Tag Archives: Microtransactions

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #445 of the NLSC Podcast!

The greediness and pushiness of microtransactions in NBA 2K23 is under fire this past week, as the honeymoon period with the game appears to be drawing to a close. We’re certainly inclined to agree with that critique, though it’s disheartening to see people shilling and shouting down valid criticism. While we’re still enjoying NBA 2K23, there are concerning issues from gameplay balance online, to the expense of MyTEAM packs and upgrades in MyCAREER. Meanwhile, the quickness in patching a happy accident with MyNBA Eras rosters while leaving other issues untouched highlights a continued lack of goodwill. We also recall a cool feature in the Japanese-exclusive NBA Starting Five 2005, and open up the mailbag to get the community’s thoughts on the approach to VC in NBA 2K23, as well as find out what they’ve been playing so far.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:25:35 — 59.1MB)

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 prospect of Triple-A basketball games being free-to-play (aka F2P).

It’s no secret that NBA Live, once the brand leader in sim NBA video games, has been struggling for well over a decade. It hit a low point with the failed attempt to rebrand and revamp the series with NBA Elite 11, one that it hasn’t been able to recover from to date. With its inability to topple NBA 2K, or even just make some inroads into gaining a bigger share of the market, I’ve seen people suggest that the console version of NBA Live become a free-to-play title. The argument is that it would be a lower risk, and encourage more gamers to give it a try.

Interestingly, I’ve also seen suggestions that NBA 2K become a free-to-play game. In this case, the suggestion has nothing to do with quality, but rather finance. As you’re undoubtedly well aware, the nature of NBA 2K being an annual release means that in modes such as MyCAREER and MyTEAM, there’s a reset on our progress with each new game. That means more grinding, and more money spent. With annual sports titles often being derided as glorified roster updates, it’s no surprise that a free-to-play model, or perhaps a new game every few years with subscriptions for updates in between, are ideas that have been floated. I certainly have some thoughts on that.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #418 of the NLSC Podcast!

Mad as it may seem, we were compelled to revisit NBA Live 07 for Xbox 360 this week. It’s as rough as we remembered, and doesn’t hold a candle to NBA Live 06 on the same platform, which was a far more fun game to dust off! The College Hoops 2K8 Tournament has also been a blast to play and to watch, with the Sweet 16 almost in the books. After catching up on some recent stories from NBA 2K14 MyCAREER, we discuss house rules when playing against the CPU. What’s the best way to ensure fairness, and challenge? In this week’s mailbag, we’re talking about ideas for offline modes and content. As you might expect, the community isn’t just about the online experience these days!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:28:37 — 61.2MB)

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 my candid thoughts on the greed involved with the attribute upgrades in NBA 2K’s MyCAREER.

So, you may have two questions. First, why am I still talking about MyCAREER when I’ve moved on from the mode? Second, do I think that I’m revealing some shocking truth here? To answer the first question, I am still playing the mode in NBA 2K14. Additionally, having spent many years playing MyCAREER, I have thoughts on how it can improve. I want it to be as good as it possibly can be for everyone who plays it, and I believe in advocating for my fellow gamers. If nothing else, if you’re feeling frustrated with the situation, it may help to know that you’re not alone.

That leads into the answer to the second question. Gamers – and not just basketball gamers, mind you – have a tendency to be temporarily outraged at injustices, only to quickly move on and seemingly forgive and forget; at least until the issue affects them once again. It’s important that we keep discussing these matters, and that we get to the heart of the issues. It’s no secret that all of the modes in NBA 2K that utilise Virtual Currency are a cash grab, because recurrent revenue mechanics are the major money-makers for publishers. I’ve previously discussed the rising cost of MyCAREER, but the greed goes beyond that when you realise attribute upgrades are now pointless.

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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 recounting the fun I’ve recently had with hacking MyCAREER in older games.

Here at the NLSC, our stance on hacking modes such as MyCAREER and MyTEAM has been the same as our policy on piracy: we don’t support it. Since we already walk a fine line with modding, we try to stay on the right side of both the law and our host’s terms of service, in order to avoid any unwanted repercussions. On top of that, there’s also the matter of fairness. While we can understand wanting to stick it to a Triple-A publisher by hacking MyCAREER or MyTEAM for content and in-game currencies, it’s also upsetting the competitive balance, and ruining things for your fellow gamers.

To that end, recounting my experiences hacking a MyCAREER save probably seems quite hypocritical. Here I am preaching fairness, while going against our own rules and community philosophy; talk about double standards! If you’re grumbling, I can appreciate where you’re coming from. However, there is a distinct difference between hacking to gain advantages in the connected modes of MyCAREER while the servers are still online, and messing around with an offline save years later. In fact, that’s a distinction that we can perhaps draw in our rules moving forward, because at a certain point, hacking MyCAREER for your own enjoyment does become fair game.

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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 concepts that ended up changing NBA 2K forever.

I’m no psychologist, but I’d hazard a guess and say that most of us have experienced an aversion to change at some point in our lives. Whether it’s apprehension of new surroundings, nostalgia goggles, or just plain comfort with the current arrangements, we’d prefer things not to change. Not to get too deep here – again, I’m no psychologist – but it’s important to accept change as part of life, and be able to adjust and grow. Of course, not all change is desirable, and change for change’s sake can prove to be a bad idea. Given the choice, it would’ve been preferable to leave things as they were.

We’ve seen a lot of these changes in basketball video games over the years. Many have been for the best, representing revolution and evolution within the genre. Others haven’t panned out so well. In the case of the latter, some of those concepts have only lasted a game or two before the developers scrapped them in favour of a new and better solution; or perhaps, returned to an old approach that still works best. Other concepts unfortunately stick around despite their negative impact, or at the very least, mixed results. For better or worse, these concepts have forever changed the NBA 2K series as we know it, either from a mechanical or philosophical standpoint.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five examines the five worst parts of modern basketball gaming.

Over the past few weeks in The Friday Five, I’ve covered the best and worst parts of retro basketball gaming, as well as the pros of playing modern games. This week, it’s all about the cons of the latter. Once again, I must stress that despite my advocacy and enthusiasm for retro basketball gaming, I do spend a lot of time with recent games as well, including the latest release every year (albeit with some exceptions). There are many great reasons to play the newest NBA 2K, just as there were for NBA Live back in its heyday. I covered those reasons last week, and I stand by them.

However, it’s not all fun and games with modern basketball gaming, and the worst parts can leave you yearning to return to an old favourite. That’s certainly something you can do, and again, I’m all for that. However, it’s important that we speak out with fair criticism, and it benefits us to make constructive suggestions as to how the next game can improve. To do that though, we must acknowledge that there are issues with modern basketball gaming, and that new isn’t always better in every way imaginable. Obviously basketball games have come a long way, drastically improving upon their predecessors in many respects, but they’ve also fallen short in other areas of concern.

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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.

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Episode #401 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Derek (aka Dee4Three) and I are your hosts for this weekly podcast that’s all about basketball gaming.

We have our likes and dislikes when it comes to NBA 2K22, but what would someone who hasn’t played the series in over ten years think of it? We have an answer from the community, leading us to discuss bad first impressions. Of course, first impressions don’t always last, thanks to the abundance of patches and tuning fixes. In that regard, post-release support these days is undoubtedly a double-edged sword. It’s also a factor in the ongoing conversation about alleged skill gaps. Meanwhile, a MyTEAM poll has revealed some interesting statistics regarding NBA 2K’s demographics that suggest we’re not that old after all. We also discuss playing NBA Live 06 for Xbox 360 co-op over Parsec, the addictiveness of grinding, and some of the community’s Virtual Hardwood Legends.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:16:23 — 52.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Join in the conversation in the comments below, or 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 shows. 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.

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at the original MyGM mode that debuted in the PlayStation 4/Xbox One version of NBA 2K14.

Thanks to an extended retro gaming kick, NBA 2K14 is a game that I’ve warmed up to some eight years after its 2013 release. It has its issues for which we can rightfully criticise it, but in many ways, it was a strong beginning to a new generation of NBA 2K titles. However, while it wasn’t nearly as barebones as NBA Live 14, it did err by omitting some staple features, and introducing some new concepts without giving gamers the ability to opt for the familiar. More specifically, NBA 2K14 on PS4/X1 gave us the first MyCAREER story, and a successor to The Association: MyGM.

Despite some conceptual problems with the original MyGM mode, I’ve warmed up to it, much as I have MyCAREER and NBA 2K14 PS4/X1 in general. It introduced some interesting ideas on top of the existing depth, and while not all of the new concepts panned out, they were still innovative and laid the foundation for a better approach in subsequent games. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Episode #398 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Derek (aka Dee4Three) and I are your hosts for this weekly podcast that’s all about basketball gaming.

Despite some technical difficulties, we managed to play the first game in our semi-final matchup in the NLSC NBA Live 10 Tournament! We also still can’t help but wonder about retro modding possibilities for the PS3 version of NBA Live 10, especially with roster files being transferrable between real hardware and the emulator. Elsewhere, one of us has unlocked the NBA Street team in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, but sadly they’re not quite as good as one might hope. After following up on a topic from last week by reading out some listener suggestions for re-branding NBA Live, we discuss the controversy surrounding Badges in NBA 2K22 Current Gen. Unfortunately, 2K has once again lacked transparency and tact in addressing the issue. We also make future plans for the virtual hardwood.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:04:55 — 44.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Join in the conversation in the comments below, or 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 shows. 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 my thoughts on the difference between “possible” and “preferable”, when it comes to the design of in-game economies.

In last week’s Monday Tip-Off, I discussed the rising cost of MyCAREER, comparing the price of upgrading a MyPLAYER in NBA 2K14 to NBA 2K22. Thanks to a few prominent content creators sharing our Tweet promoting the article, it gained some traction on Twitter. I’m grateful for the exposure, as this is an important issue for MyCAREER gamers. I was heartened by the general response to the Tweet, as it seemed to resonate. It appears to have placed a figure on what many people already suspected, and validated frustration with the current approach to Virtual Currency.

Of course, I wasn’t surprised that there were some attempts to justify the increasing cost that I discussed. There were a handful of replies or quote Tweets that simply said “inflation”, pointed out ways of earning VC, argued that the game is good this year, or basically shrugged in acceptance that this is the way of things now. I understand those arguments, but many of them do miss the bigger picture and overall point. It’s clear who read the article and who didn’t, without even going into the Tweet analytics. To that end, this follow-up article will probably likewise go unread by those individuals. Nevertheless, I want to clarify that “possible” and “preferable” aren’t always the same.

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Episode #396 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Derek (aka Dee4Three) and I are your hosts for this weekly podcast that’s all about basketball gaming.

We were pleasantly surprised when this week’s Monday Tip-Off, which discussed the rising cost of MyCAREER, gained some traction on Twitter. There was a lot of agreement, but predictably also some apologist replies, prompting us to respond. Nevertheless, we’re grateful that the article resonated with our fellow gamers! We also catch up on the NLSC NBA Live 10 Tournament, and discuss our recent gripes with MyTEAM in the Current Gen version of NBA 2K22. Elsewhere, a retro kick in NBA 2K14’s MyCAREER may be ending, but not before the discovery of a rather nasty bug that some gamers may have overlooked all those years ago. On the bright side, dabbling with MyGM has inspired an overdue return to franchise gaming, which we’re both passionate about.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:03:27 — 43.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Join in the conversation in the comments below, or 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 shows. 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 a frank discussion of how the cost of upgrading your MyPLAYER has been steadily rising in MyCAREER.

Virtual Currency in NBA 2K is nothing new. Since NBA 2K13 on consoles and NBA 2K15 on PC, gamers have been able to purchase 2K’s in-game currency and spend it on MyPLAYER upgrades and MyTEAM packs. As far too many apologists readily chirp up to inform us, it isn’t actually necessary to buy VC. It’s merely a shortcut for gamers that are impatient, short on time, and flush with disposable income…or so they’d have you believe, anyway. While the justifications for microtransactions are flimsy at best, it is true that they’ve been a part of NBA 2K for almost a decade now.

That longevity doesn’t excuse their intrusiveness and impact on game design, though scores of shrugging shills will claim otherwise. To dismiss concerns about recurrent revenue mechanics by framing them as a tired criticism that needs to be put to bed is to ignore the increasingly pushy nature of them. In all fairness, it isn’t always because someone is shilling, although that does undoubtedly happen. It’s also the result of annual releases, as we forget the exact figures of payouts and price tags; the specifics of each game’s economy. With that in mind, it might shock some people to see just how much the cost of upgrades has been rising in MyCAREER since NBA 2K14.

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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 an admittedly snarky parody that demonstrates how all too many people who cover hoops gaming go about reviewing a New Basketball Game.

In the interests of transparency, I’ve toyed around with the idea of writing an article like this for some time. However, after reading this delightfully meta piece over on Kotaku, I believe that it’s only fair that I should credit it for inspiring me to actually go through with it. Besides, it’s not as though I invited parody or satire. As it stands, The Friday Five is, shall we say, “heavily inspired” by the format of Cracked’s articles (or BuzzFeed, or anyone else producing “listicle” content, I suppose). My Wayback Wednesday feature shares its name with a popular social media hashtag.

The point is that I cannot claim one hundred percent originality in my content. Of course, that’s only appropriate when I discuss the approach that so many influencers and video game journalists have towards reviewing the New Basketball Game every year. So many basketball game reviews are copy and paste fare, though again, some might argue that it’s apt given the genre. They seldom demonstrate insight into the sport – real or virtual – and neglect the nagging legacy issues that ardent basketball gamers want to know about. So many reviews are puff pieces and glorified press releases. I don’t share them anymore, because they all sound something like this.

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