Please be advised that our Wishlist topics for NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19 are now open! For those of you who may be unfamiliar with our annual Wishlist – which we now compile for both NBA Live and NBA 2K – it’s an effort to collect constructive feedback on what we want to see in the next game. We prioritise the feedback according to what the community most wants to see added, fixed, and improved, and then send it along to the development teams at EA Sports and Visual Concepts.

The key to compiling a useful Wishlist is to identify the most important issues as concisely as possible, while also elaborating and being specific where necessary. In other words, saying that you want “better gameplay” isn’t particularly helpful, whereas explaining the changes you want to see for a better gameplay experience (without a long-winded rant) is feedback the developers can actually put to good use. The aim is to be clear and to the point, explaining what you want out of the next game without turning it into a 5000 word essay.

One suggestion is to post your top 15-20 suggestions for the game. Alternatively, you may choose to post your top 5-10 suggestions in different categories (gameplay, career modes, franchise modes, online, etc). As long as it’s constructive and comprehensive feedback, we’ll be able to reach some sort of consensus as a community, and provide the development teams at EA and VC with an idea of what we most want to see in NBA Live 19 and NBA 2K19.

Pre-production is obviously already underway on both titles, so we want to get our feedback in as soon as possible. As such, if you’ve got ideas and suggestions for this year’s games, start posting them now! I’ll be sure to post some reminders over the next few weeks, as well as a bulletin when we’ve officially submitted each Wishlist.

The wait is over! The preview season is officially done, and a new season of basketball gaming has begun, with the official release of NBA Live 18 and the Early Tip-Off Weekend pre-order release of NBA 2K18. As I mentioned in yesterday’s bulletin, our modding community is already gearing up to do some great things with the PC version of NBA 2K18, and we’ll also be looking to create other fun original content based around both games.

Whether you’re playing NBA Live 18, NBA 2K18, or both games, I invite everyone to join us for what will hopefully be a fun season of basketball gaming over the next twelve months. In the wake of both games being released, I’d just like to spotlight a couple of key discussion topics in the NLSC Forum:

NBA Live 18

• Impressions
• Bug Reports
• Ultimate Team Discussion
• User Videos
• User Screenshots

NBA 2K18

• Impressions
• Bug Reports
• User Videos
• User Screenshots
• Modding Progress & Tools

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve added new sections for NBA 2K18 to our Downloads database, so if you want to get a head start on modding, there’s already a place to upload your work. Once again, I hope that our community makes good use of our upload facilities this year.

Speaking of making good use of our facilities, I’m also hoping to see lots of great discussion about NBA Live 18 and NBA 2K18 in the Forum. Whether it’s mods, impressions, sliders, gameplay tips and advice, tales about the mode you’re playing, reactions to the in-game stories, or anything else about the games, don’t be shy. Join in the conversation today!

Rest assured that plenty of great mods and engaging original content are in the pipeline, so be sure to keep it locked to the NLSC throughout the 2018 basketball gaming season!

With the imminent release of NBA 2K18, it’s come time to add a few more sections to our Forum and Downloads database.

As we gear up for another season of creating great updates for the latest NBA 2K game, I’ve added a Modding section to the NBA 2K18 forums. That’s the place to post all releases, previews, requests, and any other topics related to modding the game. I’ve also prepared our Tutorials & FAQs section, where we’ll be compiling modding guides and other resources for NBA 2K18. Please note that the NBA 2K17 forums have now been moved to the Older Games section.

I’ve also added a new section to our Downloads database, so that we have a place to upload and list mods for NBA 2K18. This year we’re bringing back the Rosters section, so that modders can link to a release thread containing information about how to get their rosters via the in-game sharing function, as well as links to any required art packs. Hopefully, it won’t be long before we start seeing the first releases for this year’s game!

Since we are on the cusp of a new modding season, I would like to encourage modders to make use of our free upload facilities. I realise there are reasons why you may prefer to host files elsewhere and simply add them to our Downloads section via the external link option, but in the past couple of years, we’ve had to remove a lot of files due to broken links after only a few months. Please consider hosting or mirroring your files on the NLSC, or at least ensuring that your host of choice does not routinely remove uploads.

In addition to all the mods that our community creates, we’ll also be covering NBA 2K18 through our original content, including Monday Tip-Off, The Friday Five, YouTube videos, and of course, the NLSC Podcast. We’ll naturally be doing the same for NBA Live 18, so keep it locked to the NLSC for all your basketball gaming needs!

As announced in the NLSC Forum last week, a few changes have been made to our modding sections, effective as of today. Those changes are as follows:

• Contributors will have access to create new topics in the Tutorials section.
• The individual Releases & Previews sections will be renamed Modding, and all modding-related discussions – releases, previews, requests, help and development – will be welcome there.
• The Tutorials & FAQ sections will remain separate to avoid their respective Modding sections getting cluttered by pinned topics, and ensure those resources are easier to find.

The first change is intended to make it easier for our Contributors to add to the various Tutorials & FAQs subsections, as they will not have to wait for their newly created topic to be moved by a moderator. All members are of course welcome to contribute resources which will then be moved to the Tutorials & FAQs sections as soon as possible, but Contributors will be able to post there directly.

We’ve decided to consolidate all modding discussion into central subsections as the old practice of having separate sections for requests, help, and mod releases and previews proved to be overkill, leading to unused and redundant sections. The more recent solution of simply having Releases & Previews sections with requests and help belonging in the main discussion section was unclear, and therefore somewhat confusing. These consolidated modding sections are intended to eliminate that confusion, as well as reduce the likelihood of off-topic posts and posts going unanswered.

If you have any questions or concerns about this revamp to the NLSC Forum, please let me know, and I’ll try to provide further clarification. As I mentioned in the Forum thread, we may end up moving the Tutorials & FAQs subsections so that they’re under the Modding sections, in order to make them more visible and easily accessible directly from those sections.

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games.

I have a revelation that’ll probably make a lot of music fans in our community chuckle. My favourite band is the Barenaked Ladies. What can I say? I was a teenager in the late 90s, “One Week” was a hit, and to this day, I like the stuff they’re putting out. Anyway, on the same album as “One Week” was another song that charted: “It’s All Been Done“. The lyrics deconstruct and critique clichéd romantic gestures, framed in the context of a relationship that spans across reincarnation (or possibly immortality), literally or metaphorically depending on your interpretation. Its conclusion is right there in the title: it’s all been done.

What’s the point I’m ham-fistedly trying to get at here? Well, when a community or fandom has been around for a while, long-time members are bound to suffer a touch of déjà vu when certain topics arise. The current NLSC Forum has been open since November 2002, so naturally there are going to be some recurring topics. That’s to be expected, and to be fair, they’re often given a new spin. Unfortunately, some of us do get carried away when it comes to certain subjects, and if we’ve been around for a while, chances are other people have grown weary of our beating the same drum over and over again. To borrow BnL’s lyrics, it’s all been done – or rather, said – before.

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We’re in the midst of the Early Tip-Off Weekend for NBA 2K17, and as you can see in the game’s main discussion area in the NLSC Forum, a lot of people already have it. We’ve also been discussing plans and techniques for modding – before the game was even released, in fact – and now that we have our hands on NBA 2K17, I’ve added a new section in our Downloads database for it. As always, we encourage you to make use of our upload facilities!

Please note that I have not created a section for NBA 2K17 roster updates. At this time, the only way to share rosters in the legal version of the game is through the in-game Roster Creator’s sharing functions, so there’s no call for a Rosters section in our Downloads database. Please note that our rules regarding pirated games remain unchanged: no discussing them, no sharing files for them, no requesting download links or any help with them. It’s grounds for a permanent ban, as clearly stated in our Forum Rules. Be advised that we will enforce our rules whether or not you take the time to read them, so we suggest that you give them a look!

If you’re looking for a place to preview and release any mods for NBA 2K17, then the newly created Releases & Previews section is for you. We also have a Tutorials & FAQs section, which we’ll fill with resources as they’re created. As usual, the ability to create new threads in that section is restricted to NLSC staff, to avoid clutter and off-topic posts. If you want to contribute a resource, please post it in the main discussion area, or the Releases & Previews section, and one of us will move it to the Tutorials & FAQs section as soon as possible.

Be sure to join in all of the discussion that’s taking place in the NBA 2K17 section of the Forum! We’re hoping to see everyone sharing their experiences and knowledge this year, as we continue striving to be the definitive resource and destination for basketball gaming. We’re also looking to create some fun and informative original content for NBA 2K17 over the next year, so stay tuned for that, and all the great works from our modding community!

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content.

The current NLSC Forum has been open since November 2002, archiving almost all of the discussion that’s taken place in this community for just about as long as we’ve had a message board. It’s seen its fair share of memorable and amusing threads, including users who believe modders owe them releases, unorthodox story threads, and one-sided conversations. It would also be remiss of me if I didn’t mention this thread, which gave our community a meme that is proudly displayed in the Joel Anthony Arena, home court of the NLSC Greatness in 2K Pro-Am.

However, for those of you who have been around the NLSC since the early days, you’ll remember that we used to have another Forum. It was closed when we elected to switch to different message board software, but I’m confident that it lives on in the fond memories of our longest tenured veterans. It was a smaller group of regulars who came together on those old boards, had a lot of fun discussions, and basically established our community of NLSC Forum denizens.

For those veterans, when it comes to memorable discussions, one thread probably stands out above all others: “I Cannot Believe My Starting Five”. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to basketball video games, the real NBA, or another area of interest to our community, either as a list of five items or in the form of a Top 5 countdown.

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2016, everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great holiday season, and safely made it through all your celebrations. While New Year’s resolutions aren’t for everyone, I’ve always found the beginning of a new year to be an excellent opportunity to hit the reset button as it were, and set some goals while making a fresh start. After taking a bit of a break towards the end of December, it feels good to get back to work with renewed energy in January.

2015 was another fine year for us here at the NLSC, and I’m pleased with the content that we were able to provide. However, I’m always aiming to make things bigger and better, week by week, month by month, year by year, and to that end, I’m looking forward to striving for that goal in 2016. Since this is the first time New Year’s Day has fallen on a Friday since I started writing The Friday Five, I thought I’d use today’s column to outline a few goals that I have for the site this year.

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We’re at midcourt, the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Get your week started here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to basketball video games.

August 26th marked my fourteenth year running the NLSC; you may have seen my post celebrating the occasion in the Forum, or on our social media pages. I’d like to think that I’ve done a good job over the years – I’ve certainly tried my best – and improved in the role along the way. Creating content for the NLSC can be time consuming and at times arduous, but it’s something I do enjoy. I also enjoy taking part in the Forum, but that also involves a task that can be even tougher: moderating.

That is to stay, it’s the approach and philosophy of moderating that can be tough. Performing the actual functions of moderating is certainly straightforward enough. However, there’s a delicate balance to maintain, when the aim is to foster a welcoming and friendly community that is as drama-free as possible, while also allowing everyone to speak freely and not feel bullied by the moderators. So, to tip things off this week, I wanted to give everyone a bit of an insight into how we try to maintain that balance.

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The wait is finally over! The 2015-2016 NBA season tips off today with three games: the Chicago Bulls host the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Atlanta Hawks host the Detroit Pistons, and the defending champion Golden State Warriors host the New Orleans Pelicans. You can catch all the action on TNT, Fox Sports, and of course, NBA League Pass/NBA League Pass Broadband. Be sure to check your local listings for more details.

With the NBA back in action, I’d just like to remind everyone that in addition to all the sections in the NLSC Forum dedicated to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and basketball gaming, we also have a long-running section for NBA & Basketball discussion, which you can find here. Be sure to join in the discussion with your fellow hoops fans all season long! We’re also giving our daily predictions game another try; if you’d like to get involved, you can find that thread here.

With a new NBA season tipping off, we’ll have plenty to talk about on the NLSC Podcast, so we invite you to tune in each week. You can also bet that we’ll be playing NBA Live 16 and NBA 2K16 throughout the year, so stay tuned for more content for both games. Finally, ahead of today’s games, you might be interested in checking out some of the best opening night performances in league history. Will we see any of those records broken this season? In just a little while, we’ll find out.

Let the games begin!

Well…it’s certainly been an eventful trade deadline this year!

Eleven deals went down at the 2015 NBA trade deadline, with some significant names changing teams. Kevin Garnett is returning to the team where he started his career, as the Brooklyn Nets traded him to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Thaddeus Young. Michael Carter-Williams has gone to the Milwaukee Bucks, Goran Dragic got his wish and was sent to the Miami Heat, and the Portland Trail Blazers picked up Arron Afflalo, to name but a few of the deals.

You can check out a full breakdown of the 2015 NBA trade deadline here over on NBA.com. What do you make of all the trades that went down? Feel free to sound off in the comments below, as well as join in the discussion taking place here in the NBA & Basketball Talk section of the NLSC Forum!

We certainly love our basketball games here at the NLSC, so when it comes to modes like Dynasty, Association, and MyCAREER, some of us like to share the experience with our fellow gamers. In the Basketball Video Game Stories section of the NLSC Forum, several gamers maintain story threads chronicling their adventures and achievements in the virtual NBA. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be running a series of interviews with some of our most prominent storytellers, to get an insight into their experiences and discover why they enjoy maintaining story threads.

We’re tipping off a new year of Story Thread Interviews as we chat to Ezio Auditore, formerly known as Thierry. Ezio/Thierry has created a fair few story threads over the years – infamously so! – and definitely has some interesting things to say about his experiences. Read on for some insight and advice!

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We certainly love our basketball games here at the NLSC, so when it comes to modes like Dynasty, Association, and MyCAREER, some of us like to share the experience with our fellow gamers. In the Basketball Video Game Stories section of the NLSC Forum, several gamers maintain story threads chronicling their adventures and achievements in the virtual NBA. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be running a series of interviews with some of our most prominent storytellers, to get an insight into their experiences and discover why they enjoy maintaining story threads.

This time, I’m talking to myself…well, not really, but as someone who’s maintained a few story threads over the years, I thought that I’d offer my own answers to the questions that I’ve been posing to other story thread enthusiasts. I hope that you enjoy the insight into my experiences creating story threads for some of my favourite basketball video games!

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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! This is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to basketball video games, the real NBA or another area of interest to our community, either as a list of five items or in the form of a Top 5 countdown.

For those of you who may not be aware, the NLSC has been around for a little over eighteen years. While I’d like to think that those of us who have been a part of the site’s staff over the years have done our part to keep the NLSC alive and kicking for close to two decades now, we certainly wouldn’t be here if not for the support and contributions of our visitors and community regulars. As far as gaming communities are concerned, basketball games are unquestionably a niche interest, but we’re proud to provide facilities and a home for basketball gamers from around the world.

From time to time, members of the community reach out to me and ask how they can support or help the site. I certainly appreciate those offers, and welcome any constructive contributions that people are willing to make. There are times when we’ll look to add new members to the NLSC Team, but even if you’re not on staff, there are definitely ways that you can help us thrive and grow. In this week’s Friday Five, I’m outlining some of the ways that you can help lend a hand around the NLSC.

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We certainly love our basketball games here at the NLSC, so when it comes to modes like Dynasty, Association, and MyCAREER, some of us like to share the experience with our fellow gamers. In the Basketball Video Game Stories section of the NLSC Forum, several gamers maintain story threads chronicling their adventures and achievements in the virtual NBA. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be running a series of interviews with some of our most prominent storytellers, to get an insight into their experiences and discover why they enjoy maintaining story threads.

It’s been a few months since our last feature, but we’re back today with a new interview. This time we’re chatting to Vespasian92, who has been around the Forum for a couple of years and is currently maintaining an NBA 2K15 story thread featuring his favourite team, the Sacramento Kings.

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