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 basketball gaming activities that may sound weird, but I definitely have fun partaking in.

Gaming is meant to be fun. That may sound like I’m stating the extremely obvious, but there are times when people seemingly forget that; or perhaps more accurately, refuse to recognise that there are different ways of enjoying gaming, and that they’re all equally valid ways of having fun. To that end, it would be hypocritical of me to say that anyone who enjoys a tedious grind or wants every game to be a brutal test of your stick skills isn’t entitled to their preference. However, it tends to be those gamers who attempt to shame others for not sharing their idea of what makes gaming fun.

Indeed, I sometimes wonder if we’ve come to take gaming too seriously. That is to say, if you’re not playing competitively, levelling and ranking up, or progressing to some kind of goal, it’s considered a waste of time. Now, I certainly enjoy having goals with my basketball gaming – it’s why I aim to play entire seasons – and I’ve also had fun dipping my toe into the competitive scene. With that being said, I also enjoy just messing around and finding other ways to enjoy basketball video games. While that may not seem odd on the surface, I acknowledge that some of my basketball gaming activities are a bit weird! Without any further ado, here are five examples of that.

1. Creating Classic Teams Through Minimalist Modding

At this point, we have over a decade’s worth of NBA 2K titles that include a bevy of classic teams in their default rosters. We also have mods that expand the selection of throwback squads, or add full retro season rosters, for both NBA 2K and NBA Live. These are all fantastic ways of indulging nostalgia on the virtual hardwood, and I’ll absolutely take advantage of them. At the same time, I’m drawn to the practice of cobbling together classic teams using minimalist modding. It started when Dee and I began creating historical matchups in NBA Live 10 using the Fantasy Teams mode, and it’s continued during my retro kicks with NBA 2K6 and other new favourites.

I’m sure that seems incredibly weird when so many games provide retro content out of the gate! Furthermore, with all the mods and modding tools in our archives, you might expect that I’d look to create something more substantial, even if it’s just for my own use. There’s something so satisfying about minimalist modding, though. I enjoy the challenge of creating classic teams and historical scenarios with only the players and assets on hand, and sometimes creating a few extra players as best I can with the in-game functionality. It scratches the itch to mod, satisfies my craving for whatever era I’m feeling nostalgic for, and allows me to enjoy games I’m hooked on in a new way.

2. Playing Old Basketball Game Demos

To some people, retro gaming in general is a weird way to have fun. Others certainly get the appeal, even if they don’t enjoy it themselves. Going back and playing old demos, though? When my collection includes the full version that I could be playing instead? Yes, I can’t deny that that’s weird! Nevertheless, I find it fun to do from time to time. After all, there’s nostalgia in those demos as well. I remember downloading them off the internet or installing them from CD-ROMs, and getting that tantalising taste of the full game. Because basketball video game demos are very brief – often only allowing you to play a quarter or a half – they’re good for a quick, fun session.

It’s also interesting to see how some games changed between the demo and the retail version, for better or worse. The promotional shots advertising the features we’ll find in the full version take me back to the preview seasons of highly anticipated classics. Although demos aren’t totally obsolete, they’re rarer now, particularly when it comes to Triple-A titles. As someone who grew up in the heyday of demos and shareware, I have fond memories of replaying small portions of games over and over again, and making the most of those brief glimpses of a much bigger experience. Weird as it may seem, dusting off those demos is a fun throwback to gaming as a kid and young adult.

3. Revisiting Games You Know Are Terrible

Last month, I discussed five reasons to revisit bad games. Even though I do stand by those reasons, I will admit that choosing to dust off a title that you know is terrible is a weird basketball gaming activity! It sounds like an even more bizarre idea when you eliminate understandable reasons such as content creation, and giving second chances to games that are generally well-liked, but you just didn’t click with when you played them for the first time. I’m talking about revisiting the games that are widely regarded by basketball gamers – including me – as being among the absolute worst hoops titles ever developed. In short, games that you would never play for your own enjoyment.

Although it’s harder to enjoy bad video games ironically because you have to directly interact with what makes them terrible – i.e. a broken and frustrating gameplay loop – it is possible. Occasionally, I’ll feel like challenging myself to try and make a terrible basketball game work; to create actual highlights and fun moments in a title that’s so devoid of polish it really shouldn’t have been released! Needless to say, I mostly play games that I actually like, but sometimes morbid curiosity leads me back to a game like NBA Live 07 or ESPN NBA 2Night. Those sessions are mostly only good for a laugh, but very, very rarely, there’ll be something that can pass for a spectacular play!

4. Viewing All The Cyberfaces

This one may not actually be all that weird, as I know I’m not the only one that does it. I know that Dee does it as well, and in fact, we partook of this basketball gaming activity together over Parsec following a session with NBA Live 10. That activity is going through a game’s entire roster to view every player’s cyberface, and evaluating their quality. Obviously it’s something one might do whenever a new game comes out, in order to see which players have new cyberfaces, and which ones still desperately need an update. However, I’m referring more to firing up much older games like NBA Live 2000 or NBA Live 10, and seeing how well some of their cyberfaces hold up.

As I’m sure you can attest if you’ve ever done this with some old favourites, a few of them were really ahead of their time with their face textures! I mentioned NBA Live 2000 and NBA Live 10 as they’re a couple of prime examples. Not only were they a huge improvement over their predecessors, but they also put some of their modern successors to shame! Of course, video games are meant to be played rather than just looked at, which is where the weirdness lies in this activity. However, when you grew up with games where players shared an assortment of generic head models with just a few pixels for all their facial features, it’s fun to marvel at some fantastic cyberfaces.

5. Customising Rosters Just For The Screenshots

We’ve reached what may be the weirdest basketball gaming activity that I enjoy dabbling with: customising the rosters to place players on different teams, and any Legends back in uniform, just to set up scenarios for screenshots. Iconic Playoff games and other legendary showdowns, famous stints, weird stints, phantom stints…if I can portray it with the players and team branding at my disposal, I’m setting it up and capturing shots that mimic historical photos! What really makes this a weird basketball gaming activity is that unlike makeshift classic teams, there aren’t enough players to make it a playable scenario. It’s purely virtual hardwood photography!

Granted, I usually find a way to use those screenshots for content, be it an article or a social media post. They don’t all just go into the archives never to be seen again, thus becoming a waste of time. Mind you, even if I don’t find an immediate use for every screenshot of a historical scenario that I set up in a game, I don’t feel that it was time wasted. I’m passionate about NBA history, and I enjoy exploring it in various ways through video games. From doing the research to customising the rosters, and then finally getting the shots that I want – which is sometimes easier said than done – this weird activity is fun to mess around with in between my regular basketball gaming.

What are some of the weird but fun activities that you enjoy making a part of your basketball gaming? Are any of these among them? 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.