Gearbox Software (and the whole industry, really) didn't anticipate the fevered reaction Borderlands received when it dropped last October. Because of that apprehension, Gearbox went back and forth toward the end of development on whether the game would include a second playthrough. A second playthrough allows a player to take their already built character and run through the world again.
"I believe the biggest surprise for much of the team was how many people played the second playthrough," explained Borderlands director Matthew Armstrong in an interview with me last week. "[We didn't anticipate] how many people finished the game and then kept playing and played to the end. We got a lot of people saying 'hey, I'm level 50 and I've completed everything, now what do I do?'"
It's since been confirmed the level cap will be raised in a future set of downloadable content (finally!), but Gearbox actually came this close to just having the credits roll at the end of Borderlands.
"I kind of expected people would want to play more," he said, "But most people [on the team] didn't. ... People really, really wanted more of an end-game, they wanted more to do. That is something you kind of expect if your game is good and well received and we appreciate that, but what was a bit surprising was how many people not only wanted it but expected it and almost feel like 'hey, you let me down a little because there's not more to do.' We gave you a huge giant game, we didn't even know this many people would want more to do."
Based on gamers' reaction, Borderlands producer Stephen Palmer probably put it best.
"It's like we created a drug addiction and then we cut 'em off," said Palmer.
That's not exactly a bad problem to have.
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