Submitted on: 11/13/2015 by
Jayson Young
"Black Friday" circular ads are already surfacing on the Internet, so if you're planning on purchasing NBA 2K16 during the Holiday shopping season, and you're looking forward to taking your created character into multiplayer matches, know that whatever you spend for your copy of the game, it won't be enough to compete online -- at least, not right away.
NBA 2K16's Pro-Am and MyPark modes are built on competitively unbalanced and psychologically manipulative grind-to-win/pay-to-win models -- the kinds you'd expect to find in a free-to-play mobile app, not on a $60 Blu-ray disc. If you want to keep up with the majority of Pro-Am/Park players, who are presently rated in the mid-80s to high-90s, your avatar must choose between slowly earning or outright purchasing six figures of in-game currency just to raise your player's overall rating from a completely inept 55 up to at least the low-80s.
Once you're decently rated, you'll still need to invest several dozen hours cheesing the computer -- probably on the lowest and least-fun difficulty level called "Rookie Casual" -- just to unlock essential badges like Deadeye, Posterizer, Limitless Range, etc. You'll also have to scrape together enough virtual currency to upgrade all those badges from their default "bronze" tier to the highest "gold" tier if you want them to have any real impact on the court. Before you finally drop your player off at the Park, you'll want to spend thousands more in VC to temporarily boost each of your position's key attribute pools by five points for a 50-game period. Don't forget to return to the in-game store every 50 matches (they'll pass pretty quickly, at about eight minutes per game) to inject another dose of plus-five juice.
In their weekly Twitch streams, Visual Concepts' community managers, Chris Manning and Ronnie Singh, often mention their company's desire to make NBA 2K a competitive team sport. But if you made a list of the most popular multiplayer series from the past decade of competitive gaming –- StarCraft, Counter-Strike, DOTA, Street Fighter, Smash Bros. –- none of those games are designed like NBA 2K.
You don't have to unlock Ken's "Shoryuken" badge and upgrade it from bronze to gold just for that special move to become effective in online Street Fighter matches. If you decide that you want to start learning Little Mac, and are ready to take a break from the Donkey Kong character you've been using as your main character since Smash Bros was released, then you won't have to start over as a 55-rated Little Mac and grind/pay your way back up to where you were with your 99-rated Donkey Kong. There's also no way to make your trusty AK-47's shots more accurate in Counter-Strike just by grinding out dozens of games against the CPU, or by purchasing thousands in virtual currency from an in-game shop.
No matter how hard Visual Concepts' marketers campaign for it, NBA 2K's five-on-five multiplayer modes will never become truly competitive until the grind-to-win and pay-to-win upgrade systems are eliminated.
Rival sports developer, Electronic Arts, has a reputation among gaming fans for being one of the "greediest" corporations in the entertainment business. However, if you look at what EA did this year with NHL 16's EA Sports Hockey League -- completely removing attribute progression in favor of pre-built player classes -- it was a strongly pro-consumer, pro-tournament change that NBA 2K17 should absolutely imitate if the series actually wants to become a popular competitive sport rather than simply being one of Take-Two Interactive's cash cows.
The game could easily please both masters (its publicly traded publisher and its fanbase of four million users) if offline players are allowed to keep creating 99-rated gods with 50-plus gold badges for their own private amusement in NBA 2K17, whereas online MyPlayers are forced to pick from only a few strengths, while carrying one or two exploitable weaknesses, just like every skater does in NHL 16's evenly rebuilt EASHL mode.
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Originally Posted by Choose Your Badges
Pick One: Dimer, Deadeye, Posterizer, Limitless Range, Shot Creator, Microwave, Unfazed, Perimeter Lockdown Defender, Post Lockdown Defender Pick Two: Lob City Passer, Lob City Finisher, Post Hook Specialist, Fade Ace, Screen Outlet, Bank is Open, Tear Dropper, Flashy Passer Pick Two (PG, SG, SF only): Killer Crossover, Pet Size Up, Spin Kingpin, Stepback Freeze, In & Out, Hesitation Stunner, Behind the Back, Euro Step, Hop Step Pick Two (PF, C only): Eraser, Bruiser, Offensive Crasher, Defensive Crasher, Brick Wall, Post Stepback, Post Hop, Post Spin, Up & Under, Drop Step Pick One: Transition Finisher, One Man Fast Break, Break Starter, Relentless Finisher, Acrobat, Pick and Roll Maestro, Corner Specialist Pick One: Closer, Swagger, Mind Games, Enforcer, Alpha Dog, Beta Dog, Spark Plug, Floor General, Defensive Anchor, Hardened, Volume Shooter, Road Dog, Cool and Collected, Prime Time, Wildcard Pick One: Scrapper, Charge Card, Pick Dodger, Hustle Points, Interceptor, Pick Pocket, Chase Down Artist |
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Originally Posted by Pick Your Player Type
Point Guards Wall –- Elite athlete, good defender, good passer, mediocre shooter Curry –- Elite shooter, good passer, good speed, mediocre defender Kyrie -- Elite dribbler, good shooter, good speed, mediocre passer, mediocre defender, Rondo -- Elite passer, huge wingspan, good defender, poor shooter Lowry –- Good all-around point guard, but physically undersized Wings Korver –- Elite shooter, good size, mediocre defender, mediocre athleticism Wade–- Elite slasher, good mid-range shot, good defender, poor three-point shot Tony Allen –- Elite defender, good athleticism, good wingspan, poor offensive skills Odom –- All-around forward with good wingspan but underweight "Old" Kobe -- Elite mid-range shot, good post-up offense, good slasher, mediocre three-point shot, mediocre defender, mediocre athleticism "Young" Carter -- Elite athleticism, good slasher, mediocre shooter, mediocre defender Bigs Dirk –- Elite Shooter, good size, mediocre defender, poor athleticism Bosh -- Good shooter, good athleticism, long wingspan but underweight Jefferson – Elite post-up offense, good defender, good rebounder, mediocre athleticism, undersized Bol –- Extremely tall, but also extremely frail, slow, and unskilled DeAndre –- Elite athlete, good rebounder, good wingspan, no offensive skills Duncan –- Elite offensive skills, good defender, good rebounding, poor three-point shooter, poor athleticism |
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