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 wishing that I could play certain modes in older titles, now that it’s impossible.
The notion that we want what we can’t have, and that we don’t appreciate what we do have until it’s gone, are very old proverbs indeed. It’s a concept that’s been discussed at length, and portrayed in various works. In a rather infamous episode of Scrubs, J.D. discovers that he doesn’t want to be with Elliot after pining for her all season. Glam metal band Cinderella even had a power ballad literally titled “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)“, which was used rather superbly – even movingly – in an episode of South Park. It’s a sentiment that we can all relate to.
As far as basketball video games are concerned, this is an inevitable part of server shutdowns. There was a time when that only applied to online multiplayer, but thanks to server-side content and connected experiences, single player modes are now also affected. Of course, there’s still plenty to enjoy in older basketball games, especially when you go back to before online content was ubiquitous. Over the past generation though, and even going back to the generation before that, there are modes that I wish I could still play. On top of that, there are modes that I wish I could play for the first time – or at least finally explore in-depth – now that that’s no longer possible.
Obviously, this includes save files in NBA 2K games from the past generation that are inaccessible following their server shutdowns. I’d love to be able to dust off my NBA 2K17 MyCAREER whenever I want, but unfortunately, I didn’t reinstall it in time to sync the necessary data. Of course, I’d accidentally lost some progress by restoring a cloud backup, but it’d still be fun to fire it up. To a lesser extent, there’s my NBA 2K16 MyCAREER, as I barely scratched the surface of the post-story experience. I retired my NBA 2K19 MyPLAYER to enter the Hall of Fame, but I had a couple of builds going in NBA 2K20 that I wouldn’t mind still being able to play with today.
However, there’s still a certain amount of closure there. I regret that I dragged my feet on playing through the G League path in NBA 2K21’s MyCAREER. I actually played all four seasons in the college path, mostly for the associated Trophy/Achievement. It did grow to become somewhat repetitive by the end, but it was still something new. I had plans of going back and completing the G League path to experience its twists and turns (and then write about it), but burnout and interest in NBA 2K14 steered me away from it. I had visions of spending the holiday season catching upon it, but then December 2022 came and went, along with the servers. So, so much for that idea!
It’s not just MyCAREER either, especially as I do have ways of revisiting that mode in some of my favourite NBA 2K releases from the past decade or so. In some ways, I have more regrets about not spending time with MyTEAM, especially in NBA 2K19 where I managed to snag some great cards. I had a ton of unfinished business in that game by the time online support ended. Granted, I made my choice to stick with MyCAREER and did have a blast getting to the Hall of Fame, but it’s a tantalising regret now that it’s no longer my choice not to play MyTEAM. I’ve had some fun with MyTEAM in subsequent games, but I do wish that I could play the earlier modes, too.
That’s because I really overlooked MyTEAM in those early eighth generation titles. Between grinding for progress in MyCAREER and giving Ultimate Team a look in a couple of NBA Live games, I barely touched MyTEAM until NBA 2K19, where I at least had some fun collecting with No Money Spent. I actually managed to snag a ’93 Michael Jordan in NBA 2K14’s MyTEAM, but only played a couple of games with it. The special edition of NBA 2K16 furnished my collection with a rookie MJ, but once again, it was underused. The bug that made his card art disappear probably didn’t help matters, but I still look back on it as a missed opportunity now that the mode is gone.
Turning my attention to NBA Live for a moment, I do have some regrets there as well. I wish I played adidas LIVE Run in NBA Live 10, but I never jumped into a session before the servers were shut down. Admittedly I wasn’t that keen on online play at the time, and I had no idea that I’d later want to write an article about it, so hindsight is 20/20. All the same, I’d had some fun with Online Team Play in NBA Live 08, so it would’ve been nice to have had some firsthand experience with it. While we’re on the subject of NBA Live 10, I also wish I’d played more than a handful of games in Dynamic Season, especially given my new appreciation for the title.
NBA Live 16 offers up a couple of tricky examples. Looking back, I would’ve liked to have played LIVE Pro-Am a bit more when it was still possible. Mind you, I also got to play it early at a community event, essentially in a LAN party setup that provided better performance than I was ever going to have post-release. I do ultimately prefer the original 2K Pro-Am, but LIVE Pro-Am had potential. I also neglected Ultimate Team after a while, though it didn’t help that I’d played with all the debug packs at the aforementioned community event, making it difficult to go back to a less stacked lineup. Of course, the eighth generation NBA Live games presented another issue.
At one point, it was my intention to go back and complete some unfinished business in NBA Live 15 Ultimate Team. Unfortunately, when I fired up NBA Live 15 to get started on those efforts, I discovered that the gameplay no longer appealed enough to want to continue that endeavour. To that end, I’m not entirely sure that I’d feel any differently about attempting it again today. Once again though, it’s the difference between choosing not to, and simply not being able to. When I prepared to play NBA Live 15 Ultimate Team again ahead of the server shutdown, I couldn’t see myself enjoying some marathon sessions. Without that deadline, I might be more open to it.
Of course, it’s a moot point now. I can still revisit NBA Live 15 of course, the same as NBA Live 16, and even NBA Live 14 if I feel so inclined. It’s extraordinarily rare that I am in such a mood, especially when it comes to the latter, but there’s still a part of me that’s wistful of the modes that are no longer available. Beyond the unfinished business and intrigue of overlooked experiences, it’s a reminder of how video games have changed, and what the situation is going to be like moving forward. Putting aside any criticisms of MyTEAM and MyCAREER in recent games, they’ve lost much of their appeal with the realisation that in the not too distant future, they’ll be gone, too.
That’s what’s kept me coming back to NBA 2K14 MyCAREER on PS4. I started that save file offline, so there’s a measure of safety there. There are features that are no longer available without connectivity, but the mode is mostly intact. Therefore, the fun can continue without a definite and looming time limit. There are other factors of course, including enjoyment of the mechanics and preference as far as design choices, but if nothing else, it’s something that I can put down and pick up again as I please. Committing to MyCAREER or MyTEAM in a newer title means another mode I’ll inevitably miss once online support ends. There’s a sense of it being all for nothing.
Getting back to the notion of not realising or appreciating what you have until it’s gone, it does impress upon me the importance of at least giving modes a fair chance while I can. That’s the difference between MyTEAM in NBA 2K23 and NBA 2K15, or a recent MyCAREER and adidas LIVE Run. I do make a point of spending some time in each mode to see what they’re all about, and risk future disappointment if they do hook me now, only to be lost to a server shutdown. Maybe I’ll have regrets, maybe I won’t, but I’ll have at least given them a try, made some memories, and captured some media for content creation purposes. The lesson is, try them out while you can.
It doesn’t do much to ease the regret and frustration at having overlooked modes in older titles, of course. I wish I hadn’t procrastinated on playing through the G League path in NBA 2K21’s MyCAREER, as I would’ve liked to have seen how it turned out. I’d like to have played more of the earlier iterations of MyTEAM so that I have them as a reference point when discussing the mode. Oddly enough, even though I’m by no means a big fan of NBA 2K18, there’s a part of me that wishes I could pick up that MyCAREER and make a go of it. Again, it comes down to having a choice in the matter. It’s easy to leave it untouched when you know that you could still pick it up.
On the other hand, there’s a philosophical approach that offers some comfort here. The thought occurs that if playing those modes had been truly important to me, I’d have made the time and effort. Similarly, for the modes that I played, put aside, and now wish I could pick up again, there were reasons that I stopped playing them. At the end of the day, the greater appeal of other games and modes, a particular game’s shortcomings, and indeed a combination of both, determined my basketball gaming habits and steered me in my preferred direction. It’s something to keep in mind when feeling wistful about modes that we’re no longer able to play without the servers.
It’s inevitable that we miss content that’s no longer available following the shutdown of a game’s servers, because that’s human nature. It’s a phenomenon that extends far beyond the virtual hardwood: the friends and partners we didn’t appreciate enough, the toy we didn’t care about until a sibling or another kid wanted it, events that we missed because we procrastinated…you get the idea. With video games of course, it does exemplify a disappointing trend in the industry, albeit one that isn’t new at this point. The unavailability of modes will inevitably make them more appealing, but it can help to recall the fun we did have, and the reasons we chose to play what we did.
