Play what you enjoy, man!
When multiple video games of a certain quality come out within a small timeframe, there are a few problems that can happen. The first one that gamers don’t like is the classic “I have too much to play!” problem, where they’ll have to choose which one to play, and then hope they get done with the game in a good amount of time so that they can hop on to the other titles and not be spoiled by the internet before then. Another classic problem is that sometimes you’ll play a game, then jump to another game, and it’s a better game. Borderlands 4 has just felt the sting of this, but not just from gamers, but from another game dev!
In this case, that dev is Pocket Pair, where their publishing director and communications lead, John ‘Bucky’ Buckley made a post on Twitter stating that he jumped into a new roguelike game called MegaBonk and it was so addicting that when he tried going back to the Gearbox Software title, he could stand it, and then went back to the indie title. Don’t believe us? Here’s his post:
“Not only has Megabonk consumed me, both body and mind, but it has also ruined all other recent releases for me. Turned on BL4 to continue the main story after a week of bonking and I just couldn’t get back into it…
…back on the Megabonk now.”
There’s a word for this kind of thing. It’s the label of “ouch.” To be fair, this indie game is blowing up places like Steam right now, and apparently, it’s already sold over a million copies! Any time an indie title can do that, that’s a big deal, and it’s something to be celebrated. It also says a lot about the quality of the indie game that the dev wanted to stick with it versus going back to the ultra-over-the-top violence and gameplay of Borderlands 4.
By definition, video games are meant to resonate with players so that they’ll keep playing them, even if it means starting the game over and enjoying things from the start all over again. So, props to this indie game for having such a great game loop that gamers truly can’t play anything else but it right now.
As for Gearbox Software, they’re not “losers” in all of this, as we can’t say that their game is “tanking” right now. But, if they’re not careful, their fan base could be subject…to “bonking.”
