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CarryTheWeight's Blog
Does "2K Care About Us"? 
Posted on April 8, 2009 at 12:06 AM.
Here's a quote from a poster (whose name has been withheld) at OS who has been fairly upset over the state of 2K Baseball on the next-gen systems. In the middle of his tirade, he states:

Quote:
2K doesn't care about us. They never have and they never will.
Let's break this down.

Never have? Remember ESPN NFL 2K5, where the developers (much like like what we see with Ian and Kolbe) came on the forums, interacted with users and credited "the generous people of Operation Sports" in its manual? Remember the year before, where Sega and VC set up a viral marketing campaign known only as "Beta-7" in order to gauge community members' responses over its First Person Football feature? Remember a game called All-Pro Football 2K8 which aimed to appease the rabid ESPN 2K5 fanbase on next-gen consoles (with mixed results)? 2K has a history of customer involvement...and before you jump on me for saying these things, I'm not some defensive fanboy toeing the company line. Look up the older posts in this forum and you'll see.

Somewhere along the line, this customer involvement seemed to dwindle, with the occasional post here and there from developers such as SimBaller, Shadow71, Beluba (former NBA 2K head) and KushGamer (former MLB 2K developer). I'm not saying these posts involved a lack of dedication by the developers, though, or a sign that the company wasn't as committed to appeasing the gamers here at OS into making the game THEY wanted...it just wasn't the level of community involvement we expected from the 2K team back in the Sega days.

Never will? Well, that remains to be seen. If anything, the developers should be collaborating with the community more often around here (much like the EA and SCEA reps do) in order to avoid the embarrassing reviews and snide comments made around internet sites and forums alike about their products. All of 2K's titles have potential that shouldn't go to waste. Because of this, I think gauging the opinions of the community can only make their titles better and comparable to what we saw in ESPN NFL 2K5.

2K10 will be an important year for 2K Sports and Visual Concepts based on the negative criticism their titles have been getting around Operation Sports. I believe, however, that with enough community involvement, such rampant bashing will fade. Posts like the "2K Developers Are Listening" threads in the NBA, NHL and MLB forums are essential for developers to gauge exactly how the hardcore gamers here at OS view their titles. Whether or not these ideas are taken into consideration remains to be seen. Here's hoping for the best, though.
Comments
# 1 KofiJamal @ Apr 8
I wouldn't say they "don't care" or "never did," I've been giving them money since the Dreamcast. I will be honest, APF did leave a bitter taste and while I enjoy the NBA 2K series, even that has been slightly dragging. However over all, I enjoy their games.

I agree with you, 2K10 will be a VERY important year for me. After years of not playing NBA Live, I'm very close to going and picking up Live 09 just to see what's going on. And there are some issues I have with 2K9 that really bother me. I'd love another crack at APF, but the Gold/Silver/Bronze system and lack of a franchise mode really needs improving.

But I don't think it's as dire as some make it seem. I don't play baseball games (even though I want to get into the sport in real life, something my wife will love for sure (sarcasm)) and didn't dig the boxing game. But it just might be that they don't have the resources that other teams have too.
 
# 2 Cras @ Apr 8
It seems to me that they were a different company a five years ago. They might have cared about us, but I think in that time they saw how EA Sports operated and figured that was a good money-making model and copied it, all to our disadvantage.
 
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