Borderlands 2 - Interview @ Polygon

Polygon has a new article style interview with Gearbox talking about the lack of personality in playable characters.

The biggest annoyance for the creators of Borderlands 2 was the lack of personality in the playable characters, writer Anthony Burch and creative director Paul Hellquist told Polygon at PAX Australia.

When asked about what he would change in Borderlands 2, Burch replied that he would "probably add more personality to the player characters."

"That was a big one," agreed Hellquist, who previously told Polygon that working on Borderlands 2 allowed him to fix what annoyed him about the original Borderlands.

"We didn't know that anybody wanted personality in the characters until super late and we really didn't have enough time to react fully," Burch said. "I hate it when characters talk in games. I like my Gordon Freemans. So I just wrote them that way and I was like, 'HAHA I'm so clever, it's less work and it's better!' And it turns out they really wanted to know why all of these characters are all on Pandora."

"People really seem to want to know who their characters are and actively participate in the story rather than just these faceless entities," Burch said.

It became especially apparent that players were interested in players personalities and stories was when Gearbox released the Kreig the Psycho video and it received a positive reaction from the game's fanbase.