NLSC Your source for basketball video games.
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 2K and their failure to communicate.
Social media has granted us more access to brands than ever before. Whether it’s getting in touch when there’s a problem, or staying up to date on new products and services, it’s as simple as following an official account. The way that we interact with brands is a reflection of online discourse in general, running the gamut of friendliness and respectfulness. It’s why I’ll always advocate for constructive feedback and not stooping to the level of personal attacks. Of course, I also understand feeling so frustrated that your words end up being terser than you perhaps intended.
How about the way that brands interact with us? While many official social media accounts stick to professional, PR-friendly posts and replies, some brands have developed a reputation for being provocative. The official Wendy’s account has built an online brand of sass, poking fun at its competitors and involving itself in trending topics with an assortment of zingers. Other accounts have followed their lead, with mixed results. After all, a corporation jumping on memes is often a “How do you do, fellow kids” moment. Even if it’s not, it can come across as tone-deaf, particularly when a company like 2K has demonstrated a failure to communicate with respect.
The incident that inspired me to discuss this today actually happened over a week ago, but it’s an evergreen issue, and I wanted to cover NBA Live’s dormancy on the anniversary of its official account’s last Tweet addressing its future. Of course, that too is a prime example of a failure to communicate with fans! However, I’m focusing on NBA 2K today, since 2K/Take-Two is a company that we’re giving money to for a product that’s actually coming out. The incident in question is a Tweet made ahead of Halloween, taking part in a meme making humorous suggestions for scary costumes. What was 2K’s idea? The default MyPLAYER outfit of a brown shirt and sweat pants.
“Terrifying” features of the costume include, and I quote: Low Overall, Questionable Shot Selection, and Constant Flopping. Like a lot of jokes that 2K makes on social media or in the games themselves, it’s slightly humorous until you think about all of the implications. On the surface, it seems like a self-deprecating gag about the game. However, the real target is the community, making it a joke that punches down at the consumer rather than 2K poking fun at itself. Frankly, it’s perpetuating the shaming of gamers who don’t quickly raise their MyPLAYER’s Overall Rating and outfit them with premium cosmetic items, which of course costs oodles of VC. Not really subtle.
And look, I get it. It’s not fun for experienced and competitive users to play with inexperienced gamers with underpowered avatars. I’m not saying that the description is completely inaccurate. The irony is that questionable shot selection and flopping unnecessarily is just as often the hallmark of high-rated players with a ridiculous fit and thousands of online games played. To that end, there’s definitely some projection going on! It also glosses over the fact that the way to “fix” having a lower Overall Rating or the default outfit is to grind for or buy a ton of VC. In other words, these issues – these “horrors” of the costume – are the result of how NBA 2K is designed.
That’s why it bugs me. NBA 2K already puts enough pressure on gamers to either grind to the point where the game is more work than play, or pay above and beyond retail price to enjoy a Triple-A title. Engaging in a meme that ramps up the pressure by shaming gamers, and in doing so leaning into the most toxic traits of the online scene, is just gross. Say that I’m being sensitive if you will, or that I’m reading too much into it, but the gall and contempt for consumers in jokes like this is disgustingly obvious. It’d be just as easy to make a joke about outlandish attire and elitist attitudes with the same meme, but instead they’ve chosen to toxically punch down at newbies.
So, what does this have to do with a “failure to communicate”? The issue here goes beyond a single tone-deaf Tweet. 2K has a history of misguided jokes, contemptuous social media interactions, and just plain bad communication with basketball gamers. Take being able to respond to a message from virtual Ronnie 2K in MyCAREER with “fix your servers”. On one hand, I appreciate them having a sense of humour about a common response to Ronnie. On the other hand, the joke would land better if they’d actually…you know…improved their servers over the years? That would honestly be far more respectful to us than giving us a chance at trolling a virtual digital marketer.
And speaking of Ronnie 2K, there’s the whole “Barbie Dress-Up Game” Tweet that deserves to live on in infamy. As I said when I reflected on how poorly that aged – within twenty-four hours mind you, let alone six years later – though the complaint Ronnie was responding to wasn’t expressed in the politest way possible, it was a valid point, and one that could’ve been addressed with far more professionalism. I do realise that part of Ronnie’s gig is to absorb negativity and deflect it away from the brand, but if he’s the digital face of NBA 2K, they are one and the same. How he acts reflects on the product and the company, and he shouldn’t get a pass for rudeness and other BS.
It goes beyond contentious interactions on social media, too. I’ve noted before that the error messages in NBA 2K are weirdly passive-aggressive. Whenever there’s a server error, it’s described as “a problem with your connection”. It’s never their problem; it’s your connection that’s the issue! It’s deliberate wording that avoids responsibility for online woes. There’s also the message that’s displayed if an error occurs while trying to retrieve a face scan: “try again and pay close attention to the instructions”. Putting aside the fact there are no further instructions to pay close attention to, and that the app reports that you did everything correctly, it’s rather pathetic to scold us like that.
Again, I understand that this may sound like I’m being oversensitive, or that I’m taking things the wrong way. “They’re just words!” The words we choose to use do matter, though. That’s why we have carefully crafted PR statements from companies, and why tactlessness can make a situation worse, even if it isn’t our intention. Our choice of words also makes it rather clear how much respect we have for whomever we’re addressing. Condescension or the use of mocking nicknames belies the veneer of polite and respectful discourse. Or, to put it more bluntly, if you’re acting like a jerk, you’re not interested in a civil conversation and respecting someone’s views.
Of course, it’s not just opting for passive-aggressive words and tone that exemplifies 2K’s failure to communicate, but also the choice to not say anything at all whenever possible. We can debate which is worse – saying little in a contemptuous manner, or saying nothing at all – but the bottom line is that both are problematic, and are issues with 2K’s communication. The lack of transparency with patch notes is an ongoing example. Either we don’t get any word of what a patch has done, or there’s a vague statement about fixes, sometimes with the clarification that there were no gameplay changes. It’s something, but we need to know what is in a patch, as well as what isn’t.
We deserve to know if there’s been a change to the way VC or the various forms of XP are earned, because that has a direct impact on progression, and thus the overall gameplay experience. As much backlash as unpopular changes will incur, it’s so much worse when there’s an attempt to hide them; a case of the lie or obfuscation feeling like a bigger transgression, or certainly making the situation less understandable and forgivable. This has been a recurring issue in 2K’s failure to communicate. Like any developer, they want to avoid bad PR and delivering bad news that may affect sales and recurrent revenue. However, the lack of transparency only makes issues bigger.
You may recall the Pink Diamond LeBron fiasco in NBA 2K19, wherein a Locker Code leaked, a ton of gamers got their hands on the aforementioned card, and 2K quietly removed it from accounts without announcement or explanation. Ironically, in that situation they were in the right as far as it not being a public code, but by not acknowledging the issue and explaining their position, they ended up looking sneaky and in the wrong. It didn’t help that they moved quickly on resolving a matter that affected them – on Christmas Day no less – contrary to their habit of dragging their feet on resolving issues that affect gamers. The timing squandered a ton of goodwill.
They repeated that mistake this year with NBA 2K23, when we inadvertently gained access to the MyNBA Eras rosters in Play Now. Like the Pink Diamond LeBron, we obviously weren’t supposed to have it, as it was clearly marked as a debug menu. Still, it stings that it was patched out within twelve hours despite being a fun bonus that didn’t hurt anything, while actual problems went unfixed and/or unacknowledged. The swiftness of fixing a happy accident without acknowledging it looks much worse than explaining what may be an unpopular move. Letting us have it would be even better, but if nothing else, the failure to communicate their intentions wasn’t a good look.
That’s why I take issue with that Tweet. In a vacuum, it may not seem so bad; a trifle tone-deaf at worst. However, 2K’s failure to communicate without contempt – or communicate at all – is a recurring problem. Even if there wasn’t a history of passive-aggressive error messages, awful Tweets, and lack of communication as far as patch notes, the toxicity that 2K has cultivated in its online scene makes a Tweet like that contemptible. There is no self-deprecation there. It’s punching down, encouraging elitism and gatekeeping, and supporting bad behaviour that is the result of the game’s design. There’s a failure in how 2K opts to communicate, and they need to be better.
