The Tough Road of Being a Sports Developer, Featuring Mike Wang

[mango_prom]

Quote: Originally Posted by Boilerbuzz

On point. Under My Player is the franchise code. It has to be right. But what I don't get is the claim they haven't touched it. Then what has Simballer and his group been doing? Picking their noses? I am sure OS has archives of the franchise mode Dev diaries. You guys can't say Association hasn't been touched. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

Don't know if you're referring to my post in particular, but since you've quoted me specifically...where did I say they "haven't touched it"? That's a whole different thing than saying that certain areas were given less attention than others or that in my opinion the focus was on other things. But since you've brought things "not touched" up, then yes, rookie generation logic/progression is pretty much as bad as it has been since 2k3. That's not hyberbole. AI playcalling? Broken outside of default rosters since 2k11. I mean if you enjoy the game and don't mind certain issues, that's cool. But I think it's alright to point certain shortcomings out.

[VDusen04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Boilerbuzz

But they do that when they announce things like a new blocking system. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

Righto. I don't know how they truly operate in terms of what they're willing to admit and how. That said, I think admitting a game's shortcomings only when you've replaced them with something new and better is lot different than admitting a game's downfalls when there's no solution yet. In the former, you're advertising your new product and how great it is. In the latter, you're just saying your current product is lackluster in some regard.

Quote: Originally Posted by VDusen04

I'm not sure if people mean "untouched" literally. I'll go and try to find some Association Insight threads after this. I think people were more likely saying "barely touched", as in barely anything being noticeably added or improved. I remember them adding some CBA rules and 10 day contracts (I think). I do not recall the last major improvement though. I'll give it a look.

Also, for whatever it's worth, I can't find any real offline Association news releases via a quick search (though I'm admittedly poor at OS searches). I did, however, find a thread from 2011 that's eerily similar to ones I've been seeing floating around here lately. It even has the tried and true KyotoCarl seal of assurance on page 1: http://www.osatwork.com/forums/showt...ht+association

[RyanFitzmagic]

Quote: Originally Posted by VDusen04

In the latter, you're just saying your current product is lackluster in some regard.

I'm not sure if you're saying this with a positive or negative connotation. I don't think 2K doing this would be bad-- it'd be faults that pretty much all of us already know exist.

Plus, they're essentially doing the same thing (admitting shortcomings) when they release patches.

[VDusen04]

Quote: Originally Posted by RyanFitzmagic

I'm not sure if you're saying this with a positive or negative connotation. I don't think 2K doing this would be bad-- it'd be faults that pretty much all of us already know exist. Plus, they're essentially doing the same thing (admitting shortcomings) when they release patches.

I was trying to portray it from a company's point of view. Even if it seems we all know about the shortcomings already, I think public acknowledgment and disclosure can sometimes be a little tricky. Again, I think 2K has seemed more willing to do this when it's an absolute issue affecting every single user in a clear fashion (online connectivity issues) or if they already have a fix coming down the pipeline (patches, new block system, etc.).

But if it's an issue they have no answer for, or something they don't plan on addressing for the time being, I can see how they might not want to publicly disclose their knowledge of said problem. As I said, as a consumer, I'd love full disclosure (ex: "Yes, we suck, we've totally ignored adding more retro jerseys. We could have, but we just didn't, and that's on us") but I'm trying to look at it from a little bit of a business perspective here.

[BluFu]

"But if you compare every second or third entry in the series--putting NBA2K on the same development timeline as other franchises--you can see a jump that's on par with its more respected peers."


don't wanna mention association or anything but...

[Boilerbuzz]

Reread my post man.

[yellow86]

Seriously, you're a game developer, it's not that hard if you change it one step at a time instead of completely ignoring certain aspects and modes and constantly focus on new modes and keep changing controls and aspects of gameplay - especially going from being more in control like passing to changing it back. The other things I seriously dislike about 2k is making it seem like they've added something new, when it either was in the game all along or they took it out and put it back. 2k should own up to its shortcomings instead of trying to cover it up with Jay-Z, MJ or Lebron modes, soundtracks and things that don't really matter to the core game.

[Boilerbuzz]

Quote: Originally Posted by yellow86

Seriously, you're a game developer, it's not that hard if you change it one step at a time instead of completely ignoring certain aspects and modes

Spoken like an industry veteran I assume? How do you know how hard anything is? And there is that "ignore" ranting again.