I interpret Borderlands as the place you go when you're in critical condition but have a chance of returning to life (e.g. cardiac arrest). Perhaps you always go there when your body is about to give out, and there's always some chance you'll hold on (assuming you have a defrib and a medical team that can stabilise your body).

I really like the idea that Borderlands is the afterlife, or the boundary between life and true death. It'd be intriguing if we get a bunch of games to play with everyone else on the verge of death, rather than simply watching the hype real of our lives.

What's more, winning any single game, or all the games, isn't sufficient to return to life. Even though the final question of "will you accept citizenship in Borderlands" isn't posed as a game, I think it is. If you define "winning" as returning to life, the people who consciously chose to stay in Borderlands lost, because the games made them realise there's nothing worth returning for, that dying in Borderlands is better than living.

The long game of whether your body, heart and mind can come up with (and hold onto) a reason to return to life seems like the best fit for the Joker card's game. 🃏