It is a natural human instinct to “protect what’s yours.” When it comes to creatives, it’s just as natural to defend what you have made, especially if you really think that it’s good. On a certain objective level, that’s to be praised, as it highlights your passion for the project in question and that you’re willing to “stand up to those insulting it.” But, in the case of Borderlands 4, the man who heads up Gearbox Software, Randy Pitchford, goes a bit too far in trying to defend the game. After all, he’s not simply calling out trolls who hate it for unfair reasons…he’s called out anyone and everyone who insults it or notes a legit problem with it.
You might recall when the game first dropped, players from all over called out the optimization issues, and Randy Pitchford replied, noting that “people should make their own engines, then, and sell them to us!” Yeah, not the coolest. Then, when things continued on, Randy straight-up told people to refund the game “if they weren’t having a good time,” which is something that no dev should say.
Thankfully, a small turning point happened over the last few days. In a chat with certain gamers on Twitter, Randy was then told of a key multiplayer bug that wouldn’t allow players to share their loot with one another. That’s supposed to be a key mechanic of the game. So, Randy made two replies to the person. The first was his “stunned” reaction, as he didn’t expect it to be that way. Then, he posted:
“Confirmed known bug. Fixed and will be in an upcoming patch within the next two weeks.”
Hopefully, this will show Randy Pitchford that the fans are trying to help and that they can point out certain things so that Gearbox can mark them down and adjust them when the time comes. This isn’t the first time that fans have been acknowledged by Gearbox for the things they’ve spotted, including one time when a player discovered a glitch that would allow them to skip large chunks of the map due to a jumping bug.
What Randy seems to have forgotten…was his own words. Before the release of Borderlands 4, Pitchford noted that players are the “ultimate QA testers,” and he said he WANTED them to break the game. Well, they did, in certain ways, and now it’s your job to fix it.
How long “calm Randy” will remain online is anyone’s guess.
