Why am I losing customization in Borderlands 2?

Question

I seem to have the same problem as the person who asked Borderlands 2, skin and head problems?. They didn't get any kind of answer that would help me, so I'm going to add more detail:

• I play split-screen co-op, and I'm always the second player. The PS3 only has one account so it's User and User[1].
• I play Maya, and I have collected customization items before, heads and skins, and opened them. I know for a fact I had the head, Nevermore.
• I know that usually after I use the customization item and go to the Quick Change console, I have a new option to choose from. Like with Nevermore, I can view the new option.
• After I've viewed it and left the console, do whatever, and came back, my new options were gone.

I find this really annoying because the other person playing has all of their options still available. It only seems to be me that loses my options. I've heard about the glitch that turns your Badass points to 0, resets your skills, and gets rid of your new customization options. This might be it because my Badass Points and Rank are 0 even though I'm level 18 and I know I've completed challenges. I still have all my skills, so maybe only the points reset. Is there anything I can do right now?

I want to customize my characters, and you can see how this is obviously causing a problem.

Answer 1

A fairly straightforward explanation for this is that the skins are saved on your console profile. So progress you make as the User[1] persists until you close the game and then is lost because there is nowhere to save it. I don't know that to be a fact, and with some web research I could not track it down, but it would seem to be the only way it would feasibly work. I have observed this behavior anecdotally on other games, but I don't have Borderlands 2 on PS3 to be able to confirm.

So, to address this issue, create a second profile on your PS3 and log into it when you are playing couch co-op as the second player. Your second account should not need to be registered to PSN, although it is free so there isn't really a downside other than the hassle. I'd suggest trying it with an offline profile first, and then registering with PSN as a last ditch.