Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike Wang

[Steve_OS]

Episode 45 is all about NBA 2K14 – and by extension, the PS3-360 generation NBA 2K franchise - as host Rich Grisham (@richgrisham) interviews Mike Wang (@Beluba), the Lead Gameplay Designer for the game. The two have a wide-ranging conversation about the generational transformation of NBA 2K, the road to NBA 2K14, an in-depth gameplay discussion, the decision process to significantly modify the controls again, and much more. If you love the NBA 2K series as much as we do, it’s a fascinating discussion about how these kinds of games come together.

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Enjoy the show!

Run Time: 1 Hour, 2 Minutes

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[JasonWilliams55]

Good stuff here around 39 minutes, right after the commercial.

Holding L1/LB (43:30ish)

In backcourt

"...it calls the full blown play for best guy on team in that situtation..."

In frontcourt

"...calls more or less the right set, the right freelance set and play w/in the freelance sets, most teams run 3 out 2 in or 4 out 1 in..."

[RipCity71252]

Quote: Originally Posted by JasonWilliams55

Good stuff here around 39 minutes, right after the commercial. Holding L1/LB (43:30ish) In backcourt "...it calls the full blown play for best guy on team in that situtation..." In frontcourt "...calls more or less the right set, the right freelance set and play w/in the freelance sets, most teams run 3 out 2 in or 4 out 1 in..."

Wow. That sounds so much better than the "Run Best Play" option from 2k13.

[jyoung]

The "dice roll" on steals is something that has existed in just about every basketball video game I can remember and has bugged the heck out of me for years. As someone who likes to play user defense on the ball handler at all times, it was one of those things that just made defense completely unfair and unfun to play.

Thank goodness a basketball video game will finally penalizes the ball handler for exposing the ball instead of having the defender's hand clip through the ball or charge the defender with a bogus foul call simply because he lost a dice roll.

The first thing you're taught as a ball handler is to keep your head up and use your off hand plus your body to shield the ball from defenders.

It amazes me that protecting the ball has never been a priority in basketball video games over the years, but thank goodness a developer is finally making ball security an important part of gameplay.

[VDusen04]

Quote: Originally Posted by jyoung

The "dice roll" on steals is something that has existed in just about every basketball video game I can remember and has bugged the heck out of me for years. As someone who likes to play user defense on the ball handler at all times, it was one of those things that just made defense completely unfair and unfun to play. Thank goodness a basketball video game will finally penalizes the ball handler for exposing the ball instead of having the defender's hand clip through the ball or charge the defender with a bogus foul call simply because he lost a dice roll. The first thing you're taught as a ball handler is to keep your head up and use your off hand plus your body to shield the ball from defenders. It amazes me that protecting the ball has never been a priority in basketball video games over the years, but thank goodness a developer is finally making ball security an important part of gameplay.

Could you point me in the direction of when that was discussed during the podcast? Or could you at least summarize what was mentioned (unless what you already said pretty much sums it up).

I'm with you 100% on the "dice roll" dynamic. Post-patch 2K13 was about as rough as I've come across when it's come to stealing the basketball. Nearly any and all strategy felt absent, replaced almost entirely with the aforementioned "dice roll", which was heavily stacked against the defense. Faced up, unprotected, waist-high dribble? How about a defender reaches through the basketball and gets whistled for a foul. For a game in which turnovers already seemed tough to come by, a steal mechanic that basically trained gamers to never attempt to force an on-ball turnover was pretty frustrating.

[blues rocker]

awesome interview. definitely reinforces the passion and dedication to quality that 2k has.

[Agame]

Good Interview. Thanks- Can't wait for NEW GEN XBOX ONE GAME PLAY! More memory, Smarter A.I. .....Let's hope that Beluba can say he got what he wanted implemented into Next Gen.

[MoultonHawk]

The best 2K interview to date for me. Thank you.