Tag Archives: Constructive Criticism

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #629 of the NLSC Podcast!

Last week, Play By Play Studios held a closed beta for NBA The Run, their upcoming arcade streetball game set for release in June 2026. Derek had the opportunity to take part in the closed beta, and so this week, he’s sharing his detailed hands-on impressions of the game, breaking down the key positives and negatives while also making some recommendations for how it could improve. We also read out the community’s thoughts on what they’ve seen of NBA The Run so far. While there’s definitely excitement for the game, not everyone has been impressed by the latest gameplay footage. We also once again touch on the importance of not letting hype get in the way of constructive feedback.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:01:30 — 42.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

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 thoughts on the notion that gamers just always complain about everything.

When you’re part of multiple fandoms, it’s interesting how the same conversations take place in every bubble. What we like is the best, so much better than the rest! We love our thing, but man, we also have some of the worst fans! We complain too much. We aren’t critical enough! Everyone pretends to like what’s new. Everyone always hates the new thing! No matter whether it’s basketball gaming or real basketball, a different genre of video games, an iconic film or TV series, or professional wrestling, I’m sure that all of these phrases sound extremely familiar.

To that point, I happened to be browsing the Mortal Kombat subreddit, and ended up reading some comments that I’ve seen the basketball gaming community utter so many times. Specifically, it was opined that the latest game in the series is always bashed unfairly, while the previous game – which itself was once subjected to the same scorn – is held up as perfect. This of course prompted someone to basically say that gamers are never happy, and constantly complain about every little thing. See what I mean about the same conversations across multiple fandoms? There is merit here, but personally, I’m tired of all the self-flagellation that we gamers partake in.

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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 thoughts on the annual honeymoon phase that accompanies the release of every NBA 2K game.

NBA 2K25 will be out this Friday – or Wednesday, if you’ve pre-ordered for the Early Tip-Off – which means it won’t be long before we get our hands on this year’s release. It’s always an exciting time, as the community prepares for another year of basketball gaming. All of those offseason moves that created intriguing new lineups? We’ll get to see how they fare on the virtual hardwood! Although they’re the cause of the New Game Blues, the fresh start and clean slate in MyTEAM and MyCAREER can also be enticing, especially with the prospect of more content to come.

And of course, we’re eager to see whether all of the improvements that were hyped up during the preview season are as good as advertised. We shouldn’t expect perfection; beyond being an impossible standard in general, any Triple-A game that’s developed in the space of a year is going to have a bug or two. Even with all the pre-release QA testing, there are going to be glitches or gameplay quirks that aren’t discovered until a game is in the hands of the masses. It’s important to remember that, but at the same time, we shouldn’t ever pretend that everything’s perfect, and refuse to criticise a new game. Too many people forget this during the annual honeymoon phase for NBA 2K.

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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 thoughts on toxic positivity regarding basketball and basketball gaming, from the perspective of a Grumpy Elder Millennial.

I’m turning forty this year, which to be honest, is something that I’m still trying to get my head around. It doesn’t seem ten years ago that turning thirty was the milestone heralding an existential crisis! While I’m being honest though, I’ve been leaning into being a Grumpy Old Man for a few years now. Not that seriously of course, but I’ve become extremely comfortable rolling my eyes and grumbling about kids and their opinions on basketball, modern games and their microtransactions, and the state of online discourse. And let me tell you about these TikTok trends and weird haircuts…

Oops, too grumpy! Let’s dial it back a bit. The point is that I’ve recognised that despite constant misuse of the term “Millennial” to describe younger generations than mine, I’m not part of the youth of today. I’m not too old to play video games in my spare time – I’ll leave that opinion to the Baby Boomers, thank you very much – but I’ve definitely aged out of the key demographic that they’re aimed at. Whereas I once greatly anticipated the new, I’m now more inclined to indulge my nostalgia. At the same time, I’d rather not be so out of touch and close-minded that I stay stuck in the past. However, there’s one thing that I’ll stubbornly push back on: toxic positivity.

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five issues with NBA 2K that are seemingly evergreen.

Since I’ve taken a look at some evergreen issues with the NBA Live series, it’s time to examine similar problems with NBA 2K. Obviously, NBA 2K is a powerhouse in the basketball gaming space, with a virtual monopoly on sim titles. Even in the years that NBA Live was released during the past generation, the NBA 2K series outsold it by a significant margin to say the least. The competition hasn’t been close in terms of sales and critical reception since 2008, in large part because NBA 2K has maintained a high level of quality, while NBA Live has suffered from its own evergreen issues.

However, there are definitely problems that continue to plague NBA 2K to this day. They’re in too comfortable of a position to fail, which once again is the result of them maintaining a generally pleasing level of quality through the years. At the same time, these evergreen issues do affect the quality of NBA 2K games, as well as the overall image of the series. As NBA Live stumbled, NBA 2K became the darling for hoops gamers and the yardstick for its genre. Without competition though, its flaws have been exposed, and its reputation has been tarnished. The evergreen issues that NBA 2K has failed to address are responsible for that, so let’s take a look at five of them.

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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 a response to the ironic use of “new game bad, old game good” that shills are using to shout down criticism.

It’s undoubtedly obvious from both my articles and commentary on the NLSC Podcast that I greatly dislike thought-terminating clichés. One that I’m seeing pop up rather frequently these days is a derisively sarcastic “new game bad, old game good”; an ironic echo intended to mock and dismiss a preference for a previous release. It’s being trotted out a lot in the Mortal Kombat subreddit in the wake of criticism of Mortal Kombat 1, and we’ve certainly seen it (or words to that effect) in the basketball gaming community. And yes, since I’m writing about it, it obviously grinds my gears!

That isn’t to say that there’s no credibility to the sentiment. It’s a phenomenon that I’ve discussed before, and as I acknowledged at the time, it is true that pretty much every NBA 2K game – at least over the past decade or so – has been labelled by some people as being the worst in the series when it was new, only to be effusively praised later. Of course, the key words here are “some people”. There are others who are far too quick to call every new game the best ever, so it goes both ways. The point is that there’s nuance and context that’s ignored when we defend games by dismissing valid criticism with “new game bad, old game good” sneering. It’s an oversimplification.

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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 my thoughts on ensuring that the journey is worth the time and effort in basketball video games.

In recent years, there’s been a puzzling acceptance of the notion that we should have to work to have fun with the basketball video games we play. I’m not talking about the time and effort it takes to master strategies and stick skills, complete challenges, and level up accordingly. A game that’s over too quickly is generally unsatisfying, unless you’re attempting a speedrun. The best rewards and whatever counts as being 100% completion in a game shouldn’t be quick and easy to attain. For most people, it isn’t fun to be handed absolutely everything.

These are uncontroversial statements that I’m sure we can all agree upon. However, the sentiment has mutated into a bad faith argument about gamers wanting everything right away. That may be true of a scant minority of less patient basketball gamers, but most of us just want a rate of progression that’s fair and enjoyable, with rewards that make the journey feel worthwhile. Again, the key to that bad faith argument is in the wording: “you don’t want to put in the work“. A video game should not have to be treated like an occupation in order to be enjoyed, or feel like a rewarding journey. It’s therefore vital that any rewards system makes us feel like it was time well spent.

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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 thoughts on how we can improve the discourse around NBA 2K in 2023 (and beyond).

I realise there’s a certain futility in articles such as this. The people who read them are likely already in agreement with the message, while those who really need to heed such suggestions are unlikely to do so. In other words, I’m preaching to the choir while simultaneously yelling into the wind. Still, it never hurts to try! I don’t pretend that I have the reach or the words to eliminate toxicity from the discourse surrounding the NBA 2K series. Nevertheless, if it makes a few people think, or encourages a more positive example, it’s a worthwhile endeavour.

And yes, the word “toxic” gets thrown around a lot these days, but it’s not inaccurate. Mind you, because it’s so ubiquitous, it’s undoubtedly an uphill battle to change the culture of online discourse, whether it’s NBA 2K, real hoops, or basically anything else that we care to discuss with each other. As I said though, if it gets a few people thinking differently about NBA 2K discourse and critique, then in my view it’s worth a try. These are things that I believe we should keep in mind when we’re discussing the issues with NBA 2K and their possible solutions, and pretty much all discourse regarding the series. I promise that they’re not all phrased as stuffy “Do Nots”!

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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 a few thoughts on the amount of patches that modern basketball video games – primarily NBA 2K – tend to receive.

One of the interesting changes within the basketball gaming community is the general reaction to official patches. In the early days of the genre, when patches were only available for the PC releases, we were usually excited and grateful to get them. This of course can be ascribed to their rarity. It often took petitions and prompting from the community to get those title updates, usually accompanied by a laundry list of bugs and other issues. Even so, not every NBA Live, or other PC release for that matter, would receive an official patch.

While we’re still glad to see official patches and desire the fixes they potentially bring, it’s fair to say that there’s more cynicism and wariness surrounding those updates. It’s not unheard of for patches to break the game, either by introducing a new bug, or by making an undesirable change to the gameplay. It’s raised the question as to how many patches per year are ideal. Between their size on console and the possibility of unwanted changes, too many patches can potentially lead to inconsistent quality and cumbersome downloads. On the other hand, too few title updates can leave several issues unresolved. With that in mind, what is the ideal number of patches to receive?

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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 my thoughts on how there’s too much zero-sum thinking in the basketball gaming community.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the concept, zero-sum thinking involves perceiving situations as a zero-sum game; in other words, a scenario where a gain for one side means a loss for the other. Needless to say, this leads to a belief that mutual gain and benefits are impossible. Our success must come at the expense of someone else’s failure, and every situation involves a winner and a loser. Obviously there are zero-sum games and scenarios where this is true, but a bias towards zero-sum thinking does result in fallacious assertions.

Needless to say, zero-sum thinking occurs in a number of matters, many of which are more serious than basketball gaming. However, since that’s what we cover here at the NLSC, that’s the context I’m discussing here today. If you’ve observed or partaken in the discourse in the wider basketball gaming community, you’ll have encountered zero-sum thinking, even if you didn’t recognise or label it as such. Again, it’s hardly unique to basketball gaming, and is inevitable when passionate people have different ideas about their hobby. That doesn’t mean we can’t call it out though, because it does foster toxicity, and doesn’t help in the development of better basketball video games.

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We’re currently in the process of compiling our Wishlist for NBA 2K23! Our aim is to send it in to our contacts at Visual Concepts ASAP, so if you have any ideas for the next NBA 2K release, please start posting them in this topic.

Obviously, there are many avenues for Visual Concepts to collect feedback on NBA 2K in 2022. However, we want to make sure that our community is properly represented. There are undoubtedly issues that are more important to us than to other communities, particularly in regards to the PC version.

With that being said, we do want to compile a comprehensive Wishlist for NBA 2K23 on Next Gen and Current Gen alike. As always, please keep your feedback constructive, and be as detailed as possible. Simply saying “improve gameplay” or “make MyNBA better” doesn’t exactly tell the developers what our issues are, or how we’d like to see them resolved.

On top of that, developers have previously indicated to us that bullet points of the most pressing issues and creative ideas are the ideal formatting. Feedback that is buried in long-winded paragraphs is easy to overlook, especially if one has to sift through angry and insulting comments to get to the useful part. There’s no need to suck up, but keep it constructive and clear, and it’ll be much easier to pass along quality feedback.

Ideally we’ll be sending along the Wishlist within the next few weeks, so once again, please start posting your wishes ASAP!

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 a discussion of why we defend games, to the point where we downplay issues and even pretend that they don’t exist.

This is a difficult topic to broach without sounding snobby, or as though I’m accusing anyone who likes something that I dislike of being ignorant, easily pleased, or a shill. That line of thinking is just as toxic and unconstructive as fanboyism and shilling, and equally fallacious. We all have different tastes and expectations, as well as thresholds of satisfaction and disappointment. When someone sees fit to defend games that they enjoy, there isn’t necessarily anything pretend about it. Those are their honest feelings about the game, and genuine reasons for their enjoyment.

And yet, there are times that we do pretend when we defend games. We’ve all done it at some point. It doesn’t always mean that we don’t enjoy them, but to a certain extent we’re lying – both to others and to ourselves – about a game’s overall quality (or lack thereof). In the most extreme cases, it is indeed shilling for a title, or at the very least fanboyism polluting the discourse. However, there are innocent and understandable reasons that we attempt to pretend that everything’s fine and defend games; even when there’s no drawback to being critical (or indeed, it would actually benefit us to speak out on the issues). Unfortunately, they make it difficult to curb the habit.

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Episode #351 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Derek (aka Dee4Three) and I are your hosts for this week’s show.

Now that Derek is an official member of the NLSC Team, we look ahead to some plans for future content. There’s a lot of positivity there, but as we delve into this week, there’s a need to explore the negative aspects of basketball games as well. We discuss the desire some gamers have to disengage, distinguishing between taking a healthy break from negative conversations, and shutting down constructive criticism. In this week’s mailbag, we talk about the pain of losing features, modes, options, and mechanics that we loved, and answer a question about our playcalling habits on the virtual hardwood.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:42:05 — 70.2MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

What’s your take on this week’s conversation? Sound off in the comments section below, or join in the discussion here in the Forum! Additionally, feel free to hit us up with any feedback on the episode, as well as mailbag questions and topic suggestions for future episodes. For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. The show also comes out on our YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe for future episodes and other video content.

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 thoughts on a word that I’m seeing a lot of basketball gamers using at the moment: unplayable.

In last week’s Friday Five, I talked about the tell-tale signs that allow us to spot a shill in the basketball gaming community, and by extension, why shills are such a pain. I stand by that, but it’s important that we look at both sides of the coin, so to speak. Shills and fanboys pollute the discourse, but so do haters. Even if we aren’t being outright haters, we can make ourselves look bad through exaggerated criticism, especially when we allow our frustration with an issue to get the better of us. This is when we’ll opt for clichéd buzzwords (usually snarky ones).

When we’re disgusted with a game, we want to express ourselves in the strongest possible manner. Words like “dreadful” pack so much more of a punch than just plain “bad”; at least until they’re overused. A good example of a popular word that lost its critical value through overuse is “cartoonish“, though it was often poorly defined to begin with. A word that I’ve seen used a lot lately is “unplayable”. It’s a strong word, in this context implying a complete lack of quality and enjoyment. There are times when it’s appropriate to describe a game as unplayable, but it’s a word we need to be careful about using. After all, used indiscriminately, it’ll lose impact and credibility.

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Episode #340 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Derek (aka Dee4Three) and I are your hosts for this week’s show.

Gamers just wanna have fun, but NBA 2K21 has presented a few obstacles in that regard. Issues with the Mamba Forever edition pre-order bonuses have caused PlayStation 4 and Xbox One gamers much grief. The frosty reception to NBA 2K21 has also resulted in record-low Metacritic scores from critic and user reviews alike, and some trolling tags have appeared on the game’s Steam store page. We discuss some of the snarkier comments and whether it undermines efforts to provide constructive feedback, as well as the toxicity of elitist thinking. In the wake of the shooting hotfix, we also share further impressions following a full week with NBA 2K21, including our latest thoughts on shooting, player movement, gameplay balance, and other core aspects. We also circle back to last week’s news about Scott O’Gallagher and Rob Jones, and consider the impact on the NBA 2K series moving forward.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:43:54 — 71.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

What’s your take on this week’s conversation? Sound off in the comments section below, or join in the discussion here in the Forum! Additionally, feel free to hit us up with any feedback on the episode, as well as suggestions for topics that you’d like to hear us discuss in future episodes. For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. The show also comes out on our YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe for future episodes and other video content.