Talk:Randy Pitchford

Untitled

I dont think Randy had anything to do with Aliens: Colonial Marines. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.118.2.93 (talk) 16:38, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

He's the CEO of the company and responsible for the product.50.147.26.108 (talk) 14:31, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

Nonetheless, it doesn't belong in his bio. Especially as the 'stealing' accusation was from an un-named source and not an accusation from Sega. And, if anything, it was breach of contract. No one 'stole' anything. 76.19.65.193 (talk) 23:21, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

"Philanthropy"

Giving money to a Kickstarter isn't philanthropy, nor is the sum of money significant enough. This whole section should be deleted.

Or renamed "Other Activities", that works FilthiestOfPeasant (talk) 00:19, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

What I find highly amusing about that section is how Randy Pitchford probably wrote it himself. I don't mean to gossip on a talk page, but it seems like something he would do. Besides that, I feel the page is somewhat praising him in a strange way that pages about businessmen/game devs usually aren't. Possible WP:NPOV and/or WP:PROMOTION violations, maybe? 51.37.56.49 (talk) 02:44, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

100% agree, whole article felt way more fluffy than anything I have ever read before. Came in here solely because of this. 2601:402:8200:5D30:0:0:0:C154 (talk) 02:27, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

"Views on equity and rights" section, and lack of balance

I don't really see how Randy Pitchford's personal political opinions are particularly noteworthy or worthy of inclusion in a Wikipedia article. Him being one of many people to sign a letter, or being one of many to praise a Supreme Court decision, or his opinions on censorship and the ESRB (citing an op-ed he wrote himself), don't really seem relevant/notable unless the goal is to present him in a positive light because of those views (which should not be the goal). The only potentially noteworthy statement in that entire section is him getting Equality Texas' Business Leadership Award in 2019... But even that might not be notable; it just cites Gearbox's press release of Pitchford responding to the award.

In contrast, the Wikipedia article noticeably fails to mention in the "Lawsuit" section that Pitchford was accused of embezzling money from the company (even though the cited articles themselves make this accusation clear in the title). The cited Yahoo! Finance article is titled "Former Gearbox employee provides proof Randy Pitchford diverted funds to personal company", but the Wikipedia article just says "Callender later provided documents that he claimed backed up his position." There's also no mention anywhere in the article of Pitchford allegedly assaulting David Eddings, which is corroborated by Gearbox co-founder Landon Montgomery (see also here and here. (The Wikipedia article also doesn't mention Pitchford's rants in response to factual coverage of his misleading claims about Borderlands 3...)

Per WP:BLPBALANCE, overly promotional language should be avoided, and disproportionate space shouldn't be given to particular viewpoints (which includes Pitchford's own). And per WP:BLPPUBLIC, noteworthy, relevant, and well documented allegations should be covered in the article even if they're negative (if the subject denies those allegations, that should be mentioned too). V2Blast (talk) 21:42, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

V2Blast, the "Views on equity and rights" and "Speeches and appearances" sections were added by a user who has since been blocked for spam. I removed them whole for now. IceWelder [✉] 22:01, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

@IceWelder: Thanks for the heads-up and for handling the issue! V2Blast (talk) 23:19, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

@Bae-Bong-Cha: Please stop adding this content back without explaination and against consensus. @IceWelder, V2Blast, and Masem: as info. -- ferret (talk) 14:41, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

Support the exclusion of this material. Non-notable business awards or events, even if covered by reliable sources, aren't really important to include. --Masem (t) 15:02, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

@MER-C: May be of interest to you as well, possible overlap with AhadBintiMussah. -- ferret (talk) 15:12, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

• The content was removed for reasons stated above. It should stay out. I don't have the article on my watchlist but I did reset some obviously erroneous edits done since May. IceWelder [✉] 15:34, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

"Works"

I've removed the work list. It was built by one of the frequent COI paid editors buzzing into this article and continued to be expanded by them. In most cases, unreliable sources were being provided from blogs. Additionally, most of the roles were as Executive Producer which is not terribly important. @MER-C: I suspect that NichePenguinLifestyle is the latest among this farm you've been keeping an eye on, however they have only edited here thus far. -- ferret (talk) 20:21, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

• ferret, I can't confirm that suspicion--in fact, I should probably deny it. But those latest two accounts, that's another matter. Good luck. Drmies (talk) 20:35, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
• I don't think I am 'vandalizing' the page. I own a bunch of these games. Drmies I think your threatening me why? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lukepicardkirk (talk • contribs) 20:41, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
  • Hmm Lukepicardkirk I don't know about "threatening", but I am telling you that if you continue to revert, without even the common courtesy of providing an explanation, and despite the commentaries offered in the edit summaries and here on the talk page, yes, you are going to be blocked for disruptive editing, which includes edit warring and insertion of improperly verified material. Drmies (talk) 20:46, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Sorry... threatening is a strong word. The articles looked good, windows central is not a good source? I spent sometime looking for articles and they got deleted. Drmies I don't think my edits should be removed end mass because ferret doesnt think executive producer is an important role. Lukepicardkirk. Can I go back in and put why I think they should be published? —Preceding undated comment added 20:53, 15 October 2020 (UTC) Just bored... (talk) 00:06, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

"Requests to Address Inaccuracies"

@Masem: Hi again. Dan Hewitt from Gearbox here. In addition to some of those suggested edits to the Gearbox Software page, I took a look at this page and saw some inaccuracies I would love to get corrected. First off, the info box mentions “Pitchford Entertainment.” While there is a company registered under that name, it’s inactive as of last spring and Randy isn’t the president or CEO, as reflected in business filings. Is there any possibility we can change that portion of the info box and instead have “CEO and President of Gearbox Entertainment Company” to reflect the company’s restructuring over the last few years?

Second, the career section seems to be missing some recent updates from Randy’s time at Gearbox, despite that being what he’s best known for. Do you think it would be possible for you or other editors to build that section out using pre-approved sources from the Gearbox Software page? Some relevant items might include this about beginning the Borderlands franchise, this and this about the expansion into Canada, and this about the merger with Embracer. Let me know how I can be helpful here. Thanks and I appreciate your help! -- DanHewittGBX (talk) 13:31, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

@Masem: Hi again. What are your thoughts on the following?:

"In 2007, Pitchford announced the creation of the Borderlands (series) series and the original Borderlands (video game) game, which was released in 2009.. He has served as Executive Producer for the series, with Borderlands 2 coming out in 2012, followed by Borderlands 3 in 2019. In late 2015, Gearbox opened a new studio in Quebec City, which Pitchford said would "help us build fun and exciting video games within our tent-pole brands." Pitchford then announced a second Canadian studio in Montreal in 2021. Pitchford led Gearbox through the company's acquisition by Embracer Group in early 2021, saying "Gearbox doesn’t need to do this. It’s just that we have the capability to go so much faster than we would ever be able to if we continued to only grow within the margins of our own success.” -- DanHewittGBX (talk) 16:30,10 January 2022 (UTC)

• I have used some other sources to better expand Pitchford's current placement. However, I'm not sure on the other factors such as expanding to Canada or reasoning about Embracer acquisition - those would be better on the Gearbox page as they're less about Pitchford (I have to discussion the publishing division here as to explain the parent company formation). But let me know if you see anything else you think could be added. --Masem (t) 03:33, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

@Masem: Thanks for helping out with those edits--everything you said above makes sense to me. I have one other thing I’d love to pick your brains about. I’ve noticed some other developers and designers like Will Wright (game designer), Todd Howard, and [[John Romero]] have their games bullet-pointed out in a section on their pages. Do you think Randy’s page could benefit from something like that? We have a list internally here if it’s at all helpful. . -- DanHewittGBX (talk) 10:05,18 January 2022 (UTC)

@Masem: Wanted to reach out again because Randy actually took home an award last week at the Tech Titans Awards in Texas. . Is this the type of thing that would be worthy of an inclusion on Wikipedia? Just trying to gauge what to send over. -- DanHewittGBX (talk) 12:02, 2 February 2022 (UTC)

@Masem: I was wondering if it would be ok to make edits directly and do the COI disclosure here, and then have you review them. Maybe for that list of games/gameography? Thanks again for your help. -- DanHewittGBX (talk) 14:30, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

• Sorry for the late reply, I've not been able to devote as much time to WP lately. On the game list, I think it would be fine that you can add this as long as it follows approach on those other pages, keeping in mind that you do have COI so just to avoid overt promotion. Eg: keep it to the games he has major input in, and not just those he may have just touched briefly. On the awards, hold on of this, as I know we have a policy that I can't find immediately that we try to avoid promotion of small-scale awards (that Tech Titans is limited to norther Texas from what I can see). I'm not saying we can't include it but I need to verify where the policy stands on it. --Masem (t) 05:20, 10 February 2022 (UTC)

@Masem: No worries at all! We will work on the gameography and ensure that it is all games Randy was very active in creating. Understood on the awards, we will hold there. Thanks for your help and input. -- DanHewittGBX (talk) 10:20, 10 February 2022 (UTC)

@Masem: Just added a works list per your instructions. Also adding a COI statement at top of this page. This isn’t complete, but I wanted to add the major works in for third-party editors to review. Let me know if it all checks out to you. Happy to add references if need be! -- DanHewittGBX (talk) 22:19, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

@Masem: Thanks again for your help on getting that gameography up. As I referenced a month or two ago, a lot of those developers and designers like Will Wright (game designer) and Todd Howard have awards/recognition sections or subsections. I’m with you on leaving out Tech Titans for now, but what is your view on including a section like that with some of the more well-known national awards? Those would include some D.I.C.E. Awards, some Webby Awards, some BAFTA Games Award nominations, GLAAD Media Awards nominations, etc. Happy to add this in myself for editors to approve, but wanted to get your perspective on neutrality/COI rules first. Thanks! -- DanHewittGBX (talk) 16:02, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

@Masem: Thanks for adding in the Magic Castle news. Just added a bit more substance about Randy’s involvement in the magic community to the early life and education section around your previous edit. Let me know if it all checks out to you under Wikipedia’s COI guidelines. Happy to make edits if need be! -- DanHewittGBX (talk) 20:44, 13 April 2022 (UTC)

I think those additions are fair since they're all coming from third-party sources. --Masem (t) 01:21, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

References

Requests to Add Awards and Recognition

@Masem: Hi Masem. I want to re-open the discussion around adding an awards and recognition section to Randy’s page.

As I raised previously, many game developers, designers, and CEOs like Todd Howard and Andrew Wilson have awards/recognition sections or subsections.

I was hoping to get your feedback regarding the potential of adding a list of awards Randy’s games have been nominated for/won, as well as some of his achievements, such as the Tech Titans Award and the recent founding of Gearbox Gives. Thanks! DanHewittGBX (talk) 16:38, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

@Masem: Hi Masem. I added a new section listing Randy's awards/recognitions. Would you happen to have any thoughts on or suggested changes to the content? Looking forward to your feedback. Thanks again for all your help! DanHewittGBX (talk) 19:42, 30 May 2023 (UTC)