Gearbox President: "I Have Always Profited From Criticism"

Recommended Videos

Bindal

New member
May 14, 2012
1,320
0
0
Ronin Toshiro said:
the MP side of the game is VERY good.
Uhm, no? It's not good? In fact, the MP is the worst part of the game?
1 - VERY imbalanced factions
2 - Controls of Xenos is horrible
3 - A lot of elements are plainly not explained (like how you become a Boiler or Crusher)
4 - The Challenge-System forces you to play in ways you don't want to unlock GAMEPLAY-AFFECT elements (seriously, to get a different type of armor, you have to do them). Even worse, all those unlocks are plain upgrades from what you got otherwise (they ARE sidegrades for each other. But they are NOT sidegrades to the default stuff. Simply because you don't HAVE any defaults for half of it)

Now add to that a far too small selection of maps, which also have in some cases SERIOUS design-issues (one of the survival-maps allows the marines to lock up basically the entire map in about 20 to 40 seconds, allowing the Xenos to have only three access-points - all from downstairs, all narrow) and you got the perfect example of an absolute horrible MP.
 

Karoshi

New member
Jul 9, 2012
454
0
0
Whatever you think about Pritchford, he is damn eloquent and handling himself better than many companies (looking at Bioware and couple others).

By the way, I always considered the rule "The customer is always right" to be pretty stupid. Developers should be able talk back to customers, even if in a more polite and level-headed manner.
 

IamLEAM1983

Neloth's got swag.
Aug 22, 2011
2,581
0
0
Brace yourselves for a shitty excuse along the lines of "Oh LOL, we sent the Alpha to the printers by mistake!" or "Yeah, our sub-contractors aren't worth shit. Lesson learned!"

I've read that a lot of the forwarded A:CM money was diverted towards the development of Borderlands 2. All that tells me is that Gearbox is hypocritical enough to win a development pitch for the next high-profile franchise game not for the purposes of developing anything for it - rather to develop whatever the Hell it is they truly do want to develop.

So... "Thanks for the cashola, Fox and Sega, but we're working on Borderlands 2 now. We'll get around to your silly little Xenomorph pew-pew fest when we care to. Ta-ta!"
 

Shadow-Phoenix

New member
Mar 22, 2010
2,289
0
0
Honestly all my faith in Gearbox is all completely gone along with respect.

Randy lied to all of us, to Sega (because you know during those six years he could have worked on ACM but instead worked more on his own project Borderlands and used Segas money anyway) and instead of admitting he really fucked us over and trying to even start making amends he simply decides to call out Jim....

No seriously fuck that guy, I want Sega to sue his smug lying little ass into the ground, making sure he doesn't get to make a game let alone lie to the industry again and while Peter had his fair share at least he wasn't like Randy being a smug prick.

I waited 6 fucking years for this game and while I enjoyed AVP 2010 (going back to playing it once more after 3 years because of how bad ACM is) not having a new Aliens game that's actually not complete garbage just serves to annoy me more because let's face it we ain't going to get another AAA Aliens game for at least another 3-4 years give or take after this massive fuck up and let's hope gearbox never gets the chance to take the shot again.

Just give the Franchise back to Raven or at the very least Rebellion since AVP 2010 now looks far more appealing than ACM.
 

Vault Citizen

New member
May 8, 2008
1,703
0
0
Ronin Toshiro said:
Too all the people who are calling AC:M bad. Do not be so entitled the MP side of the game is VERY good. they never promised anything of a good story for the SP only that it would become EPIC.

This whole thing reminds me of another company/publisher who did the same thing with not keeping promises and delivering a completely different game then showed...
So describing content as bad makes a critic entitled? How?
 

SpaceGhost

New member
May 5, 2012
26
0
0
Covarr said:
They should have done what SEGA did to Sterling after his Sonic Colors review, and sent him a ton of over-the-top gifts related to A:CM. All that goofing off is pure good publicity, and a great way to redeem yourself after a crap game.
Another great way to redeem yourself after a crap game might be...not to release another crap game?

Lest we forget...Gearbox also released DNF.

Covarr said:
Also, it makes Jim Sterling look ridiculous for being involved. That's always fun.

P.S. Thanks
There is so much wrong with this I have to think it's sarcasm that didn't translate well.

EDIT:
Ronin Toshiro said:
Too all the people who are calling AC:M bad. Do not be so entitled the MP side of the game is VERY good. they never promised anything of a good story for the SP only that it would become EPIC.
Also, this makes me LOL every time I read it...and I can't stop reading it for that reason :).
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
It's pretty much the response I expected. Over many years of watching this kind of thing I've come to the conclusion that companies involved in fandom, whether they happen to be comics, video games, novels, cartoons/anime, or PnP RPGs will never, ever admit that they did wrong, and they especially won't directly change as a result in any noticible time period. The most you can ever expect is protests of innocence, counter attacks on "entitled" fans, and maybe to see what was said make a differance down the road, but not in any way that impacts the actual issues while they were happening.

To be fair, did anyone EXPECT Randy or Gearbox to say anything differant, admit they tried to cheat gamers and lied to the extent of producing false demos for the reviewers and gaming media? Never mind offering to make good on the deal and buy back their crap product by way of apology, or committ to post launch changes.

I'll also say that I think the gaming industry, and fandom in general, has a kind of unspoken agreement here to never admit to anything or relent to change. I look back at what happened with the ME3 ending and how there was so much pressure on EA from the industry itself NOT to change things, probably because if it did this it would open the door for more fan pressure once there was a victory. I think to an extent Randy is probably doing the walk he's doing right now because that's what game developers/publishers do when they fail or get caught. He'll make himself availible as a target, say a few irrelevent things back, and ultimatly wait for it to all boil over, in the end the same things will continue to happen, and as long as no developer ever cedes and breeds actual expectations in the fans, all of them will continue the same practices and acting the same way.

Or in short, I guess you could say it's like Omerta for companies involved in the associated halls of fandom.

Sounds crazy, but that's my thoughts. I'd be far more surprised if something positive came of this. At the end of the day I'd imagine the storm will just be weathered, and down the road people will buy "Borderlands 3" like crazy while fans and critics focus on the next big scandal and tend to forget all about this one, almost like having a bad case of ADHD.
 

fwiffo

New member
Sep 12, 2011
113
0
0
"As a glass-half-full kind of guy, so I only want positive feelings with my personal twitter."

"It appears you would rather show boat publicly for attention."

The cracks are showing, Randy.

Seriously though, they won't ever admit its a bad game until years later, if ever. Its just business. Don't buy the game, and wait for reviews of their next title.

This is duke nukem all over again.
 

Norrdicus

New member
Feb 27, 2012
458
0
0
IamLEAM1983 said:
Brace yourselves for a shitty excuse along the lines of "Oh LOL, we sent the Alpha to the printers by mistake!" or "Yeah, our sub-contractors aren't worth shit. Lesson learned!"
The latter one makes me sick, because if Randy were to say something like that, you just know at least half of the people burned by the A:CM would immediately forgive Gearbox.
 

Shadow-Phoenix

New member
Mar 22, 2010
2,289
0
0
You know what's really sad about this whole Aliens Colonial Marines being so shit?.

It's this comparison video that explains it all clear as day, crystal clear.

 

RA92

New member
Jan 1, 2011
3,079
0
0
Karoshi said:
Whatever you think about Pritchford, he is damn eloquent and handling himself better than many companies (looking at Bioware and couple others).
How is accusing critics of 'showboating' being eloquent?

OT: Sterling earns yet another developer's ire, and my respect.
 

RicoADF

Welcome back Commander
Jun 2, 2009
3,147
0
0
Froggy Slayer said:
Ronin Toshiro said:
Too all the people who are calling AC:M bad. Do not be so entitled the MP side of the game is VERY good. they never promised anything of a good story for the SP only that it would become EPIC.
Actually, they outright lied about the quality of the main game, making it out to have features and fabricating an entire demo section with these features to trick people into thinking that they would get a much better game than they did.

Also, a game should be rated upon the sum of its parts; one good section does not excuse a flawed one.
The only feature missing is the squad command. Dynamic lighting etc are there. granted the campaigns ending is clearly setup for DLC, but the game isn't as bad as people are saying. Seriously its disgraceful that CoD and Battlefield can release worse games and get better reviews.
 

Chester Rabbit

New member
Dec 7, 2011
1,004
0
0
No...no Randy would never say that.... O.O Randy...you're breaking my heart! You're going down a path I can't follow!
 

Canadamus Prime

Robot in Disguise
Jun 17, 2009
14,334
0
0
This guy would make a great politician, 'cause he seems really good a skirting around the issue without actually addressing it.
 

Black Reaper

New member
Aug 19, 2011
234
0
0
N3squ1ck said:
Oh no, I really liked Gearbox and Mr. Pitchford, how did it come to that.
All that stuff that bubbles up lately just kills my liking for them alltogether
Indeed,before Borderlands 2 launched,i thought Pitchford was a pretty cool guy,then he started dismissing complaints about Borderlands 2 by saying "the team likes them"(i am talking about the horrible droprates and horribly designed new game plus),then this happens

Ill still get Borderlands 3,but i wont be happy the money went to Gearbox
 

Sonofadiddly

New member
Dec 19, 2009
516
0
0
This is "being careful" for Pitchford? Yikes.

There's a right way and a wrong way for businesses to respond to criticism of a product. Criticizing back is not what you would call "the right way." Do what I do, Pitchford, and express your frustration by being sarcastic and passive aggressive towards random people on the Internet under an ANONYMOUS name.
 

Woodsey

New member
Aug 9, 2009
14,553
0
0
He wouldn't know how to take criticism if he was lobotomised and handed a manual on the subject. When DNF got bad reviews he just started straight-up threatening review outlets.

Karoshi said:
Whatever you think about Pritchford, he is damn eloquent and handling himself better than many companies (looking at Bioware and couple others).
Yeah, he's doing a great job of playing the victim.
 

Doclector

New member
Aug 22, 2009
5,010
0
0
I really, really hope Randy means is that they're going to look it, try to fix what they can through patches and what they can't through a sequel.

I really, really don't think that is actually what he means.