Swayed by a new artstyle, an interview, and clever marketing. Someone at Gearbox deserves a raise.

I didn’t care about Borderlands as I left last year’s E3. At the “exclusive” behind closed-doors sneak peek of  the upcoming multiplatform title, Gearbox CEO and president Randy Pitchford sold his product to journalists like a budding Billy Mays trainee. But Pitchford was no Mays. Billy always capably communicated product taglines and marketing jargon without shame or the slightest hint of fatigue. We all laughed at the man shilling product after product in precisely-cut 60 second commercials, but we found the image of his beard unshakeable when we finally saw the product within arm’s reach on a shelf at Target. Buying the item meant we’d be helping out ol’ Billy, or at least it sometimes felt that way.

If I had any desire to buy Borderlands following E3 2008, it was out of pity for Randy Pitchford.

Dude seemed like a nice guy. Passionate too. But his cheesey and overenthusiastic presentation briefly led me to believe the man was once employed as a Wiggle. Why did Mr. Pitchford leave the multimillion-dollar empire? To pursue a career in the videogame industry? Or was it some pithy disagreement over the group’s affinity for solid colored shirts and Randy’s own passion for Hawaiian prints? Only the guys in the purple, blue, red, and yellow shirts, and Randy, know.

“OH, THAT’S A GREAT SHOTGUN! WOW! LOOK AT THAT!” I remember Randy nearly shouting as another Gearbox employee played the game. “YEAH! GO THERE! OH! HEAD SHOT!” I almost broke out laughing. The situation was too much. “Is this what the industry’s like?” I remember thinking. I was still fairly new to the business, with only a year as a “professional” member under my belt. This stuff could’ve been the norm! “Oh, what a delightful time this would be…”

Taking a break, my eyes wandered around the room. People were gorging on the cheese. Grins, ear to ear, filled the room. The goons apparently loved this stuff.

I didn’t. With or without Randy, the game still looked like a videogamey first-person shooter awkwardly trying to fit in big boy Mad Max pants. Pitchford’s repeated comments regarding the “revolutionary” system designed to procedurally generate millions of guns overshadowed the developer’s more laudable intentions behind blending the role-playing and shooter genres in a “new and exciting way.” At this stage, Borderlands was a series of great ideas, but lacked focus and, more importantly, any discernable identity. Faceless doesn’t sell.

A year and three months later, and after finally interviewing Pitchford regarding Borderlands, I’m bugging the PR team for a copy of the game. I can’t wait to play this title in October.

So what happened? A series of well-executed, and well-timed, changes and events.

Read the rest at IPR's Multimedia blog.