#tales of the borderlands

[renoloid372]

jurger

[handsomefreak69]

Helo

[stinger-shot]

Pov me looking at borderlands art style

Pictures under the cut

LOOK AT IT

I wan it..

[blighted-lights]

you know for a game series that is completely carried by women, a lot of borderlands fans sure only focus on like. three men, huh.

like this isn't a transformers post and my blog is mainly transformers but i cannot understand it. you have an amazing cast of compelling women who are arguably far more interesting than their male counterparts and you choose to only focus on the same three crusty men over and over. are you joking. are you being fr right now.

and it's not even JUST that. some of the fandom interpretations of these men are so far off-base from their canonical apperances that it's just. um. okay. okay. that's what we're doing. okay cool. let's bend over backwards trying to justify why handsome jack is the way he is and make a good dad jack au were the canonical exploitation and abuse of his daughter is completely erased. okay. okay.

[wackulart]

squeezes him with all my might

[roadkillraat]

how many ocs do you have? borderlands and non- borderlands realated?

all together I have over 35 ocs, and i wish to get rid or sell a good handful of them one day i plan to do a adopt center for the ones i don't want anymore. Borderlands wise, i have around 5-10ish?? which each one will have their own tone.

Spencer retired corpo

Raja retired soilder now siren

Felix Morgan the bandit cowboy

Big Red a clan leader goliath

tinker a hermit scavenger

Dez or R4T who is a bandit working for the calypsos

The Reaper an assassin Robot/Ai

and a few more I can not think of right now (it's 5am as i am writing this

my goal is to draw or yap about them at least ONCE and see how people think of them :D

[mfthree]

Blog 1 – Balancing Narrative and Gameplay 

Video games must carefully balance narrative storytelling with gameplay to deliver the best experience. In this blog, we’ll explore several recent games and the techniques they employ to present compelling narratives without sacrificing gameplay enjoyment. 

“The first lesson for any game designer is to get the player to stop and look at something you want them to see, and the second is to repeat that first lesson throughout the entire game" (Valve, 2023). These words from Ken Birdwell, gameplay designer at Valve and contributor to Half-Life, highlight the ongoing challenge of engaging players with the game’s lore and narrative while offering them the freedom to explore and enjoy diverse gameplay mechanics. Hence, the task is twofold: creating an environment rich with storytelling while encouraging players to slow down and engage with the narrative amidst the lure of the game’s mechanics. 

To address this challenge, game studios employ a variety of methods—ranging from cutscenes that require players to watch non-interactive story segments, to granting players nearly complete autonomy with minimal narrative guidance. While some players might prefer one approach over another, ultimately, the balance of story and gameplay remains a subjective choice. Many studios have demonstrated that different approaches can successfully integrate storytelling and gameplay. 

One of the most iconic methods used to balance narrative and gameplay is the narrative cutscene. The term 'cutscene' was coined in 1987 by Ron Gilbert when he introduced fully animated story sequences in Maniac Mansion. During a presentation in Germany, Gilbert explained that he chose the term 'cutscenes' because these moments “cut away” from gameplay to focus entirely on storytelling (Elumski, 2012). Games like the Metal Gear Solid and Yakuza series embody this approach, believing that true narrative impact is difficult to achieve if players retain full control, as unrestricted play creates too many possibilities that may dilute the crafted storyline. These games will usually allow their players freedom to explore their virtual worlds in order to enjoy their entertaining gameplay but, eventually, will revert this freedom back when it is time to deliver the narrative.  As Jesper Juul (2001) describes, even if players act out every scene of Shakespeare's Hamlet, they still wouldn’t experience the precise narrative Shakespeare intended, as they would if they simply watched the play unfold. 

But recently, new creators and studios have begun to challenge this traditional approach by crafting vast worlds filled with complex gameplay mechanics that require time and skill to master—while offering little explicit information about the game’s lore or narrative. Games like Elden Ring and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild exemplify this approach, using only sparse cutscenes or abstract textual cues to hint at the storyline. Despite the unconventional approach to balancing narrative and gameplay, these games employ a concept known as goal-oriented narrative storytelling, where story elements are revealed only after players overcome difficult challenges. They leverage the idea that 'player interactivity is a key dimension of computer game narrative' (Qin, Rau & Salvendy, 2009). By presenting the narrative as a reward for engaging with gameplay mechanics, these games encourage players to actively seek out story elements through their actions. 

While many games succeed in balancing gameplay and narrative, some narrative experts argue that 'interactive storytelling' is inherently contradictory. They reason that a cohesive narrative requires a certain level of uninterrupted focus, whereas video games frequently introduce distractions through gameplay mechanics. For players to truly understand a game’s narrative, they must not only follow the immediate storyline but also grasp the broader world, including its lore and the character's role within it. Games like Heavy Rain and the Dark Souls series have been criticized for disrupting key narrative moments with elements like quick-time events or enemies that attack players during pivotal scenes. These interruptions can momentarily pull players out of the story, diverting their attention and ultimately detracting from the narrative, which in turn can impact the overall experience. 

Yet, despite these potential pitfalls, many games have successfully struck a balance between engaging gameplay and complex storytelling. By employing concepts of embedded and emergent storytelling, games enable players to discover narrative elements within the game world while also crafting their own unique stories through gameplay. This approach brings a certain realism to video games, mirroring how stories in our daily lives are often products of our actions and experiences rather than a predefined narrative. This realism, in turn, deepens immersion, which remains a key aspiration for game developers seeking to create truly impactful gaming experiences. 

Sources 

Elumski (2012). Ron Gilbert - Maniac Mansion postmortem. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNpjGvJwyL8 [Accessed 11 Oct. 2024]. 

Juul, J. (2001). Games Studies 0101: Games telling Stories? by Jesper Juul. [online] www.gamestudies.org. Available at: https://www.gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts/. 

Qin, H., Rau, P., Salvendy, G. (2009) Measuring Player Immersion in the Computer Game Narrative. In: Entertainment Computing [online] https://www.researchgate.net Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220302079_Measuring_Player_Immersion_in_the_Computer_Game_Narrative. 

Valve (2023). Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbZ3HzvFEto&t=3124s [Accessed 11 Oct. 2024]. 

[nataliedecorsair]

How to hang out with your bird gf? Here's some mostly useful guide. Also, don't forget about the frog 🐸 Some of the previous comics are here and here ----- Separate post about Hedwig/Yadwiga is here.

Post about Vaughn, Yadwiga and their AU is here

Find even more comics about them on my Tumblr by the Pticenoga hashtag

[handsomejacksfatcock]

Our Rhys's wow what sillies.

[psakhich]

[nereeitor]

I had to redraw this scene from Tales from the Borderlands no matter what.

[stinger-shot]

Alright so,

I just remembered that I have borderlands (my favourite shooter game) and I had a thought.

Ironhide would 100% play this game, it has his humor and GUNS and Ironhide is a damn weapons specialist so ofc he'd like shooter games!

Like he would 100% have most of the games and would have completed them all just because they are quite addicting.

He would probably also find claptrap very annoying. Everyone does (expect me ofc, I love my lil depressed robot.)

I don't know who he'd choose to play as though, maybe Roland in the first game? I have no clue for the seccond though.... or third. (I don't know mutch about the 3rd game at all or the 4th)

[handsomejagoff]

one of my friends called this face the “telltale scowl” and i think that’s so funny

[manualformarsh]

the devil on your shoulder (talking about dicks or smth✍️✍️✍️)

[interoteme]

do you think he'd like crazy:b

[sourjabloki]

i'm sorry if someone had already done it but i just couldn't this is tftbl to me