Gearbox Continues to Honor Memory of Late Fan with a Helpful NPC in Borderlands 2

[Shawn Zipay]

In November 2011, a huge Borderlands fan, Michael Mamaril, passed away from cancer. His friend emailed Gearbox with a simple hope that the company would create a small eulogy for the departed to be read by Claptrap. The eulogy would be played during Michael's funeral.

Not only did Gearbox do this, but they promised to include Michael in Borderlands 2 as an NPC. True to form, the company stuck to their word. Gearbox staff went into a short bit of detail for the NPC named Michael Mamaril and how he will help hopeful vault hunters in their quest.

The friend is a NPC who will give you good loot to help you out, Blue or better, and was made to be someone the player can look forward too whenever they meet him.

There is even an achievement associated with meeting him in game.

The crew from Gearbox explained, in greater detail, the impact Michael and his tragedy had on the team and the game. It's even evident how touching the story is as Randy Pitchford gets a little choked up talking about it. Feel free to skip to the 2:48:40 mark in the Gearbox panel found here.

That is certainly a class act here from Gearbox.

(via NeoGAF)

[Eagle101]

Wow what an amazing thing to do, this is very touching seriously when devs to something like this it tells us something good about them, samething with Valve.

[Linux]

It is so cool to see companies like this add something special for someone. It really does show that although Gearbox might be a huge company they are extremely loyal to their fan base and will go the extra 100 miles to add something special to their games for people. Valve I believe is the same way and many other smaller companies do things like this it really does show how great the gaming world can be in light of tragic events.