Leftos Headed to 2K Sports to Join NBA 2K Team

[Leftos]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tomba

Maybe Ill catch some flack for this but is anyone not seeing the bad side to this. leftos makes tools for the community so that the community can then edit themselves... Most of Leftos work has been in tool making etc without those tools now for 2K14 the community is left to HOPE that the game doesn't need a tool anymore? Seems kinda strange that 2k now pursued a key element a vital part of the modding community to be on their team after last years community rosters being HEAVILY monitored on 2Kshare for modwork...

1) Vlad's still around.
2) I understand where you're coming from, because Roster Editor wasn't the only tool I was developing. However, you have to consider that when someone like me has the chance to directly work on the game so many people love, instead of trying to work-around the fact that he has no access to the source code and improving the game on the outside, I have the potential to offer you so much more than a Roster Editor.

Plus, I made sure my legacy is still around. My work is open-source. It's on GitHub. Anyone with programming experience can pick my projects up and continue them, update them, release new versions.

Trust me, this is not part of a bigger scheme to kill off the modding scene. There were a lot of ways they could've stopped modding (such as hire someone more experienced and get them to fully encrypt the savegames).

Same way you can go on thinking about it, what if I had never showed up? You'd have done with roster editing via the game, waited for REDitor. What happens when Vlad, now that he's wrapping up University, needs to find a good job that pays, and probably doesn't have the same time to put into tools? What was going on the community before Leftos? Before Vlad?

Modding has been around before I was even born. And I was born in 89. It won't die off because a modder has been hired. It will keep on living. It will evolve, like it has always done. Sometimes acknowledged, sometimes not. New programmers will show up, new artists will show up, just like I showed up 2 years ago with my tools.

But without people passionately working on the game, there would be no game to mod. And if you enjoy the work I've done outside of the game, think how much good I can do you once I'm in the development team.

So with that, the downside, if any, will be temporary. And I'll make sure that my getting hired by 2K has one hell of an upside for the whole community. They're not hiring a random guy that was just having fun with the game. They're hiring a guy that was nurtured in the community, that grew up in it, that was running the NLSC with the rest of the staff for a year. They're hiring a guy that knows what the community wants, what the community has been asking for. They're hiring a guy that will keep in touch with the community. They're hiring a guy that has an agenda, to make the game better through all the ways the most hardcore of NBA 2K fans have been asking for.

I can't promise I'll make NBA 2K all that you've been asking for.

I can only promise I'll do one hell of a job trying.

[Leftos]

Quote: Originally Posted by Taer

Congrats Leftos. I know you will not forget your roots - just remember that the majority of the 2k gamers will now see you as one of the devs and some will be quick to blame. May everything continue to work out great for you.

I know. Soon I'll be grouped together with those "lazy 2K developers that won't fix a damn thing and keep making the game worse, we need 2K11 v2 and we need it NAO", etc. I'll get flak for being a 2K shill. I've been part of the community. I've been running one. I've done my fair share of complaining. Hell, I didn't even give 2K the benefit of the doubt during the 2K13 preview season. So I know I'll be on the receiving end of endless amount of criticism. Nobody will ever be truly happy.

And you know what? Neither will I. Just like everyone at the 2K Sports studio, I will never be satisfied. I will always want to do more, to do things better.

But what do I prefer? Complaining to the developers from the safety and comfort of my couch, or being one and doing the best I can to make NBA 2K the best game it can be?

It would be much easier for me to do something else, keep working on my tools, be friends with everybody, complain at those 2K people that will never satisfy us. But I decided to take the hard path of actually being one of them, and making OUR entertainment, MY living.

So please, join me in that. And be kind, and supportive, just like you've always been. I'll never hide from feedback, as long as it's constructive. So give it your best shot, and I'll give it mine.

[24]

Congratulations Leftos! All your hard work has truly paid off. Best of Luck over at 2K!

[Tomba]

Leftos I Congrats on the job

[vtcrb]

Congrats Leftos, very few people get to work their DREAM JOB. So enjoy it my friend, you have Earned it.

Now since you re on the 2k Team that can lead to other games as well. Can you PLEASE Voice for Support for 2k to BRING BACK a College Basketball Game!!!!!!!!! I REALLY think the support would be there for a College Game, it has been OVER 5 years and CH2k8 is still been played ALONG with Rosters STILL being updated. If they could bring a College oops game to go ALONG with a NBA Game, Basketball Options would be UNLIMITED for Basketball Gaming.

[Tomba]

2K College Basketball with the animations from nba 2k14 would be great

[TheBadazz]

Congrads. Now do your thing!

[turty11]

i would drool if we got another college game.