This is Saurabh (spitfire1945/craeyon) and I host the Steamcast Podcast along with my friends and co-hosts Sam and Brad. That's me over there on the left with Alesia Glidewell, the face of Chell from Portal 2. Recently I was invited by Valve to help launch Portal 2 and this is my story of how I (on behalf of Steamcast) got the chance to become part of one of the biggest game releases in history.
The story began with the launch of Valve's #PotatoFoolsDay update on April 1st, 2011 which led to the creation of PotatoFoolsDay ARG Wiki as well as the Portal 2 ARG IRC channel. Some people were beginning to get the hint that this was something big and despite the slow start the ARG began to pick up pace on April 5th, 2011. This is when I noticed that the forums have gone absolutely mental. So, I created my thread to put all the facts and clues that were being discovered into a readable and understandable context in order to avoid confusion. And so, my Follow The ARG thread was created.
On April 11th, 2011 a user by the name of asweet contacted me and several other major players of the ARG over IRC. The problem with the internet is anonymity and we were at a stage where we couldn't really differentiate between a troll and an actual person. So when someone PMs you saying "please call xxx-xxx-xxxx ext xxx we have a prize for you" really throws you off. It also didn't help the fact that "asweet" sounded like an epic troll name (ApertureScience)Sweet? Turns out, it was Anna Sweet from Valve, that's her over there on the left. She called me back with Erik Wolpaw and Jeep Barnett on the line and they asked me to be a part of their ARG, an offer which I was very happy to accept. Oh... and they also invited me to Valve to come help launch Portal 2. My flight and reservation was booked and I was due to head for Valve on April 17th 2011.