Monday Tip-Off: Goodwill Goes Both Ways

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with some frank thoughts on how goodwill goes both ways when it comes to basketball gamers, and basketball video game developers.

It’s neither a stretch nor a startling revelation that the relationship between the NBA 2K developers and NBA 2K gamers is not as cordial as it once was. There was a time when 2K was the darling of basketball gaming. While EA Sports failed to deliver with NBA Live, Visual Concepts was going from strength to strength with NBA 2K. They listened, they innovated, and their hard work paid off. NBA Live was no longer in the picture, and while that was a sad outcome in many ways, the superior hoops game had conquered the market. Unlike Madden, they did it through quality, not exclusitivity.

Such a track record of excellence and gamer satisfaction fosters trust and goodwill in the brand. That’s not to say that the product was always perfect, because no game is. The quality was consistently impressive though, and the developer blogs during the preview seasons felt trustworthy because the games seemingly always delivered. In recent years, however, that trust and goodwill has diminished. For our part, we’re an angrier fanbase that as a whole, doesn’t always engage as politely as we should. We have reasons to be upset and our terseness is understandable, but I also sympathise with the devs’ frustration. Goodwill is vital in this relationship, and it goes both ways.

To that end, I need to address a few issues upfront, especially as I’m writing this from a position of advocating for basketball gamers. It’s imperative that I acknowledge that rudeness and flat out abuse are unacceptable when interacting with anyone, including developers of a video game that we’re unhappy with. There’s no excuse for making threats, or doxxing developers. One can be honest, and even somewhat blunt, without making matters personal or stooping to childish insults. Developers are human, and are within their rights to withdraw from and refuse to interact with the community if we’re going beyond critical into nasty. We must hold ourselves accountable here.

I believe we collectively understand this. Furthermore, I’d like to believe that the people who aren’t engaging with devs respectfully are a small but disproportionately loud group. I’d also like to believe that many of us can draw the distinction between 2K the company, and individual members of the development team. Some can’t, and while I wouldn’t call it entitlement, there are people within the basketball gaming community that express themselves poorly, and interact with members of the NBA 2K development team rudely. I don’t condone that, because respect and goodwill is a two way street. Abuse shouldn’t be tolerated just because you’re a paying customer.

By the same token, it’s arrogant to believe that paying customers should simply shut up and be grateful for your product, or not take issue with being disrespected. And yes, while gaming communities can be toxic and abusive towards the people making the titles they play, companies and individual employees can undoubtedly act poorly towards their audience. A portion of the audience being difficult to deal with doesn’t justify tarring everyone else with the same brush, or framing complaints as entitled whining. Just because we don’t always understand the complexities and challenges of video game development, it doesn’t mean we’re clueless and off-base with criticism.

Here’s the thing. Both sides know that the other isn’t perfect, and that we ultimately both want the same thing: for NBA 2K to be great, and for us to greatly enjoy it. Our differences can be smoothed over with mutual goodwill, but there isn’t a lot of that these days. I’ll admit my bias here in that I’m advocating for the gamers’ side of the issue, but the plain truth is that the goodwill was squandered by 2K. They’re the ones that have implemented increasingly pushy recurrent revenue mechanics, even going so far as to charge for haircuts in NBA 2K18’s MyCAREER. They’re the ones that have catered to elitists and the online scene, and smugly shrugged off valid critique.

They’re the ones that have hired antagonistic brand reps who mock concerns and reasonable complaints, hype more than they help, and defend the indefensible. What’s really unfortunate here is that some of those reps have come from the community, so they know what it’s like to be a frustrated consumer. In all fairness, they probably are now aware of things they weren’t when they were in our position, and siding with the company is part of the job description. We know that, and we don’t always appreciate the tough spot they’re in. At the same time, those reps know what it’s like to be in our shoes, feeling disrespected by a company and disappointed in a product we paid for.

Again, it’s virtually impossible for us to meet in the middle these days because the necessary goodwill isn’t there. It can’t be there when reps are defensive instead of apologetic in the face of major issues where the customer is rightfully upset. It’s not going to be there when developer blogs claim one thing, only for next year’s previews to admit that bandaid fixes for problematic tech were touted as improvements. When we can point to lies that we’ve been told – not misunderstandings, but outright lies – there can be no trust. If we can’t trust that we’ll be respected as consumers, then there won’t be any goodwill. Without any goodwill, we can’t be expected to be forgiving.

You can say we’re jaded if you like. However, after years of pushy recurrent revenue mechanics, broken promises, and unreliable previews, we have just cause. We’re tired; tired, and frustrated. It’s tiring being blamed for problems in the game, from server issues such as disconnections and lag spikes, to failed face scans that the companion app indicated were done correctly. Passive-aggressive error messages, and equally passive-aggressive responses on social media, do little to alleviate frustration with bugs, legacy gameplay issues, and grindy mechanics that forego fun in order to push us towards buying VC. More and more NBA 2K gamers are simply getting fed up.

This does lead to interactions that could stand to be politer, especially when our ire should be directed at the suits rather than the developers. Not to justify the worst of it, but it’s inevitable when the goodwill runs out. More to the point, even when gamers are respectful, they’ve been met with scorn, or simply ignored. There’s no goodwill in that, and while it doesn’t excuse abuse and whatnot, to put it bluntly, if you’re going to crap on the community, the community is understandably going to fling it right back at you. There’s no dignity in being a rude customer – no matter how rightfully angry you are – but there’s also no moral high ground in disrespecting your audience.

I strongly believe that you end up with the audience that you cultivate. I realise that sounds like I’m trying to justify gamers behaving poorly, and once again, I condemn abuse, doxxing, and rudeness, in the strongest possible terms. Still, there’s a reason that the relationship between 2K and the NBA 2K community has turned somewhat frosty from our end. As I said, we don’t appreciate the lies, or vague answers. We don’t like the sneakiness of quietly making changes that would cause a major uproar if they were announced. We don’t appreciate being treated like ATMs, or having our fun impeded by recurrent revenue mechanics. We won’t happily be taken advantage of.

On top of disgruntled gamers, catering to the online scene has fostered elitism. It’s only increased the toxicity through infighting, which is in turn encouraged by hyping up supposed skill-based mechanics. Gameplay critique is thus too often shut down and dismissed as complaints from unskilled gamers – the whole “get good” rhetoric – which only breeds contempt between different factions in the userbase, as well as towards 2K themselves. The elitist, toxic atmosphere isn’t conducive to goodwill, and that’s something the games have created. We must certainly own up to unprovoked rudeness, but the game itself has given rise to an extremely volatile community.

My advice to gamers is, as always, we must be fans, but not fanboys; critics, but not haters. At the end of the day, don’t be jerks. Don’t abuse, don’t threaten, don’t dox, and be constructive and specific in your criticism. Provide examples and evidence when you can. Yes, we have valid complaints that have seemingly fallen on deaf ears, but we’re allowing our voices to be drowned out by the vocally abusive minority. When presented with the opportunity to provide feedback, don’t bury your suggestions and bug reports under paragraphs of snarky insults. We can’t fairly complain that the developers won’t meet us halfway, if we’re not willing to make the effort either.

My advice to 2K is to exercise some humility, and don’t look for excuses to ignore us. Yes, some people are extraordinarily rude, and it’s understandable if you tune them out. Many others are terse because they’re frustrated, and various aspects of the games – and the way we’ve been interacted with – are the cause of that. Drop those passive-aggressive error messages, and take responsibility for problems. Trying to deny and downplay issues doesn’t make the brand look strong; truth and transparency look a lot better than denial and deception. Don’t make those sneaky nerfs, and stop being so aggressively and self-righteously defensive when there’s a major mess to clean up.

From charging for haircuts and trying to quietly remove cards obtained from a leaked code, to quickly fixing issues that affect VC sales while dragging their feet on fixing issues that affect us, NBA 2K has lost much of the goodwill it earned by producing the best basketball sim on the market. 2K is no longer the darling that stepped up while EA faltered. It’s the company that has accidentally released MyTEAM packs labelled as being for “whales”, sacrificed enjoyment for profits, appealed to the elitist crowd, engaged in gatekeeping, failed to address legacy issues, and mocked gamers. Yes, we could and should be nicer sometimes, but that goodwill goes both ways.