Gearbox CEO On Gamer Criticism: "Some People Are Sadists"

[Hairless Mammoth]

This is just great. If Pitchford keeps this up, he will be providing Jim Sterling with enough topic material for weeks.

Listen, Randy, you didn't make a sandcastle for yourself, that someone came over and demolished for no good reason. You are in the "sandcastle business." You showed your customers pictures of big, elaborate sandcastles, with functional drawbridges and other neat bells and whistles, that you would make for them. When it came time to see the final product, you took their money first and, before running off, revealed something a child would be embarrassed to admit building, with the extra little features broken or not there. Then you deny any wrongdoing, gloat about how you got out of the inevitable lawsuit, and years later still call the critics of your actions "sadists." They didn't stomp on your sandcastles. You did it to your own, then tricked many into buying them.

Stop dodging the real issue and own up to your mistakes. Even Sega themselves came out to say many of their games were horrible and they could have made much better games. You can admit you made one or two stinkers and regain some of the lost trust from your continued manchild allegations.

P.P.S. I think this quote about sums up what I think of Randy Pitchford:

"There's a lot of online bullies and haters and bloggers. We stand up to them, and I think we're the only ones that ever have as restaurant owners. And they come and they try to attack us and they say horrible things that are not true."
-Amy Bouzaglo, Amy's Baking Company

That is a perfect analogy for Pitchford and many other game makers who think they can do no wrong, despite clear evidence they did.

It would be great if there was a Gordon Ramsay of video game development. Even if they never really changed, at least the primadonna devs will get an earful in person for a few weeks.

 

[vallorn]

The other irony here is that GG doesn't really seem to target big companies like Gearbox anyway. You hear orders of magnitude more every day about "Wu" or "Quinn" than you've heard in the lifetime of GG about Gearbox.

Could you not? I mean seriously, could you GGers not do this? It's an incredibly annoying derail, meant to start more petty bullshit. In fact, several of the people involved in various slap fights are in this very thread, condemning Pitchford. Hell, I don't think I've read a single post in support of him(Ok, maybe one, and it didn't mention GG). So could you please not?

Dynast isn't GG, he's an Anti. And it annoys GGers as well how said Antis will just bring up GG in the most unrelated of threads. It's silly, derailing and just needs to stop.

 

[CaitSeith]

we're creating emotion and experience

Well, he's telling the truth right there. Disappointment and being conned qualify as emotion and experience respectively.

 

[Vigormortis]

Stay classy, Randy.

And if I'm honest, I'm not sure which I find more fascinating:

That Randy is still trying to shirk off responsibility for Gearbox's litany of bullshit over the past few years, or that people will still give Gearbox a pass because "muh BORDERLANDS!!!1!1"

Oh well. Regardless of all that, I learned to steer clear of Gearbox's products long ago, thanks in no small part to A:CM, DN:F, and Borderlands 2. Randy's recent comments only reinforce that decision.

 

[Mazinger-Z]

Some people ARE "sadistic assholes" but that's human nature. What's worse is to use this tiny minority of sadists to smear and disregard legitimate criticisms.

Oh, and, in this case, Mr Pitchford you don't make an outright lie in your "Vertical slice" trailer and then expect people not to be mad when the kobe beef filet mignon you promised turns out to be fried dogshit.

When people with the reach of TotalBiscuit and Angry Joe pan your game, the problem isn't your audience.

 

[Steven Bogos]

I can't hate on Pitchford. I don't think he's talking about all critics and criticisms, that's just guardian being shit at journalism.

 

[Johnlives]

It's starting to make sense, Gearbox are making the games bad on purpose. The bad games get the greater emotional response and an emotional response is what he's after.It probably won't make for a great business model but it might be art. If only I could have a mind as sophisticated as Randy's.

 

[Calbeck]

"Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford"

Also claimed, last year, to have received a bomb threat at his offices in Plano, Texas. He claimed to be afraid that turning over the key in his car to start it might get him killed.

He made a rather big to-do about calling the police, then taking pictures of the bomb squad at work and tweeting them. He never DID resolve the story, either, leaving it hanging as though it had been a legit threat and thanking the Plano PD for their professionalism.

So I tweeted the Plano PD and asked them whether or not there'd really been a threat.

"No sir, it was nothing." Short, to the point, and quite at odds with Randy's posturing --- which was in nestled right around the time that a higher public news profile for Gearbox might well result in higher seasonal sales.

EDIT: Ah, here we are...

https://twitter.com/RoyCalbeck/status/518964553112379392

 

[JLF]

Randy can argue as much as he wants that his products are a work of art.
They are I will not argue with that.

Sadly they are not in my taste or many others taste for that matter.
So thank GOODNESS that steam lets you have a refund for products that do not represent what was promised!

 

[MysticSlayer]

So let me get this straight, Randy: You enjoy seeing people's responses to lying to them, failing to live up to your promises, and selling them a load of shit for $60? Just when I thought you couldn't make yourself look like a worse human being, you...

Oh, why am I talking like he's reading that. He isn't going to read it. That would require facing criticism, and if there's one thing Randy is good at, it is shutting his ears and going "LALALA" every time he receives criticism. These comments are just further proof of that.

 

[TristanBelmont]

I'm normally against doxxing but if anyone wants to pull it on Pitchford I don't anyone will get too angry.

 

[dragoongfa]

Ah Randy, Randy, Randy...

We don't hate you because we are bad people...

We hate you because of stuff like this:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/6912-Aliens-Colonial-Marines

 

[Calbeck]

The other irony here is that GG doesn't really seem to target big companies like Gearbox anyway. You hear orders of magnitude more every day about "Wu" or "Quinn" than you've heard in the lifetime of GG about Gearbox.

Could you not? I mean seriously, could you GGers not do this? It's an incredibly annoying derail, meant to start more petty bullshit. In fact, several of the people involved in various slap fights are in this very thread, condemning Pitchford. Hell, I don't think I've read a single post in support of him(Ok, maybe one, and it didn't mention GG). So could you please not?

Dynast isn't GG, he's an Anti. And it annoys GGers as well how said Antis will just bring up GG in the most unrelated of threads. It's silly, derailing and just needs to stop.

I do appreciate the suggestion that when Randy is making sweeping statements about gamers being sadists and such, NO ONE thinks he's talking about GamerGate. -

 

[LazyAza]

Seems like its impossible for this man to have any humility or self awareness whatsoever. Very sad, I use to have respect for Randy Pitchford but every new thing he says makes me dislike the man more and more.

 

[Fursnake]

Dammit, where is the Febreeze? I can smell his butthurt all the way over here!

 

[Random Gamer]

The other irony here is that GG doesn't really seem to target big companies like Gearbox anyway. You hear orders of magnitude more every day about "Wu" or "Quinn" than you've heard in the lifetime of GG about Gearbox.

It's not apparent because many reviewers, journalists and the vast hivemind of gamers worldwide are pretty much of the same opinion on this one. The game was awful if not broken and the guy is full of shit, basically. GG is most prominent in cases where there aren't many other people decrying some topic.
But seriously, considering GG is made of gamers, no need to say that most pro-GG people basically agree with the bulk of neutrals and anti-GG people. Heck, this topic shows it quite clearly. And that's fine, that's how things would and should be in an ideal gaming world. (ok, in an ideal gaming world, Alien Colonial Marines wouldn't exist, or would actually be awesome )

 

[Fox12]

Well, if you're sandcastle was a collection of poop jokes and sexism then I'd probably want to kick it down too. And don't get me started on Aliens. Take some responsibility man, you lied.

Also, I think the term you're looking for is masochist Mr. Pitchford. Sadists like to inflict pain on others. Though both are applicable, I suppose.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

So you create a fake trailer with fake gameplay and content that's not actually going to be in the game, and release a game that's a buggy broken mess; and when people call you out on this you accuse them of "kicking over your sandcastle?" Sorry Randy, your logic is lost on me.

 

[Lunar Templar]

uh huh ...

this coming from a guy who sold, and still sells a game on lies, and brags about getting out of a lawsuit relating to said lies.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Randy Pitchford: I discovered that my castles stand upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand.