Borderlands, Played With My Daughter

So I’ve been playing a fair amount of Borderlands 2 co-op with my daughter, which is an interesting experience.  Usually, I need some game about every three months to obsess over – it’s how I relax – but now that Erin’s here, we’re mowing through it together.
Playing co-op when you’re both moderately incompetent is amusing.  I’m sure there are players who coordinate strategies – “Oh, I’ll choose the skill tree that buffs warriors, and you’ll tilt towards AOE spells!” – but Erin and I just sort of run around in circles, asking, “WHERE ARE YOU?”  During one particularly intense battle, I cleared out and finished an entire quest subtree while Erin drove around in a car trying to find me.
The stuff of heroism, I tell you.
Still, it’s fun to crack wise about the game as we play, and the company makes me feel not quite as reclusive.  Even if I feel like we should, you know, flank or coordinate strategies or do anything aside from have two guns in the room instead of one.  And the game is tilted towards co-op, mainly due to the awesome “Fight For Your Life!” mechanic, wherein when you die, you have thirty seconds in slow-mo to kill an enemy.  If you do, you get “Second Wind!” and re-enter the game with limited health and shields.  This means that when I’m down, Erin can help me out by accidentally killing the dude I was shooting at, thus dooming me to respawning.
And it’s also fun listening to others do the Equipment Romance, which has five steps:
1)  (Optional) ZOMG THIS GUN IS SO BADASS I’M NOT EVEN LEVELLED UP TO USE IT YET.  This is gonna be so awesome in two levels!
2)  This gun kills God.  In one shot.  I will never ever not use this gun.
3)  Whoo, these enemies are tough.
4)  Why am I dying so much?  It seems like I’m shooting a lot before I actually do damage.  But this weapon has so many extras, like fire and explosions!
5)  Christ, this gun sucks.  I gotta get a new one.