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 outlines five changes that would fix some of the stories in MyCAREER.

As I’ve mentioned on several occasions, I have a love-hate relationship with the story-driven approach to MyCAREER. I can appreciate the production values and some of them have been enjoyable tales, but others have been poorly-written and intruded on the gameplay experience. I’ve made snarky jokes about them, but I also find them fascinating to analyse. Perhaps it’s because it feels like the concept of a MyCAREER story has so much promise, but the execution has too often hindered my enjoyment, or just been somewhat disappointing.

While I don’t believe in dismissing criticism with “let’s see you do better”, I do think that critique can be bolstered by identifying potential improvements. In other words, the fact that I’ve never written and produced a MyCAREER story doesn’t disqualify me from having an opinion on them, but I should be able to suggest ways in which the stories could improve rather than just dismissively calling them bad. On top of that, it’s an interesting exercise to consider just how much we’d need to change in order to provide – in my opinion, at least – a much better experience. With that being said, I’m going to give it a shot! Here are five changes that I’d make to MyCAREER stories.

1. “Livin’ Da Dream” in NBA 2K16: More Gameplay, Less on Rails

Fleshing out NBA 2K16’s MyCAREER story into a fully cinematic experience was highly innovative, but also poorly designed. Sure, we finally got an in-depth story developed by an acclaimed filmmaker in Spike Lee, even if he did lift concepts from his own work, He Got Game. Unfortunately, it didn’t gel with the gaming experience, or the idea of everyone creating a MyPLAYER in their image. With such specific characters and casting in mind, your avatar could look extremely out of place during story cutscenes. There was no role-playing as far as meaningful decisions, and it also abbreviated your rookie year to eight games (and potentially one in the Playoffs).

Far be it from me to tell an Academy Award-winning filmmaker how to tell a story. As a basketball gamer who appreciates MyCAREER though, I can tell you what would’ve been more fun and immersive! Give the MyPLAYER character a back story that’s more one-size-fits-all – in short, don’t allow it to look like a truly bizarre case of whitewashing – and preferably a less stupid name than Frequency Vibrations. Allow us to choose whether or not we distance ourselves from Vic, which would lead to different endings and consequences. Most importantly, don’t shorten our rookie year. Give us the full experience out of the gate, and end the Vic story around midseason.

2. The Saga of DJ in NBA 2K18: Take Things More Seriously

Incidentally, that isn’t the story’s official name, but that’s what I called it in a Wayback Wednesday retrospective. With that out of the way, this was the first really bad story in MyCAREER. The idea of a former top prospect dropping out of basketball to be a DJ only to get a shot at the league after a streetball tournament was absurd, and there may not be a more infamously annoying character than B-Fresh. It’s difficult to fix this story without simply suggesting scrapping it entirely, along with B-Fresh and a host of other annoying characters. Honestly, that would be a great idea, although it wouldn’t have resolved the myriad of other issues that were present in NBA 2K18.

But hey, let’s give it a try! First of all, drop the DJ angle. Since NBA 2K18 saw the introduction of The Neighborhood, simply have DJ (now named something else) be an undrafted college player who’s a local streetball legend in said Neighborhood. Have him catch the eye of a scout for your NBA team of choice, who contacts his agent (in this scenario, he already has said agent, and doesn’t accidentally gain his services by lying). Drop the cringe-worthy comic relief characters like B-Fresh, and focus on an accomplished streetballer trying to earn respect in the pros. In hindsight, NBA 2K18’s tale was a sign that the story-driven concept was beginning to get stale.

3. “The Way Back” in NBA 2K19: Remove an Unnecessary Plot Hole

Along with “Orange Juice“, “The Way Back” is one of the better MyCAREER stories, and I wouldn’t make too many changes to the overall narrative. I like the idea of an undrafted player whose journey takes them overseas and through the G League before finally making it to the big time. Even the melodrama with Marcus Young and Zach Coleman is fun, and adds to the cinematic flair. However, there’s one major plot hole in “The Way Back”. Despite AI making his NBA debut in the final game of the 2018 season, he’s still considered a rookie for the 2019 campaign. There’s actually a line in the commentary acknowledging this, but no actual explanation for it is ever given.

There’s an incredibly easy fix for this! Instead of Corey Harris helping AI get a roster spot for the final game of the 2018 season, have that game against Marcus Young and the Spurs take place during the 2018 Summer League. It would make sense for AI to get plenty of minutes in such a game, and for it to be the place where he finally proves himself worthy of an NBA contract. It would also mean that he’s unquestionably a rookie entering the 2019 season, since it would be his official NBA debut. I’d also suggest that the game be played with the team of your choice to set up being signed to a guaranteed contract, but if it’s just the Summer League, then it’s not a major issue.

4. “When The Lights Are Brightest” in NBA 2K20: More Self-Awareness

Once again, this is one of the better MyCAREER stories, carried by good acting and a plot that doesn’t negatively impact the traditional gameplay experience. It also has an important point to make about standing by your principles and not being afraid to speak out; in other words, being more than an athlete, as a neon sign quite literally spells out during one scene. As I said in my retrospective, the heavy-handed nature of the socio-political commentary is one of the knocks on the story. It’s not that I don’t think video game stories should touch on these matters, or that I completely disagree with the point in question. As TV Tropes puts it though, don’t shoot the message!

When you follow up a scene that emphasises the importance of being more than just a basketball player with a scene that’s essentially a Gatorade commercial, it somewhat undermines your commentary! The story was developed by LeBron James’ production company Springhill Entertainment, and the final scene does make it seem like it was an excuse for him to get on his soapbox, stealing Che’s thunder like it was the 2009 Slam Dunk Contest. More subtlety and self-awareness in the commentary, and maybe moving LeBron’s cameo to earlier on in the tale, would be an improvement. Still, even if it’s eye-roll inducing, it’s generally a good story, and LeBron’s message has merit.

5. “The Long Shadow” in NBA 2K21: More Focus on Arch as a Complication

I’ll admit that “The Long Shadow” features the biggest gut punch of any MyCAREER story to date. Throughout the story, Junior’s success earns him more fans, as seen via pop-ups with a plus sign and the number of new supporters. If he fires Arch in favour of a more experienced agent, there’s a shot of Arch’s crestfallen face as the same pop-up indicates “-1 Fan”; ouch! It does hit you right in the feels, though it does seem a bit unfair on his part. To that point, it also seems like an underdeveloped plot point. We see a few hints towards Arch possibly being a bad influence throughout the story, but it’s never really fully explored. He never betrays you, or reveals a sinister motivation.

In fact, the worst thing he does is offend an influential pundit, who turns on Junior as a result. It suggests he mightn’t be cut out for the gig, but firing him is still portrayed as a betrayal and selfish move. I guess that’s sort of the point: the twist is that there is no big twist where he’s revealed to be a villain, and the moral is that success requires tough decisions, which unfortunately may change or even end relationships. All the same, I can’t shake the feeling that Arch should’ve been a bigger complication. If the story really wanted to be cruel though, it could’ve had him betray you if you choose to trust him, but be trustworthy if you opt to fire him. “Schrodinger’s Arch”, if you will!

And that’s how I’d fix those five MyCAREER stories! As for the tales in NBA 2K22 and NBA 2K23…well, I’d just scrap them, as I don’t believe they can be salvaged! In any case, what do you think of these changes? Which MyCAREER stories would you alter, and how? Have your say in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.