NLSC Your source for basketball video games.
This is Dumb Mondays, starting the workweek off with silly facts or some of my opinions and predictions that you may or may not find interesting. This week I am sharing a dumb opinion and will be looking for and responding to your comments throughout the week.
If you are unfamiliar with the title please watch this video of Ricky Rubio talking to Alexey Shved. It comes off as one of the most genuine and nicest things I have seen during an NBA game, enough to make me smile whenever it is mentioned or I see that clip. That kind of optimism is something that I think we need here at the NLSC. With the confusion surrounding the $60 preorders for NBA 2K15 PC coupled with the speculation that is normal around this time of year, I have been getting this feeling of pessimism in the community. So this week I am going to rant a bit about being happy with what we have, because 6 years ago we went through this before.
Like I said before in a Tuesday Triple, it is important to just have fun with these video games. After all, that is their purpose right? After some good debate in the NBA 2K15 forum I had to remind myself of that. I started worrying about what NBA 2K15 will do to screw us PC users over. Maybe it is a fully featured PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 port with minimal updates because of the next gen versions. Or it could be a PlayStation 4/Xbox One port that will be poorly optimized and only barely run on top-of-the-line computers. Or maybe Amazon and GameStop screwed up and we’ll get our normal half-priced watered-down version of the game.
Hell, we can look at anything with NBA 2K15 and put a negative spin on it, but this community has done this before. When NBA Live was the only game on PC it really felt like much of the enthusiasm for the next game started going away after NBA Live 06. I don’t remember NBA Live 07 much hype from this community, and after it’s botched launch it isn’t surprising that we did not rebound for NBA Live 08.
So when NBA Live 09 was announced to not be coming to PC, well, check out the community’s reaction yourself. So we had 5 months of despair between that and the announcement of NBA 2K9 PC as a PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 port. From what I can remember, that time sucked. We had no new game coming, no official patches coming for a somewhat broken NBA Live 08, and nothing but PlayStation 2 ports to play with, ports that couldn’t even handle widescreen resolutions. Sure Andrew kept updates going through this year, but with how the next gen version of NBA 2K14 looks and what NBA Live 15 is shaping up to be, can anyone play an old Live game for anything other than some nostalgia?
So whether we get next gen, a full port, or the same old crap, I say be happy, it could be nothing. We need to remember that 2K doesn’t owe PC users anything, just like how EA didn’t. If you don’t enjoy the product, don’t play it. If you feel slighted by the lack of online options, wait 12 hours after release to find out what is wrong with the game from people like me who will buy it regardless. Your power is based around being a consumer, not by complaining to people who enjoy the game.
Remember, this is all my personal opinion and not that of the NLSC as a whole.
I agree with you. Especially on your closing.
I am a PC guy. And I also cringe whether a game is not announced for the PC. Then again, would the developers make a PC version because I cringe? I still enjoy past-gen 2K14. Aside from the new modes and a revamped MyPlayer, I still think the current-gen 2K14 is the same past-gen 2K14 with a lot of graphical updates. But I didn’t cringe when they announced that the current-gen 2K14 would only come out on the new consoles. I understood it’s part of a bigger plan on the current generation of consoles and for certain, games like this would also come in PC some time later.
Well said. I think that there’s a lot of cynicism in gaming culture in general though, which is something I’d like to see toned down. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be critical or disappointed, or love everything and kiss ass, but it gets to a point where we never seem happy, or want to see the good side of things. Too often, when we finally do get some good news, we move the goalposts so we can still be disappointed. Again, I’m all for being critical and being truthful when something isn’t up to par, but I grow weary of the pessimism, too.
I think something we do need to get over is the idea that developers – EA, 2K, whoever – are intentionally screwing us, particularly in regards to PC releases. It’s disappointing when things don’t pan out for the PC platform, of course, but it’s not as though it’s being done maliciously, with the intent to hurt PC gamers. Sometimes we do get in a bit of a bubble because we’re so passionate about PC basketball gaming, to the point where we refuse to accept we’re a niche demographic within a niche demographic. These decisions are made because of sales and the number of users, it’s not an evil plot to screw us over. I think some people take that way too personally.