Gearbox CEO On Gamer Criticism: “Some People Are Sadists”

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford dismisses vocal, highly critical gamers as “the kid that kicks down your sandcastle”.

“There is always the person who’s got to stand on the sandcastle, they must crush it,” said Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford at the Develop conference in Brighton, UK. “That’s their way of relating to that. It’s typically a less sophisticated mind. There’s a dark part of us all that likes the idea of crushing a sandcastle, but most of us will respect it and let it be.”

Pitchford used this sandcastle analogy to describe to the “problem” of vocal, highly critical gamers in today’s industry, making some allusions to his own studio’s critically panned Aliens: Colonial Marines and Duke Nukem Forever.

“If you’re making entertainment on a grand scale, if you’re reaching millions, there will be tens of thousands of people who absolutely hate us, and some percentage of those will take it upon themselves to let us known how they feel,” he said.

“I read it in this way: we moved those people, we touched them – even the person who hates [your game] so much, you’ve affected them. That’s why we fight, we’re creating emotion and experience – and some people thrive on that type of feeling, some people are sadists.”

As part of his keynote, Pitchford performed a magic trick based on the classic Three Card Monte street scam, explaining to attendees that while the vast majority of spectators would quietly appreciate the entertainment act, a small percentage would be critical and seek to validate that by attempting to convert others.

So there you go. According to Pitchford’s speech, all of you guys complaining about how laughably broken Colonial Marines was are just that jerk kid at the beach who kicks over sandcastles.

Source: The Guardian