Roundtable: Portal 2 ARG

Hi. My name’s Iain, and today we have a special treat for you. Because there are a lot of writers at Piki Geek and we have a tendency to argue, roundtable discussions are something that comes naturally. We like to get drunk and whip ‘em out to see who’s biggest. Last week, we looked at the controversy surrounding Duke Nukem Forever and whether or not the developers had gone too far, and today’s question arrives in a similar vein of discussing the marketing decisions made for a certain much hyped game.

That game is Portal 2, and the decisions we’ll be discussing revolve around the recent ARG (Alternate Reality Game) used to market it. In a nutshell, Valve has spent the past week or so teasing gamers with the possibility of releasing Portal 2 early, pending the success of the community in completing a series of challenges. Resulting in some rather nasty blue balls for all concerned. Today it has come to a head, with aperturescience.com explicitly confirming that an early release of Portal 2 may be on the horizon, depending on whether or not you are prepared to spend time and money on a series of unrelated games.

We were all expecting pretty big things from the Portal 2 ARG. We expected it would be GLaDOS taking over Steam and releasing the game early, or perhaps some long awaited news about Half Life 3. What we got instead was a very elaborate advertisement for the Potato Pack.

Now, of course, Valve can do just about whatever the hell they want, but I take issue with the people praising the company for this ARG marketing. Sure it was clever, and few things beat watching over-hyped fanatical fanboys explode in anticipation, but I feel like they jumped the gun and blew their wad too early. Yesterday I was practically gagging for Portal 2 and almost catatonic over the idea that I might be playing it today. But now, having hit the hype plateau, I find myself strangely ambivalent. Four days from release and it’s like I don’t care anymore.

Let’s see what the writers have to say about the whole affair.

Zach: The part that is most surprising to me about this whole thing is that there are people who think it’s a legitimately cool idea.

Damon: I think it is.

Bran: You go to hell! You go to hell and you die!

Zach: I think it’s a cheap ploy for cash. I’m going to say this up front as a disclaimer: I do not follow ARGs and did not follow the Portal 2 ARG until the countdown timer began yesterday. I feel like gameplay videos, dev diaries, trailers and screenshots are perfectly effective tools for marketing a game and contain none of the smoke and mirrors that accompany viral marketing.

Let’s face it, almost all of you (except for Bran, of course) were aboard the Portal 2 hype train the moment Valve unveiled the game’s existence. It didn’t take an obscure ARG to make that happen. I’m all for the promotion of indie games, don’t get me wrong – they simply have no actual relevance to Portal 2 or vice versa, no matter how hard they try to make them fit together. I for one am not about to pay nearly $40 for the chance to maybe play Portal 2 an extra day early.

I want Portal 2 as much as any of you, but I’m tired of all this. Just release the game and be done with it.

Jen: I disagree, I think it’s a really great idea, as it garners interest and builds community. Look, I’m making a note here… Huge Success. Valve is taking a form of marketing and making it work for both the consumer and the developers. By putting these games into a pack, prior to the announcement of the early Portal 2 release, everyone has been benefiting. Small developers are getting backed, their games are getting out in the world by being coupled with more popular titles, and the consumer is paying less for these games than they would otherwise do so.

This is a great way to bring the gaming community together. Portal was such a wonderful initial release, taking a college project and building it up to a great, witty gaming experience, and this is just an added bonus. Instead of looking at this as a way for Valve to take your extra money in exchange for an early release date, think of it as a pre-level. A bonus round. Something that is optional, and also great. No one is being punished, no one will lose their copy of Portal 2 as a result. If we work together as a community, which is one of the major things Steam strives for, we will rewarded.

Bran: It’s a superb marketing idea as it costs them very little money and garners tons of interest. But it’s also a poor marketing idea as it insults the intelligence of a group of people who consider themselves smart, and overstays its welcome

Jen: It doesn’t, though, Bran. It doesn’t insult anyone’s intelligence.

Bran: It absolutely does. “Buy this to get this other thing.”

Jen: All of these games have been available prior to the Great Potato Race announcement. I personally have most of them. It doesn’t require any money for me to assist in the race to unlock Portal 2, and if I wanted, I could sit back, do nothing, and the worst case scenario is, the game is released the day it was slated to, Valve tried their best to get indie names out there, and it didn’t work. The end result is the same as if I bought my copy from any GameStop employee, except with 100% less insisting that “No, I would not like a subscription to Game Informer.”

Chris: Can I cut in a moment?

I love ARGs. Love. Them.

That basically colors my response here. I’ve always been the type of player who seeks out little bits of story hidden by the developer on their website or manual — or wherever. For me, an ARG is a tiny, interactive expansion of a game’s lore that pulls you in. Now, while some argue that Portal 2′s ARG is more marketing than lore, I still think it is neat to integrate GlaDOS throughout a handful of games.

Likewise, I think there is something to be said about the indie component of the campaign as well. While sure, the main marketing target is Portal 2, Valve is giving a few indie developers a lot of attention. Considering the following that Valve has, you have to admit that is pretty cool. They are essentially shining their massive PR spotlight on games that wouldn’t otherwise get that amount of attention. That’s awesome.

I also feel that if Portal 2 was released today, people wouldn’t be complaining. Everyone seems focused on the reward and not the journey, which is not what an ARG is about. The fun in an ARG is solving puzzles and immersing yourself in a journey – the bonus at the end is just that: a bonus.

Bran: “You might get a reward if you keep doing this thing… maybe. Keep playing!” It’s getting into the shitty reward psychology of MMORPGS.

Damon: For me, this whole trip has been amazing. I’ve been following it from just about the start, and it’s been a blast. I think it’s an amazing marketing strategy to appeal to the core gamer crowd I.e. unemployed high school and college students. Heck, I’m a high school student, and I managed to scrounge up the money to buy Portal 2, purely because of the hype around it.

The fact that Valve managed to get the hype to a level where their own software limits stopped it getting bigger (i.e. the #PotatoFoolsDay Steam group chat capping at 1000 users) is remarkable, and that’s when we ignore the fact that the IRC channels have had hundreds, if not thousands, of users idling in them at any given time, and that today the wiki was actually brought down by the sheer mass of users trying to connect. All in all, Valve has shown us exactly how an ARG is meant to be done. A maze of red herrings, false plants, and clever trolls, this will be a marketing campaign to remember. I don’t understand what you find so distasteful Bran.

Bran: Ok, while I could discuss the idea that any ARG that uses Source HTML or Hex code is already substituting nerdery for actual intellectual challenge, I’m just going to go with what I find to be a blatant and cynical cash grab on their collective parts.

But Bran, you might say if you read enough Piki Articles to know who I am, it doesn’t actually require you to purchase anything to enjoy the game, you’ll still get it. Yes, but the lottery doesn’t require you to kill anybody to win, but it helps. The point is, they are expecting people to buy the potato sack, and people will even if you don’t or already have it. This isn’t like other competitions where you have to like or retweet something to gain early Beta access. You, or someone like you has to buy these games to maybe get early access.

I hate you now Valve, you made me point to Cliff Bleszinski as a positive example.

Oh, and while I’m here I wanted to say that you ruined the original Portal for me. Yes, you, the reader. You and all your social networking sites spoiled every little bit of fun for me, and I wasn’t even looking for it.

Zach: It’s just completely unnecessary. There is such a thing as too much hype, and they just officially crossed that line.

Josh: Yes, it’s hype. Yes, it’s marketing. Yes, it’s helping Valve’s bottom line. But all that really misses the point here: it’s fun. At least it is for some people, as evidenced by the hundreds (if not thousands) of dedicated folks who combed through clue after clue and moldy potato after moldy potato trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I wasn’t one of them – I find the entire thing about as penetrable as a razorblade-encrusted McDonald’s PlayPlace – but even as someone who only caught glimpses here and there, it was still an interesting spectacle to watch. Why should it matter that someone might profit off of it? At its core, this is a fun, interactive experience being presented to the public with both artistic and financial motivations. In other words, it’s a video game.

Sure, you might not enjoy it, but should we really stop everyone from playing a game just because we don’t find it rewarding? I mean, I hate Farmville because I think it’s the unholy union of manipulative capitalism and shallow gameplay, but I don’t go around holding interventions with people who don’t enjoy it. I just choose to ignore it and keep living my life. It’s surprisingly easy.

Zach: Clearly we’re not about to agree on this.

Bran: Nope.

Jen: As a game dev my thoughts might be colored. But that doesn’t change how wrong you both are.

Damon: I loved it, every step of the way.

Josh: You’re all idiots.

Zach: There is one thing we can all agree on though.

Chris: Which is?

Zach: Valve should just get back to working on the Half-Life series already.

Everyone: Agreed.

The Players

Jen Shaffer has years of experience as a game developer. You might know her both for creating the Fable series and having a tendency to over-hype things. Oh, wait, I’m thinking of Peter Molyneux.

Bran Parker is the site’s resident old guy. Earlier today he told us he’d pulled a muscle by sneezing especially hard. Get well soon, gramps.

Josh Harmon probably shouldn’t be putting himself out there like this, as he’s still wanted by the FBI for questioning.

Chris Hornyak only moonlights at Piki Geek as the weekend editor. During the week he is Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton. Good luck this year, Lewis.

Damon Reece lives in Australia, so I asked him to send his responses in first, just in case a spider eats him in the night.

Zach Martin is the only one of us who is a real person. The rest of us exist only in his dreams.

Thanks for reading, folks! Catch us next week, when the surviving writers will duke it out about another industry topic.