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Gearbox Associate Creative Director Grant Kao asked a simple question to the Borderlands 4 community today:
Drop rates. How do they feel now?
Why Is Grant Asking?
Last week, Gearbox made a huge change for the holidays. Drop rates for Legendaries have gone up 5x to make it easier to grind loot for the next two weeks.
They also decided to add in three True Bosses alongside the Bloomreaper to raise the chances players will get Legendary drops.
Clearly, Gearbox had the players enjoying their holidays in mind. They did put the work in to address many of the bugs and performance issues the game had just prior to this.
So, with all the free time all their fans have, they can jump in and earn those Legendaries now.
But with all that in mind, Gearbox also launched a survey to ask fans what they wanted to see in the game. That survey is completely separate, but here Grant gave us an opportunity to see what the fans think about the drop rates.
Here’s What The Fans Said
The most well-known members of the community, from Ki11er Six to EpicNNG, are critical of the rates being too high.
But this is not the unanimous consensus of all the players. Other community members, such as Byrdman and HellenTK, are actually positive about the higher drop rates.
We won’t speculate what these players think beyond what they are willing to say. But it’s easy to imagine why players may feel differently.
Obviously, the fans who play Borderlands 4 the most are the ones who will have more demands from Gearbox. They’re looking for something to keep them constantly interested and engaged. They want to enjoy spending 100 hours to get a Phosphene.
On the other hand, the players who won’t have as much time would have the motivation for higher drop rates. They may not imagine themselves playing 100 hours to get a Phosphene weapon, but would be willing to spend 5 hours to do it.
And we’re sure there are people who fall somewhere in between, regardless of how often they play the game. But now Gearbox may be in a quandary.
The Casuals Vs. The Hardcore Players?
This is not an issue unique to Gearbox, but it’s true that all online multiplayer games have to at least confront the question of catering to casual or hardcore players.
Both Fortnite and Call of Duty are hugely successful, but the overlap between their players is not that high.
Gearbox seems to have made a looter shooter that has drawn both casual and hardcore players alike. Now they need to strike a balance for as many of their fans to enjoy it enough to keep playing.
