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Monday Tip-Off: Comparing VC to In-Universe Salaries…Again

Monday Tip-Off: Comparing VC to In-Universe Salaries...Again

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 by returning to a topic that I’ve covered before: the in-universe value of VC, when compared to MyCAREER salaries.

It’s been three years since I’ve broached what was once an annual topic: comparing VC earnings to in-universe salaries. The reason for that, quite simply, is that I didn’t play much of NBA 2K21 and NBA 2K22. After playing through four years of college in NBA 2K21’s The Long Shadow, I didn’t touch the game much after that. I wasn’t a fan of NBA 2K22, so I wasn’t able to get far enough into MyCAREER to have an NBA salary. However, on top of enjoying NBA 2K23 far more, this year’s mode gets us into the league much quicker, giving us access to all of the necessary figures.

In case you’re not sure what I’m getting at here, I’m comparing the VC earnings that are your MyPLAYER’s base salary to its reported amount in dollars, as per the listing in your player card. Obviously, the issues with VC are readily apparent when you compare your VC salary with the prices of items and upgrades, not to mention the real world cost if you pay to skip the grind. However, looking at the in-universe value of VC really drives home how ridiculous the prices are, while hitting back at the shills who try to use “paying for things is realistic” as some kind of gotcha in defense of 2K’s greed. With that being said, let’s compare VC to in-universe salaries…again.

I’ll begin with a refresher on the maths being used here. We’re dividing the figure listed on the Contract tab in the player card by 82 to find the approximate per-game salary in dollars, and thus the in-universe value of the base VC earnings. We can then take that dollar figure and divide it by the amount of base VC we earn per-game in order to determine the value of 1 VC. From there, we can put an in-universe dollar figure on all cosmetic items, as well as attribute upgrades. While this doesn’t account for Playoff games or performance-based VC earnings, it gives us a standard number to work with. There are no variables that make the in-universe prices look reasonable.

Rookie Salary in NBA 2K23 MyCAREER

So, let’s make those calculations! No matter which team you choose at the beginning of MyCAREER in NBA 2K23, you’ll have a salary of 500 VC. Bring up the player card and navigate to the Contract tab, and you’ll see that your in-universe salary is $3.01 million. Dividing $3,010,000 by 82 gives us $36,707 as our per-game salary, rounded to the nearest dollar. Now that we know the dollar amount that’s represented by 500 VC, we can divide $36,707 by 500 to get the in-universe value of 1 VC, which rounded to the nearest dollar is $73. Now we can easily multiply the VC price tag of any item in MyCAREER by 73, if we want to find out its cost in in-universe dollars.

Time to go shopping…or at least, browsing! We’ll begin with the NBA store, since it has some of the cheapest cosmetic items in the game: on-court accessories, with the finger tape and wrist rubber bands both priced at 25 VC. They shouldn’t break the budget, but when we consider the in-universe value of VC, those simple accessories – that teams would actually provide their players with free of charge, mind you – cost $1,825 each! Most basic accessories cost 150 VC each, which is around $10,950. More expensive items like a Jumpman sleeve (500 VC) or a headband (1000 VC) have an in-universe price of over $36,000 or $73,000 respectively. See what I mean?

Now, let’s head over to Swag’s, where we’ll find some of the cheaper clothes to outfit our MyPLAYER. An in-store display advertises Men’s Dress Pants for $35, which is funny for two reasons: there are no dress pants for sale in Swag’s, and there’s nothing in the store that costs an in-universe $35! The cheapest shorts are 600 VC, or around $43,800. Those ripped jeans that’ll help you succeed in fashion quests carry a price tag of 2000 VC, or $146,000; high fashion indeed! If you want to complete that ensemble with a black leather jacket, that’ll cost you 25,000 VC, or a cool $1,825,000. Elsewhere, my favourite Air Jordans (the Vs) cost 6000 VC, or around $438,000.

Dress Pants Priced at $35 In-Universe

I think you get the picture. Once we work out the in-universe value of VC according to the listed salary, the price tags look absolutely ridiculous. Yes, clothes can be very expensive, particularly designer brands and basketball shoes like vintage Air Jordans. We’re usually talking a few hundred dollars for most items though, not thousands and millions. I know NBA players can indulge in some extravagant tastes once those big salaries start rolling in, but they’re not going to be blowing a game’s worth of salary (or more, for that matter) on a plain singlet and basketball shorts to go shoot around or work out at the gym! Once again, they’re not buying their NBA accessories at all.

As I’ve said when I’ve covered the in-universe value of VC in previous articles, you may wonder about the point of this exercise. After all, a quick glance at VC prices and earnings will tell us how unfair and unrealistic they are. If the base salary is 500 VC and a pair of basketball shorts at Swag’s costs 600 VC, then we don’t need to make any further calculations to point out that in-universe, a basic and affordable clothing item costs more than an NBA player’s single game salary. One doesn’t need to have in-depth knowledge of fashion or the NBA salary cap to realise just how unrealistic that is, or how it contributes to NBA 2K’s pushy recurrent revenue mechanics.

The reason I’m pointing out the in-universe value of VC salaries and the prices we can calculate from it is that it really drives home the ridiculousness of the situation. This is important, because there are shills and apologists who will try to play the realism card here: “Well, buying things in the real world costs money, so if you’re going to shop in The City, it shouldn’t be free. Don’t you want realism?” Again, simply having basic t-shirts and shorts cost more than a single game’s salary is already an effective rebuttal to that attempted gotcha. However, the realism argument completely falls apart when we can demonstrate just how unrealistic the in-universe prices are for everything.

Air Jordan Vs on Sale for 6000 VC in NBA 2K23 MyCAREER

It highlights the discrepancy between the world building of The City, and the real world cost and aim of Virtual Currency. VC prices are what they are in order to make us grind as hard as possible, or preferably, give in and buy it. In the real world, the value of VC makes sense given its aim; it’s extortionate and anti-consumer, but we understand why it’s expensive to upgrade players and buy cosmetic items. In-universe, the amounts don’t make sense. Incidentally, that leather jacket that costs 25,000 VC and $1.8 million in-universe essentially has a real world cost of $16.95 AUD (around $10 USD), since you’ll need the 35,000 VC pack to cover it if your wallet is empty.

At this point, a shill might be inclined to pivot, and point out that both buying VC and acquiring cosmetic items is optional. This is technically correct, but it’s ignoring what has been going on in MyCAREER for years now. Getting a game in The Playground not only relies on high ratings and a history of putting up numbers in online play, but also your MyPLAYER’s “fit”. If you don’t have the appropriate look, you’re going to have a tough time getting into games solo. Throw in the fashion quests and the official social media accounts pushing the importance of cosmetic items, and you can see how there’s pressure to care about clothes. So much for not being a Barbie Dress-Up game!

That’s what shills don’t get; or more likely, wilfully ignore. All of these issues are connected: starting out with lower ratings leading to a cost in excess of 450,000 VC (around $165 AUD if you want to buy it) to get to 99 Overall, the lack of fun offline and online if you try to take the long road to halfway decent ratings (let alone being maxed out), cosmetic items serving as a makeshift form of matchmaking, using the same currency for attribute upgrades and clothing items, low payouts versus high prices, and so on. There are so many ways that MyCAREER is trying to get gamers to spend well beyond the original cost of the game, just to have a chance to enjoy it.

Aussie Gear in NBA 2K23 MyCAREER

Pointing out the in-universe value of VC relative to salaries and price tags is simply putting it all in perspective, and again, hitting back at the attempted gotcha of the realism card. Apologists tried to make that same argument when NBA 2K18 was charging us for haircuts. It was BS then, and it remains BS now. If we’re talking realism, then a number of items on sale in The City shouldn’t even cost 1 VC! If authenticity is the aim, then the team should be providing us with accessories and shoes. The story Bill Walton told during the 1997 All-Star Game of a young Kevin Garnett being surprised that he didn’t have to buy his own shoes comes to mind here.

Last year, when I wrote an article about the rising cost of MyCAREER, it gained some traction. While most people appreciated what I was doing – and Agent 00 followed it up with an excellent video that went into the real world cost as well – some tried to push back on it. “Inflation,” they responded, again thinking they were being very clever with another gotcha. This of course ignores that the in-universe economy is something that is artificial, completely under 2K’s control. More importantly, it ignores that it’s one-sided inflation, as earnings haven’t increased to match costs. If you make that foolish argument, you’re exposing yourself as ignorant, or a shill.

And yes, I know that complaining about these issues feels like we’re yelling into the wind. That doesn’t mean we should stay quiet; if nothing else, we can warn our fellow gamers. It’s been three years since I last compared VC earnings to in-universe salaries, and it’s no better than it was back then. Gamers are used to it and shills will find ways to defend it, so I’m not optimistic that we’ll see any positive changes here. Still, we should speak out about it. There is a growing frustration with the approach to VC, and you never know what will spark a movement. Personally, I think a pair of ripped jeans costing $146,000 in-universe is reason enough to criticise the value of VC salaries.

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