Weapon Variety Purpose?

[SpottedStripe]

I have a question for the Borderlands veterans here.
I've gotten a few comments on my Borderlands play through about my weapon variety, I think I read somewhere that there's something like 16 million possible variants, but (and this could just be my own ignorance) all the weapons just sorta look and feel the same after a while, and the weapons that I have currently do the job just fine. So I don't really see the point of having that many weapons.

I know it's supposedly the franchise's staple but I feel that there are other elements that deserve that title far more.
Keep in mind this is NOT the enhanced version, and this is my first ever play through.
I have no strong feelings about it one way or another, but I am curious if I've looked at it all wrong.

[HerrDave]

There aren't really 16,000 guns, that was more of a marketing thing to catch people's attention on Gaming Magazines back when those were at thing;
There's upward of that many different combinations of weapon parts across the various companies though.
(Visually they don't look too different, mechanically it's + to this, - to that, etc)

Having played 1, 2 and TPS, I say the strength of Borderlands 1 is in the ambience and the setting.
- The player is being told a story by a sleazy arms-dealer with an ego about a vault most people think is a myth hidden in a wasteland

- The 'heroes' of the story are all Wanted for various crimes:
Roland is a deserter
Mordecai was accused of cheating in a sniping tournament and a bounty was placed on him for it
Lilith used her newfound powers to frighten people and steal from them
Brick is a murderous bruiser with a perpetually short fuse

- Pandora has just come out of it's insanely long solar cycle, thawing and waking up all of the wildlife (which immediately slaughtered most of the Dahl researchers & prison-labor who turn bandit/cannibal after the company pulled out in an emergency withdrawal from the planet)

- Bandits aren't meme-spouting idiots, they're dangerous cannibals belittling you for acting like a hero; They have an overlord who makes his captains compete with each other for his favor over the same goal (Initially, the sacking of Fyrestone)

What launched Borderlands into it's brief stardom was that it combined RPG elements (leveling & skill-trees) and first-person shooter gameplay in a sci-fi "western" (space frontier) setting with a unique artstyle.


TL:DR
16,000 guns isn't the main attraction, it's an ingredient in a larger cake that is Borderlands 1

Happy hunting :)

[DDoig1]

It's for long term. I have played a lot since 2009 and I am still finding guns I haven't had before. Yeah I think it is estimated there are more than 17 million guns.

[Chinfu1189]

even with all the different attatchments and item codes every item can have we barley break a couple thousand items same with bl2 and so on. its a a marketing scheme cause one player will never be able to obtain every single weapon varaint/type of every combo in a life time and some are just stupid rare % to get