What NBA 2K Needs to Do to Step Up Its Online Game Part Two
Submitted on: 10/08/2008 by
Jayson Young
What NBA 2K Needs to do to step up its online game, Part Two: year of the team or year of the individual?
In part one of this series, we looked at the three most prominent gameplay flaws that cheesers have been using to ruin the NBA 2K online experience.
Assuming that NBA 2K9 corrects some -- if not all -- of these flaws, Visual Concepts will be on the right track to finally giving gamers an online experience that is, at the least, enjoyable against randoms (something that hasn’t really happened since the Dreamcast days, at least not for this author).
But to make NBA 2K9 the type of online experience that stays exciting long-past the honeymoon, Visual Concepts is going to have to do more than simply stamp out a few long-standing gameplay exploits.
Reason being, the competition, both from within the company (All-Pro Football 2K8) and major rival EA (NCAA Football 09 and NHL 09), have simply grown too strong for the industry’s critically acclaimed basketball franchise to slide by with the same lobby and league structure that has been in place since the Xbox version of NBA 2K5.
Here's how NBA 2K can keep pace with some of the competition’s recent innovations:
Some Kind of Option for Playing With Balanced Teams
History has proven that the majority of gamers will only use the highest-rated teams when they play online.
Team selection in NBA 2K8, for example, can be roughly broken down into:
Where's the fun in that?
What good is a game with 30 teams when only five of those teams actually get used online? While there is a place for dynastic franchises dominating online games (more on that later), that place definitely isn’t in the ranked online lobbies.
Clearly, 2K could stand to learn something from other games -- even their own. You see, All-Pro Football 2K8 and I recently celebrated our 1-year anniversary, and as an online game, I love her just as much as I did when we closed the shades, shut the door, and got to know each other intimately on our honeymoon.
The secret to our longevity (few sports games last for more than a year) is All-Pro Football 2K8’s commitment to the beautiful concept of parity, which puts every team on an equal playing field.
While team parity may be an unrealistic ideal when it comes to sports in the "real world," evening out the talent pool definitely makes for a more enjoyable experience in the "virtual" sports arena.
All-Pro Football 2K8’s team structure, for example, works exceedingly well because your team is always going to have specific strengths/weaknesses that you must play to/guard against, regardless of where you choose to allocate your talent.
By eliminating the ubiquitous "powerhouse" teams and forcing players to build unique teams with specialized talents, the online portion of All-Pro Football 2K8 achieved a level of balance and strategy that is rarely found in competitive sports games.
Another successful "fake" league, EA’s brilliant EASHL from NHL 09, creates team parity through a similar formula: fictional teams, made up of fictional players, all of whom compete on an even talent-level.
What puts NHL 09’s team system over the top of All-Pro Football 2K8’s is the fact that, in NHL 09, your team isn’t just star athletes whom you only know in a voyeuristic fashion, but rather, your team is comprised of you and your real-life friends.
Naturally, having a team full of friends come out of the tunnel in unique uniforms gives the squad a more personal, emotional attachment during the action that follows on the court.
And to date, it’s the simple addition of you and your friend’s personalities that makes NHL 09’s EASHL mode the most intense, most rewarding sports experience on the market -- and it’s a shame that NBA 2K isn’t going to capitalize on the "personalized" side of sports gaming with its upcoming five-on-five mode.
While I can’t speak for everyone, I do know that I would be having a hell of a lot more fun sharing the court with my friends, in the uniforms that we designed and the name/logo we picked, than I ever will role-playing as Mo Williams or Slava Medvedenko, or whomever else I may have to be in the five-on-five ranked system.
The sad part is that, if it wanted to, NBA 2K would have no trouble emulating NHL 09’s EASHL mode, as 2K already has the team-building tools and pre-determined ratings for player types like "playmakers," "grinders," "slashers," "pure shooters," etc., which are identical to the brilliant system that NHL 09 uses for its created players.
NBA 2K9: Catering To The "Me-First" Online Crowd?
So why not take the next leap and let people use created players in an online team-based mode like NHL 09?
Looking at the situation from Visual Concepts’ perspective, the answer, it seems, is that NBA 2K9 wants to emphasize the individual more than it emphasizes the team. This, I feel, is not the most effective method of structuring a game’s primary online mode, especially considering all the selfish, self-entitled players who seem to make up a large portion of the Xbox Live community.
Contrary to what NBA 2K9 is promoting, I can say with certainty that the best part of my experience with NHL 09 comes, not from my personal accomplishments on the ice, but from building chemistry and camaraderie with my teammates.
Unfortunately, camaraderie and chemistry will likely be hard to come by in NBA 2K9’s five-on-five ranked games, for the simple reason that your teammates will constantly be changing on a game-to-game basis, for better or for worse.
Furthermore, I suspect that the game’s focus on individual glory and reduction of personal accountability (after all, who is going to feel accountable to online strangers?) will likely lead to more ball-hogs, cherry pickers, gambling defenders, etc., than I see in games like NHL 09, which create accountability by promoting the success of teams over the success of the individual. The one caveat is the rating system in NBA 2K. If the individual rating system works correctly and points out the bad teammates effectively, this could be a moot point.
Where Dynasties Do Belong
It’s unfortunate that 2K’s online leagues have gone relatively unchanged since their introduction in the company’s 2K5 lineup of sports games.
It is not unreasonable to assume that a big reason why the 2K leagues have gone unchanged for so long is that EA is just now getting its own leagues up to 2K’s old standard.
But while 2K was getting complacent with its leagues, EA’s NCAA Football team quietly surpassed 2K’s lackluster efforts with NCAA 09’s introduction of the groundbreaking "online dynasty" mode.
If we think about the possibilities of an "online association" mode, it’s here where players could not only compete on the court, but also, compete off the court for key draft picks, free-agents, lavish salaries, endorsements, team attendance totals, and yearly revenue.
But for my money, the true future of online sports gaming lies not just in online dynasties or online games comprised entirely of human players, but in a grander form of online dynasties where all 30 NBA teams are filled with five human players per team (150 players total!).
Sure, it's easy to claim your league’s scoring title when you control how many times your stud player gets the ball, but imagine how things might change if you had to count on your teammates to get you the ball, or if you had to get most of your points off the open looks that your teammates create for you.
That is, unless you want your teammates riding your jock all season long for taking bad shots and hogging the ball like you’re the reincarnation of "Cyber Antoine" from NBA Live 99.
Better yet, imagine being able to negotiate your own contract, or negotiate a trade to other teams if you’re stuck on a crummy team, or if you’re the one who’s fed up with Cyber Antoine’s selfish attitude. Heck, who knows, maybe there’s even a team out there that actually needs someone to take all the shots –- a team that needs a Cyber Antoine.
Imagine, then, the joy of building a dynasty with your friends, or developing long-standing rivalries with other teams and their Cyber Antoine.
Well, I better stop now before I have to go change my pants; I'll never hear the end of it from Mrs. All-Pro if she has to whip out the Stain Stick for these slacks that just she gave me for our anniversary.
Besides, NBA 2K9 is here, and since the honeymoon begins today, we will all get to see whether the NBA 2K series is finally ready for a long-term online relationship.
-- Jayson "eagerly anticipating the prospects of polygamy" Young
In part one of this series, we looked at the three most prominent gameplay flaws that cheesers have been using to ruin the NBA 2K online experience.
Assuming that NBA 2K9 corrects some -- if not all -- of these flaws, Visual Concepts will be on the right track to finally giving gamers an online experience that is, at the least, enjoyable against randoms (something that hasn’t really happened since the Dreamcast days, at least not for this author).
But to make NBA 2K9 the type of online experience that stays exciting long-past the honeymoon, Visual Concepts is going to have to do more than simply stamp out a few long-standing gameplay exploits.
Reason being, the competition, both from within the company (All-Pro Football 2K8) and major rival EA (NCAA Football 09 and NHL 09), have simply grown too strong for the industry’s critically acclaimed basketball franchise to slide by with the same lobby and league structure that has been in place since the Xbox version of NBA 2K5.
Here's how NBA 2K can keep pace with some of the competition’s recent innovations:
Some Kind of Option for Playing With Balanced Teams
History has proven that the majority of gamers will only use the highest-rated teams when they play online.
Team selection in NBA 2K8, for example, can be roughly broken down into:
- Lakers - 50%
- Cavaliers - 12%
- Celtics - 12%
- Rockets - 12%
- Suns - 12%
- Other Teams - 2%
Where's the fun in that?
What good is a game with 30 teams when only five of those teams actually get used online? While there is a place for dynastic franchises dominating online games (more on that later), that place definitely isn’t in the ranked online lobbies.
Clearly, 2K could stand to learn something from other games -- even their own. You see, All-Pro Football 2K8 and I recently celebrated our 1-year anniversary, and as an online game, I love her just as much as I did when we closed the shades, shut the door, and got to know each other intimately on our honeymoon.
The secret to our longevity (few sports games last for more than a year) is All-Pro Football 2K8’s commitment to the beautiful concept of parity, which puts every team on an equal playing field.
While team parity may be an unrealistic ideal when it comes to sports in the "real world," evening out the talent pool definitely makes for a more enjoyable experience in the "virtual" sports arena.
All-Pro Football 2K8’s team structure, for example, works exceedingly well because your team is always going to have specific strengths/weaknesses that you must play to/guard against, regardless of where you choose to allocate your talent.
By eliminating the ubiquitous "powerhouse" teams and forcing players to build unique teams with specialized talents, the online portion of All-Pro Football 2K8 achieved a level of balance and strategy that is rarely found in competitive sports games.
Another successful "fake" league, EA’s brilliant EASHL from NHL 09, creates team parity through a similar formula: fictional teams, made up of fictional players, all of whom compete on an even talent-level.
What puts NHL 09’s team system over the top of All-Pro Football 2K8’s is the fact that, in NHL 09, your team isn’t just star athletes whom you only know in a voyeuristic fashion, but rather, your team is comprised of you and your real-life friends.
Naturally, having a team full of friends come out of the tunnel in unique uniforms gives the squad a more personal, emotional attachment during the action that follows on the court.
And to date, it’s the simple addition of you and your friend’s personalities that makes NHL 09’s EASHL mode the most intense, most rewarding sports experience on the market -- and it’s a shame that NBA 2K isn’t going to capitalize on the "personalized" side of sports gaming with its upcoming five-on-five mode.
While I can’t speak for everyone, I do know that I would be having a hell of a lot more fun sharing the court with my friends, in the uniforms that we designed and the name/logo we picked, than I ever will role-playing as Mo Williams or Slava Medvedenko, or whomever else I may have to be in the five-on-five ranked system.
The sad part is that, if it wanted to, NBA 2K would have no trouble emulating NHL 09’s EASHL mode, as 2K already has the team-building tools and pre-determined ratings for player types like "playmakers," "grinders," "slashers," "pure shooters," etc., which are identical to the brilliant system that NHL 09 uses for its created players.
Sheed's reaction when Slava told him he might have to play as SLAVA (STINKING) MEDVEDENKO in NBA 2K9. Thankfully, for 'Sheed and for all of us, Slava didn't make it into the game this year.
NBA 2K9: Catering To The "Me-First" Online Crowd?
So why not take the next leap and let people use created players in an online team-based mode like NHL 09?
Looking at the situation from Visual Concepts’ perspective, the answer, it seems, is that NBA 2K9 wants to emphasize the individual more than it emphasizes the team. This, I feel, is not the most effective method of structuring a game’s primary online mode, especially considering all the selfish, self-entitled players who seem to make up a large portion of the Xbox Live community.
Contrary to what NBA 2K9 is promoting, I can say with certainty that the best part of my experience with NHL 09 comes, not from my personal accomplishments on the ice, but from building chemistry and camaraderie with my teammates.
Unfortunately, camaraderie and chemistry will likely be hard to come by in NBA 2K9’s five-on-five ranked games, for the simple reason that your teammates will constantly be changing on a game-to-game basis, for better or for worse.
Furthermore, I suspect that the game’s focus on individual glory and reduction of personal accountability (after all, who is going to feel accountable to online strangers?) will likely lead to more ball-hogs, cherry pickers, gambling defenders, etc., than I see in games like NHL 09, which create accountability by promoting the success of teams over the success of the individual. The one caveat is the rating system in NBA 2K. If the individual rating system works correctly and points out the bad teammates effectively, this could be a moot point.
Where Dynasties Do Belong
It’s unfortunate that 2K’s online leagues have gone relatively unchanged since their introduction in the company’s 2K5 lineup of sports games.
It is not unreasonable to assume that a big reason why the 2K leagues have gone unchanged for so long is that EA is just now getting its own leagues up to 2K’s old standard.
But while 2K was getting complacent with its leagues, EA’s NCAA Football team quietly surpassed 2K’s lackluster efforts with NCAA 09’s introduction of the groundbreaking "online dynasty" mode.
If we think about the possibilities of an "online association" mode, it’s here where players could not only compete on the court, but also, compete off the court for key draft picks, free-agents, lavish salaries, endorsements, team attendance totals, and yearly revenue.
But for my money, the true future of online sports gaming lies not just in online dynasties or online games comprised entirely of human players, but in a grander form of online dynasties where all 30 NBA teams are filled with five human players per team (150 players total!).
Sure, it's easy to claim your league’s scoring title when you control how many times your stud player gets the ball, but imagine how things might change if you had to count on your teammates to get you the ball, or if you had to get most of your points off the open looks that your teammates create for you.
That is, unless you want your teammates riding your jock all season long for taking bad shots and hogging the ball like you’re the reincarnation of "Cyber Antoine" from NBA Live 99.
Better yet, imagine being able to negotiate your own contract, or negotiate a trade to other teams if you’re stuck on a crummy team, or if you’re the one who’s fed up with Cyber Antoine’s selfish attitude. Heck, who knows, maybe there’s even a team out there that actually needs someone to take all the shots –- a team that needs a Cyber Antoine.
Imagine, then, the joy of building a dynasty with your friends, or developing long-standing rivalries with other teams and their Cyber Antoine.
Cyber Antoine: your body may be gone, but your never-say-pass spirit may find new life in NBA 2K9's "me-first" five-on-five mode
Well, I better stop now before I have to go change my pants; I'll never hear the end of it from Mrs. All-Pro if she has to whip out the Stain Stick for these slacks that just she gave me for our anniversary.
Besides, NBA 2K9 is here, and since the honeymoon begins today, we will all get to see whether the NBA 2K series is finally ready for a long-term online relationship.
-- Jayson "eagerly anticipating the prospects of polygamy" Young
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