Ennui: I'm ennui the Community Manager at Gearbox.
Mike N: I'm Mikey, and sometimes I eat chalk.
Mike N: Let's talk about E3!
Ennui: That's pretty gross. Well, what do you do to get psyched up for E3 - especially this time with Borderlands?
Mike N: Talk about a different experience! The previous E3's, for me, have been about Brothers in Arms every time. It was really nice just to let loose and figure out what kinds of things we'd show and talk about leading up to the big dance.
Mike N: I saw you playing the game a lot. What kinds of things did you do to practice?
Ennui: We ran through the demo a couple times, but honestly we didn't need too much practicing. I play the game a ton when I get time, so I was familiar with everything. The demo was mostly just playing the game - we had a lot of fun with that and I think it showed.
Mike N: Yeah, I must have punched a hundred midgets during E3.
Mike N: Both in game, and out, respectively.
Ennui: Of course. All I had to do was co-pilot and hide behind a monitor in the room; I can imagine having to actually stand in front of people and talk about the game was different, though. Did you feel like the press were "getting" Borderlands from the demo?
Mike N: I think there's a bit of a culture shock the first time you sit down and watch us play the game. It's strikingly beautiful, but there's also an air of "Did I just see that happen?" Most of the press picked it up pretty quickly. Once you see a dude get lit on fire and electrocuted at the same time, you get that we're not taking ourselves too seriously.
Ennui: I think that came across really well. I was excited with how many questions we got from the press attending, they were really interested in getting more information about the game and seemed really excited overall. Did you have a favorite audience question?
Mike N: Many.
Mike N: I loved questions about anything relating to player skills. Those were the best to talk about because you could just talk about why the game is so fun. Why healing bullets work in this universe, and how the art style change freed us up to make decisions like that.
Mike N: Any favorite quotes for you? I saw all kinds of people walking up to talk to Ennui, The Ninja Looter from the North.
Ennui: I was entitled to at least half of the loot that dropped! Sometimes I can't help myself! I liked the one you got asked about why we went into the midgets' shack and eliminated them - the guy just blurted it right out in the middle of the demo, he couldn't wait. It was cool when Brick's voice actor came in to watch too; his berserker rage was a definite highlight of the demo. So many laughs from the audience!
Mike N: "Why did you go into their home, kill them, and take their stuff?" Haha, yeah. "Because we can, silly!"
Mike N: I thought CliffyB stopping by was pretty cool. He dug the demo. And then he asked the first question during QA "What engine technology is this using?"
Ennui: I was pretty surprised that we were so crowded all the time, it really seemed like there was a ton of buzz building up over the course of the show - didn't we see people from some places more than once?
Mike N: Yeah, we saw most of the major game news outlets a few times. Then the mainstream people were all coming up to get interviews because they had heard from word of mouth to come check it out. I was on MSNBC trying my best not to swear.
Ennui: All the coverage we got was awesome! Must've been a challenge with the mainstream guys; we were definitely laid back in the demo. I don't think I'd be able to stop myself.
Mike N: Especially with my now infamous Shacknews quote "Plausability can eat shit and die." I think it was lunchtime and I was hungry. All that talk of eating and dying.
Mike N: The food was worse at the show this year.
Ennui: Nothing like three days of convention center food shoved down your throat when you have time between demos, eh?
Mike N: Yeah, when you're thinking how nice a movie theater hot dog would be by comparison something is really wrong.
Ennui: On the upside, our booth this year was pretty awesome!
Mike N: Yeah, 2K did a sick job on it. I loved how the ground in the booth was terrain textures from the game. We should release real skags into the booth next time. Keep people on their toes. Skags exist right? Those are real creatures?
Ennui: We'd get lots of coverage from that. I'll look into some bio-genetic-experimentals, surely we can get Skags made.
Mike N: "Four killed in freak accident with genetically modified dog monster. Film at 11."
Mike N: What was your favorite loot drop from all your demos?
Ennui: The Badass Fire Skag we fought in the first half dropped a purple incendiary sniper rifle at one point, I think it was the best thing he dropped. I was unstoppable once we had 4-players in the mine, and I love the effect of dudes completely burning away.
Ennui: I think it was a Maliwan
Ennui: So, you've been to a lot more shows than I have - how do you think Borderlands did overall at the show?
Mike N: That was easily our best E3 ever. On the last day I didn't know if we were at a booth or a rave with all the lights and people. It was funny, you'd walk into the hallway and it would be a ghost town out there. Back in the booth: standing room only. I wanted to put on a members only jacket and throw on some Hall and Oates. And nominations to boot!
Ennui: Yeah, I couldn't believe how crowded we were on the last day. I've read most of the articles that came from the show, and everyone seems excited about the game. I bet the team is pretty happy about that, what with all the compliments and people demanding to play the game.
Mike N: Which is exciting considering we showed like 1/10 of a percent of the game. There's so much we didn't put in the demo. Players will be in for a lot of surprises when they finally get their hands on it. Although we do have plans for a few more things to show before the game ships.
Ennui: I can't wait to show more, but I'm the most excited about it getting out there and into peoples' hands. Just thinking about playing... I think I'm going to fire up a build right now...
Mike N: Yeah, I got a millionty things to do as well. Polishing up boss fights and some super-secret game intro stuff. What are you up to?
Ennui: Wrangling all our new forum members (I love you guys), answering e-mails, and getting ready to take my plan for the Borderlands community to 2K next week. There are so many awesome things I want to do for the (steadily growing number of) fans of Borderlands.
Mike N: Yeah, I've been trying to drop in on the forums more. It's a mad house in there sometimes!
Ennui: Tell me about it. Anyway, I'll let you get back to making even more awesome happen. E3 was great for us this year; tiring for people on the floor but also extremely satisfying with the amount of buzz. Can't wait for everyone to see more!
Mike N: We should see if those guys like this format. Maybe we could start doing some Q and A with forum peeps. Possibly bring in some guest stars if they're not too busy. I bet Tim Wilson would jump at the chance!
Mike N: He's a jumper
Mike N: I watch him jump.
Mike N: And back to work I go.
Thanks for checking out our post-E3 chat - hope it gave you a peek into the show for us this year!
