Portal Spoilers

[Quinton]

I don't get where the clone stuff is coming from.

I wrote this on another site where people were having trouble with that:

The clone theory is possible, but I don't think it's the only possibility.  I lean toward the belief that the first neurotoxin incident didn't eliminate *everyone* and that there may have been other Aperture Science employees (or daughters of employees) run through the "tests" previously as well.  The notes on the walls and little behind-the-walls camps are pretty clearly the result of previous "test participants", but they don't necessarily have to be clones of Chell for it to make sense.  Some of these test participants seem to have lived in the walls for quite a while (judging by the tick marks they made, presumably to mark the passage of time), and most of them seem to have been a little unhinged (being lab rats for a psychotic computer is probably generally bad for your sanity).

Also, it is very clear that GLaDOS is a pathological liar, which makes it really hard to differentiate things she's saying to manipulate you from things that may have some basis in reality.  I'd accept that not necessarily *everything* she says is an outright lie (hey, there *was* cake), but most of it cannot be verified.

- Q

[schild]

Yea, it's pretty unfortunate that you'd have to go through every line of the game to get through the lies and truth.

It's pretty fortunate that it's almost worth doing that.

[Quinton]

Yea, it's pretty unfortunate that you'd have to go through every line of the game to get through the lies and truth.

It's pretty fortunate that it's almost worth doing that.

I'm not sure you *can* figure everything out just from what's presented in the game.  I am sure that it remains a fantastic experience even after 2.5 play-throughs.  The ambiguity is a feature -- the game doesn't make the mistake of explaining too much and lets you experience the world and draw your own conclusions... and discuss them at length with people on the internets.

I caught a bunch of little things I missed on the second time through.  For example, I totally missed the little hidden areas in the turret and companion cube levels the first time through.  Too focused on my goals to notice there was something behind those pushed out wall sections.

Also, I *loved* the final puzzle/fight.  It took me a little bit to get my bearings and time got short, but I actually finished it on my first attempt with something like 13 seconds on the clock.  Even so, playing it again let me enjoy a lot more dialogue that I didn't hear clearly in the mayhem.  First time through I really avoided picking up the personality cores (suspecting they'd explode or something), so I missed almost all of *that* dialogue -- including the wonderful chatter of the personality core and the ramblings of the cake core.

- Q

[Quinton]

Another thought -- the clipboards with test results seem to imply that GLaDOS is merely continuing a test program originally started by the Aperture Science staff.  I mean it seems unlikely that *she* would be recording test results on clipboards just for her own benefit.  How far her version of the tests differ from the original tests is an interesting thing to ponder.  The NOTES.EXE stuff from the website, etc, seem to imply that Aperture Science is not exactly the sanest organization.  Hell, their answer to fuel line de-icing and competing with another contractor was to develop an Artificial Lifeform based research assistant (and Disk Operating System)...

- Q

[Chenghiz]

Wouldn't clones be suboptimal for testing? Working on the supposition that one clone of a person acts the same as the next clone, there would be no breadth to the behavior at all. They'd make a good control group but that's it, I think.

[rattran]

She could use the clones to design a test course to teach optimal use of portal tech, in the hopes of eventually having a subject that can 'defeat' GLaDOS and be sent outside.

Or could have been using the other Aperture Science people in the same way, less efficiently.

I guess it's if you look at it as 'insane computer killing people with SCIENCE!' or 'Insanely clever computer training someone to fix things outside'

Based on the closing song and shots of lots of GLaDOS eyes, I'm inclined to the latter.

[eldaec]

Wouldn't clones be suboptimal for testing? Working on the supposition that one clone of a person acts the same as the next clone, there would be no breadth to the behavior at all. They'd make a good control group but that's it, I think.

Depends entirely on what you are testing....

I guess it's if you look at it as 'insane computer killing people with SCIENCE!' or 'Insanely clever computer training someone to fix things outside'

Bringing insanity into it misses the point, I rather took it to be 'computer taking direct instructions given by long dead programmers to logical extreme'.

The clone theory is possible, but I don't think it's the only possibility.  I lean toward the belief that the first neurotoxin incident didn't eliminate *everyone* and that there may have been other Aperture Science employees (or daughters of employees) run through the "tests" previously as well.  The notes on the walls and little behind-the-walls camps are pretty clearly the result of previous "test participants", but they don't necessarily have to be clones of Chell for it to make sense.  Some of these test participants seem to have lived in the walls for quite a while (judging by the tick marks they made, presumably to mark the passage of time), and most of them seem to have been a little unhinged (being lab rats for a psychotic computer is probably generally bad for your sanity).

Having had other participants and the clone theory aren't mutually exclusive. But having your specific character be a clone is the theory that best fits the evidence.

Any explanation needs to explain why you start in a box not knowing wtf to do. It's amensia, androids, or clones. Clones seem to fit best.

Timeline (imo):


 - Aperture Science decides it wants piece of Black Mesa action.
 - Develops GLaDOS as a hyper efficient way to do science - scores win with FSII.
 - More safety controls taken off of GLaDOS to accelerate science.
 - Portal and cloning programs start somewhere in the system.
 - Around the time of the Black Mesa incident, GLaDOS fills the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin, in order to ensure a clean lab environment.
 - Morality core fitted.
 - Not many staff left, and the portal storms are now well underway.
 - GLaDOS instructed to do science in aid of stopping the portal storms and the weird aliens turning up everywhere.
 - Possibly GLaDOS is directly responsible for the 4 year gap between Black Mesa and the Combine Invasion.
 - By now the Bring your daughter to work program is in full swing, GLaDOS quietly appropriates DNA for cloning science.
 - Site lockdown commences, noone allowed to leave.
 - Safety lapses continue to kill staff.
 - GLaDOS recognises the need to develop clones able to use and support the science.
 - Aperture enrichment program starts testing clones (and possibly non-clones) for their suitability as lab assistants.
 - Clones who escape testing program start living in walls.
 - C Johnson clones recognised as more effective than others. GLaDOS starts working to improve the C Johnson clone.
 - Events of 'Portal'.
 - At this point GLaDOS was the only thing keeping the Combine from coming to Earth. And you destroyed it. Nice work, hero.
 - Combine invades, humanity enslaved.


In 'still alive', GLaDOS is celebrating having created an adequate lab rat. And getting rid of that pesky Morality Core ofc.

[eldaec]

And just on the clone thing specifically...

 - You are not told anything about your past at any point.
 - You appear to wake up in some sort of incubation chamber.
 - Documents in game refer to your legs as revision 1.
 - "Welcome... again... to the aperture science enrichment centre"
 - The whole palaver about having backups of you, and deleting them.
 - You are Chell, as demonstrated by the credits, however, someone has written Chell's password on the wall, suggesting that person was also Chell.
 - "These points of data make a beautiful line, we're out of beta and releasing on time." - I take this line to mean that events of the game have 'released' an aperture product, specifically, you.

Not proof, but enough evidence to say clones are the most likely answer. Cyborg is also possible, but doesn't feel as satisfying.

[schild]

I should really just post my article in rough draft form.

[MrHat]

I should really just post my article in rough draft form.

No, I want bullet points and charts or nothing at all.

[Quinton]

- Around the time of the Black Mesa incident, GLaDOS fills the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin, in order to ensure a clean lab environment.

I think your timeline can still work without Chell being a clone, but really I just wanted to say that the above bullet point strikes me as an incredibly believable (based on her behaviour and actions in-game) explanation of GLaDOS's rationale for the initial neurotoxin flooding.

Perhaps you should win a "best able to think like a psychotic computer" award.

- Q

[schild]

There's like 20 bullet points. And a single awesome graphic. I suppose I can throw in some charts. They'll be done in photoshop though.

[Yegolev]

I'm still not convinced about "Chell Johnson".  Seems likely but there's just too little information to be sure.  Clones, I'm fairly convinced.  Clone of Cave's daughter?  Less sure, little to support this.

[eldaec]

I think your timeline can still work without Chell being a clone,

The timeline can, but if Chell isn't a clone, we'd need to figure out wtf GLaDOS is doing. There is science being done. If the clone isn't being tested, I don't see what the experiment is for.

The portal gun isn't the thing being tested here.

[LK]

I need to see what happens in Episode 3.  It could be entirely possible that Chell is a featured cast member, but it'll probably be a year or more before we know since Valve misinterpreted the idea of Episodic Content to mean "We're going to release 1/3 of a game every year!"

[Yoru]

I need to see what happens in Episode 3.  It could be entirely possible that Chell is a featured cast member, but it'll probably be a year or more before we know since Valve misinterpreted the idea of Episodic Content to mean "We're going to release 1/3 of a game every year!"

This is a vast improvement over Valve's previous "release 1 game every 6 years" business process.

[Samwise]

The timeline can, but if Chell isn't a clone, we'd need to figure out wtf GLaDOS is doing. There is science being done. If the clone isn't being tested, I don't see what the experiment is for.

The portal gun isn't the thing being tested here.

I think at least part of the experiment is to see what effect repeated use of the portal gun has on living subjects.

The symptoms most commonly produced by Enrichment Center testing are superstition, perceiving inanimate objects as alive, and hallucinations.

Hence the psychological element in many of the tests (attempting to get you to bond with the companion cube and then forcing you to kill it, being told that this test is impossible, GLaDOS generally being nutty, et cetera).  If you think the portal gun makes people go nuts and you're working on eliminating that effect, you'll want to put your test subjects in stressful situations that expose them to the portal gun's deleterious effects and verify that they're able to cope well enough to continue solving the tests.

Like in this movie where they trained chimps in flight simulators to see how lethal doses of radiation impaired flying ability.

[eldaec]

I need to see what happens in Episode 3.  It could be entirely possible that Chell is a featured cast member, but it'll probably be a year or more before we know since Valve misinterpreted the idea of Episodic Content to mean "We're going to release 1/3 of a game every year!"

This is a vast improvement over Valve's previous "release 1 game every 6 years" business process.

Furthermore, if Portal + TF2 (+ ep2) is 1/3 of a game, I want more 1/3 of a games.

[Prospero]

Seriously. I'd much rather pay $50 for a few hours of bulletproof gameplay than $50 for 20 hours of wandering gameplay.(I'm looking at you Bioshock.)

I do suspect the "episodes" will go the way of the dodo. I think it takes way too much time to generate the art assets for a modern FPS to grind an episode out annually. At least not a good episode. Also it seems like their playtesting process adds at least 6 months to any project.

[schild]

Thankfully, Episode 3 has been in development since Episode 2 started.

[Prospero]

Good point. We should only have to wait a couple years at most.

[LK]

Yeah they need to develop a TF2 Map Pack and a Portal Expansion or Multiplayer component to go with it.  Then they'll make you buy everything all over again and sell it to you in a box that eeriely resembles the Weighted Companion Cube in order to take your mind off the fact that you just wanted (Pick One: Episode 3 / More Portal / More TF2) and that those mother fuckers should have hurried it along.

Now if you're all for seeing more of all 3, alright.  Just stop calling it Episodic Content.

[schild]

Article delayed. Needs a rewrite. There's just too much meat in the pudding.

[Slayerik]

I really think there should be a lame ending for any dumbass that actually takes the ride into the fire. A really lame ending. I reloaded my game just to see, but no dice.

[Yegolev]

Lame ending is you die and exit the game via menu.

[schild]

Also, no cake.

[schild]

Spoiler Ridden Article, Discuss Link at the Bottom.

Please to rebuke and shit. :)

[Fabricated]

Valve's staff talks about all that stuff in the commentaries I believe, and they state they're kinda re-evaluating how they do the episodic content thing because this shit took so long.

[Cpt_Jigglypuff]

The guy who wrote GLaDOS' song "Still Alive" played at the credits:

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/

On his site, he says that he'll 'reveal the inside story' in an entry... but he really just says the very basics about Portal, and some stuff about GLaDOS being 'this hilarious passive aggressive personality'.  Unfortunately, no good spoilers, except that Valve may or may not be releasing the song on Steam or 'perhaps elsewhere'.

I <3 this guy.  computer + ukulele = awesome

[Ironwood]

See, I knew that'd be him.  It was his Zombie song I posted a while back on useless videos.

[Der Helm]

Some things I could not get out of my mind the whole day.

The whole facility looks like it has been abandoned a long time ago.

Some of the paintings you find in the "hidden" rooms look rather childish.

The reference to the "bring your daughter to work day" (and have her tested).

Chell (that was her name, right ?) looks a bit old for the above mentioned "bydtw-day", to me it sounds like something done for preteen children.

On one or more occasions the AI mentions that there are means to resurrect the player and apart from the fire at the first "ending" the traps do not look that deadly. We do not no, why exactly  "the floor will kill you" for example.

So.

In my mind I have this picture of little Chell being brought to BYDTW-Day by her father, something goes awfully wrong and GlaDOS runs several tests with the children in the enrichment center. Their memories are erased from time to time. Since the tests are not completely harmless, the pool of test specimens shrinks. Several years later, a now at least adolescent Chell is the only specimen left, GlaDOS is almost completely insane and Chell runs the tests for the XXXth time without remembering the earlier attempts.

Anyway, thats my take on the "Welcome ...again ...to the ..." line at the beginning.

[Falconeer]

Mmm. I like this idea of Chell having ran the tests million of times and having aged doing it into the abandoned Aperture facility in a perhaps identically dead and abandoned planet Earth. I like it far more than the clone thesis.

EDIT: Maybe in Borealis we'll meet young, "daughter-sized" Chell (I hope not. I hate kids, despite having one).

[Miasma]

Yeah children have to be in there somewhere, only a kid could have drawn that "big bad jellfish" picture.

[schild]

Yeah children have to be in there somewhere, only a kid could have drawn that "big bad jellfish" picture.

Or an absolutely insane Chell.

[Teleku]

Finally got a chance to play through it.  Truly awesome game, and really really god damn funny.  Loved what they did with the story, wasn't expecting the depth.  Was kind of hoping they would reveal more of wtf happened/is happening, but it was still cool.

My only real let down was that I was kind of hoping the protagonist in the game would be Adrian Shepard, since I'd really like to see what happened to him.