Borderlands 2 "Girlfriend Mode" Helps Noobs Win

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I'm playing as the Mecromancer onmy second playthrough, I don't care, it looks awesome as hell and I get a pet death bringer out of the deal.

Why isn't it September yet?!

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Wait, wait, wait.

Who called it 'girlfriend mode' if it was the actual devs I am going to hulk out.

REALLY guys REAAAAALY?

 

[Ariseishirou]

"Women suck at videogames and need a special easy mode to help them out" is pretty much misogyny, yes. At the very least it's sexism.

The fact is that it's not specifically for girls. It's for any sort of acquaintance who is being roped in without being well learned in the genre.

Then why didn't they call it the "Acquaintance" skill tree, then? Or the "Casual" skill tree? If the answer is "demographics" or "target" audience being male, then he's still stereotyping and using exclusionary terminology.

In which case, consider me excluded! Sad, because I am a huge FPS fan and was originally going to buy it. You know, to play with my boyfriend. He's not as good as I am, but since there's no boyfriend skill tree, just a girlfriend one, I'm not sure how he'll manage.

-1 sale here.

When people speak they generally draw on personal experiences and say things that are relatable to them, he probably had or has a girlfriend who's more of a casual player but still likes to play with him.

You have to remember developers are people too and he's only a designer, not a public speaker; he was likely speaking in an informal environment as is the wont of game developers.

I'm not saying everything everyone says is forgivable but I think in this case it was just a slip of the tongue.

Maybe, yeah. I'll reconsider a purchase if he retracts it and apologizes. (A real apology, not an "I'm sorry you were offended" fauxpology.) If he really didn't mean it like that, was just speaking from experience, and it was a slip of the tongue, that shouldn't be a problem, right?

 

[Thespian]

Then why didn't they call it the "Acquaintance" skill tree, then? Or the "Casual" skill tree? If the answer is "demographics" or "target" audience being male, then he's still stereotyping and using exclusionary terminology.

In which case, consider me excluded! Sad, because I am a huge FPS fan and was originally going to buy it. You know, to play with my boyfriend. He's not as good as I am, but since there's no boyfriend skill tree, just a girlfriend one, I'm not sure how he'll manage.

-1 sale here.

Yeesh, don't be so objectionable. "Girlfriend Tree" is short-hand for "The Player's Girlfriend", so if you were going to buy the game anyway, then you are the player. If your boyfriend isn't good at FPS and he's just playing it because you are, then the Girlfriend Tree is made, designed specifically, for him. "Girlfriend Tree" is just a catchy name because in most cases, yes, that's who the demographic's companion will be.
And no, it's not exclusionary at all. You can't say a business is stereotyping because it pays attention to it's demographics, that's what a business does. Just because it's called the Girlfriend Tree it doesn't mean they don't want anyone's girlfriend to play the main mode, or vice versa. Jesus, I'm gay, but you don't see me freaking out because they are assuming the player is straight. It's not like I wouldn't be allowed to let my boyfriend use that skill tree.

The fact is that a bunch of people - likely a majority - will suggest something like this to their girlfriend, because that's usually how it is when a seasoned player is asking a non-seasoned acquaintance to play with them. Usually, it is their romantic partner, and usually gamers are male and males are usually straight. It's just a cute term that's being used, I don't know how you can argue that it's exclusionary at all.


... Seriously, you are going to deny yourself BL2 over THIS? ._.

 

[Souleks]

snip

Check the Source.
Entire thread this goes for you as well.

Wow an easier mode for someone who isn't very good at videogames!
Now let me go get my girlfr- oh wait...

Forever alone

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

They are getting bombarded on twitter, Apparently the dev was speaking about his girlfriend specifically and it isn't called that in the game.

They are apologising and backpedaling at a rate of knots it seems.

Gearbox Software ‏@GearboxSoftware

@Marc_Normandin Agreed. Our designer spoke specifically about his significant other -- not all women. Apologies that wasn't made clear.

I'll forgive them

for now...

*sinks back into the darkness*

 

[Ickorus]

"Women suck at videogames and need a special easy mode to help them out" is pretty much misogyny, yes. At the very least it's sexism.

The fact is that it's not specifically for girls. It's for any sort of acquaintance who is being roped in without being well learned in the genre.

Then why didn't they call it the "Acquaintance" skill tree, then? Or the "Casual" skill tree? If the answer is "demographics" or "target" audience being male, then he's still stereotyping and using exclusionary terminology.

In which case, consider me excluded! Sad, because I am a huge FPS fan and was originally going to buy it. You know, to play with my boyfriend. He's not as good as I am, but since there's no boyfriend skill tree, just a girlfriend one, I'm not sure how he'll manage.

-1 sale here.

When people speak they generally draw on personal experiences and say things that are relatable to them, he probably had or has a girlfriend who's more of a casual player but still likes to play with him.

You have to remember developers are people too and he's only a designer, not a public speaker; he was likely speaking in an informal environment as is the wont of game developers.

I'm not saying everything everyone says is forgivable but I think in this case it was just a slip of the tongue.

Maybe, yeah. I'll reconsider a purchase if he retracts it and apologizes. (A real apology, not an "I'm sorry you were offended" fauxpology.) If he really didn't mean it like that, was just speaking from experience, and it was a slip of the tongue, that shouldn't be a problem, right?

I edited this into my original post after you replied but I'll post it again here

Spoiler: Just checked the original link and Randy Pitchford has a similar opinion and explanation to me.

Update: You may have noticed Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford speaking out against the "girlfriend mode" nickname on Twitter.

As reported below, the Mechromancer skill tree that helps video game newcomers is formally called Best Friends Forever. But Borderlands 2 lead designer John Hemingway referred to it numerous times as "girlfriend mode".

"Borderlands 2 does NOT have a girlfriend mode," Pitchford stated on Twitter. "Anyone that says otherwise is misinformed or trying to stir up something that isn't there.

"The future DLC Mechromancer class has a skill tree that makes it easier for less skilled coop partners (any gender!) to play and be useful."

Pitchford didn't deny that Hemingway had said "girlfriend mode". Instead, he labelled the term a "personal anecdote" that had been spun by the media.

"There is no universe where Hemingway is a sexist," Pitchford added. "All the women at Gearbox would beat his and anyone else's ass."

And here's Randy's Twitter, he said a couple of other things since then:

https://twitter.com/DuvalMagic

Hope that helps, I'm sure he didn't mean anything negative by it though I bet you he'll pick his words better next time.

 

[Ariseishirou]

"Women suck at videogames and need a special easy mode to help them out" is pretty much misogyny, yes. At the very least it's sexism.

The fact is that it's not specifically for girls. It's for any sort of acquaintance who is being roped in without being well learned in the genre.

Then why didn't they call it the "Acquaintance" skill tree, then? Or the "Casual" skill tree? If the answer is "demographics" or "target" audience being male, then he's still stereotyping and using exclusionary terminology.

In which case, consider me excluded! Sad, because I am a huge FPS fan and was originally going to buy it. You know, to play with my boyfriend. He's not as good as I am, but since there's no boyfriend skill tree, just a girlfriend one, I'm not sure how he'll manage.

-1 sale here.

When people speak they generally draw on personal experiences and say things that are relatable to them, he probably had or has a girlfriend who's more of a casual player but still likes to play with him.

You have to remember developers are people too and he's only a designer, not a public speaker; he was likely speaking in an informal environment as is the wont of game developers.

I'm not saying everything everyone says is forgivable but I think in this case it was just a slip of the tongue.

Maybe, yeah. I'll reconsider a purchase if he retracts it and apologizes. (A real apology, not an "I'm sorry you were offended" fauxpology.) If he really didn't mean it like that, was just speaking from experience, and it was a slip of the tongue, that shouldn't be a problem, right?

I edited this into my original post after you replied but I'll post it again here

Spoiler: Just checked the original link and Randy Pitchford has a similar opinion and explanation to me.

Update: You may have noticed Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford speaking out against the "girlfriend mode" nickname on Twitter.

As reported below, the Mechromancer skill tree that helps video game newcomers is formally called Best Friends Forever. But Borderlands 2 lead designer John Hemingway referred to it numerous times as "girlfriend mode".

"Borderlands 2 does NOT have a girlfriend mode," Pitchford stated on Twitter. "Anyone that says otherwise is misinformed or trying to stir up something that isn't there.

"The future DLC Mechromancer class has a skill tree that makes it easier for less skilled coop partners (any gender!) to play and be useful."

Pitchford didn't deny that Hemingway had said "girlfriend mode". Instead, he labelled the term a "personal anecdote" that had been spun by the media.

"There is no universe where Hemingway is a sexist," Pitchford added. "All the women at Gearbox would beat his and anyone else's ass."

And here's Randy's Twitter, he said a couple of other things since then:

https://twitter.com/DuvalMagic

Hope that helps, I'm sure he didn't mean anything negative by it though I bet you he'll pick his words better next time.

Okay that makes more sense. I wish he'd put it like that originally, but... like you said he's a designer, not a spokesperson.

I also wish this explanation afterward got reported in the original article, too.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Okay nothing to see here, just a developer putting his foot in it and quickly retracting. No need to blow this up into another multi paged sexism debate... please? No? Okay someone pass me the popcorn.

 

[Azurian]

I have a super cool idea how about her arm turns into a ZF-1!?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pxjnl1yuXk

 

[RedDeadFred]

This is perhaps the stupidest pair of mountains I've seen people make out of a molehill.

The skill tree is REALLY called Best Friends Forever, which is a gender-neutral term. His use of the "Girlfriend" term was purely used to describe his view of a companion-type skill tree: he's a straight guy (I think) so he used the term that was most familiar to him: girlfriend - the fact that the character is a girl also probably helped him select that term. This is not sexism in any way, shape, or form.

Secondly, the pissing and moaning about "casuals" ruining your game is complete bullcrap. The ability to hit things even if you miss is something that will be useful to both people new to games and old hands alike: in fact, you could argue that it actually helps people in the middle the most, as that person will bit hitting most of the time, but still getting the extra damage from the rebounding bullets. And we still don't know any of the other abilities in the tree, either.

I second all of this. Some people are getting way too butt hurt over pretty much nothing. They are trying to help the longevity of their game by introducing a new character and making her have several very different ways to play. What's wrong with this? Nothing!

 

[Sean Steele]

So.... its like the hunter class's bird tree? Cause after I maxed that out I barely had to do anything with a firearm.

 

[MPerce]

So, is sexism the Flame War Topic of the Month?

It's not actually called that, it was a designer saying something stupid. Or maybe it got twisted like Mr. Pitchford is saying on his Twitter. Either way, it's not even close to being a big deal because it was never going to be called that in the game.

On the skill tree itself: awesome idea. Gives more people the chance to play it with their friends without negatively impacting anyone's fun.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

So, is sexism the Flame War Topic of the Month?

It's not actually called that, it was a designer saying something stupid. Or maybe it got twisted like Mr. Pitchford is saying on his Twitter. Either way, it's not even close to being a big deal because it was never going to be called that in the game.

On the skill tree itself: awesome idea. Gives more people the chance to play it with their friends without negatively impacting anyone's fun.

I'm actually quite annoyed at the media shit stirring frankly.

At this point it looks like he was speaking about his own girlfriend and not women as a whole which is fine by me.

 

[Sparrow]

Aaaaand I'm suddenly reminded why I wanted this game. Haven't heard much about it lately, nice to get a little news on the Gearbox front.

INB4 bitching about pre-order DLC and calling sexism because he said girlfriend tree.

Anyway. This sounds like a great idea, because my girlfriends main problem with borderlands was that she would die more often than me, and so if this perk tree can tip the scales a bit, we may get a LOT of playtime out of it.

Oh man, the post literally right after yours said it was sexist. It's shameful how ridiculous some of the users are getting on here. It's not sexism, you nit-picking white-knight wannabes. It's a funny name. Yeesh.

 

[FoolKiller]

Ugh... the further dumbing down of a game.

Well it makes it easy. I don't want to waste money on a character whose 1/3 wasted skill tree. I like a lot of things they do but a skilltree to basically eliminate one of the key components of the game. That just seems like a stupid idea.

Sorry Gearbox but I'm not biting in this case.

If you read the full article

I love this... because I pick on one aspect of the article, I get the "If you read the article" attitude.

"Dumbing down a game" is what happens when they either nerf the enemies or hypercharge all the characters.

This is an opinion. In my opinion, dumbing a game down includes creating a character that effectively doesn't need to know how to play the game to play the game. This is akin to letting someone play basketball with me but they don't have to dribble because they can't be bothered. The point of a shooter is to aim and shoot at things.

If you can't be bothered to learn the basics of that then don't fucking play. If I want to do something then I go and learn how to do it, not expect the bar to be lowered.

Also, if I play online and like to play with randoms as well, it will be idiotic when I have 3 teammates all with these perks in play.

A few more things:
1. If you notice, I said that it was a no go for me. It's DLC and Gearbox has instantly lost out on this with me.

2.

Besides, most people have highly specialized characters, anyway. I know I wouldn't lose sleep if Mordecai lost his gunslinger tree.

I'm not most people. Borderlands was one of my favourite games of all time and I have 17 distinct character builds and have maxed out each skill at least once. A walking difficulty slider as you put it seems like a wasted character, especially when 1/3 of it dumbs the game down.

3.

Besides, haven't you heard? That skill tree isn't for you. It's for your girlfriend*.

*I'm saying that ironically. I shouldn't have to explain that, but, on The Escapist, I'm certain I do.

While I accept the humour of your statement, any girlfriend of mine can shut up and watch if they don't want to learn to play or do what my last girlfriend did and learn the controls and have 5 of her own characters by the time we were done with that game.

 

[m19]

Oh, wow. Another sexism outrage over nothing. Say it isn't so.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Aaaaand I'm suddenly reminded why I wanted this game. Haven't heard much about it lately, nice to get a little news on the Gearbox front.

INB4 bitching about pre-order DLC and calling sexism because he said girlfriend tree.

Anyway. This sounds like a great idea, because my girlfriends main problem with borderlands was that she would die more often than me, and so if this perk tree can tip the scales a bit, we may get a LOT of playtime out of it.

Oh man, the post literally right after yours said it was sexist. It's shameful how ridiculous some of the users are getting on here. It's not sexism, you nit-picking white-knight wannabes. It's a funny name. Yeesh.

I'd be annoyed if that was actually what it was called and I'm a woman... it's not 'funny' and it is sexist.

I think most people would agree.

 

[LazyAza]

Man I love the idea behind this of making an option for people who suck at shooters but geezus could they have possibly picked a worse way to describe it. The "girlfriend mode" line is borderline sexist really and while I know that's not their intent the way people use that phrase seems to always imply that their aren't guys who really suck at games or girls who are really awesome who have boyfriends that suck at them.

Sigh but anyway good on them for not hiding from the realities of modern gaming at least. I certainly wish more fighting games had modes for people like me who really suck at them so I really don't see why such features can't be added to all genres. It's not like these options are going to impact the overall design and depth of the entire game like some closed minded elitist cynics seem to always think this kind of stuff will. I can only assume someone who masters their Borderlands playing (such as myself) is still going to wipe the floor with anyone playing a "casual specced Mecromancer" but the simple fact I'll have even more people to play with is awesome.