** Steam: Portal free to play until 24th May **
- Thread starter [timko]
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ive had it for ages but never played it! finally played it today and absolutely love it! dunno if im doing some of the puzzles right but im getting past them pretty easily! dunno how far i am in but im pretty far already! loving it tho!
i'll say no more 
Soldato
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I guess this is just clever marketing for portal 2? Get lots and lots of people to play the first game then everyone will want the second game because the original is so great!
I finished it in no time last night
too easy.
At first I thought the game was far too easy. Then I played through in commentary mode, and it all made sense...
"When we introduced the idea of a button that you could press, our playtesters became very confused."
"We experimented with putting objects at different heights, but we found our playtesters never looked up or down."
"For Portal 2, we are reviewing the decision to use homeless crack addicts as playtesters. Whilst they are very cheap to employ, we have some doubts about their cognitive abilities."
Soldato
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So wait a minute. I buy valve titles on release for £20-£30 yet people who don't buy them get it free?
Fudge you Valve, may as well not buy their games and get them free a couple of years later :/
Fudge you Valve, may as well not buy their games and get them free a couple of years later :/
If you got value for money when you bought it, why worry about what anyone else gets?
If you didn't get value for money when you bought it, then perhaps you should wait for things to get cheaper. Which they inevitably do.
Soldato
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To me it's a smack in the face for their loyal fan base. Why should I pay for their games if they give them away free?
I supported valve by buying their games as I know they support them for years, listen to community feedback and still give us mod kits and servers.
It just doesn't seem fair to me and it stinks.
You chose to pay the price and presumably were happy with it? You made the decision of it's value to you and paid your money. That's the way it works.
Do you also get annoyed when other games release at £30 and 6 months later are £5 bargain bin specials?
If you're happy to wait THREE YEARS after release for HL3, once everyone else is bored of it, has played through a dozen times, it looks a bit dated and all the interesting parts have been spoilt by forums, i'm sure you could probably pick it up for free (or damn cheap) too.
That said, you wouldn't have paid £30 for Portal in the first place.
Soldato
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What I am saying is, I am not going to buy their games anymore and wait until they are free. Why should I support them when others get it free?
Do you also get annoyed when other games release at £30 and 6 months later are £5 bargain bin specials?
No, as thatsw the way the world works, Sky also annoys me when they offer new customers free Hd boxes and ignore their loyal customer base.
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That's great, you do that.
Frankly, i'm never buying a Rockstar game again, I paid good money for GTA 1 and then they went and released it free, it takes the ****.
Same goes for Command and Conquer, screw them, I supported them in their infancy and they go and insult me by releasing Red Alert for free. ****ers.
Frankly, i'm never buying a Rockstar game again, I paid good money for GTA 1 and then they went and released it free, it takes the ****.
Same goes for Command and Conquer, screw them, I supported them in their infancy and they go and insult me by releasing Red Alert for free. ****ers.
If youre willing to wait years, then yeah thats probably the way to go. Portal really is a great game, its ancient history now and this is obviously a marketing ploy to get everyone playing portal in time for portal 2 - kind of remember everyone how great this game is? Wouldnt you like more? Wellllll SURPRISE!
So its a marketing ploy rather than Valve being crazily generous or ****ing over those who bought it years ago at full price. Anyway always remember, the cake is a ****ing lie man, the cake is a ****ing lie.
So its a marketing ploy rather than Valve being crazily generous or ****ing over those who bought it years ago at full price. Anyway always remember, the cake is a ****ing lie man, the cake is a ****ing lie.
Soldato
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Portal was pretty much free from the get go anyways as it's inclusion in the Orange Box kinda made it a freebie considering it was being released alongside Episode 2 and TF2 (not to mention the inclusion of Episode 1 and Half Life 2).
The only people who paid for it paid for it separately
As mentioned above though, if you're willing to wait these games will always appear for dirt cheap on Steam eventually, just look at TF2 for example, it's always going on offer every time there's a major update and the same goes for L4D (though they very rarely get major updates
)
If you're happy enough with the price you pay when you buy a game then be happy, sales are always going to happen and by Murphy's Law they will happen after your purchase.
The only people who paid for it paid for it separately
As mentioned above though, if you're willing to wait these games will always appear for dirt cheap on Steam eventually, just look at TF2 for example, it's always going on offer every time there's a major update and the same goes for L4D (though they very rarely get major updates
)If you're happy enough with the price you pay when you buy a game then be happy, sales are always going to happen and by Murphy's Law they will happen after your purchase.
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The other thing you're not considering, Oxy, is that this is a limited time promotion. It's not free after the 24th.
Also, revenue from Portal has probably dropped to a mere trickle by now.
In effect, all they are doing is advertising Portal 2. And doing a good job of it, too. Radiohead used a similar form of advertising when they made In Rainbows "pay what you want". It was a time-limited offer that they used to generate interest in their band/product.
Just think about it as a clever form of marketing. Portal 2 is the real product on offer, and it won't be free.
Also, revenue from Portal has probably dropped to a mere trickle by now.
In effect, all they are doing is advertising Portal 2. And doing a good job of it, too. Radiohead used a similar form of advertising when they made In Rainbows "pay what you want". It was a time-limited offer that they used to generate interest in their band/product.
Just think about it as a clever form of marketing. Portal 2 is the real product on offer, and it won't be free.