Borderlands 2 is a genuinely fun game, but it’s not without its criticisms. One of them, the most voiced, is the non-instanced loot system. A system whereby players simply grab what they want. There’s no rolls, no instancing, and no way to really split the gear other than sitting down and talking about it.

Speaking to IGN, Gearbox Creative Director Paul Hellquist said:

“That was the foundation, that was the precedent that we set in the first game. Diablo III was really the first one that even tried the instanced loot thing. I find it interesting that it was instantly the standard, whereas from our point of view we played Diablo III and actually thought [Blizzard] seriously damaged the cooperative experience because of the instanced loot.  That’s just our personal opinion, of course.”

I’m not sure if instanced loot really did first make an appearance in Diablo 3, but I don’t remember having the same amount of loot problems in Borderlands 2 than in older games such as, say, Titan Quest. Hellquist is adamant that the player interaction regarding the distribution of loot is a credit to the game, but in what is essentially a blow-everything-up, fast paced FPS, do players really want to stand around after every green loot drop and discuss who gets what as they’re being shot at, or even after bosses?

For the full interview, head to the IGN interview. What did you think of Borderlands 2 look situation? Do you and your friends share loot, or is there one loot hog (invariably myself) who ruins the experience? Does loot even matter? Let us know in the comments.