Borderlands 2 "Girlfriend Mode" Helps Noobs Win

NightHawk21

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Biodeamon said:
NightHawk21 said:
I think this is a cool idea. Maybe not how I would've implemented it since that leaves 4 characters that the other person can't really choose, but I like that they're considering everyone playing.

DVS BSTrD said:
If you can't aim a pistol you shouldn't be playing FPS. Period.
Get your fukin elitism out of here. You couldn't aim a gun in an FPS at one point too.
you know everyone has their opinions...and before you go on about "elitist scum" do you really want a wave of kids who can't aim staright flooding in your game? think about it. that whinny 6 year-old you constantly see everyday? now imagine if he was xbox live. And chances are they only thing stopping him from going on it are that he lacks the skills to actually play. Do you really want those kinds of people on xbox live? do you?
Here's the thing annoying little kids who think they're good and just want to play and ***** at people are going to do it anyways (see any CoD online scene, or if you're a PC player just go play a couple rounds of LoL). If you think the fact that these kids aren't good enough to play online is going to stop them you're pretty delusional. In addition to everything said, the entire thing about random kids playing online is irrelevant.

The mode is there to help someone more causal (for lack of a better word) jump in the game and play with you. By definition you are going to be playing with people you know not some random kids. Now obviously this won't always be the case since the tree is available to everyone, but I don't see how that reconciles with your argument either. I would imagine that since these "noobs" will come online and somehow join your game you would want them to contribute as much to the team as possible, so it would seem to me like this tree would make it so you have less dead weight to carry around.

It is also worth bringing up that everyone starts playing videogames somewhere. I don't know how old you are, but chances are that if you're over 18 you remember playing your first modern (referring to the control scheme) shooter. I don't know if it was my first, but I know that when the first Halo came out I was still really bad at modern shooters. I played it at a friends house and at the beginning it was so bad that a single fodder enemy was giving me trouble. Imagine now if my friend was an ass and instead of keep playing with me he said (like the original quote) "If you can't aim you shouldn't be playing." I'd have been turned off an entire genre and not been able to experience some truly amazing games.

In short, your argument is weak and not well thought as as this change will also fix your main issue, and IMO any change that introduces more people to gaming is a good change.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

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Everyone, from casual gamer to hardcore gamer deserves a chance to enjoy a game. And the attitude of the "hardcore gamer" (read: elitist douchebag) that only they should have access to "their" game is ridiculous. Like how Blizz opened up raids to less-than-elite players through Raid-Finder. This doesn't discredit hardcore gamers, and doesn't give casual players things that "only the elite" can get, just allows everyone to enjoy content regardless of playing skill.
I don't really think the whole "Girlfriend" mode is anything but a joke, but of course people are going to scream sexism.
The internet unfortunately is more of a *****-box for anyone to take up causes and I suspect that a lot of people who cry out aren't really interested in said cause, but rather want attention. People who fall into that category should grow up a little and leave the "community organizing" to people who actually care about it.
And on another note, some people should realize that a joke is a joke, and if you don't find it funny you don't have to get up in arms about it. Getting offended over offhand comments/jokes is another sign of needing to mature just a bit.
 

SacremPyrobolum

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Lucane said:
KingsGambit said:
Wow, an ad and shameless plug delivered in the form of an editorial piece? Is this an Escapist first??

Fr said:
anc[is]At least they gave the girlfriend tree to the awesome female character and not the dolled up prostitute with an SMG
I'm sure you aren't referring to Lillith who is leaps and bounds the best and most powerful player character from the original game.
I think he's talking about Lilith's replacement siren Maya. Wearing what sorta looks like low-cut pants and a one piece wet-suit.
Well, there is nothing inherently sexist about looking sexy and in my opinion Maya doesn't look trashy at all, in fact less so than her counterpart.



But I have always been of the opinion that the community seems to go of the rails a little bit when seeing female characters as they would critique literally everything about her look and will ***** incessantly if they find one thing attractive about her.

It's just another form of sexism, saying people can't be sexy without being made into sex objects.
 

WanderingFool

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DVS BSTrD said:
WanderingFool said:
DVS BSTrD said:
NightHawk21 said:
I think this is a cool idea. Maybe not how I would've implemented it since that leaves 4 characters that the other person can't really choose, but I like that they're considering everyone playing.

DVS BSTrD said:
If you can't aim a pistol you shouldn't be playing FPS. Period.
Get your fukin elitism out of here. You couldn't aim a gun in an FPS at one point too.
Learning to shot is what ARCADE games are for, or were you never dropped of at a boardwalk as a child?
Firstly, not everyone wants to waste quarters on those freaking Light-gun games.

Second, playing a Console or PC FPS is not the same as a Light-gun game, which is the only shooting game I can think of you refering to.

Thridly... hrmmmm... *insert joke comment about being left on a boardwalk as a child*
If you can't point at something using a joy/analogue stick and if you've never played in an arcade, then you're not a real gamer.

And you never attended a boardwalk birthday party? I pity you.
There arent any boardwalks near where Ive lived... Though there was this one time I went to Coney Island... but I didnt like it as there was a bunch of guys in leather vests bunching people dressed up as baseball players and wearing overalls... seemed sketchy...
 

maninahat

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Jhooud said:
The unfortunate choice of title for this mode aside, this really does sound like a great idea! My wife can't really keep up with me, my son or my daughter. Something like this would allow her to play along with the rest of us and not get frustrated.

Why not just call it Casual-mode or some such?
I'd like to think that the "girlfriend" thing is just a working title. Then again...

It does sound like a good idea, especially as my girlfriend sucks at FPSs. It might be nice to give her a chance.

EDIT: according to Rock paper shotgun, the "Girlfriend" thing was an unofficial, working title used by some clueless team member. It's officially called the "Friends forever tree".
 

NightHawk21

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DVS BSTrD said:
NightHawk21 said:
I think this is a cool idea. Maybe not how I would've implemented it since that leaves 4 characters that the other person can't really choose, but I like that they're considering everyone playing.

DVS BSTrD said:
If you can't aim a pistol you shouldn't be playing FPS. Period.
Get your fukin elitism out of here. You couldn't aim a gun in an FPS at one point too.
Lucane said:
everybody was a rookie or a noob once.Their partly trying to make a character that leans towards helping raw new players or for ones that want an extra challenge outside of just making enemies more or less bulletproff. (I also foresee bad respones because of the "Girlfriend" name of the tree.)
Learning to shot is what ARCADE games are for, or were you never dropped of at a boardwalk as a child?
As someone else has already pointed out, unless you're playing games on the wii or using the ps move the skills you developed playing light gun shooters are not exactly transferable.
 

Rule Britannia

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Don't get me wrong this sounds cool and I'm really looking forward to Borderlands 2 BUT this is the noob tube theory. The new players will hardly get better if it's being made easy for them. The only way you get betterv at something is if you play with better players or more powerful npcs.

Looking forward to this game soooooo much :O
 

PapstJL4U

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DVS BSTrD said:
If you can't point at something using a joy/analogue stick and if you've never played in an arcade, then you're not a real gamer.

And you never attended a boardwalk birthday party? I pity you.
you were born with a controller in your hand? Everyone, who plays for fun and isnt an asshole is a realgamer...
Your lack of social awarness and empathie for other groups (and reading skills?) is just amazing.

@Sexismtopic: John Hemingway is lead designer an explained his idea and how he got it. He told the truth. The idea had a sexistic background, but thats no reason to suddenly lie about it. Maybe if Hemingway is gay and he has a boyfriend, then he would have called it boyfriend-mode, but it looks like he isnt. They already changed the name to bff...:/.
 

StriderShinryu

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Aside from the unfortunate word choice and then massive overreaction to said word choice, when you actually look at what he's talking about, it sounds pretty cool. My girlfriend is a huge fan of Diablo style loot drop games but ian't really much of a well rounded gamer, so this sort of mode may be a great way to get her foot in the door and allow her some expeience without the frustration of constantly getting killed. I also like the fact that, because it's a character based skill tree, the whole game doesn't have to be lowered in difficulty to support it.

I guess my concerns are two fold. First, while I like the character design a lot, it kind of sucks to have this sort of skill tree only available on this particular character. Second, it sucks that you have to wait so long for this character to be available in game.
 

Compatriot Block

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And here, this article, is where some people have crossed from pushing for equality to white-knighting.

My girlfriend (who loves video games, but sometimes has trouble with the FPS genre) thinks this is an awesome idea, and laughed at the unofficial name. Yes yes, anecdotal, not representative, etc., but sometimes you need to pick your battles rather than working up everything into a frothing rage.
StriderShinryu said:
Aside from the unfortunate word choice and then massive overreaction to said word choice, when you actually look at what he's talking about, it sounds pretty cool. My girlfriend is a huge fan of Diablo style loot drop games but ian't really much of a well rounded gamer, so this sort of mode may be a great way to get her foot in the door and allow her some expeience without the frustration of constantly getting killed. I also like the fact that, because it's a character based skill tree, the whole game doesn't have to be lowered in difficulty to support it.

I guess my concerns are two fold. First, while I like the character design a lot, it kind of sucks to have this sort of skill tree only available on this particular character. Second, it sucks that you have to wait so long for this character to be available in game.
Exactly. Honestly, the only problem I have with his choice of words is he should have known how volatile the gaming community is right now, and how likely they were to blow it up in his face.
 

Lucane

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SacremPyrobolum said:
Lucane said:
KingsGambit said:
Wow, an ad and shameless plug delivered in the form of an editorial piece? Is this an Escapist first??

Fr said:
anc[is]At least they gave the girlfriend tree to the awesome female character and not the dolled up prostitute with an SMG
I'm sure you aren't referring to Lillith who is leaps and bounds the best and most powerful player character from the original game.
I think he's talking about Lilith's replacement siren Maya. Wearing what sorta looks like low-cut pants and a one piece wet-suit.
Well, there is nothing inherently sexist about looking sexy and in my opinion Maya doesn't look trashy at all, in fact less so than her counterpart.



But I have always been of the opinion that the community seems to go of the rails a little bit when seeing female characters as they would critique literally everything about her look and will ***** incessantly if they find one thing attractive about her.

It's just another form of sexism, saying people can't be sexy without being made into sex objects.
Um I'm not sure if that was directed(in part)at me to or not but I wasn't saying either looked like a hooker but that the OP of this quote might have meant Maya instead of Lilith. I wasn't saying it's a crime to be lethal and sexy,sorry if I came off as such.

(*)= Edit.
 

scotth266

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This is perhaps the stupidest pair of mountains I've seen people make out of a molehill.

The skill tree is REALLY called Best Friends Forever, which is a gender-neutral term. His use of the "Girlfriend" term was purely used to describe his view of a companion-type skill tree: he's a straight guy (I think) so he used the term that was most familiar to him: girlfriend - the fact that the character is a girl also probably helped him select that term. This is not sexism in any way, shape, or form.

Secondly, the pissing and moaning about "casuals" ruining your game is complete bullcrap. The ability to hit things even if you miss is something that will be useful to both people new to games and old hands alike: in fact, you could argue that it actually helps people in the middle the most, as that person will bit hitting most of the time, but still getting the extra damage from the rebounding bullets. And we still don't know any of the other abilities in the tree, either.
 

Fr]anc[is

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KingsGambit said:
Fr said:
anc[is]At least they gave the girlfriend tree to the awesome female character and not the dolled up prostitute with an SMG
I'm sure you aren't referring to Lillith who is leaps and bounds the best and most powerful player character from the original game.
I am. Your point?
 

NightHawk21

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DVS BSTrD said:
PapstJL4U said:
DVS BSTrD said:
If you can't point at something using a joy/analogue stick and if you've never played in an arcade, then you're not a real gamer.

And you never attended a boardwalk birthday party? I pity you.
you were born with a controller in your hand? Everyone, who plays for fun and isnt an asshole is a realgamer...
Your lack of social awarness and empathie for other groups (and reading skills?) is just amazing.
NightHawk21 said:
As someone else has already pointed out, unless you're playing games on the wii or using the ps move the skills you developed playing light gun shooters are not exactly transferable.
I didn't say you had to be good at it, but if you can't be bothered to do it yourself, then what the hell are you playing a shooter for?

@PapstJL4U: how do you know I wasn't?
I believe you did. You said you if you can't aim you shouldn't be playing. Based on the information presented in the story, mainly that you still need shoot in the general direction of the enemy, and your response indicates that you have a problem with this (ie. you should be able to hit the enemy yourself, or you could say be good at aiming).

Also people play games for different reasons. Sometimes people play stuff cause one of the people likes it and you play cause your curious or to spend time with them. Hell I got a buddy who loves Dynasty Warriors and I'm indifferent about it, but if we're waiting on something we might load it up and play a level or two.