Borderlands 2: Trading, Duelling For Loot To Stop Online Thievery

Borderlands 2 will stamp out online loot thieving, thanks to a new trading system and the ability to duel for other players' loot, Gearbox has told NowGamer.

"With our duelling feature, we’ve given players the option to duel for loot. So you can like, put up something you’ve found as an ante, and whoever wins the duel will get the gear that you guys are betting on," creative director Paul Hellquist said in an interview with NowGamer.

"We’re also bringing in a trading system for players who do want to safely share loot," added Jason Reiss, Borderlands 2's lead level designer. "With the first Borderlands, we read a lot about players standing in front of each other, taking five steps back, throwing their loot on the ground and cautiously walking to pick up and swap gear. It’s a very paranoid, sort of ‘wild west’ form of trading [laughs]."

"And while two people are doing this in a very gentlemanly way, some loot ninja dude who had just joined the game will run up and steal all of the gear, then drop out," added Hellquist. "All of a sudden everyone’s unhappy [laughs]."

Third-party chancers will be out of luck in Borderlands 2 though, added the developer.
 
"We’ve got a much more secure system that means I can interact with your character directly, open up a private trading window, and trade items. It’s a much more friendly way for people to do that."

Borderlands 2 is set to launch on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC sometime in fiscal 2013 - or between April 2012 and March 2013, to narrow it down.

Look out for our in-depth Borderlands 2 interview shortly.