Gearbox Wonders Why People Aren't Ripping Off Borderlands

[Bigeyez]

If it had been a bigger hit it would indeed have been copied. I personally found the game to be pretty boring and to this day haven't bothered to finish it because of that. Even the cell shading was hardly new. It just wasn't used often. It's a niche game in a genre (shooter RPGs) that other games, *coughfalloutcough* seem to pull off better.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Wasn't Bulletstorm (had to force my brain to remember the name of the game) supposed to be the arcady humorous pseudo rip off of Borderlands? I didn't play it, and don't know anyone that did, but it had Steve Blum and lots of cursing I think.

Honestly though, I can't really think of a game that has ALL the elements that Borderlands has at the same time. I can list funny games with cartoonish cellshaded violence (No More Heros), games that are shooters but have skill trees/level ups (Deus Ex/Fallout), and games with lots of randomly generated loot (Diablo), but only one I know of that has all that and Moxxi's bewbs...I mean loveable Clap Trap -_-;

And they hold the world record, which the sequel is shattering, of the most guns in any game ever. If you just add in all the mods, shields, etc. of which there is waaaay more new kinds in BL2 they are pretty well blowing the loot benchmark away.

I mean in Skyrim you might find one of about 20 different kinds of the same 8 types of weapon, possibly with an enchantment. Ditto with armor/rings etc.

And the game just goes on and on and on, and I'm still playing it. My point is that they get away with having almost no incentive to actually loot chests and enter dungeons, compared to BL which can have something awesome literally pop up several times an hour that completely changes your playstyle because you found a sweet new item and wanna use it.

Its a "ooh I found a glass helm of waterbreathing to disenchant" vs. "I just found a shotgun that shoots rockets AND a sniper rifle that shoots acid. Guess I'll retire my alien lightning bolt shooter... ooh shiny!" (\(^3^)/)

 

[weirdee]

Considering that Borderlands is Diablo with guns, I'd say there's not a lot original to rip off.

What, besides its distinctive visual style, clever writing and wickedly dark sense of humor?

I don't remember Diablo having rocket launchers that fired rockets that also fired smaller rockets.

 

[Tsaba]

That's because the Borderlands 2 trailer had all the wub wubs.

Nobody can copy it if all the wub wubs have been taken.

but, it's only 96.5% wub wub... what about the other 3.5%.... WHAT IS THE OTHER 3.5%!!!

 

[Waaghpowa]

Not everyone in the video game industry rips each other off....

...Just the mobile developers..

 

[octafish]

It is just another loot-em-up with a camera change, what could people rip off?
Cell Shading? Ok sure, but most other devs can get their graphics to work so they don't need cell shading.
Dull, repetitive gameplay? Plenty of games do that.
Fifty gazillion guns that are more like twenty with tiny variations? Why bother?
Horrible, horrible, PC Port? Plenty of devs were already doing that.

I fail to see anything unique about Borderlands that would warrant copying.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

It is just another loot-em-up with a camera change, what could people rip off?
Cell Shading? Ok sure, but most other devs can get their graphics to work so they don't need cell shading.
Dull, repetitive gameplay? Plenty of games do that.
Fifty gazillion guns that are more like twenty with tiny variations? Why bother?
Horrible, horrible, PC Port? Plenty of devs were already doing that.

I fail to see anything unique about Borderlands that would warrant copying.

Darn, that's what I was going to say. Well, I was going to type an abridged version, but you put it very nicely.

 

[aba1]

I always used to wounder the same thing about smash brothers and to this day nobody is doing a fighter like theirs. Even PS all stars is fairly different and that took over a decade to step up as even a remote challenger.

 

[Saviordd1]

Probably because your game was a boring single player MMO with a boring setting and idea.

But I'm in the minority in that opinion.

 

[praetor_alpha]

It *has* been ripped off. RAGE was a Borderlands wannabe in almost every way, even down to having a horrible ending. Now, I'm not 100% sure if Rage was in production when Borderlands came out, but the similarities are pretty striking.

I'm pretty sure that Rage was in production long before Borderlands was conceived. (What else would id have been doing since Doom 3?) Besides, Rage does not qualify as an RPG, imo.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

What is borderlands other than some weird Fallout copy? I do not know

 

[ArchAngelKira]

Call of duty:FPS
Borderlands:FPSRPG

Its because making a generic FPS is easier then copying a shooter with RPG elements. Every little 10 year old would be more likely to shoot like a psycho then look for the stats on a gun. Children these day usually hack anything with an RPG element to them, really anything that need them to think harder than "SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT KILL KILL KILL" as far as I can tell. I have a little brother I know. Besides Borderlands has a nice funny theme rather than generic emo depression FPS bull I've seen.


Also I'd rip off borderland if someone offerd me the chance too.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Well you can't say Randy doesn't speak his mind.

Lets hope we don't see a surge of shit copy cat titles.

That's easy: It's because Cage the Elephant hasn't written another big hit yet.

God damn I loved that opening cutscene. I might just go and start a new character right now.

 

[The Random One]

I would copy the best thing of Borderlands, but I doubt I could get Ashly Burch to voice a character in my game.

 

[Caspain]

I'm a little shocked that no one is talking about Fallout3/NV when it comes to FPSRPGs. Not that Borderlands and Fallout were like each other at all, but still...

Anyway, I always saw Borderlands as WoW made FPS. Three Talent Trees, the quest system, even the randomized tiered loot.

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

Borderlands rips off Fallout/Diablo/Rage/Baldursgate/Wasteland......WAAAA!!! Seriously people none of these thing invented the post apocalyptic setting (you can all thank Mad Max for popularizing it) and having immense amounts of loot is not exclusive to Diablo. Borderlands is the first to take all these awesome elements and toss em together to make an extremely fun game with insane amounts of replayability.

You may as well accuse it of ripping off Doom for having a first person perspective and a gun.

 

[Nimzabaat]

I wonder too, Borderlands is really the only game I can think of that combines the Diablo style into a full blown shooter that actually feels like a shooter, instead of an RPG with guns in first person perspective (I'm looking at you, Fallout).

Still, the game was/is seriously fun and I'll may keep playing it even after BDS2 comes out, so yeah, the guy has all the rights to brag about the game.

Hellgate: London did it before. It was pretty fun and for some reason never caught on. Maybe because it was PC exclusive.

EDIT: And didn't RAGE make a stab at ripping off Borderlands and fail miserably all around?

 

[Syzygy23]

Well Borderlands ripped it's entire atmosphere from Fallout, right down to the 50's style billboards and little mascot.

Though unlike the Vault boy, Clap Trap lacks the funny dark humor and feels more like "LAWL SO RANDUM".

I gotta ask, what is there to rip off in the first place?
Did Borderlands even bring anything new to the table?

Whoa who whoa, hold the phone... Vault Boy was supposed to be funny?

What exactly does Vault Boy do that is funny?

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

...Your game wasn't even that good or innovative to begin with, Gearbox. Yeah, there's a chance a lot of the flaws are going to be corrected this time around, but you're going to tear it off if you keep masturbating that hard, yeesh.