Borderlands 2’s Mechromancer: A girlfriend plays ‘girlfriend mode,’ boyfriend plays ‘boyfriend mode’

You can tell the developer was choosing his words very carefully. “Best Friends Forever … this is our newbie-friendly skill tree,” said Gearbox Software’s Jonathan Hemingway. The game designer was describing to us a beginner-oriented set of upgrades and powers for the Mechromancer, a new character who’s available for purchase and download today for the cooperative shooter Borderlands 2.

Hey, wait … wasn’t he just calling this “newbie-friendly skill tree” something a little less politically correct  just a few weeks ago? “Ha, yes, I’m afraid to death now of calling it ‘girlfriend mode!’” said Hemingway, sheepishly laughing at his own faux pas. Guess he read all the fiery backlash on the Internet from female gamers when he first put that unofficial label out there.