OT: NBA 2K23 is a hate crime against gamers.

[sp6r=underrated]

I haven't played 2k since...2014? These sports games are never balanced. I remember my last NBA2k player averaged 30/15/8 with about 5 blocks and 5 steals on like 60% shooting. This is during the rookie season too, I think I played 9 minute quarters and got to maybe 80 overall. And I actually tried to play "realistically" too. Don't forget all the generated rookies who shoot 40% despite being 80+ overall. Never played online, but I can imagine it would be very irritating. People trying to pad stats instead of actually playing a game.

And yeah, the pay to win stuff is super irritating in all games. Seems like the game companies release a base shell and then release the rest as DLC or put the fun stuff behind paywalls.

The lack of realism in sports games is jarring. And it has always been a problem. The one I played the most was Madden. For younger fans Michael Vick was a good not great running QB whose career was sidetracked by dog fighting. While he was never as good as his rep he was super entertaining. He was just unstoppable in the edition below:



and when I say unstoppable if someone picked Vick, and had any skill, they would just put up absurd numbers playing football in a way that had no relations to reality.

That is what the customers want so that is what they get. But it is damn silly.

[Tracymcgoaty]

I actually bought the game at launch this year. MyCareer is full of useless padding. I never even played a single game in MyCareer. Literally the first thing they have you doing is running around the city like it's an open world game. Trying to play a basketball game, not an action-adventure game. I heard it gets even worse as you go.

It's sad they screwed MyCareer up and milked the VC crap because the gameplay is actually pretty good this year. The shooting mechanics are the best they've been in years.

Thats the irritating part. The game play is good but it's almost nullified by the VC crap. It's fun to play online rec minus people spamming square. But i was trying to bump my player from 80-85 on 3pt and it cost me 30K

Not only that they added a new thing called rebirth where you basically get yo re-spec your player if you want when it reaches 90 rating. You'd think that with re-spec you would retain all the VC you spent...Nope it's all gone and you have to grind all over again.

[sp6r=underrated]

Im in my late 20s and that 2K you just posted was the GOAT. Seriously me and my brother playing the story mode was crazy good.

1. No you dont need to have VC in order to play online. Talking strictly mycareer because thats where everyone is at. VC is not needed to play online.

2. VC is basically what you use to upgrade your player. You get VC by playing regular games against AI teams or online. Problem is that you have to grind forever in order to get a decent stack of VC to upgrade your player. Not only that they've made it harder now to upgrade by making VC more expensive. For example my player has 80 on three point shooting. If i want to bump that to 85 it costs me around 25000 VC....That is a ridiculous price for 5 levels. VC is essential for online. You'll go trough hell if your player isn't decent.

3. Yes

4. A lot of people just join in an online group and talk to each other via headset. I've met great folks that way. But it's mostly online. But i take hanging with friends playing at their house all day lol. Way more fun imo.

you made a great choice quitting after 2K5...It was the GOAT.

Thanks for the reply. I totally get how meeting people online can be fun. I have way better basketball conversations here than IRL. But yeah there is something about a bunch of guys hanging out in a **** apartment, drinking beers and playing each other one on one with a lot of BS flowing in the air.

Those endless nights bleed into each other but I look back on em with fun.

Back to the VC. Do you buy VC with actual money or is it something you have to earn by accomplishing feats?

You can get VC by playing regular games as well. If you're up for the grind that is. Thing is the amount of VC that is needed in order to make your guy good is crazy. It's clear to me that this year they're trying to force people into buying VC with how expensive it is to upgrade. But if you're patient and have no problem grinding like crazy then it's all good lol. Im **** on this game because it's malpractice imo. The fans are what made this game popular. To turn around and just crap all over them with stuff like this just shows the state of gaming nowadays.

From what you are describing, it really does seem like they are pissing on the fans. And the thing with that as a strategy is it can work for awhile but once customers get an alternative the product can really implode to the point were no one buys it at all.

Customers remember getting pissed on. And there have been products that lost their customer base by doing this. And the thing 2k needs to understand is there is no light-switch. If you've been putting out a lazy product for years and all of sudden you can't you'll find it hard to make a good one.

Based on your description it really does seem like the model is game costs ~$50 and then they want to get 2x at least in VC.

[Ruma85]

Seriously wtf is this game? They've literally gone all out this game to make it pay to win. Upgrading your player takes an inordinate amount of VC that it borders on criminal. Not only that. Steals online is a joke. You jump on rec and it's basically people spamming square 24/7.....AND THEY GET REWARDED FOR IT!!!

My guy has ballhandling 90+ and gets pick pocketed left and right even with badges. I have a steal rating of 50 and i still get 4+ steals a game because this game is a joke and has zero balance.

It's a **** crime to release this crap. The amount of VC you need to spend to make your player decent is criminal enough.

Thank god my brother bought this game and not me. What a waste.

I'm in my 40s and never played games except when I was in the same room with the opponent. The last NBA 2k game I seriously played is:



I only played with people in the same room. Needless to say I'm out of touch. This post is fascinating to me. I had to look up what VC stood for.

A few questions.

1. Do you have to get VC to play the game? By that I mean will it charge me anytime I try to play someone online?
2. Do most people use VC?
3. Do all the players start at the minimum?
4. Do most young people (14-28) play against each other online or hanging out at a friend's house?

Humor an old man and answer, YOUTHS

Im in my late 20s and that 2K you just posted was the GOAT. Seriously me and my brother playing the story mode was crazy good.

1. No you dont need to have VC in order to play online. Talking strictly mycareer because thats where everyone is at. VC is not needed to play online.

2. VC is basically what you use to upgrade your player. You get VC by playing regular games against AI teams or online. Problem is that you have to grind forever in order to get a decent stack of VC to upgrade your player. Not only that they've made it harder now to upgrade by making VC more expensive. For example my player has 80 on three point shooting. If i want to bump that to 85 it costs me around 25000 VC....That is a ridiculous price for 5 levels. VC is essential for online. You'll go trough hell if your player isn't decent.

3. Yes

4. A lot of people just join in an online group and talk to each other via headset. I've met great folks that way. But it's mostly online. But i take hanging with friends playing at their house all day lol. Way more fun imo.

you made a great choice quitting after 2K5...It was the GOAT.

I have to disagree, outside of the steals & VC's this is the best 2k ever made...

I have played about 15 2k basketball games & this is the best one.

Side note: Would be amazing to choose when a patch arrives to select what you want o be patched from there patch.

[Zvaart]

Seriously wtf is this game? They've literally gone all out this game to make it pay to win. Upgrading your player takes an inordinate amount of VC that it borders on criminal. Not only that. Steals online is a joke. You jump on rec and it's basically people spamming square 24/7.....AND THEY GET REWARDED FOR IT!!!

My guy has ballhandling 90+ and gets pick pocketed left and right even with badges. I have a steal rating of 50 and i still get 4+ steals a game because this game is a joke and has zero balance.

It's a **** crime to release this crap. The amount of VC you need to spend to make your player decent is criminal enough.

Thank god my brother bought this game and not me. What a waste.

Welcome to the new era of gaming.

Sadly, this is the trend all over the industry. I play a lot of games and i see it all around. So i stick mostly to my guns, Destiny (which rubs you of 100 euro every year but it's at least decent), and Lost Ark , which is a Korean pay-to-win MMO, but at least the developers admit it is that way. And i have enough discipline to free play it.

[Ruma85]

There’s other modes lol just stop playing myplayer

Yes but doesnt the game also looks the same with player physical movement isnt that smooth (non robotic)

I stopped playing since 2018, and every year i’m thinking of trying the new 2K by watching people play it online and every year i come out not wanting to play it for it looks and feels very much the same like in 2018

Thing is this 2K is actually pretty decent in all fairness. You cant spam the same crap as a ball handler anymore and you cant speed boost forever.

But what they've done when it comes to VC is a damn joke. That and how easy it is to steal the ball from players make it irritating. But the VC you need to spend now is ridiculous. It's clear they want to force people to buy VC.

Have you been tempted or ever bought VC's ?

[76ciology]

Bigger question..

Why do you play MyPlayer then?

I thought the reason why this game can’t take it to the next level is too much focus on MyPlayer. The game was making improvements when it was focused on the gameplay itself and doesnt have to create all these gimmicks outside the game

[Schiltzenberger]

All these sports games are just 95% copy and paste the code from previous years (I know Madden has been caught doing this multiple times) and then add some stupid new mode or feature and that’s all they push when advertising the game.

Back in the day I used to know the release date for games like Madden and 2k months prior their release because it was so fun to see the improvements from game to game. I went a good 4-5 years without buying a Madden game then saw the latest one for sale (this was like a year and a half ago) and decided to see the changes. Literally no change at all. All the menu setups were identical. The in game features for things like Franchise mode were all identical. 2k the same thing, they basically just change the storyline for the first year of MyCareer (most people try to skip that cringe stuff anyways) and that’s really the only change they make.

So ya stop buying those games and stop playing those games online and buying DLC. That is the only way they will ever make any changes. The era of great sports games is definitely long gone.

As I said in my previous post, I've aged out of gaming. But I did hang with Madden long enough to see the trend you pointed out. My dad passed last year and overall it was just a **** year for me. So I picked up a Madden for the first time since roughly 2012. It took me all of an hour to 2 hours to get decent at it just from muscle memory. It took me all of 5 minutes to remember the good plays you should run. Basically they had made no changes for years. And I want to be clear I was a middle aged guy picking up a controller for the first time in forever just because I was in the dumps about my dad.

The truth is fans have made it clear they don't give a **** about significant improvements year to year.

All fans want is updated rosters; incremental graphics improvements. That is it. And that is what they get. As long as they get that, they can sell tons of copies of these games so that is what they do.

As an aside, and I don't know how true this is, but my cousin was telling me that exclusives for systems have also faded away.

Movies, which I love, are in a period of stagnation. The major movies are just dominated by franchises with the rest being very small award oriented movies. Maybe video games are in a similar spot. But I'm speaking from a place of ignorance so I defer to others.

Wow!
So you've aged out of gaming, but then tell us exactly what all gamers want.... and you are so far wrong it's not funny.

Those things you say gamers want, that's exactly what gamers whinge about every year. They don't want copy and pasted games that are essentially just roster updates. Not one single person ever has asked for that, your post is complete nonsense.

[Duke4life831]

All these sports games are just 95% copy and paste the code from previous years (I know Madden has been caught doing this multiple times) and then add some stupid new mode or feature and that’s all they push when advertising the game.

Back in the day I used to know the release date for games like Madden and 2k months prior their release because it was so fun to see the improvements from game to game. I went a good 4-5 years without buying a Madden game then saw the latest one for sale (this was like a year and a half ago) and decided to see the changes. Literally no change at all. All the menu setups were identical. The in game features for things like Franchise mode were all identical. 2k the same thing, they basically just change the storyline for the first year of MyCareer (most people try to skip that cringe stuff anyways) and that’s really the only change they make.

So ya stop buying those games and stop playing those games online and buying DLC. That is the only way they will ever make any changes. The era of great sports games is definitely long gone.

As I said in my previous post, I've aged out of gaming. But I did hang with Madden long enough to see the trend you pointed out. My dad passed last year and overall it was just a **** year for me. So I picked up a Madden for the first time since roughly 2012. It took me all of an hour to 2 hours to get decent at it just from muscle memory. It took me all of 5 minutes to remember the good plays you should run. Basically they had made no changes for years. And I want to be clear I was a middle aged guy picking up a controller for the first time in forever just because I was in the dumps about my dad.

The truth is fans have made it clear they don't give a **** about significant improvements year to year.

All fans want is updated rosters; incremental graphics improvements. That is it. And that is what they get. As long as they get that, they can sell tons of copies of these games so that is what they do.

As an aside, and I don't know how true this is, but my cousin was telling me that exclusives for systems have also faded away.

Movies, which I love, are in a period of stagnation. The major movies are just dominated by franchises with the rest being very small award oriented movies. Maybe video games are in a similar spot. But I'm speaking from a place of ignorance so I defer to others.

Wow!
So you've aged out of gaming, but then tell us exactly what all gamers want.... and you are so far wrong it's not funny.

Those things you say gamers want, that's exactly what gamers whinge about every year. They don't want copy and pasted games that are essentially just roster updates. Not one single person ever has asked for that, your post is complete nonsense.

I think youre drastically misreading his post.

He isn’t saying that is what they’re literally saying. He’s saying that is what they’re showing with their wallets. People can complain about the minimal improvements year to year where each game is essentially just a roster patch, but people keep on buying them. And the fact that people keep on buying them just leads to these games not changing. If say 50% of the fans just decided enough was enough and didn’t buy 2k24. You better believe 2k25 would have massive improvements.

[Schiltzenberger]

I'm in my 40s and never played games except when I was in the same room with the opponent. The last NBA 2k game I seriously played is:



I only played with people in the same room. Needless to say I'm out of touch. This post is fascinating to me. I had to look up what VC stood for.

A few questions.

1. Do you have to get VC to play the game? By that I mean will it charge me anytime I try to play someone online?
2. Do most people use VC?
3. Do all the players start at the minimum?
4. Do most young people (14-28) play against each other online or hanging out at a friend's house?

Humor an old man and answer, YOUTHS

Im in my late 20s and that 2K you just posted was the GOAT. Seriously me and my brother playing the story mode was crazy good.

1. No you dont need to have VC in order to play online. Talking strictly mycareer because thats where everyone is at. VC is not needed to play online.

2. VC is basically what you use to upgrade your player. You get VC by playing regular games against AI teams or online. Problem is that you have to grind forever in order to get a decent stack of VC to upgrade your player. Not only that they've made it harder now to upgrade by making VC more expensive. For example my player has 80 on three point shooting. If i want to bump that to 85 it costs me around 25000 VC....That is a ridiculous price for 5 levels. VC is essential for online. You'll go trough hell if your player isn't decent.

3. Yes

4. A lot of people just join in an online group and talk to each other via headset. I've met great folks that way. But it's mostly online. But i take hanging with friends playing at their house all day lol. Way more fun imo.

you made a great choice quitting after 2K5...It was the GOAT.

I have to disagree, outside of the steals & VC's this is the best 2k ever made...

I have played about 15 2k basketball games & this is the best one.

Side note: Would be amazing to choose when a patch arrives to select what you want o be patched from there patch.

I agree, they actually made a good game. A few issues, but overall the gameplay is great.
They've just made it too grindy.

In previous versions you could grind to a 95-99 overall in about a week or so without buying VC. This year it'll take 4 or 5 times longer due to the costs of upgrading your build and that's people that are playing like it's a job, no lifer types. A casual might take months to max your build out.

What makes it worse is that they pay out a lot less VC this year too.
They are literally trying to frustrate people into buying VC.

[Schiltzenberger]

As I said in my previous post, I've aged out of gaming. But I did hang with Madden long enough to see the trend you pointed out. My dad passed last year and overall it was just a **** year for me. So I picked up a Madden for the first time since roughly 2012. It took me all of an hour to 2 hours to get decent at it just from muscle memory. It took me all of 5 minutes to remember the good plays you should run. Basically they had made no changes for years. And I want to be clear I was a middle aged guy picking up a controller for the first time in forever just because I was in the dumps about my dad.

The truth is fans have made it clear they don't give a **** about significant improvements year to year.

All fans want is updated rosters; incremental graphics improvements. That is it. And that is what they get. As long as they get that, they can sell tons of copies of these games so that is what they do.

As an aside, and I don't know how true this is, but my cousin was telling me that exclusives for systems have also faded away.

Movies, which I love, are in a period of stagnation. The major movies are just dominated by franchises with the rest being very small award oriented movies. Maybe video games are in a similar spot. But I'm speaking from a place of ignorance so I defer to others.

Wow!
So you've aged out of gaming, but then tell us exactly what all gamers want.... and you are so far wrong it's not funny.

Those things you say gamers want, that's exactly what gamers whinge about every year. They don't want copy and pasted games that are essentially just roster updates. Not one single person ever has asked for that, your post is complete nonsense.

I think youre drastically misreading his post.

He isn’t saying that is what they’re literally saying. He’s saying that is what they’re showing with their wallets. People can complain about the minimal improvements year to year where each game is essentially just a roster patch, but people keep on buying them. And the fact that people keep on buying them just leads to these games not changing. If say 50% of the fans just decided enough was enough and didn’t buy 2k24. You better believe 2k25 would have massive improvements.

Meh, that's the simpleton argument... 'don't buy it then!'
Guess what? the sales of 2K have been dropping every year, so people are holding back and not buying it...... again, it's a nonsense comment, that is factually wrong.

[Duke4life831]

Wow!
So you've aged out of gaming, but then tell us exactly what all gamers want.... and you are so far wrong it's not funny.

Those things you say gamers want, that's exactly what gamers whinge about every year. They don't want copy and pasted games that are essentially just roster updates. Not one single person ever has asked for that, your post is complete nonsense.

I think youre drastically misreading his post.

He isn’t saying that is what they’re literally saying. He’s saying that is what they’re showing with their wallets. People can complain about the minimal improvements year to year where each game is essentially just a roster patch, but people keep on buying them. And the fact that people keep on buying them just leads to these games not changing. If say 50% of the fans just decided enough was enough and didn’t buy 2k24. You better believe 2k25 would have massive improvements.

Meh, that's the simpleton argument... 'don't buy it then!'
Guess what? the sales of 2K have been dropping every year, so people are holding back and not buying it...... again, it's a nonsense comment, that is factually wrong.

How is that a simpleton argument, that is literally the only way its going to change.

Are sales dropping drastically? This is the first thing that popped up for me when it comes to Madden sales numbers
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Esports/Sections/Media/2022/09/NPD-Group-August-2022-video-game-sales-Madden-NFL-2023
Madden's sales dont seem to be hurting all that much. Then you add on the VC stuff on these games as well. Ya not really seeing why these game developers would spend the extra time and money to develop new stuff when they can just copy and past the majority of code from the previous game and still crank out best selling games year after year.

People can complain online and all that all they want. These developers dont care as long as they rake in the money every year.

[SlovenianDragon]

If u have the time this is a good watch...if u like video games in general and the way pay to win is going...

Watch on YouTube

[HanzGruber]

Anytime I bought 2k it was for franchise mode only. The my player online stuff is wack and buggy. But the last version that I bought even vs the cpu was impossible to make wide open 3s. Game is trash now

[Antinomy]

I stopped playing that sh*t years ago.

It used to be a true basketball simulation 10 years ago — now it’s catered to casual players who sit around searching up the best glitchy jumpshot or dribble move to use, then the pay-to-play microtransaction BS that has infiltrated seemly every game nowadays.

It was much worse a few years ago when they literally had virtual CASINOS in the damn game. There were countries who actually created laws to start banning that BS because it got so bad.

I’m a believer that sporting games should’ve stopped being annual releases YEARS ago.

All they would have to do is send out (or charge for roster updates) & create patches for any issues.

Unfortunately, they will never change their model unless they can figure out how to convince players to reset their current MyPlayer (that they spend $300 on each time) without buying a new game.

This is before I get into the gameplay itself. There are some (non-monetizable) modes that 2K hasn’t touched in years.

There are glitches that have been there for 10+ years like:
- Directional passing being a mess — it’s never thrown to the right player unless you use icon passing

- Players not passing or shooting when you press the button.

- Forced animations on offense & defense

People keep buying the same game every year so things will never change. It’s the same problem with IPs like Call of Duty, where they’ve completely lost their identity trying to appeal to casuals.

[KingFox]

I wish they'd put more effort into all of the modes, especially things like 'MyLeague' - it would be really cool to see some type of storyline for that or something. MyPlayer has never caught my interest

[Adelheid]

nba 2k11 still universal heralded the best in the series

[UcanUwill]

I didnt buy this year, but I only care about singleplayer. For me, MyCareer or UT modes is an absolute joke and blight on gaming.


FOr singleplayer, its somewhat fine, but I hate how some essential skills is just not part of the game.
Like, off hand strength - hello? Like seriously, half of offense is player trying to drive to his dominant hand, and half of defense is shielding and guarding your opponents dominant hand. But no, this doesnt even exist in this game, at least it doesnt in 22, maybe it is in new game, but call me skeptical...
Other notable missing skills - footwork, ability to handle double team, off ball movement. etc.

I also hate that they have that green release meter where if you manage to do it, it goes in every time. It is just a balancing killer, sooner or later, you pick up on players shooting, I play myleague, and I had Fournier, Herro and MPjr. on my team, and I shot over 49% from 3 with all of them, because it is so easy to green.
Also, I said this many times, but this shows how idiotic design of this game is - some open shots like layups and open floaters are impossible to miss. Have you noticed that? I know that wide open lay up is ''guaranteed'' points, but in real life even NBA player will blow a wide open lay up sometime. But no, in NBA 2K, it is a 100% shot, how much of an idiot you must be to program it that way?
Also, I have never seen full court heave to go in. It is not based on some physics or anything, they just programmed few heave's trajectories, and its the same every time, it is impossible to hit a heave in this game

/Speaking purely about last years game. F if I buy this crap every year, they could fix injuries not existing in game in 3 years, wtf are they even doing, are these devs developing anything beside UT garabage now?

Well, at least they allow you to play 75 seasons, unlike FIFA, who manipulately only give you 15 seasons of manager mode, so you would finish in 12 months and have insentive to buy new game...

[UcanUwill]

nba 2k11 still universal heralded the best in the series

I played that one for years, I remember it was almost impossible to draw fouls in that game though. I still love the fact mygm mode had actual G league games and teams, I loved that, I loved seeing NBA scrubs like Garry Neal and Ryan Anderson get send to G-league, and light it up. Garry Neal was MJ in G league in my run

[wade44]

I feel bad for anyone who is invested in a pay to win heavily involved game. Ruins the experience completely & is a big turn off personally