i didn't find any of the individual game mechanics unique in borderlands...but the way the mechanics were put together (the overall package) was a "fun".

in a sea of hyper-realistic/gritty/scary/tense action 3PS's and FPS's, it was a breath of fresh air. (bright, tongue in cheek, simple, fun) Gearbox seemed to really emphasize: "hey, people like to shoot stuff, lets make a game where it's fun and rewarding to shoot stuff" -- hence the attention on all the guns and fun ways to blow stuff up and be rewarded for it.

it's not a cerebral game that is heavy on exposition/ pretense/ challenge/ strategy or anything like that, (it kinda seems "arcadey" if that makes sense) it excels at making it fun and rewarding to get your quick (single or multiplayer) fix.

I think whether Borderlands has been copied or not pretty much depends on what you mean by "copied". As Michael (DeFazio) said, I too don't believe "any of the individual game mechanics (being) unique in borderlands". Instead, this is the combination of all those bits that is unique. I think that in this way the game has not been copied, as far as you understand "copied" as refering to all those stuffs put together.

Of course e.g. procedural weapons and items with color-coded quality/rarity are not new; Diablo, WoW, and many others do it too. Of course RPG-style stats, skills, and experience points in FPS are not new either. And those game mechanics are probably the easiest to copy.

On the other hand, the fun Borderlands brings through a unique atmosphere and a lot of humour, that is much more difficult to come by with in my opinion. Remember the grumpy General Knoxx? I truely love his dialogs. The crazy Dr Zed, the game intro, "Brick as himself", the music, etc.? Awesome. Because this is a package. Same game without the toony shading? Not quite the same I bet... And I believe this is true for every single game mechanics. Gearbox did a great job putting them together and ending up with a coherent and consistent ensemble.

At least that's my opinion...

@Robert Maybe he's like me and, ironically, doesn't have a lot of time to play the ten billion games that are released every year. It's something that's always bothered me about making games...ya just don't have much time left over to play a lot of them.

@Mike I agree, a great idea needs great execution to really knock people over the head with the intended experience. A lot of great ideas have been implemented either poorly or in isolation from other features thereby leaving less than a whole package.

[Edit] Should have hit F5 before posting. :) Good call Michael and Jerome.

Borderlands sold well, especially in correlation to expectations, at 2.85 Mil units - just because other games with established audiences have sold better doesn't invalidate that - so it's not entirely unreasonable to wonder why no one has cloned it.

And for the record, DNF (see what they did there?) was an incubation project, not an original Gearbox thing, but I'm sure that was obvious.

Well, one can see FarmVille and all the FarmVille clones as Sims-like games. They're casual simulations. Look at all the zoo/pet/business sims on iOS. I think that's the modern effect of the Sims.

The idea that nothing is totally original far predates the "postmodern era" - so is your statement hipster-ish irony or do you really think that something must be *entirely* original for it to be labeled thusly?

I'm not going to get into semantics with someone who uses the term 'hipster'.

I will say that the term "Original' is way overused by people from within and outside this industry to serve their own needs of either promotion or criticism (as convenient). That 'Original' seems to have come to represent for many a Panacea of something with no thematic or gameplay forebears.

I consider Borderlands to be both 'Original' and 'Derivative", and I don't think that's a bad thing.

hipster: n. Someone who badly photoshops an avatar pic while using a fake name on a non-anonymous website with the intent of humorous irony.

Thank god no one will question my semantics. JUST KIDDING - obviously coming from a guy using a badly cropped photo of a bear statue, the above is a joke.

Seriously though, if you think the "original" is overused in the game industry - look at fiction publishing, pretty much every book has an obligatory blurb using the two words "Original" and "Compelling".

Wow....

Did you even read what I wrote or were you too busy trying to show me how clever you are?

(before complaining to Gamasutra about me using a Psuedonym).

".....and outside this industry to serve their own needs of either promotion or criticism (as convenient)."

This is a site about games, so I took it one step further in reference to games.

Your snarky comments do not advance any kind of thoughtful discussion, and your inability to reflect on what people post in response to you because you are too busy coming up with something 'clever' to denigrate them with leads me to believe you are incapable.

thin skin noted.

"from within and outside this industry" reads to me like you're still referring to discussion of games, as in Pros and Critics & Fans use original too much, with the latter two being technically "outside the industry" - but you had to go all Keith Olbermann on me for misreading your nuanced grammatical construction <---- That last bit is sarcasm, Jedi Knight.

Under Bridge Residency----->noted

Ok my last Gama comments post ever i swear:

Seriously? You've failed to note that I have a valid point vis-a-vis your ambiguously worded response by 'out clever-ing' me, oh Man-behind-the-Mask? Obviously I'M the troll.

Borderlands is special because it is cel shaded. In the long run, it will be more playable over time and will hold up against time compared to any of the ultra-realistic games of this generation, hell maybe even next.

And I'm not sure how much more vulgar you would want it---it's way more vulgar than the "ultrarealistic" CoD or Battlefield, to the point where baddies explode into blood and guts.