So, Gearbox has been rubbing me the wrong way as of late, first there was the whole DNF review fiasco, and while not technically Gearbox's fault, it still left me feeling a bit off about them. And now Randy Pitchford is calling the eurogamer leak about Borderlands 2 "shoddy journalism". I understand that he's annoyed, sure, but you can't say someone's sucking at their job when they report something that's obviously true. The whole thing stinks of just expecting the games press to just play along with your own plans and expectations. An outlet give your last game a harsh review? Threaten to never send them review copies or early builds of any of their games ever again. Someone ferret out what new game you're working on and write a story about it? Claim that it's not true and that the person writing the story is a hack.
Stories like this do absolutely no harm to anyone, there were no details about the game in the story, so people still need to either get the Game Informer issue or wait until that info is out elsewhere to find out what's new.
On a related note, I think it's pretty funny that the first game Gearbox releases after Anthony Burch (from Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin?) is probably the most sexist game ever released. Anthony and his sister Ashly have had numerous discussions about sexism in games on their podcasts. I realize that he almost definitely had nothing to do with the writing or production of that game, but it still struck me as interesting.
Ars Technica story about the upset Randy Pitchford
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/developer-calls-accurate-borderlands-2-report-shoddy-journalism.ars
Anthony Burch's previous claim to fame, most of the videos are pretty funny
http://www.heyash.com/
Gearbox Software LLC
Company »
Gearbox is a company best known for their early work on the Half-Life series, WWII video game series Brothers in Arms, Borderlands and Duke Nukem Forever.
mini gearbox rant
So, Gearbox has been rubbing me the wrong way as of late, first there was the whole DNF review fiasco, and while not technically Gearbox's fault, it still left me feeling a bit off about them. And now Randy Pitchford is calling the eurogamer leak about Borderlands 2 "shoddy journalism". I understand that he's annoyed, sure, but you can't say someone's sucking at their job when they report something that's obviously true. The whole thing stinks of just expecting the games press to just play along with your own plans and expectations. An outlet give your last game a harsh review? Threaten to never send them review copies or early builds of any of their games ever again. Someone ferret out what new game you're working on and write a story about it? Claim that it's not true and that the person writing the story is a hack.
Stories like this do absolutely no harm to anyone, there were no details about the game in the story, so people still need to either get the Game Informer issue or wait until that info is out elsewhere to find out what's new.
On a related note, I think it's pretty funny that the first game Gearbox releases after Anthony Burch (from Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin?) is probably the most sexist game ever released. Anthony and his sister Ashly have had numerous discussions about sexism in games on their podcasts. I realize that he almost definitely had nothing to do with the writing or production of that game, but it still struck me as interesting.
Ars Technica story about the upset Randy Pitchford
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/developer-calls-accurate-borderlands-2-report-shoddy-journalism.ars
Anthony Burch's previous claim to fame, most of the videos are pretty funny
http://www.heyash.com/
" whole DNF review fiasco, and while not technically Gearbox's fault" & "An outlet give your last game a harsh review? Threaten to never send them review copies or early builds of any of their games ever again" by your own admission nothing to do with Gearbox so why are you getting rubbed the wrong way by them over this? As of the "Leak" of Borderlands 2 they were probably just pissed off because they wanted to make a big announcement themselves at one of the up-coming events so in that respect I can fully understand why they'd be pissed.
After them releasing Borderlands in such a buggy, broken, and unplayable mess of a state I have made a personally vow to never buy another gearbox game at full price again.
@Twisted_Scot: the Borderlands 2 announcement wasn't tied to an event, it's tied to the newest issue of Game Informer, who came out and announced it the next day anyway. Being upset about it is one thing, but calling it out as shoddy journalism is in bad taste.Yeah I didn't say it was tied to an event I said perhaps they were going to make their own big announcement at one of the upcoming event and GI just screwed them out of it by printing that issue 1st. Id be pissed if I were Gearbox in this case as well. Since I havent read the full GI article i cant say whether it is or isn't shoddy journalism :)
@WiqidBritt: Leaks are bad, and it kinda is shitty that journalists put it out there as much as they do...
The journalism comment was unnecessary. I think this was the case of a person tweeting before thinking. He probably was embarrassed and felt bad for Game Informer as they had the exclusive information to the game's existence. If I were in his place I would feel responsible to that outlet to keep that exclusive information...well, exclusive. He was probably upset and reacted rather then allowing himself to sit back and think clearly. I think he was in the wrong but I understand why he was upset. He just didn't need to let those emotions out to the public.
As for the DNF thing, I really don't see that as their problem. They just released a product that was damn near finished. It is under their name because the original developer doesn't exist as it once did and they wanted the rights to the DN name.
I don't know, I think out of all the developers in the world of gaming Gearbox would be the last one to irritate me.
@Twisted_Scot said:
@WiqidBritt said:@Twisted_Scot: the Borderlands 2 announcement wasn't tied to an event, it's tied to the newest issue of Game Informer, who came out and announced it the next day anyway. Being upset about it is one thing, but calling it out as shoddy journalism is in bad taste.Yeah I didn't say it was tied to an event I said perhaps they were going to make their own big announcement at one of the upcoming event and GI just screwed them out of it by printing that issue 1st. Id be pissed if I were Gearbox in this case as well. Since I havent read the full GI article i cant say whether it is or isn't shoddy journalism :)
They weren't annoyed about the GI issue - they had a cover feature and full access. That was the official reveal.
It was Eurogamer posting a story a few days before 'confirming' the game's development that they called shoddy journalism.
And yeah, I used to really respect Randy Pitchford and all the interviews I'd seen him in painted him as a pretty cool guy. But, with his twitter comments regarding bad reviews for DNF, and now this lash out at Journalists for trying to, you know, actually do some journalism and not just be an extension of company PR, makes me thing he's loosing the plot somewhat...
What don't you understand? It took them about a year to patch the online to a playable state, and by then the community was non existent, and the UI was still a pain in the ass to use.@crusader8463 said:
After them releasing Borderlands in such a buggy, broken, and unplayable mess of a state I have made a personally vow to never buy another gearbox game at full price again.Whaaaaaa?
Randy has a habit of speaking his mind. CVG used to make news stories out of pretty much everything he said however this was just pathetic . If that is really his views on some actual journalism by a publication then his reputation severely degrades in my eyes. It seems like that persistent idea with publishers and developers that publications should just be another tool in marketing the game. The Ars article gives a good example of this. Why even write something like that at all, it was a mere 24 hours before the thing was revealed and it wasn't even Gearbox who was going to reveal it, It was Game Informer.
@Napalm: very mature.
in addendum, here's an article where Randy Pitchford basically says that Duke Nukem Forever is the best game he's played since Half-Life 2, and that any "lowball" reviews would be held accountable by the readers
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-02-duke-nukem-forever-scores-dont-matter
@Twisted_Scot: seriously? first off, it's eurogamer that he's upset at, and secondly if you think Game Informer is the kind of publication that would risk compromising their relations with developers you are out of your damn mind. Being tied to Gamestop means they pretty much have to fall in line, but at the same time they get a lot of exclusives that way.Wait wait wait....Your getting pissed at me for saying Game informer instead of Eurogamer? Perhaps you should check your replies as I hadn't mentioned GI until you did. You seem to get pissed very easily, perhaps a time-out is in order.
@WiqidBritt said:@Twisted_Scot: the Borderlands 2 announcement wasn't tied to an event, it's tied to the newest issue of Game Informer, who came out and announced it the next day anyway. Being upset about it is one thing, but calling it out as shoddy journalism is in bad taste.
@WiqidBritt said:Forgive me for letting other people's stupidity upset me, I don't know what I was thinking. You said Gearbox was upset at Game Informer, which they are not, they gave Game Informer the exclusive announcement and the first details of the game, Gearbox has no reason to be upset with GI.@Twisted_Scot: seriously? first off, it's eurogamer that he's upset at, and secondly if you think Game Informer is the kind of publication that would risk compromising their relations with developers you are out of your damn mind. Being tied to Gamestop means they pretty much have to fall in line, but at the same time they get a lot of exclusives that way.Wait wait wait....Your getting pissed at me for saying Game informer instead of Eurogamer? Perhaps you should check your replies as I hadn't mentioned GI until you did. You seem to get pissed very easily, perhaps a time-out is in order.
@WiqidBritt said:@Twisted_Scot: the Borderlands 2 announcement wasn't tied to an event, it's tied to the newest issue of Game Informer, who came out and announced it the next day anyway. Being upset about it is one thing, but calling it out as shoddy journalism is in bad taste.
@MordeaniisChaos: how exactly do leaks really hurt anyone? Sure, publishers and developers have PR plans for slowly drip feeding details and announcements to the public, but I don't see how knowing about a game a day or even a few weeks early is really all that damaging except for the publication that was supposed to have the exclusive reveal.
@Twisted_Scot said:Like I pointed out YOU mentioned Game Informer, before that I had not even mentioned either of the publications. I have to apologize however as It was my own fault for thinking that this was a post that contained something to be discussed when its pretty much just another person making a post, half-arsed reading what people reply and the then screaming when they offer another possibility to your own. You said in your inital post that the whole Duke Nukem thing wasnt directly linked to Gearbox so its a mute point, you said you didn't get what Gearbox's problem with the "leak" of BL2 and I merely suggested that they may have wanted to be the first to announce it at an upcoming event. As for the piece you linked about Randy saying Duke Nukem is a great game and it doesn't matter as much what the reviews say when it comes to Duke Nukem he is right. Duke sold fairly well considering how bland and crappy the game was and was received and since the article takes place before the game was release would you expect him to say anything else? Shit if people were to honest about a crappy product before it comes out every trailer for his movies would just feature a 30 second clip of M Night Shyamalan saying "once again I'm sorry" followed by the release date.@WiqidBritt said:Forgive me for letting other people's stupidity upset me, I don't know what I was thinking. You said Gearbox was upset at Game Informer, which they are not, they gave Game Informer the exclusive announcement and the first details of the game, Gearbox has no reason to be upset with GI.@Twisted_Scot: seriously? first off, it's eurogamer that he's upset at, and secondly if you think Game Informer is the kind of publication that would risk compromising their relations with developers you are out of your damn mind. Being tied to Gamestop means they pretty much have to fall in line, but at the same time they get a lot of exclusives that way.Wait wait wait....Your getting pissed at me for saying Game informer instead of Eurogamer? Perhaps you should check your replies as I hadn't mentioned GI until you did. You seem to get pissed very easily, perhaps a time-out is in order.
@WiqidBritt said:@Twisted_Scot: the Borderlands 2 announcement wasn't tied to an event, it's tied to the newest issue of Game Informer, who came out and announced it the next day anyway. Being upset about it is one thing, but calling it out as shoddy journalism is in bad taste.
@MordeaniisChaos: how exactly do leaks really hurt anyone? Sure, publishers and developers have PR plans for slowly drip feeding details and announcements to the public, but I don't see how knowing about a game a day or even a few weeks early is really all that damaging except for the publication that was supposed to have the exclusive reveal.
I'll leave you to your ranting.
also, if the text on your computer screen is screaming at you, you may have mental issues that need to be worked out. I am not screaming at all, I'm not even talking aloud as I type things... I don't even move my lips when I read.
@Hailinel said:I played online quite a lot soon after it was released and I had zero bugs, only slight lag because of low pings due to the client and the multiplayer wasn't broken since I always found a game in seconds.What don't you understand? It took them about a year to patch the online to a playable state, and by then the community was non existent, and the UI was still a pain in the ass to use.@crusader8463 said:
After them releasing Borderlands in such a buggy, broken, and unplayable mess of a state I have made a personally vow to never buy another gearbox game at full price again.Whaaaaaa?
@crusader8463 said:Good for you. Me and 5 other people I know of personally couldn't even get past the log in screen, let alone playing with one another. On the rarest of rare of occasions one or two of us got on, but then none of us could connect to one another because we kept getting some Game Spy connection error. We each contacted support separately and all they did was shrug and link to a blog that some user made to supposedly fix the developers crappy game him self to allow people to play online, and even after doing that the game still didn't work.@Hailinel said:I played online quite a lot soon after it was released and I had zero bugs, only slight lag because of low pings due to the client and the multiplayer wasn't broken since I always found a game in seconds.What don't you understand? It took them about a year to patch the online to a playable state, and by then the community was non existent, and the UI was still a pain in the ass to use.@crusader8463 said:
After them releasing Borderlands in such a buggy, broken, and unplayable mess of a state I have made a personally vow to never buy another gearbox game at full price again.Whaaaaaa?
When we gave up on ever being able to play the online co-op focused game online in a co-operative fashion with one another we tried the terrible single player, and boy was it was terrible. Guns would disappear from our inventory at random, organizing the inventory was a constant pain in the ass, enemies/mission objectives would constantly get stuck in walls or just not spawn forcing us to redo missions over and over again, and to top all that off it just wasn't fun to play.
I'm going to go against the grain and say DNF is 100% Gearbox's fault. They didn't make that crap game, but they bought it and got it published. They hyped it up, claimed it was still relevant. If you buy a piece a garbage and sell it to somebody else, you still sold them garbage. It's not even like they were tricked into buying DNF.
@mfpantst: I'm not saying he shouldn't be upset, I would just hope for a bit more professionalism. And yeah, I still don't know how to feel about Brothers in Arms: Furious Four... to go from a franchise that prides itself on realism so much that it's actually telling the story of real soldiers and the battles and skirmishes they took part in to a wacky over the top take on Inglorious Basterds? It seems a little tasteless.
I guess "Deep Throat" was also shoddy journalism, right? *sigh*
Yes, after releasing DNF and now this, Gearbox and Randy Pitchford aren't doing themselves any favors lately. Well, other than making Borderlands 2.
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