Borderlands and the Broken Generation

                Borderlands is the number one selling first person shooter published by 2k games. It is set apart by its cartoon graphics and the world record for most types of guns in a game, over 17750000. It also offers one of the most disappointing endings to any first person shooter ever. However, this is representative of the normal life of generation Xer.

                Generation X age range from teens to those in their thirties. This generation is characterized by self-indulgent narcissism, high expectations, laziness, poorer living standards than the previous generation and broken dreams. The average 20-30 year old expects to be making 75,000 a year right out of college. The actual average income of all adults included is 52,000. They hope and expect for more, even though they believe that the world is getting worse and worse. We have been trained by Hollywood and mass media to expect a standard of living that is just not reasonable. Then when we get into the real world, our hopes are dashed as we try and fight the rats for our food in tiny disheveled apts. Or live at home till we are in our thirties.

                Borderlands is about a group of treasure seekers that are looking for a mysterious vault that supposedly contains untold riches and power. You spend hours of gameplay on countless quests, doing favors, killing villains, earning new guns, and gaining pieces of the vault key. When you finally get to the final boss, which takes all of five minutes to kill, you are rewarded with weapons. Weapons that are pitiful in comparison to the ones you already have.

                However, this sets up the stage for the second borderlands. There is rumor that there is a second mysterious vault still hidden on the planet of Pandora. A new set of adventurers go forth to find this vault, while interacting with the characters from the previous game. After dozens of hours of gameplay, saving lives, fighting back against Handsome Jack who wants to kill all vault hunters, and saving the world of Pandora, you are able to open this second vault; the vault finally comes with the reward of more crappy weaponry.

                The game developers are pointing out that the end result of all of the efforts of pursuing our dreams and fighting for riches results is disappointment. There is no great prize at the end. There is merely the fun of the journey there. So you might as well go back through and play the game all over again, which is an important part of the game. Don’t worry about lame endings, just keep killing the psychos, and riding the meat bicycles.