They don’t need to collect all this data, see the list below. Some, yes, but the majority has nothing to do with the service offered. Collected Data Types:\ • Identifiers / Contact Information: Name, user name, gamertag, postal and email address, phone number, unique IDs, mobile device ID, platform ID, gaming service ID, advertising ID (IDFA, Android ID) and IP address\ • Protected Characteristics: Age and gender\ • Commercial Information: Purchase and usage history and preferences, including gameplay information\ • Billing Information: Payment information (credit / debit card information) and shipping address\ • Internet / Electronic Activity: Web / app browsing and gameplay information related to the Services; information about your online interaction(s) with the Services or our advertising; and details about the games and platforms you use and other information related to installed applications\ • Device and Usage Data: Device type, software and hardware details, language settings, browser type and version, operating system, and information about how users use and interact with the Services (e.g., content viewed, pages visited, clicks, scrolls)\ • Profile Inferences: Inferences made from your information and web activity to help create a personalized profile so we can identify goods and services that may be of interest\ • Audio / Visual Information: Account photos, images, and avatars, audio information via chat features and functionality, and gameplay recordings and video footage (such as when you participate in playtesting)\ • Sensitive Information: Precise location information (if you allow the Services to collect your location), account credentials (user name and password), and contents of communications via chat features and functionality.

If any of us took the time to read the EULA on just about all of our services/devices you'd see all kinds of crap like this. The real question is would you still click "Accept"?

It’s because it isn’t. There is no kernel level anticheat or admin requirements as people keep suggesting . And the only things it sends back to gearbox is related to game functions: - your steam friends list so it can check if they have a gearbox account - in game chat - which level in the game you’re currently on I literally went to the point of packet inspection and found nothing to be concerned about.

Everyone who clicks "accept" is complicit in this behavior.

> • Protected Characteristics: Age and gender show me where in the EULA or any TOS where this is the case? because i'm seeing that this is flat out false, which throws the rest of the accusations into question. don't be a bandwagon jumper

https://www.take2games.com/privacy/en-US/#1-categories-of-information-collected You can read right there in the policy. Just scroll down till you see the categories of information collected. Let me know if you need me to take a screenshot and circle it for you as well.

fair enough

Reminder review bombing is just the way corporate media describes legitimate consumer complaints

So it doesn't seem like it's collecting all of the information from the updated EULA *yet*, but likely will start doing so soon. Does anyone know if you can still connect to multiplayer servers if you aren't on the latest patch? I might just turn off auto-updates and prevent the game from ever updating, but I'd like to have the option to play some more with friends in the future

The thing of it is, Steam reviews are entirely subjective. They don't ask if the game is good or worth playing, they ask if you'd recommend it to others. And whether or not you recommend a game can depend on things other than the way the game plays. I changed my recommendation on Borderlands 2 because I don't recommend anyone gives a single cent to Gearbox for any reason.

Does the same logic apply to the "woke nonsense" reviews for The Last of Us Part 2 when it was released, or any media featuring a minority group for that matter?

absolutely worth it to get, btw. still play it to this day. and Borderlands 3 I think is like 2 dollars on steam at the moment. *absolutely* grab that.

"I cannot recommend Borderlands 2 despite it being a great game, because by giving it a 'not recommended' I can make Randy Pitchford cry."

[Gamers love woke nonsense. ](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2124380/Super_Lesbian_Animal_RPG/) Well, I'm not going to pretend you don't have a point. Anything popular enough is going to attract some sort of hate. But I'd argue that being woke is not enough to get your game review bombed.

Can't complain about the single player half of the fun at the price of free, though. The game is so old, it should run fine even in a VM.

I suppose you didn’t hear about the new EULA for Take-Two/2K/Rockstar games eh? Long story short they have explicit permission to install a root kit on your system which is a popular type of malware. If the developers knowingly install a root kit on your system and someone who is savvy enough decides to abuse it, well… let’s just say the outcome isn’t pretty for the end-user. I love BL1 & BL2 but this is justification to put those games to rest or run them offline or in LAN.

My point to OP was that review bombing is, by definition, malicious. Sure, some companies can claim their game was "review bombed" because they don't like the legitimate criticism of their game, but what it really is when bad actors leave fake reviews because they don't like the game for reasons beyond the mechanics or systems.

claiming so i can drop a negative review, i guess they didnt think about that thorough huh

The actual game files for Borderlands 2 haven’t been updated in several years. Sure, you could argue that the new TOS is just setting things up to quietly slip the spyware in later after the attention has waned. But as it currently stands, all of the new TOS stuff was just bringing their older games up to match their newer releases that are still being actively supported. Chances are very good that they never actually update Borderlands 2, and simply use the new TOS for future releases; It’s simply an indicator that their future releases will have some gnarly anti cheat bullshit bolted on. But that doesn’t make headlines, nor does it fuel gamers’ nebulous rage. And yes, the “chances are good” part means the chance is a non-zero number. If I told someone “the chances are good that this bowl of skittles won’t kill you,” how many skittles would you be inclined to eat?

That’s a shame, because the series truly shines with multiplayer. It turns a grindy incremental loot game into a reason to hang out with friends. Probably a tenth of my friends list on Steam came from joining random public Borderlands games, and just hanging out with whoever happened to be playing.