Randy Pitchford - Positive Feedback Only

bigdogchris said:
Pitchford recently went on another Twitter rant and said that they only want positive feedback regarding their games. When poked about lack of quality of recent DLC for BL2, it hit a tender spot. Apparently, if you don't like something about his game, he doesn't want to know about it.

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He should write into the TOS of every GBX game that if you leave negative feed back he will fine you $3500, if you do not pay they will report you to a credit agency.
 
The best feedback is constructive criticism. How else do you know how to shape your products?
 
After the horrendous lies and failure of A:CM, I'm done giving Randy Pitchford the benefit of the doubt.
 
Not that I particularly like the guy, but the season pass said from day one what you'd get (I remember having bought it day one). After that I'd expect them to charge.

Pitchford is a bit of a prick though.
 
Spidey329 said:
The best feedback is constructive criticism. How else do you know how to shape your products?
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I'm of the opinion that all criticism is constructive unless it's based on a false premise. In other words, if you fault a product for being red when it's blue, that would be completely useless information. Otherwise, the information is in some way useful. The organization that feels otherwise simply isn't employing analytics to the extent that they should.
 
wonderfield said:
I'm of the opinion that all criticism is constructive unless it's based on a false premise. In other words, if you fault a product for being red when it's blue, that would be completely useless information. Otherwise, the information is in some way useful. The organization that feels otherwise simply isn't employing analytics to the extent that they should.
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The problem with expecting "constructive criticism" from your customers is that it assumes your customers know how to design the type of product you're selling. Lots of us would like to think we've got great ideas about how a game should be designed(myself included), but that doesn't mean we actually do(myself also included). It should be enough for a gamer to say "This menu system is unintuitive" or "Finding new weapons isn't interesting". It's not my job to make the menu intuitive or design interesting weapons, that's the developer's job. If I'm the one paying them I expect them to deliver a product I enjoy. Somehow there are people who see that as an unreasonable expectation.

That being said if Gearbox wants "constructive feedback" then by all means, release your next title with the kind of mod support we get with Skyrim(or other Elder Scrolls games). Doesn't get much more "constructive" than that, and I know I'd be much more interested in Borderlands 3 if that were the case.
 
All feedback is constructive if your professional enough to emotionally detach from it then respond accordingly. That's where he fails...
 
I heard Pitchford likes to suspend himself from the ceiling via fish hooks in his scrotal sac.
 
Those who are extra nice to Pitchford are said to have been anointed with his spittle. "Just a little spittle on the forehead", he'll say, and make it so.
 
Spewn said:
It's not my job to make the menu intuitive or design interesting weapons, that's the developer's job. If I'm the one paying them I expect them to deliver a product I enjoy. Somehow there are people who see that as an unreasonable expectation.
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It's not that it's an unreasonable expectation, it's that it's an expectation in a field that *doesn't give a shit about your expectations*.

Theres not a single company out there who is REQUIRED to do anything decent in this field. A dev and publisher can release a game that's a dot on a screen that doesn't move. They can market it as an action game. If you're dumb enough to buy it, it's your fault. There is no obligation to make it anything special or more appealing.

Similarly, if you buy it, and the only feedback you leave is "This shit sucks, fuck you!", do you think anyone cares that you typed that? You didn't leave feedback, you crapped in a comment somewhere and called it feedback. That's what the vast majority of people consider "feedback".

If you want to provide feedback, you have to give a *reason* why something doesn't work. Even saying "The guns aren't fun" is no help. You need to give a reason why the guns are no fun, because maybe as the game dev, I really enjoy it, and without you telling my why you don't like it, I don't care that you don't like it - you clearly don't have any idea yourself, or you would say "The guns aren't fun, they all feel too slow and heavy for the damage they do" - which gives a game dev an *idea of where to focus*.
 
FighterAce124 said:
It's not that it's an unreasonable expectation, it's that it's an expectation in a field that *doesn't give a shit about your expectations*.
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They do give a shit about my money, though. When I pay for something I expect it to be worthwhile. If it's not, why should I pay for it?

Similarly, if you buy it, and the only feedback you leave is "This shit sucks, fuck you!"...
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Did you read the article quoted in the first post? The person commented on a couple of things they didn't like, and Randy's response was "Fuck you" I'm not sure what your comment is referencing specifically.

Even saying "The guns aren't fun" is no help. You need to give a reason why the guns are no fun, because maybe as the game dev, I really enjoy it, and without you telling my why you don't like it, I don't care that you don't like it
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Like I said, you can't really expect customers to be able to tell you *why* a game wasn't fun. Some of them will, but most of them won't, and it certainly doesn't help to tell them "Fuck you" when they say something in your game wasn't fun. It is of course more helpful if your customers can articulate why they felt like a certain aspect of your game was not fun, but if your response is to get all emotional and start swearing if that doesn't happen...well, I'm not sure what to say. I don't suspect many game devs truly "don't care" what their customers like. Not ones that want to stay in business, that is.

I'm not saying game devs need to bend to every whim of every random poster on the internet, but when your responses to criticism are (paraphrasing) "Stop hurting my feelings." and (direct quote) "Fuck you", you got problems.
 
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