Comments on: Gearbox issues update to fix Borderlands 2 character sabotage

By: Darth Nikon

Darth Nikon — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 23:16:00 +0000

Thing is, I’ve contacted Chris Faylor directly on Twitter (@ZombiePancakes) and so far he hasn’t answered as to why he alleges there was ever “malicious” intent.

Of course, Gearbox seems like it’s less at fault if they can claim it was malicious, so they have something to gain from the allegation.

By: Darth Nikon

Darth Nikon — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 23:40:00 +0000

Man, I’m just going to have to keep saying this over and over, aren’t I? It would be nice if Gearbox stopped trying to shift the blame instead of accepting some responsibility. They have yet to respond to requests for any evidence at all that the flag getting set was intentional, much less malicious. It comes off more like they’re lying about the malicious part to cover themselves, and hope everyone gets mad enough at “teh haxxors!” that they don’t stop and think.

What spread virally (through Gearbox’s online save code) was a flag that turns on hardcore mode code that Gearbox left in the release of the game. It was silently patched out on the PC, and PS3 owners never got a save editor to accidentally turn the flag on. It just took longer for Gearbox to disarm the hardcore mode on XBox because of the update certification process.

Saves on all platforms are still susceptible to any flag-passing infection in online play, even if it’s as simple as griefing players on playthrough 2 by selecting optional missions to lock the gear rewards at the current level; even if you go back later to complete the missions at 50, the rewards will be locked at the lower level when they were selected.

That’s the least-damaging, known danger of online play at the moment. Until Gearbox changes the save code, something just as bad as Graveyard.sav could still happen in the future.

By: Good ol' JS

Good ol' JS — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:13:00 +0000

This is not a malicious issue. It’s been known for a while. Someone was messing with a game save and flipped the flag for essentially “hardcore” mode. Which means when your character dies, they’re dead for good. It would have stayed isolated but anyone playing with a person that has that flag set, will inherit the other person’s flag and then when their character dies, they die forever as well. Gearbox should have either removed that code initially OR finished out the idea so those of us who would like to could have played that way.