The NBA 2K15 Online Experience Has Been An Avoidable Mess

[RaychelSnr]

Poll Results from this morning of users still having server related issues in NBA 2K15.

With the release of NBA 2K15, the team at 2K Sports and Visual Concepts promised a much improved experience when connecting online. After NBA 2K14 suffered with connectivity issues throughout most of the game's life cycle, we were told that 2K's top engineers had spent the entire NBA 2K15 development cycle working on network infrastructure. What has been delivered, at least so far, is nothing short of a disaster.

Attempts to connect to the 2K servers and to other users have been met with nothing but frustration through the first two weeks of the game's release. While the experience has been fraught with frustration, it has slowly began to improve over the last week.

However, major issues still persist.

Read More - The NBA 2K15 Online Experience Has Been an Avoidable Mess

[VDusen04]

Quote:

After last year's debacle, one has to wonder why the same approach was attempted once again -- this time with relatively similar results as last year? The root of NBA 2K15's problems lie in the fact that with so many modes either directly or indirectly tied to a connection to the 2K servers, when they aren't functional, it cripples what should seemingly be single player experiences because of online connectivity issues. One would think a better approach would be to store VC progress locally and only update that progress to the 2K servers when a gamer wants to purchase an item using VC that requires online access, otherwise you are left with users unable to give their single player experiences a go because online servers are down. By reducing the amount of people simultaneously hitting the servers, you may even improve the online experience for those wanting to actually play online.

Quoted for emphasis. I was very encouraged by 2K's reduction in VC dependence in MyLeague this year. Hopefully, with MyLeague being one of the few aspects of 2K that seems to be working without a potentially disastrous technological drawback, they can realize that, yes, maybe the only things that should rely upon an internet connection are the things that absolutely must rely upon an internet connection.

I feel 2K's personal mission statement from here on forward should be, "If we can save local, we'll save local." And manually, if we so choose. Even if 2K's servers were peerless, I still would not want my offline things relying upon a server. Connections drop, internet service isn't available everywhere, so on and so forth. Even without owning 2K15, I still feel stressed about the idea of what sounds to be a difficult face-scanning process relying upon the internet to save my face data. I feel like I'd be thinking with each new day, "Is today the day the internet loses my save files?" That is a foreboding and unsavory prospect.

[TreyIM2]

I'm an offliner but now that I read about all these current server issues, I'm curious if my offline settings are some how affected by these issues. Since the last 2K, I've noticed that some settings like right stick isomotion being switched back to default or my manual setting for choosing my points of emphasis going back to automatic on their own are being done so by wonky server issues. I didn't make the connection last yr but now I feel that they are...

As for having too many online modes or modes/features that depened on an online connection, that's most likely the problem. Idk how 2K's server structure is but if they want to keep all these things reliant on their servers, they may need dedicated servers to divide these things up into. I know that's big money but if they already have that and this is still going on, things may need to be chopped to ensure smoothness.

[nvinceable1]

I've actually had very few issues playing MyPlayer on PC, other than the auction house occasionally being down. I'm not really an online gamer however, I've only been playing Domination mode and a few of the Challenges. Got a Kobe and a Tony Parker last night!

[luda06]

I don't think I can purchase 2K within a few months of launch anymore.

[DurtySoufReppin]

The lag is getting better, surprisingly.

[whoahello]

it's the Take Two servers in general that's the problem. They're just not willing to put the needed resources into their servers. Almost every game within the Take Two family has known problems for online stability. GTA5, Borderlands, Red Dead Redemption, WWE 2K, and NBA 2K all have online issues. I have all these games and I'm surprised that GTA5 still has issues to date. I think if theres one thing that separates EA and Take Two significantly it's the online servers. EA seems to maintain them pretty well, and probably have a good number of technicians working on it on a daily basis.

[TheBadazz]

No matter what ppl think MyPlayer messed this game up. All the park crap just added to it. NBA2K has never been perfect, but it's a mess now. Make sure the core game works well then add on. The Fantasy element messed it all up.