Portal Wiki:Discussion

Greetings

We must continue testing.
— minip 01:41, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

For the people who are still alive? Darkstar516 23:28, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I thought all of us are alive... until we bring GLaDOS some neurotoxin DrAkcel ^{(T | C)} 03:59, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Canon Portal storyline

Trying to start off some articles for the characters I realized that the Portal timeline and storyline has been changed by Valve quite a few time. For instance last year they gave gameinformer this timeline which states Cave Johnson contracted mercury poisoning, while in-game he states he became ill after grinding up poisonous moon rocks. Also from what I recall his motivations for building GLaDOS were different during the Portal 2 announcement ARG. This is probably a result of Valve constantly changing the Portal 2 storyline as the game developed. In short I'm finding it difficult to build a storyline without it contradicting itself everywhere. I propose we take everything in Portal 2 as hard fact (obviously) and take everything else from reliable sources (the ARG, gameinformer article(?)) as long as it doesn't contradict with statements made in Portal 2. —Mussekateer·talk 15:57, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

There's no official story about the Cave Johnson bit, but there seems to be a consensus around the community that the story in gameinformer was a "cover story" for the public. Of course, that's all speculation. My recommendation is that if something in the game contradicts other information, then the game should take precedence as the official canonical version. I have the feeling that most of what was in the ARG is going to get cut. Even some things as recent as the second ARG, like Cave Johnson's portrait (Google image search Cave Johnson, you'll see what I mean) is different in-game. –Alex  2539 (t · c) 21:09, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

One thing to consider is that CJ might have thought Mercury was "moon rocks" because it was called Mercury. He wasn't exactly scientifically inclined so it's a possibility, even if it is a stretch. It makes sense to me that Mercury could be a good portal conductor too. -- Lagg 21:15, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Well mercury is liquid at room temperature, so it's hard to imagine it being confused with a rock of any sort. That's not really the point though. What matters is that there is a contradiction. Since the game says "moon rocks" we should too. It might be worth mentioning that previous material mentioned mercury poisoning but we can't possibly give a reason for the change without falling into supposition. Unless an official explanation is given, the games should take precedence as "fact", everything else is a note of interest. –Alex  2539 (t · c) 01:07, 24 April 2011 (UTC)