Borderlands - Interview @ Gamasutra

Gamasutra interviewed Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software. The interview focuses on Borderlands. He talks about what how he tried to take what makes Diablo fun and turn that into a shooter. He also mentions Fallout 3 and how he hates dialogue trees and enemies that level up at the same time as your character.

Here is a snippet from the interview:

CR: Have you guys, either by way of that particular philosophy or other angles, looked at other games that have tried to employ this sort of Diablo-esque compulsion style? While Diablo and Diablo II are the reigning kings of that -- and I've certainly played hundreds of hours of Diablo II -- most games that try to do that end up failing.

RP: Borderlands is not Diablo. It's a totally different genre.

CR: I understand that. It's a shooter.

RP: It's a shooter. It's a first-person shooter. So, the real bet is... Because when you really break down Diablo, all of the value is in that compulsion. All of the value is in the growth, choice, and discovery. There's some like fantasy fulfillment, I guess, like, "Oh, I'm becoming a wizard", or "I'm becoming a warrior", or whatever. But from a game design point of view, where we're only breaking down the game design, it's the growth, discovery, and choice that that's all about.