It’s the gaming millions against the developing hundreds, calling QA a ”human process.” Pitchford gives thumbs up to ”awesome constructiveness”, and asks that we ”don’t be weak-sauce.”
This post by Randy Pitchford to gamers ties in somewhat with BioWare’s David Gaider on ’forum toxicity’. The Gearbox big cheese admits he’s been ”afraid to post lately”.
”We have top men working on this stuff. Top men,” declares Pitchford, regarding all the feedback on troubles with Borderlands 2. ”We also play our game a lot before releasing adjustments into the wild. When we feel good about something, we go for it with confidence. I trust our top men and generally defend them as knowing what they’re doing.”
”Remember that it’s a human process. Check it out: You play the game much more than we do because you are millions of people and we are hundreds. So some among you might notice things we didn’t,” he adds.
Recently there have been some rumblings on the Gearbox forums about guns that aren’t perhaps firing their projectiles as they should, or have ‘weird angles’ when they fire. Pitchford himself is unsure if those were intended or not.
”Thanks for being awesome if you’re awesome. I see a lot of awesome constructiveness and it makes me proud and excited and it’s also helpful to the Top Men. I also see some weak-sauce here and there around the forums and I think you know what I’m talking about. That makes me sad and makes me want to shut things down to make the weak-sauce go away,” Pitchford continued. ”So, don’t be weak-sauce. Be awesome.”
”I don’t mean to make a threat, please do not take this sentiment as one, but I do think it’s responsible of me to give you some fair insight into my very human emotional response to some of the behavior I see sometimes. I think you know what I mean. So be cool.” BioWare’s David Gaider remarked about his own studio’s forums that it can feel like your ‘stuck at a party where all anyone is doing is bitching’.
”We should all be grateful for the garbage-pointer-outer-people,” acknowledged the boss. ”It’s important to sweep the field and keep it tidy and we need to spot the garbage in order to sweep it up. So garbage-pointer-outer-people are helpful and their hearts are in the right place, usually.” This follows on from his ‘garbage on the football field’ analogy.
”It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything to the forums. I read them a lot, but I have to confess that I’ve been afraid to post lately - since before the game launched. I’m afraid that fear has gotten worse instead of better. I don’t think any of us are happiest about that. But people take things out of context… Anyway, I love our community and want to participate more, but there’s a lot of risk in it because of how some people are.”
”Most of you are awesome, but some of you guys are CRAZY! (Am I right?) But all of you are important, and you’re why we do what we do. So try to be as awesome as you can be as you play here together with us. Stop every once and awhile and drink a nice, tall, cold glass of perspective and think about the kind of attitude the very best people in this world have and try to have that attitude. And, most importantly, don’t forget to enjoy the game.”
Check out Randy Pitchford’s full post on the official Gearbox Software forums.
As for the latest PC patch, the changelog has been posted:
● Added support for text input using the gamepad for Steam’s Big Picture mode.
● Fixed a bug causing players to sometimes get stuck in the “Whoops” mission of the Captain Scarlett DLC.
● Deathtrap can no longer restore an enemy’s shields, even though it was hilarious.
● Fixed a bug that caused off-hand weapons to sometimes deal improper damage while Gunzerking.
● Addressed an issue where shotguns did not receive full damage boosts from skills and gear.
