a clue on the monster's ass and it never would have been found.


So bravo for such a well-constructed, bloody difficult experience. It was quite embarassing to struggle through it for so long.

[hollowleviathan]

I was quite enjoying the image files, but I was also lurking the 'Update...' thread since I had nothing to contribute. Sorry for giving the impression of indifference!

You don't mention if you went back to Bellevue for the release party, but one of the 11 ARG testers said you were there. As soon as I read that, I regretted not being involved and getting a shot for that chance to be there. Phooey.

[Francis York Morgan]

Dear Frictional Games,
I tried to stay out of the ARG. I just wanted to find new Amnesia content. I innocently signed-up to see if I could get some help for finding out how to access the new content as Francis York Morgan (for some reason I wasn't allowed to use the "_" character to use my normal name and I had my copy of Deadly Premonition on my desk in front of me at the time) when I saw Harold's creepy-ass messages and said to myself, "$#*% IT, LET'S DO THIS" and here I am. You took my entire mind for an entire week, I had 2 exams to take that I did horribly on because I kept thinking in hex and in files and all sorts of stuff (totally worth it) and on top of that, Justine was sooooo much fun to play.
Frictional Games, I love you, stay amazing.
Sincerely,
Francis York Morgan & Zach

[mattwestwick]

Oh yeh I neglected to mention that as well.

The ARG jeopardised the future of many students as it coincided with the annual exam/assignment period.

It was immensely difficult to restrain myself from spending all my time in the IRC channels.

So perhaps some monetary compensation or career opportunities for all those who failed their courses due to the ARG is needed. I will settle for a yacht.

[Bek]

Awesome blog post. Valve are really really awesome for putting this all together, great to see all the indie developers get involved too. And to think people thought HELPr was a troll before the blog post! Interesting level map too, always interesting. And fake glyphs not in the game... very devious.