那些迫使我们在 RPG 游戏中成长、探索和选择的东西，那种长期的正反馈循环，与那些我们在射击游戏中从移动和射击中得到的短期的、发自本能的、最基本的快乐并不相互排斥。[…] 如果我们把它们结合在一起，就会有一个真正的契机来开辟一番崭新的世界。这就是《无主之地》从最一开始的构想。

The thing that compels us towards growth, discovery and choice in RPGs, that sort of long-range loop, it's not mutually exclusive with the short-term, visceral, base-level joy we get from moving and shooting in a shooter. [...] if we marry them together, there's a real opportunity there to pave new ground. That was Borderlands from the very beginning.

Randy Pitchford
Gearbox 的联合创始人

Randy Pitchford,
Gearbox's co-founder

这样如同下雨般地战利品创造了一个期望与反馈的正循环，类似于老虎机或者舔盒子一样的运气游戏。只不过玩家不是付钱和开箱子，而是收割一群群敌人。玩家总是有希望在下次遭遇中找到真正的好东西。这种随机的战利品系统，使得大脑中负责奖励和模式匹配^[1] 的部分沉迷，这也是这类游戏以“令人上瘾”而著称的原因。

《暗黑破坏神》风格游戏的缺点是，他有可能枯燥和单调。当然，每个几分钟，有物品掉落的时候，玩家可能会兴奋起来，并停下来看看他们是否得到了什么好东西。但在这些时刻之间，有大量鼠标点击和按同样的几个快捷键的过程。这并不是一个糟糕的体验，但它本身并不能给玩家带来乐趣。想象一个去掉了随机战利品的《暗黑破坏神》的克隆版本，这会使游戏的吸引力变得非常有限。

《无主之地》的另一半游戏体验来自于第一人称射击的游戏机制。玩家需要射击敌人，躲避来袭的攻击，合理分配弹药，在输出和躲避敌人攻击之间取得平衡。这个游戏是快速、暴力且依靠玩家本能反应的。

This shower of loot creates a cycle of anticipation and revelation similar to luck-based games like slot machines or loot boxes. Only instead of paying money and opening boxes, the player is wiping out clusters of foes. There's always the promise that the player might find something really special in the next encounter. This system of randomised loot tickles the reward and pattern-matching parts of the brain, and is what gives these kinds of games a reputation for being “addictive”.

The drawback with the Diablo-style gameplay is that it can be a little monotonous and dry. Sure, the player might get a little tingle of excitement every few minutes when an item drops and they stop to see if they got anything good, but between those moments there's a lot of mouse-clicking and pressing the same few hotkeys. It's not a terrible experience, but it doesn't really hold up on its own. Imagine playing a Diablo clone with the random loot removed. It would make for a game of very limited appeal.

The other half of the Borderlands experience comes from your typical first-person shooter mechanics. The player needs to shoot bad guys, dodge incoming attacks, manage ammo and strike a balance between taking cover and doing damage. It's fast, violent, and visceral.

2014 年，Telltale Games 发售了《无主之地传说（Tales from the Borderlands）》，这是一款基于《无主之地》的情节性冒险游戏。

In 2014, Telltale Games began to release Tales from the Borderlands, an episodic adventure game based on Borderlands.

第一人称射击游戏的缺点则是，玩家可能会感觉到“强度疲劳“。如果你曾经长时间地游玩《毁灭战士》（Doom）或者《雷神之锤》（Quake）那样的经典的射击游戏，你就可能会意识到，长时间地受到过量的刺激可能会变得很无聊。一种体验不可能永远维持对人最大的刺激，到最后，尖叫和愤怒就会让人麻木。

通过融合这两种类型的游戏，《无主之地》创造了一种同时具有两者的优势，且减轻它们缺点的游玩体验。狂野的枪战游戏比《暗黑破坏神》枯燥的鼠标点击要刺激地多。同时，大量的战利品和不断出现的新武器使得玩家免于陷入强度疲劳和只能单一武器的困境中，在一个充满了换皮游戏和模仿者的世界中，《无主之地》作为一个拥有自己独树一帜的风格和个性的游戏脱颖而出。

两款后续作品在不偏离原作的基础上也完善了游戏的玩法。发售于 2012 年的《无主之地 2（Borderlands 2）》以流派通晓^[2] 的元幽默^[3] 作为目标。而在两年之后发售的《无主之地：前奏（Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel）》则引入了新的对游戏性的调整。

《无主之地：前奏》的游戏机制更好，但是《无主之地 2》的笑话，人物和剧情更胜一筹。我认为我们仍然在等待《无主之地》把它的最精华的部分汇集到一个游戏，以达到对于这种特色游戏的最终实现。

The drawback of first-person shooters is that they can suffer from a bit of “intensity fatigue”. If you've ever tried to play a classic shooter like Doom or Quake for any length of time you've probably noticed that the constant redline action can become paradoxically boring. An experience can't sustain maximum action forever and eventually the sound and fury can get to be numbing.

By blending these two genres, Borderlands creates an experience that has the advantages of both while mitigating their shortcomings. The wild gunplay is a lot more engaging than Diablo's mouse-clicking. At the same time, the shower of loot and the ever-changing selection of weapons is there to save the player from intensity fatigue and from falling into the two-weapon rut. In a world filled with clones and imitators, Borderlands stands out as a unique franchise with a gameplay style and personality all its own.

The two follow-up titles have refined the formula without straying from the original. Borderlands 2 (2012) zeroed in on a genre-savvy meta-humour, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (2014) introduced new gameplay tweaks.

Pre-Sequel has the stronger mechanics, while Borderlands 2 had stronger jokes, characters, and story. I think we're still waiting for the ultimate realisation of the Borderlands formula that takes the best parts of all the entries and brings them together in a single game.

__________

¹ 译者注：模式匹配是计算机中的一个概念，指的是在给定的对象中寻找对应的模式。文中指的是在众多战利品中寻找期望获得的战利品。
² 译者注：所谓流派通晓，是影视，文学等作品中常用的一种表现手法，意为作品中的人物不知道自己身处作品中（即未打破第四面墙）却意外道出了作品中的场景是很经典的电影或者文学场景之一。例如，电影中的人物看到战友亲吻爱人的照片时说：“不要立 flag 呀！”
³ 译者注：元幽默是一种喜剧表达。所谓元 xx，指的是系统外对系统本身的描述。元幽默也可以理解为对笑话这个概念本身开玩笑，或者笑话笑话的笑话。比如经典的笑话会以三个人走进了一家酒馆作为开头，而元笑话的例子可以为：三个人走进一家酒馆，酒保转向他们看了一眼，说：“这次又来说什么笑话？”