Hey everyone, my name is Erick Boenisch and I am the Lead Feature Designer for the NBA 2K series. Many of you who frequent the NBA 2K forum may know me a little better as SimBaller. I’m here today to tell you about the exciting improvements we’ve made to The Association this year. The Association is taking what we are calling a AAA (triple A) approach to the mode this year. We’ve broken down each ‘A’ into a specific area of the experience that we aimed to improve this year.

The first ‘A’ is all about Accessibility. We want people who have never played or who are unfamiliar with franchise modes to give this a shot this year. We have introduced new features this year geared towards introducing the casual gamer to the mode without overwhelming them with the tasks that are typically found in franchise modes today. The first of which is a feature we are calling ‘Association Customization’. This feature grants the user the ability to automate certain tasks that must be performed during the season. Examples of this include Lineup Management (dealing with injuries), Player Roles, Staff Signings, Player Signings, Player Scouting, and much more. Our intention here was that if the user chooses to automate every single task we offer, the mode will essentially play itself with the user simply advancing time. Ultimately what this means to the user is that the experience can be completely tailored to the wants/needs of the specific user. For the casual gamers out there, the experience no longer has to be an intimidating one. We encourage you to start off slow and eventually take on more tasks as you become comfortable with the mode.

The second ‘A’ stands for Authenticity. From the moment you press ‘Go’ in The Association, we are delivering you a fully, 100% authentic experience. Our all-new NBA.com interface is going to change the way that information is delivered to the user in franchise modes. Traditional franchise modes require you to poke around various menus to find out what is going on in the league. NBA.com takes that concept and turns it on its head by bringing all of the league news and delivering it to you in a very accessible fashion. Your daily dose of news may include the latest game results, a player frustrated by his all-star snub, a player announcing his retirement at season’s end, a coach on the hot seat, the latest rumor from the rumor mill, or one of our other 194 (literally) headline types. Best of all, each of these headlines can be clicked on to learn a little more about them. Digging deeper, every team has a ‘team page’ on NBA.com. These team pages include headlines specific to the given team you are looking at in addition to general information about the team, including their leading scorers, rebounders, etc.

NBA.com is much more than just an interface where you can read the news though. We’ve added a ton of new content with the sole intention of making NBA.com as authentic as possible. NBA and Team Records have been added to The Association this year. The records are broken down by Single Game – Season, Single Game – Playoffs, Season, and Career. If a player breaks one of these records during the season, you better believe you are going to read about it on NBA.com. If you want to write your own history, you can do that by wiping the record books clean. Another feature we’ve added this year is the addition of advanced statistical analysis, or as we call it, our Metric Stats screens. Measuring player ability by raw stats is, simply put, not the best way to assess your talent. We have introduced stats like Efficiency, True Shooting %, Effective Field Goal %, Pure Point Rating, Assist Ratio, Turnover Ratio, and more to ensure that you have the best information possible on every player on your team. Also, there is no need to go Google what those stats mean. NBA.com defines each one for you so you know exactly what the numbers mean. Taking these stats to the next level, during the season, NBA.com will dynamically generate and deliver custom reports ranking the top players in the league in each of the categories. With NBA.com, every cause has an effect; every action, a reaction. In short, if it happens, you’ll read about it on NBA.com.

The final ‘A’ in our AAA approach stands for ‘Ambition’. We’re constantly striving to introduce new and innovative features to our franchise mode. Last year, too much success from reviewers and fans alike, we introduced our Player Roles/Player Personalities system. Players had thoughts, even emotions. With NBA 2K9, they have advanced AI models thanks to our all-new Player Ambitions feature. Integrating seamlessly with our Roles/Personality system, Player Ambitions drive the way players act and think in ways not yet seen in a franchise mode. Every player is rated in the following three categories: Their desire to Play For a Winner, their desire for Financial Security, and their Loyalty. Every decision a player makes during their career will be based on the Ambitions. What does this mean to you as the user? First of all, it means the players are now capable of making their own decisions and they will do so rather than you making the decisions for them. If your team isn’t putting W’s on the board and a player with a high Play For Winner rating is coming off of his contract, he likely won’t even give you the chance to re-sign him at the end of the season, depending on his Loyalty of course.

Over the course of a career, a player’s Ambitions will progress/regress with respect to the events that have taken place during his career. If he has gone through his career playing on contracts that undervalue his services, his desire for Financial Security will likely rise. At the same time, a player who continually plays for a losing team will see his desire to Play For a Winner rise over time. Players who have been with your team for a number of years and who have been treated properly will see significant Loyalty gains, which will help you dramatically when trying to retain their services once their contract is up. It’s important to keep an eye on what your players are saying while they are under contract. Every player will have a ‘Contract Thought’ that will give you a hint about what they are thinking about doing when their contract is up. The NBA is all about its players, so this year in The Association we are bringing that to the forefront. Pay attention to your players and what they are thinking and you’ll have no problem building the next great dynasty!

You’ve seen how our AAA (Accessibility, Authenticity, Ambition) approach has shaped the direction of The Association this year, but I’d like to take a moment to shine the light on what we like to call ‘The Little Things’. The Little Things are those touches here and there that rarely get called out but go a long way towards enhancing the experience of the end-user. With NBA 2K9, we actually made it a focus to address as many of these little things as possible. While I don’t have the space to list every change we’ve made, I wanted to point out some of my favorite changes that I believe you will enjoy as well:

• New Financial Model – We’ve completely re-designed the way money is handled in The Association with an eye on making it very understandable. No longer will you be confused on how much money your franchise actually has.
• Bird Years / Bird Rights – To keep our new financial model authentic, we’ve incorporated these rules straight from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that state that a team may go over the salary cap to re-sign their expiring player(s) if the player(s) have 3 or more Bird Years. Players accrue a Bird Year for every year that they play without changing teams via Free Agency.
• Players of the Week/Month and Rookies of the Month awards have been added to the game.
• Team Comparisons – Straight from the real NBA.com and dropped into ours, Team Comparisons give you detailed information on how your team plays in specific situations. If you are curious how your team plays when entering the 4th quarter with the lead or what your teams record is when out-rebounding your opponent, Team Comparisons will have those answers for you.
• Pick Origination - When you trade for another team’s draft pick, the game will now tell you what team originally owned the pick; this is vital for valuation purposes.
• Proper League Leaders - The league leaders list now uses the actual formula that the NBA uses to determine which players qualify for each statistical category.
• Two Option Years – 1st round draft picks will now have two guaranteed years followed by two team option years during their rookie contract.
• Customizable Contracts - The user now has complete control over the contracts in the game. If a player signs an extension after the game has shipped, you now have the tools to edit it yourself.
• +/- - The plus/minus stat has been implemented throughout the mode (including box scores) to give users a better feel for how a player affects his team when on the court.
• 2-for-1 / 3-for-2 Offers – The CPU is no longer restricted to offering 1-for-1 offers. They will now offer the user 2-for-1 and 3-for-2 offers (among other types).
• Transactions Menu – The user is able to access a Transactions menu when in NBA.com that will allow you to see every signing/trade/waive/coach firing/etc. that happens during the season.
• Contracts Menu – A contracts menu that lists out all of the contracts on your team in a grid format allows you to easily see player contracts and when they are coming off the books. Player and Team Options are denoted here as well.
• Codes Menu – The Association now has its own version of the codes menu, so you no longer have to restart your Association to get the latest codes in.

These are just some of the ‘Little Things’ we have done to The Association this year. As you play through the game, you will undoubtedly discover many more. Overall, we are ecstatic with how The Association has turned out this year. Our goal was to deliver the best franchise mode on the market, for any sport, and we feel we have accomplished that by a wide margin. Thanks everyone for reading and happy GMing!