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Monday Tip-Off: How NBA 2K23 Would Win Me Over

Monday Tip-Off: How NBA 2K23 Would Win Me Over

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with an outline of how NBA 2K23 would win me over.

Let’s be clear about this. In the grand scheme of things, NBA 2K23 doesn’t need to win me over. I’m just one person, and I’m not one of their big name influencers. The game won’t need my stamp of approval in order to sell at least ten million copies. Furthermore, given that I am a collector and still a content creator, I’ll be contributing to those sales figures anyway. In that respect, you could argue that it makes me part of the problem, but hey, like I said, I’m just one person. In short, I acknowledge that whether or not NBA 2K23 wins me over, it will be a success by almost every metric.

That goes without saying, but that’s not the issue here. This isn’t about what NBA 2K23 must do to be successful, but what it would take to get someone who has greatly preferred to play NBA 2K14 over NBA 2K21 and NBA 2K22 to get hooked on a new game once again. It’s an uphill battle, because some of the changes I’d love to see will never happen, due to business reasons. I’m obviously also very enthusiastic about this retro kick with NBA 2K14. However, I do aim to approach every new game with an open mind, and a willingness to keep playing if I’m enjoying myself. To that end, with the right changes and improvements, I could definitely be won over by NBA 2K23.

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The Friday Five: 5 Stages of a Basketball Game Release

The Friday Five

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five outlines the five stages that we go through every time there’s a new basketball game release.

We’re on the road to a new basketball game release, namely NBA 2K22. Obviously, we’re all hoping for the best as far as gameplay improvements, enhancements to game modes, and a fairer approach to recurrent revenue mechanics. Alright, we probably shouldn’t hold our breath on that last point! Nevertheless, the preview season always brings a mixture of excitement, intrigue, scepticism, and cynicism. We’re hoping for good news and want to be open-minded, but we’re also leery of being disappointed, having been burned by previous releases.

Of course, we gamers – and the content creators, influencers, and pundits within gaming communities – are creatures of habit. We don’t always learn from the past, though that is admittedly a very human problem. Having covered basketball games for the NLSC for twenty years now, I’ve noticed the same cycle repeating with every game and preview season. In fact, it’s so consistent that I can apply the “five stages of grief” model to the steps we collectively go through whenever a new basketball game release is looming. Do I expect to break the cycle simply by pointing this out? No, but if nothing else, spelling it out may explain why many of us feel so cynical at times.

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Monday Tip-Off: Reviewing New Basketball Game

Monday Tip-Off: Reviewing New Basketball Game

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with an admittedly snarky parody that demonstrates how all too many people who cover hoops gaming go about reviewing a New Basketball Game.

In the interests of transparency, I’ve toyed around with the idea of writing an article like this for some time. However, after reading this delightfully meta piece over on Kotaku, I believe that it’s only fair that I should credit it for inspiring me to actually go through with it. Besides, it’s not as though I invited parody or satire. As it stands, The Friday Five is, shall we say, “heavily inspired” by the format of Cracked’s articles (or BuzzFeed, or anyone else producing “listicle” content, I suppose). My Wayback Wednesday feature shares its name with a popular social media hashtag.

The point is that I cannot claim one hundred percent originality in my content. Of course, that’s only appropriate when I discuss the approach that so many influencers and video game journalists have towards reviewing the New Basketball Game every year. So many basketball game reviews are copy and paste fare, though again, some might argue that it’s apt given the genre. They seldom demonstrate insight into the sport – real or virtual – and neglect the nagging legacy issues that ardent basketball gamers want to know about. So many reviews are puff pieces and glorified press releases. I don’t share them anymore, because they all sound something like this.

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The Friday Five: 5 Issues That Keep Sneaking Back into NBA 2K

The Friday Five

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five issues that keep sneaking back into NBA 2K games.

Look, video game design is more difficult than a lot of gamers believe it to be. I know it sounds like I’m stating the obvious, but it bears repeating because there are people out there who seem to think creating the perfect basketball title is as simple as typing plain English into a word processor. Even more cynically, there’s a belief that the developers are capable of creating a much better game, but intentionally holding back on doing so in order to sell next year’s release. I can see the thought process behind that, but if creating a near-flawless game were feasible, it would’ve happened already.

What I’m getting at here is that video game development is challenging. Developers do care about making a great game – the suits may not, but the people actually putting in hard work absolutely do – and they want us to enjoy the fruits of their labour. In all fairness, NBA 2K has maintained a consistently high level of quality throughout the years. Even some of the more problematic and controversial releases over the past decade are still a far cry from being the worst hoops games ever made. There are some legacy issues that manage to keep sneaking back into new NBA 2K titles though, and with a new generation upon us, now is the time to shut them out.

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Monday Tip-Off: The Complacency of the Basketball Gamer

Monday Tip-Off: The Complacency of the Basketball Gamer

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a look at the concerning complacency that afflicts many a basketball gamer, especially when it comes to NBA 2K’s practices.

There’s a well-travelled fable about a boiling frog. The story goes that if you place a frog in boiling water, it will immediately jump out. However, if you place it in tepid water and slowly bring it to boil, the frog will not react to the danger and be boiled alive. Experiments have proven the premise to be false, but the imagery is still used as a metaphor for an unwillingness to react to threats that arise gradually, compared to those that arise suddenly. While the metaphor is based on a disproven principle, its imagery aptly illustrates the process of creeping normality.

Complacency is a major factor here, and it’s certainly an issue in basketball gaming. The attitude of “well, that’s just the way it is” shrugs off valid criticism and concerns. It can be shocking to look back at some of the fantastic games from years ago, and compare them to recent releases that are riddled with recurrent revenue mechanics, gatekeeping, and other aspects that are lacking in goodwill. How did we get from there to here? As in the boiling frog metaphor, had these changes come suddenly, there’d have been a revolt. By shrewdly introducing these elements and then turning up the heat, 2K has taken advantage of the complacency of the basketball gamer.

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Monday Tip-Off: Cynicism as a New Generation Looms

Monday Tip-Off: Cynicism as a New Generation Looms

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a few thoughts on how previews of NBA 2K21 Next Gen have inspired cynicism for me, rather than excitement.

When the NBA 2K21 Next Gen trailer dropped, I was compelled to post a few Tweets outlining my initial impressions. As you can probably gather from that thread, as well as comments I’ve made in our Forum and on the NLSC Podcast, I wasn’t blown away by the trailer, or pumped up about the game. If you follow me on Twitter, take part in our Forum, read my articles, or listen to our Podcast, you’ll probably also know that I’m not the biggest fan of NBA 2K21 Current Gen, either. My disappointment with NBA 2K21 and other recent releases has set the table for some Next Gen cynicism.

Thinking back to the release of NBA 2K14 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, I don’t remember feeling quite as cynical. It’s unfortunate, as I’d prefer not to feel that way. I don’t want my content to come across as jaded and overwhelmingly negative, but beyond that, as an avid basketball gamer, I want to enjoy my hobby and look forward to new games when they’re on the horizon. As NBA 2K21 Next Gen looms and we get our first glimpses and insights into the forthcoming game, my cynicism definitely outpaces my optimism in a way that it didn’t seven years ago. Today, I’m reflecting upon that, and how things have changed over the course of a generation.

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Monday Tip-Off: Imperfections Don’t Need Imperfect Solutions

Monday Tip-Off: Imperfections Don't Need Imperfect Solutions

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a simple but important message: imperfections in basketball games don’t need imperfect solutions.

There’s a running gag when it comes to Bethesda’s Fallout games: “it just works”. This sarcastic jab at bugs and other imperfections in the series is a reference to Executive Producer Todd Howard’s declaration that Fallout 4’s “dynamic game engine” would ensure that everything about it “just works”. And, to be fair, while I didn’t enjoy Fallout 4 as much as I did Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas, the game does indeed work. Does everything work as well as it should? Not exactly, and that’s why Todd Howard’s utterance of those words has become a meme.

In all fairness to Todd Howard and Bethesda though, they’re not alone in that regard. To be completely fair to the Triple-A gaming industry at large, achieving perfection is easier said than done, and the scope of their products is going to result in issues such as bugs and oversights. As gamers, consumers, whatever we want to call ourselves, we do understand that. However, some things are just poorly planned, designed, and implemented. Although we do criticise these issues and suggest solutions, I’ve also seen many gamers defend these imperfections. Not because of the difficulty of game design, mind you, but the notion that imperfect solutions cancel out valid complaints.

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