Respectfully Managing my 2k18 Expectations - quehouston's Blog

quehouston's Blog

Respectfully Managing my 2k18 Expectations

Posted on August 9, 2017 at 04:51 PM.

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I remember being a 17 year old kid. Young. Jubilant. Competitive. Passionate. Skilled.

I just moved into my dorm room for my freshman year at East Carolina University. My first order of business (once I finally got my crying family out of there) was to set my PS3 up, and fire up my copy of NBA 2k10.
It was the summer, so we were nearing the end of the 2k10 cycle, though it was still a pretty fun game. I still played it very regularly, which is weird for me to say now a days. The hype train had started for 2k11, the whole Jordan Challenge was being paraded around, everyone was nuts for Crew mode. The hype was REAL.

I made it a point to leave my dorm room open and crank my volume up a little bit. It was my way of welcoming all challengers on my hall to my room to get smacked. I was very confident in my game. I had spent all year in a Sim League, playing against what I felt at the time, was the stiffest competition out there. I never won the league, but I played in the finals twice. Being the youngest in the league by at least 6 years, I felt that I did pretty well, and it helped me sure up my skills.

2k was still pretty young at this point, and was still pushing the Sim envelope, winning over the small community of players that were getting tired of NBA Live. That era was really the Golden Era for 2k, as the young, small company on the come up, doing huge things with the game, capturing realism that we had never seen in a game before. In a way, NBA 2k at that point paralleled with what I felt like I was at the time. A young, talented, hungry player that wanted to be the absolute best. 2k gave me the tools, and I used the tools to work to become better everyday at it, while 2k worked everyday to give me better tools. It was a beautiful relationship.

2K got better and better, and so did I. The features they announced pre-release got bigger and bigger, and the hype ensued, as it should�ve. But they delivered on their word every year. Of course I would have a few issues with the game toward the end of the cycle, but it was nothing extreme or gamebreaking (to me at least). I was usually satisfied at the end of the cycle, and really optimistic about what they were gonna give us next.

Until 2k13 happened��

Visual Concepts were like Yung Joc in 06. They are coming off a huge hit with 2k11 (Its Going Down) and they had a quality follow up with 2k12 (I Know You See It). They were on top of the basketball gaming world. So now the hype starts for 2k13, and it is probably the biggest hype train in 2k history, to be honest. My Career is taking off, the Dream Team is in, All-Star Weekend DLC is confirmed, and JAY-Z IS AN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, giving us the greatest soundtrack the series has seen. Hype meters are out of this world�
Then I boot the game up, hop online, and a guy just starts draining eurostep 3�s from free throw line extended�CONTESTED�AT A 100% RATE�NO EXAGGERATION.

I dont want to even get into all the issues with 2k13, just know it was bad. That game was the beginning of an ugly trend for 2k. Lets explore:

2k14 Next gen starts promotion, we see Lebron James talking to us through his video game conterpart. I get hype. The game comes out and I cant make defensive adjustments and defenders are literally just running away from 3 point shooters in the corner.

2k15 starts promotion. My dream mode was announced: MyLeague. Full of everything I could have ever wanted in a franchise mode. I naturally get hype. Get the game, and its great at launch (outside of the expected server issues we get every year), but patches happened, Including the Infamous Patch 4, allowing unlimited green releases, 63 Fist was born, and offline gameplay was almost unbearable.

2k16 starts promotion, MYLEAGUE ONLINE IS ANNOUNCED. Its only two seasons, but whatever. I get hype. Thats all we needed. Ya�ll know what comes next right? You guessed it. THE USGL WAS BORN. Greatest Sim league of all time, full of highlight shows, Top Ten Plays, Live commentaries, including the biggest moment in Sim basketball gaming history when Da Czar himself commentated live during a huge early season matchup between Jerseymade93 and Shoecollector9. 2k16 felt great on the court, it was fun, rewarding and competitive�.Until the patches. Patches killed not only this game, but the USGL also, which took us 2 years to build, and felt like a real full time job trying to keep it up, with the scouting reports on each player, game recap write ups, live commentaries and interviews, video editing, and managing 28 other players. It was a LOT of work, and when the game went down in a flame of patches, we had real beef. It was hard to hold back my frustrations. All that hard work went down the drain.

2k17 starts promotion. College Teams are in MyCareer. Rebranding in MyLeague. I get a little bit hype. The game releases and its great. We have freedom with the dribbling, there�s no warping, defense matters. It was rewarding. I went 28-3 with the Sixers in PNO before the patches tore through this game. It was about skill. Then�.the inevitable patches came through, and destroyed it. To be honest this game was probably the biggest leap from Great to Bad after patches, that we�ve seen in any other 2k game. Defense AI is ridiculous. players take forever to run sets, players are literally driving into nothing and being stopped in their tracks. Its unplayable at this point, and its disappointing because its the exact opposite of the game we got at launch.
2k18 has started promotion. The new player models look absolutely amazing, from the facescans, to the stretch marks. The new salary features in MyLeague (cap holds and stretch provision) are right up my alley. My GM is gonna be a story mode now, which sounds kind of interesting. But, I�m not getting hype.

The difference between me in 2010 and me now is the fact that I�m a 25 year old man now. I�ve learned from experience. I�ve done great things with 2k, and I�ve had great things taken away from me by 2k. I�ve been disappointed because I let myself elevate my expectations. Its hard not to though, with all the talent the 2k team has. Czar, Mike Wang, Rob Jones, Simballer, these are all men I have complete faith in, and a lot of the things that happen with the patches I feel are totally out of their control. In actuality, its the casual community that is to blame, but that�s a tangent I�m not gonna touch.

I have faith in the 2k team, as I do every year. I fully expect a great game at launch that will eventually go down to patches. Its a trend worthy of expecting, it�s really not unfair to believe that.

But maybe�just maybe 2k will stick to their guns this year. Whatever the case, I�m buying the game physically so I can abort ship back to the original game we get at launch, if the patches get too out of control.

But, until next time�.

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