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The Friday Five: 5 Ways VC Earnings Have Been Reduced

The Friday Five: 5 Ways VC Earnings Have Been Reduced

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 look at five ways that VC earnings have been reduced in recent NBA 2K games.

When I discussed the rising cost of MyCAREER a couple of years ago, I mentioned that I believe 2K is counting on us forgetting about the VC prices and earnings in previous releases. Once the servers have been shut down, there’s no way to go back and check those figures, unless we have some screenshots and/or videos on hand. Those resources do exist, of course. In the wake of my article, Agent 00 did even further research, and put together an excellent video that expanded upon my findings in great detail. VC earnings have indeed fluctuated, and seldom to our benefit.

Of course, it’s not just a matter of awarding us less VC, though that certainly is part of it. There’s a reason that MyCAREER didn’t feel anywhere near as much of a grind in NBA 2K17 as it does in NBA 2K23, and the inflated prices of upgrades are only half the story. Various methods that were useful in earning extra VC have been removed, in an effort to push gamers towards spending money to upgrade their MyPLAYERs. It’s easy to overlook the removal of these bonuses and the trimming of VC earnings across the board, and it doesn’t help that too many influencers (and gamers) justify it. Nevertheless, we can identify some clear ways that VC earnings have been reduced.

1. Smaller Payouts

VC Earnings in NBA 2K20 3v3 Pro-Am

Let’s begin with the obvious example: the payouts themselves have been reduced over the years, resulting in smaller VC earnings. As Agent 00 demonstrated in his video, there has been fluctuation over time, declining steadily with occasional increases when it becomes too obvious what’s going on. This is why I’ll always push back on the defense that higher prices in recent games are a case of “inflation”. Beyond the absurd notion that an in-game economy needs to have inflation – you’ll notice that the apologists never offer an explanation for that – in theory that should also raise the VC earnings. Instead, those payouts decrease, or at the very least remain unchanged.

To that end, I’d argue that proportionately speaking, when the prices are inflated but the VC earnings remain static, it’s the same as a reduced payout. If nothing else, it amounts to the same problem of increasing the grind beyond being a fun journey, thus encouraging gamers to buy VC in order to avoid the tedium. Once again, although this tedious grind is quite obvious, it can be difficult to back up with hard numbers unless you’ve saved evidence of VC earnings from previous games. As I said though, we do have those screenshots and videos, and they demonstrate how payouts for statistical performance, Teammate Grade, and even endorsements, have been noticeably nerfed.

2. Removal of Daily Bonus Goals

Daily Bonus in NBA 2K19 MyCAREER

This is the most egregious example on the list, not only because it was extremely helpful in making the grind palatable, but because it was handled terribly. There are a couple of features in NBA 2K that have gone by the name of Daily Bonus, but I’m referring to the one in MyCAREER offering a lump sum of VC for completing a daily challenge. It might’ve been getting a triple-double or five dunks in a game. Sometimes it simply involved playing a game in The Cages. It wasn’t always a desirable task, or a good fit for your particular MyPLAYER build, but it was a reliable method of earning a VC prize by having some fun in MyCAREER. There was a ton of goodwill in that.

And then, it was all thrown away. Technically speaking, the last game to feature the Daily Bonus in MyCAREER is the prior gen/PC version of NBA 2K21. However, the last game to actually utilise it was NBA 2K20. The Daily Bonus was bugged in NBA 2K21, so even when you completed it, there was no payout. This was pointed out to the developers quite frequently after launch, but no fix came. Eventually, it would be “fixed” by changing the Daily Bonus to read “None” every day. It was a huge slap in the face to gamers, yet influencers said nothing, and defended the grind by suggesting that “everyone wants to be 99 Overall right away without working for it”. Pathetic.

3. No VC Earnings for MyCAREER Accolades

MyCAREER Accolades in NBA 2K17

Here’s one that I’m sure many MyCAREER gamers have overlooked. The Accolades that we’d earn in MyCAREER and its connected modes – small, repeatable statistical goals – padded out our VC earnings quite organically. You may have seen the pop-up when an Accolade was achieved, but unless you went into the menu listing all of them, you may not have been aware of all the VC prizes on offer. They weren’t huge payouts, but they added up over time, and again, generally occurred organically the more you played. Every little bit helps, and achieving a few Accolades at once might just give you enough extra VC to afford the next attribute upgrade you’re saving for.

Unfortunately, following NBA 2K17, those VC earnings for Accolades would be removed. The listing was still there along with the pop-up notifications, but it was now more or less useless to achieve them, organically or otherwise. This is a move that feels particularly petty, since as I noted, it wasn’t a huge amount of VC for each Accolade. It added up and helped out, but it took a while, and each level raised the bar for the statistical goal. It’s the sneakiness that bugs me the most, as it invites apologist rhetoric: “Well, it wasn’t that much, anyway!” It was something though, and its quiet removal facilitated a firmer push towards spending real money to skip a lengthy grind.

4. Fewer/Stingier Endorsement Deals

Extra VC Earnings from Events in NBA 2K17 MyCAREER

I touched upon this when I discussed smaller payouts, but generally speaking, I’ve noticed that endorsement deals aren’t as lucrative as they used to be. This does go hand-in-hand with VC earnings being disproportionate to the prices of upgrades and cosmetic items, but there are some issues that are specific to the endorsement deals that you can earn in MyCAREER. In NBA 2K17, your daily schedule offered many opportunities to pick up some extra VC by making appearances, as well as work your way up to receiving a big lump sum from brands. Like the aforementioned Accolades, even the smaller payouts added up over time, helping you to save for an upgrade.

Over the years, those brands have become much stingier with their Virtual Currency. There have even been times where you need to purchase branded clothing as part of a quest to earn endorsement money! For everyone who chirps up to cry “Realism!” in defense of VC prices and the like, how many NBA players do you think have to buy a Gatorade shirt to wear in order to get paid? Endorsements in MyCAREER used to be far more reminiscent of real life, providing you with a regular income as those deals do for actual NBA players. That generosity isn’t there anymore, forcing one to grind away as a lower-rated player for much longer, for VC that we needed much earlier.

5. Removal of VC Farming Methods

Practice Bonus in MyCOURT (NBA 2K20)

So, there’s an argument to be made for the NBA 2K developers patching methods of farming VC over the years. There have been exploits where gamers could spend a few hours simulating in the franchise modes to farm a ton of VC, thereby cheating the system. It’s understandable that the developers would patch those methods, though it’s still problematic for two reasons. One, it’s rich to demand that gamers earn VC “the right way” while stifling our efforts to do so. Two, 2K are often super quick to fix VC exploits, while dragging their feet to fix problems with VC earnings. In short, we’re asked to play fair when earning VC, but aren’t treated fairly by the “right” methods.

Of course, patching exploits is one thing; that’s understandable. It’s another issue entirely when the game starts removing extracurricular activities to grind for and farm VC. The removal of MyCOURT didn’t just force gamers to navigate The City to rent private courts upstairs at the Gatorade Gym. It also removed the additional VC that could be earned by completing tasks during a shootaround. Between NBA games in MyCAREER, taking ten minutes to practice on your MyCOURT and perform tasks such as making five straight swishes or scoring at both ends within ten seconds could earn up to 500 VC. It eased the grind slightly, and removing it was simply greedy.

Has your basketball gaming been affected by the reduction in VC earnings? Have you noticed any other ways that the games have reduced VC payouts? Let me know 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.

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JuicyShaqMeat
JuicyShaqMeat
February 17, 2023 7:40 pm

I’d like to add something on #5. At least on the Switch port of 2K23 (and maybe PC/PS4/XB1), MyCourt still is around to farm for some amount of VC.

However, VC earnings per NBA game are still currently broken, with Player Stats VC being the same amount as Teammate Grade and 0 earned Team Salary VC (should be at least 650). For example, playing on Hall of Fame (with a supposed 1.6x multiplier) would only pay out 480 for an A+, then stats VC are also 480. The total payout would only be 960, without any multiplier applied!

Last edited 1 year ago by JuicyShaqMeat