Review scores don’t matter!
So says Randy Pitchford, King of Gearbox and inheritor of 3D Realms’ sloppy seconds. With Duke Nukem Forever finally gold after fourteen years in development, the studio prez is on the PR trail for a little preliminary damage control. Not surprisingly for someone as unoriginal as Pitchford, his approach is… review scores don’t matter.
This is what he says, from Eurogamer:
[…I’m not worried about the critical reception] …We also know that it’s a very difficult problem for journalists, so there’s going to be very few of them that decide to go perfect.It leaves it in this band there where you’re going to see a lot of 8s and 9s, and the number in that range doesn’t matter. Even if some people start to skew in some 7s in there, it’s not going to matter to the actual results in that band of outcomes.
We know the game’s great. Any journalist that decides to try to go… to lowball it is gonna be held accountable by the readers.
Okay, first things first!
Randy, Randy. Randy. Seriously, dude. The English language is a privilege. Grammar is a beautiful thing, and sorely maltreated by your final remark. Let’s look!
Instead, may I propose a more compelling and structurally sound alternative?
Yes, there we go. Much better.
More to the point, studio directors who say “reviews don’t matter” are a lot like struggling politicians who say “polls don’t matter.” It doesn’t matter that the Earth revolves around the Sun, but it’s good to know as a point of reference.
I’m sure Randy Pitchford is a delightful person, but I really can’t stand his behavior. Certainly, public remarks like those above are not abnormal for game industry people, but to my mind it would be advisable instead to rise above the fray. Indeed, to do so would garner respect and further validate the stated opinion. Unfortunately people don’t think before they speak.
Here’s what Randy should have said:
Well, I can’t be sure how the reviewers will react. We think the game is great – of course we do – but we’re probably not the most impartial judges! [pause for self-deprecating laugh]
But to answer your question I’ll say this: I hope the reviews are good. I believe they’ll be good. I’ll even go further – I believe the majority of reviews will be in the 8 to 9 range, with a few respectable 7s. Certainly some reviewers will focus on the game’s development time and roll out the tired Duke Nukem Forever jokes. Some will choose to judge the game on its reputation rather than its merits and assign a low score; some may just not like it. That’s fair. But I think gamers and reviewers who approach DNF looking for a hell of a thrilling piece of entertainment, most of them are gonna enjoy what they find.
Was that so hard? I mean seriously people.
I don’t know if Duke Nukem Forever will get good or bad reviews. Offhand I’d speculate that they’ll average out to mediocre. As mentioned during the lively forum discussion on this topic, the real danger is that Gearbox, and 3D Realms before it, forgot what made Duke Nukem 3D so memorable. It wasn’t the character, it wasn’t the strippers, it wasn’t the dick jokes. It was the game.
D3D was a really, really innovative game. It introduced play mechanics so foundational to today’s shooters that younger players would be hard pressed to imagine an FPS without them: jumping, vertical freelook, secondary fire, destructible terrain, interactive objects. There was a time when shooters didn’t have those things, people, and that time was called “The Time Before Duke Nukem 3D.”
So Forever will only be worthwhile if it brings that same spirit of innovation. Personally I don’t think it will, I think both developers believe it’s Duke himself, with his blowjobs and closeted-homosexual beefcake assholery, that caused gamers to swarm away from DOOM and toward Duke.
That belief would be in error, and no amount of spinning the irrelevance of scored reviews will change that.
Send an email to the author of this post at steerpike@tap-repeatedly.com.
RPS gave it a “it’s fine” initial demo impressions. Anyway, I love red ink! Squeee!
I haven’t seen anyone diagram sentences since I was in the 7th grade! Brings back all kinds of memories… I’m still deciding if those memories are good or bad. 😀
No offense Steerpike, but do you really want to throw down the grammar gauntlet on this site? The “its/it’s” and “there/their” crimes committed by Mat C alone…
The guy was speaking at a press event, right? Give him a break.
Not exactly the point of the post there, Adam. Or, rather, their, Adam.
Pitchford is a goon. Was he running the place when they introduced themselves to the world with Opposing Force?
I don’t know what alternate-universe-Gearbox made that game but the Gearbox that has inhabited this world ever since has a serious foot-in-mouth problem.
Who the hell is Adam?
Regarding the issue at hand.. I always find it a little obnoxious when developer or publisher bods make these sort of remarks. It reads a little like “If you think our product is bad, you’re wrong”, which is surely only going to get people’s backs up?
It seems like a strange comment to make during the PR trail. To me this either suggests they know their product is bad or they have already caught wind that the specialist press are prepared to slate it. As a potential consumer, this sort of obvious damage limitation makes me question the games quality. If Gearbox don’t have faith in it, then why should I or my wallet?
Part of me still can’t wait to see what happens when the game does launch though. It’s a piece of gaming history really, isn’t it? Thirteen years of stop/start development across different studios should certainly be interesting. Bulletstorm has already tickled my itch for a humorous FPS this year though, and it did so in a really witty and intelligent way. Plus the whole “babes” thing doesn’t sit right with me. I’m no prude, but stuff like sex mini games in God of War or pretty much everything they’ve shown of Forever so far makes my toes curl through the soles of my feet.
I once had an English lecturer who was quite wild in his opinions; he objected entirely to obsession with grammar and spelling. His thoughs: “if you can read it, and understand it, who cares?”.
As for their/there, it’s/its I personally don’t care Adam. It’s the meaning of the writing I’m after!
Oh and Steerpike, great piece. I couldn’t agree more. I think it’ll be shit, that this is jus damage control. In reality though, Gearbox will make a mint from DNF.
I’d be interested to see how the pre-orders are going, but no one’s shown me any numbers.
Who publishes Gearbox? 2K I think. This would be another great opportunity that the corporate brass will miss: launch this game at $19. I guarantee it would double their Day Zero sales out of the gate. Launch with a $12.99 price point and I personally promise they’d move five times as many units as they will with standard pricing.
Because, as Mat says, it’s a piece of gaming history, whether it deserves it or not. Like Starcraft 2. I bought that game because I felt… like I should, I guess. I’m not buying Duke Nukem unless the reviews are good (see! Scores matter!), but I’d pick it up for a bargain price. This is one I can wait for the holiday sale on.
@ Lewis: was “thoughs” intentional? 😉
@ Matt: in the UK, £17.99 seems to be the new sweet spot lower price for a lot of boxed products. Naturally those games that don’t sell reach this point faster than those that do, but most get there in the end even if it’s as part of a Christmas sale. I suspect Duke will be seeing that sticker price quite soon.. I may or may not bite once it does. £20 Day One though and I’d have probably caved in. Like you say, it comes down to marketing again.. and I’m a firm believer that more games should experiment more with how they’re brought to market and priced.
The big players are gonna go down just like the music industry. Crying all the way, whining for what’s “rightfully theirs” while they charge obscene prices.
The reality is that the future will go indie. Indie is only indie until everyone starts following their lead, and one day the big dogs will have to be charging the same as Frictional, for example.
It’s just a matter of time.
First of all, I don’t see why this is a problem for journalists. Is he attempting to lay blame at their feet if the scores are middling?
Secondly, these types of statements seem to come off as pre-emptive feigned nonschalance. If he’s not worried about the score, then why dedicate time and energy crying to the winds over it.
Thirdly – this was at a press conference? With the press? So he’s telling journalists and the assembled press how to do their jobs? If nothing else, then I guess it’s ok for us to tell Mr Pitchford how to do his job.
Steerpike: “Not exactly the point of the post there, Adam.”
I wasn’t the one who put the big sentence diagrams in the post 😉 *My* point was that very few of us speak eloquently when speaking without prepared remarks, and that it was a low blow to take him to task for his grammar before you got to *your* point. You don’t comment on the grammatical mistakes of other writers on this site, who have the advantage of opportunity to consider their language carefully before hitting the “submit” button.
Mat C: “Who the hell is Adam?”
A longtime reader.
Lewis B: “As for their/there, it’s/its I personally don’t care Adam. It’s the meaning of the writing I’m after!”
I generally agree. In fact, that was sort of my point. Calling Pitchford out for the content of his remarks is perfectly valid. Needling him over the grammar seemed to me unsporting.
@Jarrod: it consistently amazes me how many industry people will do this. Of course, it happens in all media – filmmakers often do the same thing when their work gets bad reviews. I think it’s a natural, kneejerk defensive response. What’s funny is that people tend to admire honestly and candor over defensiveness. Pitchford’s good at getting ink; remarks like this ensure more attention, even though I believe he’d have done better to respond with more candor and humility.
@Adam: unsporting maybe, but also comedy gold. I am very witty. I mean, I am really, really witty. If wit were gold I would have a lot of gold. One might even argue that wit is a special talent of mine. Sure, I could’ve gone straight into my point, but instead I took time to actually diagram and mark up those sentences. That’s some fucking wit right there. Hell, you can’t swing a cat around me without hitting some wit. I’m witty like bunnies. I’m witty until the cows come home. I’m witty five ways to Friday.
It’s a gift, really.
@ Adam
Fair play. I’m just curious if your complaint is specific to me or a complaint in general. I’ve had a very quick flick through my previous articles and acknowledge there are a few mistakes with the “It/s” (not spell checking or proof reading – both my fault, both will be changed) but I don’t think there is a particular problem with much else, or my grasp of there/they’re/their. If you’re willing to name drop me as a particularly bad example, I’d really appreciate your feedback so I can improve. Give me an email. That’s not confrontational, by the way. That’s “if you have a problem, help me improve” – please.
@ Mat C
I probably shouldn’t have singled you out specifically, because it was a complaint about the site in general.
(If it was a complaint at all, that is. My purpose wasn’t to try to effect change here on Tap Repeatedly, only to take issue with poking fun at Pitchford’s on-the-spot spoken grammar. Anyway, moving on.)
Your name popped into mind first because it has frequently been at the top of posts I have read which contained enough “its/it’s” and “there/their” substitutions to make me take note of the author. This is anecdotal and may mean nothing more than that I read more of your posts than others’. These mistakes don’t make me think “What a dope,” they make me think “This site needs a copy editor.”
For the record, I’ve gone back and read several recent posts of yours and also found little to complain about. If somehow my memory has played a trick on me and the repeat “its/it’s” offender isn’t you, I apologize.
Randy is in the news again, along with Duke’s voice actor. Apparently “customers” (extra emphasis on that) love Duke and that’s reflected by the games sales. Also, according to Dukes voice actor, everyone is missing the point because were all trying to compare it to Call of Duty. Duke is, in fact, “sexy”, “funny” and “irreverent”.
I’ve not even bought the game and yet I still feel sick of being told I’m wrong, or being patronised for what boils down to having an opinion. I haven’t bought Duke Nukem Forever yet because both critical AND consumer reaction has been brutally scathing. Clearly, it’s not a great game, and I think it’s wrong to casually dismiss people’s opinions as just not “getting it”.
As a potential future consumer I think I’ve reached a point where I don’t even want to support Duke Nukem or Randy Pritchford with my money. This desperate damage control and frankly pathetic carry on from somebody who should be representing his product in the best possible way has put me off more than Eurogamers 3/10 review did.
3/10? Ouch. That’s not even a 7 or (gasp!) a dirty 6.
Being Eurogamer you should be shocked it’s anything but an 8.
Humility-driven damage control: Brad Wardell. Ego-driven damage control: Randy “dropped on head as baby” Pritchford.
In 12 short years Gearbox have gone from surprise heroes to naught.
Duke Nukem Forever being released is like The Rolling Stones still trying to make music: who the hell cares?
“The real value of Duke Nukem Forever is that you can use it to gauge the range of any reviewer’s lowest rating.”
That is why I like Tom Chick.
Just played the demo.
It’s horse shit.
Blacklist me, 2K.