2K Sports Signs All-Star Lineup to Promote MLB 2K10 this Season w/ Video

[EnigmaNemesis]

Quote: Originally Posted by kcxiv

Ok, so they dont ask for a few players to help them. What do they spend money towards for develompental costs? do you know how many people are working on the game? do you know how they actually do it? I think once they said they had about 88 people working on the NBA title. What if they have around 70 or so or even 88 working on MLB? Throwing money at the something isnt always the solution. Getting a few years under your belt making a new game for them is the solution to the problem. We all know EA throws money at everything and it doesnt always work just look at Madden. They threw money to get some people from OS to go down there and half of the stuff never made it into the game that was supposed to be there. Looks great from a marketing standpoint right? Until we know how many people are actually working on the game all we are doing is taking out of our behinds. If i am wrong please correct me.

Better interaction with the gaming community would be a good start. Or in their case, any interaction at all.

When I can go to another baseball forum on here. And there is an entire section dedicated to the developers asking for feedback on what people want improved on in the game, and asking for help to make routines, equipment sig/styles, and stadium adjustments. What does that show as far as interaction with a fan-base?

Here is a hint. It costs less money to get what your gamers want, and not spend them on high payed "talent" who know not what the gamer wants.

These companies could learn a lot from their *gasp* customers.

[Jamin23]

Quote: Originally Posted by EnigmaNemesis

Better interaction with the gaming community would be a good start. Or in their case, any interaction at all. When I can go to another baseball forum on here. And there is an entire section dedicated to the developers asking for feedback on what people want improved on in the game, and asking for help to make routines, equipment sig/styles, and stadium adjustments. What does that show as far as interaction with a fan-base? Here is a hint. It costs less money to get what your gamers want, and not spend them on high payed "talent" who know not what the gamer wants. These companies could learn a lot from their *gasp* customers.

That's all they need to do. I do know on the 2k forums there is a feedback forum, but I'm not sure if they look at it and I don't think they talk to the members on the forum. There should be one on here too because there are a lot people on OS that know what to put in to improve the game. Here's the link. http://2ksports.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=177

[EnigmaNemesis]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jamin23

That's all they need to do. I do know on the 2k forums there is a feedback forum, but I'm not sure if they look at it and I don't think they talk to the members on the forum. There should be one on here too because there are a lot people on OS that know what to put in to improve the game. Here's the link. http://2ksports.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=177

Yeah, they don't engage in feedback with the posters. Even admins said the devs don't even look at it. So it is a copy/paste method, which is still out of touch versus having at least some sort of dialogue with the community.

[NumberOneRB]

Quote: Originally Posted by kcxiv

Ok, so they dont ask for a few players to help them. What do they spend money towards for develompental costs? do you know how many people are working on the game? do you know how they actually do it? I think once they said they had about 88 people working on the NBA title. What if they have around 70 or so or even 88 working on MLB? Throwing money at the something isnt always the solution. Getting a few years under your belt making a new game for them is the solution to the problem. We all know EA throws money at everything and it doesnt always work just look at Madden. They threw money to get some people from OS to go down there and half of the stuff never made it into the game that was supposed to be there. Looks great from a marketing standpoint right? Until we know how many people are actually working on the game all we are doing is taking out of our behinds. If i am wrong please correct me.

I'm not going to compare EA to 2K in regards to marketing because quite frankly that's not my intention. EA has its own issues and they have been well documented, I'm not criticizing 2K in favor of EA in any way. I'm fully aware that EA has put tons of money towards different aspects of their games and marketing and the end result has been a poorly made game, but those are complaints and criticisms that should be handled in the EA-based forums not here. This is about 2K, not EA.

It is true that I am ignorant of how many people are working on the MLB2K team, but many people (including myself) are questioning why 2K has decided to put a certain amount of their budget towards signing a handful of athletes to give "insight" on their game, when it would seem that the majority of the budget could go towards anything the team may need from the technical side (mo-cap, new technology tools, etc.) to improve the gaming mechanics. I can understand why you would suggest that simply "throwing" money at something doesn't necessarily fix the issue, but when used effectively and with the right developmental philosophy, it can go a long way in improving needed technology for a better gaming experience.

Yes, if 2K mimicked EA in some ways and practiced wasteful spending on marketing and gaming technology that inevitably didn't result in a better gaming experience then I could understand where you're coming from, but isn't at least TRYING to invest more money in better technology and resources a somewhat beneficial practice? It would almost be perceived that a company would refuse putting more money towards better technological resources because they were "fearful" that the investment would never pay off (meaning, the investment would not result in a better gaming experience).

I think 2K at least owes themselves and the fans the responsibility of being as cost-effective as possible with whatever budget they have, and instead of using millions of dollars on "brand name" talent for marketing purposes, they could have instead used that same money to improve developmental technology tools to further improve whatever gameplay mechanics they had in mind for this year's game.

THEY may believe that they spent enough of their budget on these tools to help improve their game, and therefore could "afford" to splurge on professional talent to market their product, but their past history of recent MLB games has proven otherwise. If they prove me and all the other doubters wrong, they will have my full contriteness.

[kcxiv]

The thing is we dont know anything behind close doors on what they used the guys for. I fail to see how picking major league baseball players brain for information on the mental side of the game. IMO it can only be a good thing. They had probably less then a year to build the game virtually from scratch. I know they borrowed a few things from 2K8, but i don't think it was much. If we don't see significant improvement in this years title, then i am going to be like something has got to give here.

They really dont need to interact with the community, they know what was wrong with the game, everyone played it, everyone posted about it.

[Bahnzo]

Quote: Originally Posted by kcxiv

They had probably less then a year to build the game virtually from scratch. I know they borrowed a few things from 2K8, but i don't think it was much.

I don't see where you get this. 2K9 was hardly built from scratch, but was 2K8 (and 2K7) with some added features. They "borrowed" more than a few things from the previous year.

I will agree that it certainly can't be a bad idea to bring in major league players and pick their brains on improving the game....if that's what they actually do. Just seems like something that's more marketing than gameplay improvement...at least that's what I take away from watching the commercial. I hope I'm proved wrong and we'll see come March.

[leafs nation]

Quote: Originally Posted by NumberOneRB

I don't think there was anything wrong with EnigmaNemesis' post. I think he was professionally and cordially explaining that the only way 2K is going to prevent continued criticism towards their games is by making a better game, and by LISTENING and even communicating with knowledgeable fans to gain insight on what needs fixing. I've also seen some examples of the post-deletion issues he brought up concerning the 2K boards. I also think your last statement was a bit harsh if directed at posts similar to the tone used by EnigmaNemesis. What do you want people to comment about in this thread? The video/thread practically brings no significant info to the table regarding gameplay elements and how much better this game will be compared to the last. This thread is about 2K making an announcement that they spent "X" amount of dollars to get a group of MLB players to advise the developers on making a better game (potentially). I think most are seeing this as a waste of their financial resources, which I would have to somewhat agree. Would it be better to suggest and assume that Felix Hernandez will fix the issues of the CPU AI pitchers never throwing balls and constantly painting corners? Should we suggest and assume that signing Justin Morneau will prevent the CPU from swinging and making contact on every pitch? I think once people saw this announcement, they began to perceive that 2K was wasting money on professional players' "name value" rather than using it towards improving gameplay elements (allegedly). Once the criticism began, some questioned their severity. I believe EnigmaNemesis was simply trying to explain that certain forms of criticism are necessary and helpful in motivating developers to make a better game, and it just depends on the severity and constructiveness of said criticism.

Agreed. It reads well. Intelligent thoughtful arguments. As are the posts that follow. I don't have ps3 so it's 2k10 or nothing for me. I like what this guy has to say. I think the moderator is going a bit overboard on this thread.

[bigfnjoe96]

Though people may see the using of MLB Players as a waste of resources that can go else where, I see it as a situation where it can only help the game. Especially if they mo-capped them & added those mo-capped animations to the game, which simballer last year said would be done this year. *keeps fingers crossed*

Thing is we really don't know other than these infomercial videos if this is the case. We also don't know how much these players were paid. (doubts it was millions) Would it have been great for them to fly some die-hards in as suggested to give input & evaluate what's been done to this point of course.

I know this company deserves a lot of flack for what they've done with this series the last couple of years (especially since going next-gen) which is unfotunate