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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #490 of the NLSC Podcast!

As we await the first previews of NBA 2K24, a war of words has broken out between members of Sim Nation, comp players, and the cheesers. To that end, we discuss how toxic the discourse has become, and read out some of the community’s thoughts on the matter. As always, we catch up on what we’ve been playing this past week, from MyNBA in NBA 2K23 and MyGM in NBA 2K14, to Ultimate Team in NBA Live 18 and Fantasy Teams in NBA Live 10. We’ve also got some small updates on a couple of modding projects. Inspired by Julius Erving’s recent comments, we also share our thoughts on personal bias and agendas in Top 10 lists and other rankings, noting the similarities between discussions of NBA history and classic basketball video games.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:12:08 — 49.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #474 of the NLSC Podcast!

This week, we’re joined by one of our favourite streamers and content creators in the basketball gaming community, KingJMASE! Mase shares the story of founding the Elite Street League for NBA 2K, and the inspiration behind his commentary style. We also discuss the challenges of content creation, including time management and tempering expectations, as well as the importance of authenticity and originality. Mase also recalls his history with basketball games and basketball, and recounts one of his most impressive performances on the virtual hardwood. Finally, we wrap up a fun conversation by putting him in the hot seat to answer five rapid fire questions about real and virtual hoops alike.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:48:26 — 74.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m reflecting on when webrings and Yahoo! GeoCities were major parts of the basketball gaming community.

Want to make me feel old? It’s getting much easier the closer that I edge to forty, but an effective method would be to ask “Andrew, what do you mean by webrings, or Yahoo! GeoCities?” Yes, it’s a sign that I’m getting older, and that I’ve been online for a long time, and how much the internet has changed, that there are people who will wonder what I’m talking about when I mention Yahoo! GeoCities and webrings! In an era where it’s all about algorithms and SEO, with a number of platforms for content creation and self-promotion, they’re antiquated concepts indeed.

Still, like many things from the early days of the basketball gaming community that don’t need to make a comeback, they’re nevertheless nostalgic for those of us who remember them. At the same time, I’m also grateful that better solutions have been developed, because it certainly was the Stone Age of the World Wide Web. So, what’s the deal with webrings and Yahoo! GeoCities? Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Welcome to the NLSC Rewind for 2022! It feels like it was only a few months ago that I was compiling last year’s Rewind, but that’s how it goes these days. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that the last few years have all run together. That’s largely due to the pandemic, but it’s also true what they say: time does seem to go faster the older you are! In any event, it’s been another fun and productive year here at the NLSC.

Our modding community has been busy all year, seamlessly transitioning from NBA 2K22 to NBA 2K23 when the latter was released. A handful of older titles were also kept updated in 2022, including NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14. Glancing at the various modding sections, it’s clear that even more great work will be coming in 2023, with some great projects brewing for classic games as well. As always, a big thank you to everyone who continues to release work here! I’d like to remind everyone that the upload facilities in our Downloads database remain 100% free and available to all.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the NLSC Rewind for 2022! For those who are unaware, I use the Rewind to share some “editor’s picks” of our original content from the past year. Obviously I encourage you to peruse our entire archives; as with topics in our Forum, old comments sections are still open, and I’m proud of all our work. At the same time, there were some features and episodes of the NLSC Podcast that I’m particularly proud of, and I believe that you’ll really enjoy checking them out if you did miss them the first time around (or perhaps, enjoy them again a second time!). Without any further ado, let’s rewind the year that was 2022 here at the NLSC!

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On behalf of the NLSC Team, Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings to our community! Whatever your beliefs and traditions at this time of the year, I hope that you’re happy, healthy, and spending some quality time with friends and family.

A big thanks as always for continuing to support us throughout 2022! I hope you’ve enjoyed being a part of the community here at the NLSC this year, and are looking forward to more good times in 2023. We’re certainly keen to continue supporting our modding community, and creating entertaining original content in our coverage of basketball gaming. To that end, our gift to you today is a showdown between Santa’s Slammers and Team SSX in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition!

There’ll definitely be plenty of video content coming in 2023, so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel! NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is also on my list of games that I’m overdue to cover for Wayback Wednesday, and with 2023 marking the 30th Anniversary of the NBA Jam series, it seems like an appropriate time to get around to it. Once again, Merry Christmas, Season’s Greetings, and a happy holiday season to basketball gamers everywhere. Enjoy these NBA Jam: On Fire Edition highlights, and if you’re hitting the virtual hardwood these holidays, have a blast!

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some frank thoughts on poor community managers, and community hires forgetting where they came from.

This is one of those articles that are difficult to write without sounding bitter, grinding an axe over sour grapes. And, to be fair, there is a touch of bitterness when it comes to this topic. However, while “you sound bitter” is a tired yet effective ad hominem, it doesn’t disprove a point; particularly when someone has a legitimate grievance. As someone who has tried to represent the community to the best of my ability whenever I’ve had the opportunity to do so, I have strong feelings about the way company reps handle themselves…especially if they were once “one of us”.

Things have unquestionably changed in the community since I took over the NLSC in August 2001. Companies are more selective about whom they work with, but not in a way that benefits gamers. Instead of connecting with people dedicated to constructive and honest feedback on behalf of gamers, they grant access to content creators who are willing to promote – or indeed, shill – and have a big enough audience to make it worthwhile. It makes sense from a business standpoint, but it’s eroded the goodwill that community programs once fostered. When it’s someone you used to know as a member of the community, it’s hard not to feel like you’ve been stabbed in the back.

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five ways that basketball gamers unnecessarily shame one another, and why it’s absurd.

No community is ever going to get along 100% of the time. There will always be disagreements, and things can get heated in the thick of competitive play. With that being said, general etiquette and decorum goes a long way, and avoids embodying the most unflattering gamer stereotypes. It’s not particularly complicated. Don’t be the jerk that sends threatening messages, or jumps on the mic to be abusive and throw out bigoted slurs. Don’t ruin the online scene on PC with your hacked, super-powered player. And of course, don’t foster a toxic atmosphere through elitist gatekeeping.

It’s bewildering that gamers shame each other over a hobby that’s meant to be fun. Obviously the competitive scene carries certain bragging rights, and if you claim to be an elite player, you’ll be fairly challenged to prove your mettle. Beyond that though, there are people in the basketball gaming community that indulge in gatekeeping over the pettiest of things. In games that offer a variety of modes and options to tailor the experience to maximise your enjoyment, there’s no wrong way to play basketball video games; at least outside of cheating and poor sportsmanship in a competitive environment. As such, it’s ridiculous to shame each other over these five matters.

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the era during which the NLSC was hosted by the GameSpy network.

Having run the NLSC for over twenty years now, I can’t help reflecting on my long history in the online basketball gaming community. While it’s ultimately about the games we’ve played – and I obviously love revisiting them – our community does have an interesting history. There have been plenty of ups and downs, and some incidents that I’d rather forget. I’m not a fan of drama, so there are probably some stories I won’t ever tell, at least beyond some vague allusions. Many of us were young when we first joined the community, and several incidents stemmed from immaturity.

In other words, I’m not going to drop too many juicy tales about people who have made running the NLSC – normally a fun and fulfilling creative outlet – unpleasant from time to time. However, I’ll never pass up the opportunity to take a few shots at one of our former hosts: GameSpy. If you’re old enough, you may remember them for both their coverage of video games, and powering the online functionality in over 300 PC and console titles. They also provided hosting for sites like us, and while it kept us running, we were definitely hurt by it. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Times change, and different content comes in and out of fashion. However, one section of the NLSC Forum that has maintained a dedicated following throughout the years is the Stories from the Virtual Hardwood board. This is where you can share stories of your franchise and career mode games with your fellow basketball gamers, and really indulge your creativity.

There are some great active threads in the Stories from the Virtual Hardwood section at the moment, and I’d like to take a moment to spotlight them. First of all, we have “The 2K10 & Beyond Project“, a story by jubba910. This tale not only spans multiple seasons but also multiple games, beginning with the 2010 campaign in NBA 2K10. jubba910 is now up to the 2018 season in NBA 2K18, and has produced a very interesting alternate history!

Next up we have “The Wrath of the Rose” by veteran of our story section, kibaxx7. This story winds back the clock to the 1970s, with the Portland Trail Blazers’ entry into the NBA. It’s a few years in now, and has likewise produced some fun alternate history with great presentation. The tale is being told using NBA 2K14 PC and the Ultimate Base Roster.

I’ll also plug my latest story thread here, “Ain’t gonna let nobody write it, but me”. It provides running updates on my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER on PlayStation 4, in between the yearly recaps I’ve been posting in Monday Tip-Off. I’m currently in my fourth season, and expect to have it finished by the time NBA 2K23 is released.

Other regularly-updated topics include the UBR Resim by Mavsfan_1991, A Fantasy World by yeahnah, and truefaith0826‘s 1995-1996 Season. Check them out, and feel free to join in the fun yourself! Quick updates are welcome in this topic, while suggestions for telling your virtual hardwood stories can be found here. We also conducted a series of interviews with long-time contributors to the stories section some years back. Additionally, some of the best stories that have now finished can be found in the NBA Live and NBA 2K Hall of Fame boards. A big thanks to everyone who keeps the stories section going!

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some reflections on encountering a familiar image in a meme, and other moments of recognition.

It’s good advice to be careful about what you put out there on the internet. We’re not always as anonymous as we think, and poor behaviour can come back to haunt us. In general, it’s prudent to exercise caution in sharing personal information and even photos, as it can compromise one’s safety. It’s something to keep in mind when you’re a content creator, even in a niche community. Someone with an axe to grind may be petty enough to use it to directly harass you, or talk trash about you elsewhere online. I’ve encountered both during my time running the NLSC.

On a lighter note, when it comes to the content you create for one and all to see, you never know where it will end up. It’s both exciting and humbling when something gains traction, as my article on the Rising Cost of MyCAREER did last year, or when your work is referenced, as a WhatCulture video did with a post about NBA Elite 11. On the other hand, it’s funny when parts of your content end up being recycled, or shared outside of the original context. In particular, I’ve seen some of my screenshots show up in other articles, or on social media. And, speaking of the latter, there’s one familiar screenshot that has been used in a meme shared by several accounts.

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We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some thoughts on blaming the entire basketball gaming community for changes and additions that only a vocal minority asked for.

Even though everyone in the basketball gaming community shares a common passion, we’re not always on the same page. We’re divided along several lines: mode of choice, online or offline gaming, ideal controls and mechanics, how much realism the games should have, and so on. This makes it impossible for anyone to speak on behalf of the entire community, and no one person’s vision alone is right for basketball gaming. In turn, developers have many voices to listen to – some offering up conflicting feedback – and so are guaranteed to disappoint a contingent of the fanbase with certain choices.

While we collectively understand that, in our disappointment and indeed our outrage, it’s difficult to accept. When we’re disappointed and angry – whether it’s about video games or anything in life – we want to lay blame. We point the finger at developers, the suits, and even ourselves. In all three cases, that blame isn’t entirely misplaced. However, when it comes to blaming ourselves, we’re talking about a much larger group; a group that has less control than the other two, and is less likely to be wholly in agreement. As such, when we blame what we see as an undesirable aspect of NBA 2K on the community, we’re often pointing the finger at the wrong parts of it.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #409 of the NLSC Podcast!

Stildo33 joins the show to talk about his amazing retro season roster mods for NBA 2K19 PC. We discuss some of the challenges of making such large projects, and a few of his plans for future updates. Like us, Stildo33 has also been having a blast with Parsec, and is all about bringing the community together with the app. He also recalls one of his most memorable battles on the virtual hardwood, which actually saw him and a friend get physical over a three day period! We also discuss the shutdown of the NBA 2K20 servers and what it means for MyCAREER gamers, as well as some other fond basketball gaming memories.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:42:50 — 71.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

We’re currently in the process of compiling our Wishlist for NBA 2K23! Our aim is to send it in to our contacts at Visual Concepts ASAP, so if you have any ideas for the next NBA 2K release, please start posting them in this topic.

Obviously, there are many avenues for Visual Concepts to collect feedback on NBA 2K in 2022. However, we want to make sure that our community is properly represented. There are undoubtedly issues that are more important to us than to other communities, particularly in regards to the PC version.

With that being said, we do want to compile a comprehensive Wishlist for NBA 2K23 on Next Gen and Current Gen alike. As always, please keep your feedback constructive, and be as detailed as possible. Simply saying “improve gameplay” or “make MyNBA better” doesn’t exactly tell the developers what our issues are, or how we’d like to see them resolved.

On top of that, developers have previously indicated to us that bullet points of the most pressing issues and creative ideas are the ideal formatting. Feedback that is buried in long-winded paragraphs is easy to overlook, especially if one has to sift through angry and insulting comments to get to the useful part. There’s no need to suck up, but keep it constructive and clear, and it’ll be much easier to pass along quality feedback.

Ideally we’ll be sending along the Wishlist within the next few weeks, so once again, please start posting your wishes ASAP!

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 NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five things we need to stop saying in 2022.

And so, we’ve come to the end of 2021! It’s been a challenging couple of years with a global pandemic and whatnot, so hopefully better times await us all in 2022. Around these parts, we’ve obviously had basketball video games to keep us occupied. We get a lot of joy out of our hobby, but there are obviously moments of frustration as well. As I’ve said before, it’s necessary to cover all aspects of basketball gaming. We should celebrate and enjoy our passion for the virtual hardwood, and at the same time, voice our criticisms and concerns. Positive or negative, it’s vital that we have our say.

However, there are some things that we should stop saying, and with 2022 upon us, it’s a prime opportunity to cut them from the discourse. I don’t say this as a way of impeding freedom of speech, and it certainly won’t be a rule enacted in our Forum. I just believe it’s in our best interests, because thought-terminating cliches ultimately pollute the conversation. They stifle discussion of important issues, and are needlessly divisive. As always, I’m under no delusion that one article will eradicate these tired and trite phrases from the basketball gaming community. Nevertheless, if we see less of them in 2022, the quality of conversations about virtual hoops should improve.

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Welcome to the NLSC Rewind for 2021! It’s been another challenging year for many of us around the world, but fortunately, we’ve had basketball gaming to provide some much-needed distractions. Here at the NLSC, it’s been another year of great mod releases and basketball gaming discussion. We’ve also aimed to cover a wide variety of topics in our original content.

As always, it’s been our goal to cover both the positive and negative aspects of the games we play. From holding publishers accountable and criticising practices that impact our enjoyment, to celebrating the fun we’re having and brainstorming new ideas for future games, we’ve strived to be fair, thorough, informative, and hopefully entertaining. Above all, we want our original content to share interesting facts, ways to enhance your basketball gaming experiences, and advocate for our fellow gamers. Whichever mode and game that we each prefer, we should all get the most out of it.

This NLSC Rewind is a collection of “editor’s picks” for our 2021 content. Obviously, I encourage everyone to dig through our entire archives if you’re enjoying what you’re reading, watching, and listening to with our articles, videos, and podcasts. However, these recommendations represent content that I’m particularly proud of, and believe are worth a second look or listen; or a first one, if you missed them when they were originally posted! Seeing as how we’re celebrating our 25th Anniversary this year, I decided that I’d make 25 picks for each of our weekly features. As we prepare for a brand new year of basketball gaming, join me as I rewind 2021 here at the NLSC!

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