The Friday Five: 5 Stages of a Basketball Game ReleaseWe're on the road to a new basketball game release, namely NBA 2K22. Obviously, we're all hoping for the best as far as gameplay improvements, enhancements to game modes, and a fairer approach to recurrent revenue mechanics. Alright, we probably shouldn't hold our breath on that last point! Nevertheless, the preview season always brings a mixture of excitement, intrigue, scepticism, and cynicism. We're hoping for good news and want to be open-minded, but we're also leery of being disappointed, having been burned by previous releases.
Of course, we gamers - and the content creators, influencers, and pundits within gaming communities - are creatures of habit. We don't always learn from the past, though that is admittedly a very human problem. Having covered basketball games for the NLSC for twenty years now, I've noticed the same cycle repeating with every game and preview season. In fact, it's so consistent that I can apply the "five stages of grief" model to the steps we collectively go through whenever a new basketball game release is looming. Do I expect to break the cycle simply by pointing this out? No, but if nothing else, spelling it out may explain why many of us feel so cynical at times.