Tag Archives: Greed

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #639 of the NLSC Podcast!

Gaming in 2026 – basketball or otherwise – is certainly a mixed bag! There are definitely some things that we’re greatly enjoying about our hobby right now, but with that being said, there are also various issues that are really bugging us! To that end, this week we present Dee’s Dislikes and Andrew’s Delights! In these two segments, we get some criticisms off our chest from issues with NBA The Run to anti-consumer practices, while also celebrating what’s bringing us joy at the moment, such as retro gaming and exciting modding discoveries. In response to this week’s community question, our listeners also share some of their recent delights and dislikes, on the virtual hardwood and beyond.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:02:08 — 43.0MB)

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 reflections on how we ignored the red flags of the original MyGM in NBA 2K14.

These are controversial times for gaming. The Steam Machine underwhelmed with its specs, and has had gamers understandably balking at its price. Sony has announced that the end of physical releases of PlayStation games is coming in January 2028, which has led to more backlash than they were anticipating. And, most recently, EA Sports were forced to walk back their attempts to gouge College Football 27 gamers at every turn. Needless to say, their attempts to implement microtransactions in single player modes had not been warmly received!

Of course, this is what companies like Electronic Arts and Take-Two have been striving for over the past couple of generations: ramping up microtransactions, and the pressure to spend. There has been plenty of criticism of modes like MyTEAM and Ultimate Team, and the grind-or-pay aspect of MyCAREER, and rightfully so. When I read about the attempts to monetise Dynasty in College Football 27 though, I was reminded of the original MyGM in NBA 2K14. Although the replacement for The Association was innovative and included some nifty attention to detail, it also brought Virtual Currency to the mode. In hindsight, we overlooked some glaring red flags.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #638 of the NLSC Podcast!

Sony has announced that physical copies of PlayStation games will end production in 2028, with the console subsequently going digital-only. Despite their claims that the decision was made in response to consumer trends and preferences, gamers by and large haven’t exactly been thrilled with the announcement! This week, we join the community in reacting to the news, including a discussion of all the potential drawbacks, comparisons to PC gaming going digital-only, concerns about continued support for backwards compatibility, and whether Microsoft will follow suit. We also share some figures that call Sony’s claims into question, and note their radio silence in the wake of the announcement.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 54:29 — 37.8MB)

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!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #605 of the NLSC Podcast!

The price of video games – basketball and otherwise – remains a hot topic in 2025. Many people opine that they’re too expensive, but plenty of others actually defend the current costs, and indeed suggest that video games should be even more expensive than they already are. This week, we’re sharing our thoughts on the issue, including our reactions to an excellent 2023 article from The Gamer and some interesting comments from Fallout co-creator Tim Cain. We also join the community in suggesting what we believe would be fair prices for Triple-A games, indie games, online-only titles, and mobile releases. And yes, we do understand that video game development is a business, and no, we’re not saying that games should all be dirt cheap or free!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:06:21 — 45.9MB)

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!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #593 of the NLSC Podcast!

As the NBA 2K26 preview season rolls on, the big news revealed last week was that the WNBA has now been integrated into MyTEAM, which includes the ability to team WNBA players up with current NBA players and Legends. The announcement certainly drew some mixed reactions from the wider basketball gaming community, so this week we’re providing our take on the situation – from the discourse to our opinions on the news itself – and also reading out some thoughts from our listeners. We also react to some of the other key points that were outlined in the NBA 2K26 MyTEAM Courtside Report, from Game Changer Cards to the promise of greater rewards throughout the mode.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 58:05 — 40.2MB)

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 reflections on MyCAREER stories that have gone untold…at least from my perspective.

Not to sound like a broken record, but I’m glad to have escaped the basketball gaming habits that had me in a rut. Although I can still have fun with MyCAREER – as my ongoing game in NBA 2K14 clearly demonstrates – I don’t miss the annual ritual of starting over from scratch with a ridiculously low-rated MyPLAYER. I don’t miss diligently doing every extracurricular activity to maximise my VC earnings so that I don’t have to spend money to speed up the process. I don’t miss weathering an awful grind until MyCAREER is fun, knowing that I’ll have to do it all over again next year.

With that being said, I would’ve liked to have spent a bit more time in MyCAREER in recent years, if only so that I could comment on their stories like I have for previous games. Although I’ve been quite critical of some of the MyCAREER stories, I’ve also greatly enjoyed others, and come to appreciate the concept in general. Of course, what I really miss is the ability to go back and experience the MyCAREER stories in recent NBA 2K games. Now that the mode is no longer available in any form offline, a big chunk of eighth and ninth gen NBA 2K releases isn’t available for retro/throwback gaming. And so for me, these MyCAREER stories will sadly remain untold What Ifs.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #589 of the NLSC Podcast!

In the wake of EA Sports announcing a new college basketball game, Take-Two is reportedly planning to develop a competing title. This decision follows a particularly insulting proposal to the CLC regarding the use of collegiate content, and an attempt to hamstring the development of EA’s announced game that involves a broken NDA. We definitely have some thoughts about the situation, and as you can probably guess, they aren’t exactly positive! We also join the community in discussing whether or not we’d like to see a new college game based on the NBA 2K engine and if we’d prefer that 2K beat EA to the punch, and touch on 2K’s new NBA deal which apparently includes initiatives that go beyond the virtual hardwood.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 54:36 — 37.9MB)

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 how important it is to support your fellow basketball gamers.

In many ways, gamers don’t have a lot of power or leverage as consumers. We can choose not to buy games – and I’d certainly advise that if you’re not sold on a new release – but generally speaking, widespread boycotts are ineffective. The same goes for abstaining from pumping extra money into games via their recurrent revenue mechanics. Whales will still spend, apologists will bleat “it’s optional”, and the gaming experience will remain weaker for anyone who doesn’t want to pay. Even constructive criticism gets shouted down as “complaining“.

Obviously this frequently happens on most any platform where basketball games (or titles from other genres) are discussed. However, it’s particularly disheartening when content creators with significant influence jump on that bandwagon. I’ve seen some creators with large audiences share some truly terrible takes that throw their fellow basketball gamers under the bus, yet somehow they don’t seem to lose any credibility when they do so. Along with so much zero-sum thinking in the wider community, it underscores a lack of willingness for basketball gamers to support each other. That only plays into the hands of the suits, making it high time that we change this attitude.

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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 a nasty surprise that greeted me when I fired up NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 recently.

I’ve been critical of NBA Playgrounds and its sequel NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 over the years. Look, call me a snob if you want, but I still consider the best NBA Jam titles to be the gold standard when it comes to NBA-oriented arcade basketball video games, with NBA Street being the benchmark for the streetball-style releases. As games that attempted to be a mash-up of NBA Jam and NBA Street with a few original ideas sprinkled in, the NBA Playgrounds games fell short of the series that inspired them. From gameplay to roster management, they’re a poor man’s Jam crossed with Street.

At the same time, I have had fun with them, and came to appreciate both a little more after revisiting them in recent years. They’re not fantastic and I’m not a fan of the loot box mechanics or the grinding, but they’re solid and have their moments on the virtual blacktop. I even ended up playing through a season in NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 a while back. To that end, after searching for a game to play while getting some cardio in on my exercise bike, I decided to dust it off again. Unfortunately, I was confronted by a nasty surprise upon firing up the game for the first since 2023! Frankly, it proved that NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 was even more poorly designed than I previously thought.

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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 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 by sharing some of my hopes and expectations for NBA 2K25.

The NBA 2K25 preview season tipped off with some great news for our community, namely the reveal that the New Gen version is coming to PC. Given that my new PC should be able to handle it on relatively high settings at least, it’s something that I’m personally able to look forward to. Of course, since I do own a PlayStation 5, I’ve already been able to experience the ninth generation version of NBA 2K. To that point though, as I’ve previously discussed, I haven’t been particularly thrilled with what is now the flagship version of the game.

Of course, as I’ve also recently stated, it’s important to keep an open mind. I don’t go into new releases hoping to be disappointed, or looking to be negative. I’d rather enjoy the game every year, even if I am keeping some old favourites in the rotation. Recent releases have left me feeling cynical and less optimistic about the future of the series though, and that’s difficult to shake. Indeed, during the past two preview seasons, I discussed how NBA 2K23 and NBA 2K24 might win me over, and re-reading what I wrote, not a whole lot has changed. So, with that being said, what are my hopes and expectations for NBA 2K25 as we await more previews, and its September release?

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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 things that really should carry over year-to-year in NBA 2K.

Many years ago, I reflected on what I described as the New Game Blues. In short, when you’ve come to really enjoy a particular release in an annual basketball video game series, it can be tough to move on. The new game doesn’t feel as familiar and welcoming as the one you’ve been playing religiously for the past year. On top of that, all your progress is effectively gone, since it doesn’t carry over. Whether it’s a career mode game with a maxed-out avatar, an awesome squad in a card collecting mode, or a franchise mode game that’s five years in, it’s in the past now. Starting over is a pain!

Naturally, this has only gotten worse as the games have become greedier and pushier about microtransactions. That annual loss of progress is even harsher now that we’re confronted with the pressure to spend above and beyond the cost of purchasing the games in order to really enjoy them to the fullest. Also, as the online scene in NBA 2K has becoming increasingly toxic and elitist, being mistaken for a newcomer is just as miserable as actually being one. It’s a long shot given the greed that permeates the Triple-A gaming scene nowadays, but if these five things carried over year-to-year in NBA 2K, it would generate a ton of goodwill, and greatly improve the experience.

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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 the ninth generation has been a disappointment for me so far.

I was eager to get a PlayStation 5 as soon as possible back in 2020, and was fortunate enough to snag one during the second wave of pre-orders at my preferred retailer here in Australia. It was essential in order to cover the Next Gen version of NBA 2K that tipped off the ninth generation that November, and there are obviously other games that I’m interested in as well. However, to be completely honest, the ninth generation has been a significant disappointment for me so far. None of the NBA 2K titles on PS5 have held my attention for an entire year, nor have I been tempted to revisit them.

To that point, I’ve mostly been using my PlayStation 5 to play MyCAREER in NBA 2K14! It’s not just the virtual hardwood that’s left me feeling uninspired by the ninth generation, either. I was also disappointed by Mortal Kombat 1, though not so much for its gameplay. This is where somebody might suggest that I’ve “outgrown” video games, or that I’m simply out of touch with modern trends. Given some of the trends that have emerged in video games – basketball or otherwise – I’d actually consider that to be a point of pride! Look, I can’t deny a couple of Grumpy Old Man opinions, but when it comes to the ninth generation, I truly believe my disappointment is justified.

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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 reflections on buying VC for the first time in years, and how it bummed me out to do it.

The first time I spent real money on VC was in the PlayStation 4 version of NBA 2K14. Intrigued by my first look at MyTEAM, I figured I’d drop a few bucks on it and try my luck. I had one very lucky pull – a 1993 Michael Jordan card – but it was quite clear that generally speaking, it’d be a poor investment. I also splurged on some VC in NBA 2K16, 2K17, and 2K18 in order to upgrade my MyPLAYER to be ready for the online scene sooner. Beginning with NBA 2K19 however, I began adhering to a strict No Money Spent policy. I found great satisfaction in not giving in to the pressure.

I continued that approach in future games, while encouraging my fellow gamers to do the same. That hasn’t changed: I despise the pushiness of microtransactions in NBA 2K, and how the quality of the on-court experience suffers if you want to take the long road. However, I must admit that as far as buying VC myself, after abstaining for several years, I gave in. While it isn’t one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever done in my life – I’ll keep those stories to myself, thank you very much! – I certainly wasn’t pleased that I did it. There was a reason for it, but even so, I do regret my lack of patience, and participation in a practice that continues to ruin the NBA 2K series.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #527 of the NLSC Podcast!

MyTEAM gamers are up in arms once again, as 2K has pulled a Kobe Bryant card that a pre-release developer insight for NBA 2K24 promoted as the top Collector Level reward, coming in Season 6. We share our thoughts on the situation and 2K’s trademark lack of communication, drawing comparisons once again to the Pink Diamond fiasco in NBA 2K19. Talk of Take-Two’s greed also has us looking beyond the virtual hardwood, as Top Spin 2K25 has presented some familiar issues. In our main discussion this week, we join the community in listing some of the most overused jargon in basketball discourse. If these terms come up when talking about hoops, it’s not going to be a fun or thoughtful conversation!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:20:12 — 55.4MB)

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!