BL3 as a service game vs. as a game

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#1

In the past I was late to the party for BL games. I THINK I came in for BL PS at release, but BL1 and BL2 were after completion and after completion minus DLC, respectively.

I think, for me, that those experiences were much more what I was looking for, and were subjectively much better.

The “moving target” that BL3 has been for me has been, I’m trying to find the words…not anxiety provoking exactly, but a combination of FOMO (fear of missing out) and running on what feels like a “forced” treadmill rather than the route I wanted to run.

I don’t mind running. I just don’t like the pressure points put on where or how I should run.

The events (which have been fun) and the tiny level increases (which have been annoying) have made me play in ways I don’t find the most fun, but in ways that will help promote my future fun.

For instance, right now I’m farming the ideal Ghast Call. I have 1-2 days left. I’d probably rather be doing other things. Or I’d come back later and farm it at my leisure, if I could, but I can’t.

I think that’s a major difference in how I’m experiencing BL3 vs the other ones. I feel like pretending it’s Christmas, I can go play the Mercenary Day DLC. I can go grab any unique gear from that. Can’t do that with BL3.

I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but honestly… the more control I have over how I play makes me happier. The less control I have (and the more GBX does) doesn’t.

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#2

I’ll add…new DLC without a level bump vs. new DLC with a level bump is a major factor.

Oh, hey! I’ll play this and see how this new gear meshes with/changes my build! It’ll be fun new stuff.

vs.

Oh, hey! I have to gather all new level appropriate gear! I’ll do that and then play the DLC and/or use the DLC to level and then grind…and spend so much time getting the level appropriate gear that I barely pay attention to the DLC experience, because I’m chasing the carrot instead of enjoying the dlc.

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#3

Getting off the treadmill was the easy part since, in my mind, it got so broken. The FOMO followed soon after. Now I just check every so-so here to see if I would be interested again. Still not,…

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#4

There will be a point when both the Halloween event and the Eridium Cartels will be permanently added to the game. I mean, it would be a waste if we could only enjoy the Cartels’ fantastic gear and OST only one month per year. If we manage to keep the mechanic in which the underbosses pop in out of nowhere, that’s a win in my book, more enemies always beats spongey enemies (M6 and above).

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#5

I get what you mean. I’m taking a long break from BL3 and coming back to play the halloween event just to get the new skins felt like such a chore.

It’s like they want BL3 to be a ““live-service game””, but they don’t have the proper systems to make that tolerable. Level cap increases in intervals without any way to level up gear. Layers of RNG just to make an item good without any way to condense rolls. Gating some of the most replayable content every year while base game lacks any replayability. It’s a cheap way to get people playing and the exact opposite of why I love the past games.

Do they want to stick to the old games’ formula or be more like those always online games? The game does not know what it wants to be in general. That’s the vibe I’ve been getting from post-launch support, and the game in its entirety.

4 Likes
#6

This is the first time I have no FOMO with a Borderlands game, played all Season 1 content but have absolutely no urge to get SP 2. Matchmaking is broken, no one on my friendslist plays the game anymore, so that was an easy decision to make. I did enjoy solo runs against raid bosses, but there had been plenty of them in BL 2. Now there is just one map - not enough for me. I do hope that there will be plenty of people who buy AND enjoy SP 2, but I will not be among them.

#7

Yea it has all of the horrible things about a live service and none of the fun.All its missing is the mtx unless you count the dlc.

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#8

I was actually happy to hear early on that Gearbox was going to be more proactive with their handling of BL3. One of my biggest problems with BL2 was Gearbox’s hands-off style. There was no reason they couldn’t have buffed skills and gear after gathering community feedback to make the game better. But they very rarely touched BL2 in any substantial way (outside of releasing new content). So the modding community picked up the slack and did the work for them in things like the Unofficial Community Patch. Which was great and all, but it was PC only and it was a 3rd party solution, so far from ideal. So like I said I was looking forward to a new approach to BL3 early on.

That being said, Gearbox completely ■■■■■■ up its handling of BL3. They reacted way too quickly when it came to nerfs and way too slowly when it came to buffs. And I’d be remiss to leave out the actual quality of the fixes Gearbox has implemented to the issues pointed at by the community. Everything is done in the quickest, least imaginative way possible which makes the game feel cheap. Moze needs some survivability? Just throw on some life steal. And let’s buff the most powerful skills/trees to scale with Mayhem (Short Fuse, Ties That Bind, Indiscriminate) while leaving content that was already much weaker in the dust. I’m glad to see them trying to tackle things like Zane’s class mods and FL4K’s Dominance after so long but I really don’t have hope that they’ll do us many favors. And when it comes to gun buffs it seems like they don’t even look at the numbers. I don’t hate this new philosophy in terms of constantly updating the game I just think Gearbox isn’t very good at it. Oh and limited time events/gear are stupid and should not ever be in a Borderlands game.

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