Gearbox Wonders Why People Aren't Ripping Off Borderlands

[Paragon Fury]

Why don't they copy Borderlands?

Because there is more money to be made trying to copy CoD and other shooters and failing, than there is to copy Borderlands and succeed?

 

[Skratt]

How can you rip off something so unique and make money? Remember the guy that ripped off minecraft? Exactly.

 

[Prosis]

I think he's referring not to the setting or story of borderlands, but the base mechanic.

An FPSRPG. Sure, a lot of FPS's dabble in RPG, with some leveling to get perks or whatever. But there hasn't been any games that play like an RPG as a FPS. The only one I can think of is Fallout. Although Fallout focuses more on the RPG than the FPS.

 

[A Raging Emo]

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

That whole album is quite good. Got a few plays on an Australian community station a few times.

I met them all! I have their autographs on a bit of card, stuck up on my wall where I put all my gig tickets.

 

[Cobalt Lion]

I guess my two cents, (plus sales tax where applicable) is that partially, Gearbox should be pleased at this. At the same time, I mean, Borderlands is a great game, and I love it. Can't wait for the squeal, but it's not exactly unique in its components.

Post-Apocalyptic genre is pretty common, especially in the last few years for games, the FPS thing has been pretty much done to death forever, and the whole "zany, dark, violent humor" concept isn't new in itself. So, I guess that in this sense both nobody has stolen the idea, but everyone has.

Captcha: "Tastes Like Chicken" I assume I'll be eating my words?

 

[Callate]

Probably because it's significantly easier to make a brown-and-grey shooter with a second-rate Tom Clancy knock-off plotline than it is to make four significantly different classes, a colorful cel-shaded aesthetic, and a million different weapons. At least, to do a halfway decent job of the latter.

And, sadly, the pay-off may well be about the same.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

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

Ah yes, that old diablo clone in first person, with different mechanics, art style, setting, pacing, writing, character designs and the only similarity being that you get a lot of loot.

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?

Borderlands had humour? Since when?

Wait, let me read that again. Borderlands had writing? Since when?

It had all of those things.
They just weren't very good.
Gameplay was fun though, sunk many an hour into that game.

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

Being someone who has played both games, they're nothing alike other than the fact that borderlands takes some styles from fallout, being the vintage posters. Then again, fallout took that theme from the vintage theme itself but eehhhh who cares.
Borderlands was a pretty damn fun mindless shooter in which the gameplay was very good and the co-op excellent.
In my opinion.

 

[Dangit2019]

In b4 "Borderlands ripped off Diablo/Mass Effect/Dragon Age...

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

And our winner is NameIsRobertPaulson! Here's your prize:

Spoiler

A PUPPY!

Yes, because a Post-apocalyptic whimsical shooter is the exact same as a dark, gritty, dungeon crawler. Because logic.

 

[A-D.]

Well Randy, you see, the reason Borderlands hasnt been ripped off by someone else that you know is because Borderlands itself is a rip-off.

Lets do a quick checklist.
Post-Apocalyptic Setting? Check.
Random Loot? Check.
Building Characters via Skills and Abilities? Check.
A whole ton of loot? Check.
The Ability to fight with Guns, Abilites and Melee? Check.

Sounds like Hellgate London. Sorry Randy, but it appears you have essentially wholesale ripped off another Game, minus the cell-shading, which ironically was due to a limitation of the engine you wanted originally due to the focus on consoles or some other internal problem.

But lets assume that no, its not a rip-off, even then all those little parts added into the Game have been done before, perhaps rarely in the same package, since the only noteworthy i can recall was Hellgate, but it has been done, the cell-shading, loot farming, shooty stuff..etc. You didnt bring anything new to the table.

Claiming Borderlands was totally original is like claiming that WoW was totally original as well.

 

[MammothBlade]

This is why:


MAINSTREAM'D

 

[saintchristopher]

this is like when ken Levine came out and was like "HEY HOW COME EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT THE GIRLS BOOBS IN BIOSHOCK INFINITE" and everyone was just kind of like "we... weren't, really...?" "SHE'S A WHOLE PERSON YOU GUYS STOP TALKING ABOUT HER BIG OL BOOBS"

ugh. attention. they want it.

 

[LadyDeadly]

Maybe its not copied because no one cares enough to copy it. I'm sure some people like it, i don't know, i don't want to play it i got enough on my plate. but really, maybe it has something to do with the fact that there was a lot of struggle to advertise it. It good (yes, maybe?) but not good enough to copy.
Maybe that's the bad thing. When people loooove something ( like me and anything mass effect) they want everything to do with it, everything (ponies!) And that's what brings forth the copycats. Perhaps that's what they were expecting with this game. But sadly it seems its not memorable at all.

Shame? maybe. But in the end, borderlands might be as lukewarm as i thought it was. You don't copy something that's redundant.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Am I the only one that thinks that people totally misread the context that ol' Randy Pitchford said that whole thing in the article?

I don't think he was proclaiming that Borderlands in itself was a TOTALLY ORIGINAL and UNIQUE idea, as I immediately sold it off as a ripoff of another game (Fallout 3) when I first saw it. Playing through it, though, you can see that it fulfills an entirely different niche entirely and, if you like that sort of thing (obsessive gun collecting and obsessive level grinding), then yeah, it's your thing. People have pointed out the obvious Diablo parallels, and yeah, they're there.

But I think Randy was referring to Borderlands's place in the industry as we see it now. I bet you guys can't count the number of games that are similar to CoD or Halo off the top of your head, but what about games that follow the Diablo formula in some way? I can think of this game, Diablo itself, and Torchlight... and that's basically about it.

What Randy was referring to, I think, was how many game developers are specifically targeting the broadest audience (and failing), when instead they should try diversifying and targeting different niches and audiences that might not have much competition there. I doubt any game will beat CoD in its market any time soon, but a game in the same niche as Diablo stands a good chance to sell if people like that.

Because let's face it. If you wanted to play something quite like Borderlands, you really only had Borderlands. The only other games I can think of that could fill its niche are Fallout, Torchlight, and Diablo, and the namer of this specific type of niche just RECENTLY came out with its successor, Diablo 3.

And by the way, if you're HONESTLY comparing this game to Mass Effect or Dragon Age, you're either looking too much into those games's weapon system or this game's story. ... Or you're an idiot. One of the two. Probably both.

 

[melikeyshootey]

I think people aren't ripping off borderlands because if you want to compete with borderlands, you have to make a system that generates millions of different combinations for guns, and that is too much effort for most lazy developers/publishers. All the non-lazy developers are actually making original content, or milking their franchises due to their one good game. Then again, if they were milking their franchise, they would probably be lazy because of that. The point is, most gaming companies are thinking more about buisness than giving what the gamers want. If it takes too much effort, they won't copy it, because of their tight-ass deadlines.

 

[ElPatron]

Because your game would actually require effort to copy. Activision farts out a new CoD every year because it is so easy to make.

They have a two year developing cycle, though. Remember, two separate devs.

Every little 10 year old would be more likely to shoot like a psycho then look for the stats on a gun.

That was what pushed me away from the original Borderlands.

"Ew, stats". I think it was the way it was presented, I like the customization of weapons that influences stats like in Brink. When it's presented in a RPG-style setting I flip my shit.

But I don't mind stats in Fallout. Probably Borderlands is not the game for me because it mashes together things I like separate from each other. Go figure, not everyone is a 10 year old.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Does seem to be a successful thing however, mashups of two genres, look at Puzzle Quest, Beat Hazard, there's quite a few examples in the indie market of pulling this off successfully, just good to see Borderlands managed to take it one step further.

 

[RadioactiveMicrobe]

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

...Just the mobile developers..

Why make new ideas when your userbase has the attention span of a squirrel?