NBA 2K16 2K Pro-Am Interview with Jeff Thomas

Feature Article

Submitted on: 08/04/2015 by Steve Noah

We recently had an opportunity to interview Jeff Thomas, vice president of sports development at Visual Concepts to discuss some more details about the new 2K Pro-Am mode in NBA 2K16. While we had many questions from the OS community, most of them could not be answered at this time, due to details on other modes yet to be announced. With that said, enjoy the quick interview and let us know what you think.

Operation Sports: The trailer showed both an arena environment (10 players)as well as a Rec Center environment (40 players). Can you choose which settings to play in? How is that coordinated?

Jeff Thomas: The Pro-Am Arena is the new four court arena. The custom arenas are for team play exclusively. Team play can happen both in the Pro-Am arena and In your Team’s custom arena. All Walk-On play takes place in the Pro-Am Arena.

OS: Can anyone on your Pro-Am team work on the colors and arena, or does the creator handle that? Can you assign people to assist?

JT: Only the team owner can manage the arena design and customization.

OS: Can we be a part of multiple teams/squads?

JT: Yes you can!

OS: If I only have 3 users in my team for Pro-Am, can I still play and have computer players as the other two players on our team, or do you need to make sure you have your team of 5 players?

JT: You can play with 3 players and 2 A.I. players.

OS: Will our MyPLAYERs have exclusive ratings and overalls to the Pro-Am that differ from MyPark?

JT: No.

OS: How do the leaderboard rankings work? Is it determined by win percentage, games played, record and/or region? Can you give us some more details on what the leaderboards track?

JT: Rankings are determined by an ELO rating system.

OS: If you decide to switch your crew, will you lose all your individual stats and will it affect your ranking on the leaderboard?

JT: No you will not.

OS: Can Pro-Am teams with the same nickname exist? Example: Chicago Wings and Seattle Wings

JT: No.

OS: Do you have to be in same Affiliation as everyone else to play together?

JT: No that isn’t necessary.

OS: Will teams be restricted by position? Example: Three 7-foot SFs and two centers? Or is it two guards, two forwards, one center?

JT: No there aren’t position restrictions.

OS: Will you have a website or app available to check your stats and other game results?

JT: Yes.

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Member Comments

# 81 HowDareI @ 08/05/15 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjesus203


	On ps3 nba 2k14 had the choice to either play 3 vs 3 or 5 vs 5 i preferred 3 vs 3 for the fact being the game only went up to 21 it didn't have 5 min quarters. Crew is Crew, therefore you shouldn't be allowed to play crew with 3 myplayers and 2ai's if you cant get 5 players together then your only option with 3 myplayers should be to play a pro-am game as a walk on and be matched up with 2 other players. quitting a game in pro-am mode should have a highly negative effect on your ranking

This isn't Crew lol, plus TRUE Crew you could play with as many AI as you wanted...like we been saying, most good Crews you ran into didn't even run a full team and the same thing will probably be true now.

# 82 Hustle Westbrook @ 08/05/15 02:36 PM

Sounds great just wish you could play with 2 people.

Me and my friend would own 3-5 man crews back in the 2K11 days as the PG and C.

# 83 Caelumfang @ 08/05/15 04:25 PM

No, the CPU aren't gods, but they're god awful annoying to play against in an online setting, especially considering they can react instantaneously in that environment, while users cannot because of input delay and bad animations that seem to plague users, but not the CPU. Examples being the CPU getting speed and lunging boosts on loose balls and passes, and can instantaneously box out the user as far out as the 3-point line, and somehow the user not being to fight out of it 90% of the time.

# 84 shayellis @ 08/05/15 04:37 PM

My thing is even if they limit the 7"2 demi gods and 7ft sf's, what will deter people from just creating the tallest height at every position. There have to be actual advantages and disadvantages of height and size rather than baid aid solutions like just blocking someone from making their player super tall.
Right now it seems they are probably taking band aid solutions by just limiting heights, but they should go back to 2k11 in terms of, the taller you make your player, the harder it is too level up.

# 85 jk31 @ 08/05/15 04:59 PM

Or like in FIFA, they could make some physical attributes dependent from height. The bigger you are, the slower you are.

# 86 G5XL @ 08/05/15 06:59 PM

I hope they are rethinking the attributes slots for your myplayer this year. If I make a center, I shouldn't have to add to my dribble rating just so I can have a good pass and hands rating. Same thing with free throws. Why is it that my three point shot is directly connected to my free throws? I don't shoot threes, but I wanna be able to make my free throws.

# 87 jackzagal @ 08/05/15 09:56 PM

The mode looks very promising

I'm not an online guy, but I might try this mode if it (hopefully) gets good reviews by "hardcore" fans of it.

# 88 iLLosophy @ 08/06/15 08:19 PM

There shouldn't be a restriction on height - it's just 7 foot players should not be able to keep up with 6 foot players. LeBron is a once in a lifetime abnormality, and creating a player with his size and speed should be as rare as he is.

# 89 Jrocc23 @ 08/06/15 10:15 PM

Selfishly, I wish you couldn't just join different crews while already being one.

Wish they would have kept it like before where if you are in a crew, you are only in that crew unless you left. Wonder if they'll keep track of players stats within that crew, if the owner of the team can also go to other teams and etc. Anxious to see how everything is laid out.

# 90 BellSKA @ 08/07/15 07:37 AM

Has anyone heard if there will be an online editor? I'd hate to do all my editing, court creation, uniform design, etc on my console only.

I hope it's like NCAA team creator.

# 91 HowDareI @ 08/07/15 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeGSW


	Why would you want to restrict people to just one crew? Being able to join more than one is beneficial for everybody surely?

I think he was just being half-sarcastic.

People are gonna crew-hop like Ray Allen and James Jones looking for winning teams and probably get to keep the same stats but get a better win %.

# 92 DBMcGee3 @ 08/07/15 10:35 AM

Anyone else want to hear about things other than Pro-Am??? I mean c'mon, I know people are excited about that mode but surely we can talk about game play a little as well, no?

# 93 Jrocc23 @ 08/07/15 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeGSW


	Why would you want to restrict people to just one crew? Being able to join more than one is beneficial for everybody surely?

Mostly what HowDarel said and it's not as competitive when people are crew hopping all over the place imo. I know it's kind of cool to go play on another friends crew or randoms crew, but I stated my post saying "selfishly" before anything. Because I feel your crew is your crew. You shouldn't be able to just join all types of Crews.

I loved how OG crew was because you had a 15 man roster, if I remember correctly and that was your team. Not one dudes crew for a game or 2 and he's on a whole other crew the next game.

You could join other crews sure, but you had to actually leave that squad, lose your stats and then get invited to come back. Again, you had 15 people in your roster, more than likely you'll be able to at least start up a game with 1 other person. And if not, you got Park and Rec to hoop until one of those other 14 or so get on. People on the team that had a lot of games in rarely left because they didn't want to lose their team stats.

# 94 Jrocc23 @ 08/07/15 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeGSW


	Each to their own I suppose. I know that personally I can be loyal to more than one crew. And I like the idea of just being a role player for another crew, gives me a break from organising everything for my own Crew. It can be tiring being that guy sometimes.

Yeah, I know players that feel both ways. It's not a mode breaker at all for me, just wish it wasn't that way where you can be in multiple crews. About the only thing I didn't like about the news.

Luckily, most of the guys I play with is all around the same level of skill and it's a dynamic thing. One game I might be the go-to scorer, next game I might be just the assist man because someone is taking over or we might all just be hot. Just want it to be competitive as it used to be though, again, selfishly.

It's not even just about Top Crews. Just period. You'll see a lot more hopping around than before where you had to leave the crew, lose your stats in that Crew and get invited back. Instead of joining however many crews you wanted. So you'll see it a lot more.

# 95 Pokes404 @ 08/07/15 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DBMcGee3


	Anyone else want to hear about things other than Pro-Am??? I mean c'mon, I know people are excited about that mode but surely we can talk about game play a little as well, no?

I have to ask ... if you're sick of hearing about Pro-Am, why click on a thread discussing a Pro-Am interview? I couldn't possibly care less about shoes, but there are plenty of others who do care. So I just don't click on threads discussing shoes. The people who care can discuss shoes all they want, and I don't have to listen to or read anything about it. It's a win-win.

They'll have plenty of gameplay info down the road and we'll all discuss the Hell out of it when it's released. I know I'm eager to hear about gameplay improvements. But until then, people are going to talk about things that we know about the game.

# 96 Pokes404 @ 08/07/15 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeGSW


	I would've been fine if they capped it at two. You can own/run a crew and you can join one other you don't own. I guess you will see crew hopping... BUT. If you've got 6-7 guys already and you know they're loyal, you know you're fine. It's only a huge issue if you don't have anyone and you're trying to get a team going. Best just to have your 6/7 loyal guys and then think of everyone else as a bonus/loan haha. I totally get what you're saying. But I'm on the other side of it. I'm really looking forward to just filling in for a team when they're short and taking a back seat as a role player. Especially with all these cool custom courts and jerseys lol.

I would have liked the number of Crews you can join being capped as well. But at the same time, I get it. When you have a new mode that you're trying to grow and get people excited about, putting a bunch of restrictions that make it harder to get into a game usually isn't the best way to go. That's why I like that 2K has allowed the CPU to fill in if you're a few guys short of a full team, and allowed you to join multiple Crews.

Maybe if the mode becomes incredibly popular and people get a year to get settled in with their teams and build up their friends list for this mode, then maybe 2K will consider limiting teams. For this year though, I say anything that gets people into a game faster and easier is good with me.

# 97 BellSKA @ 08/07/15 02:56 PM

I always hated how small the last Crew roster was. It limited me on playing Crew because not everyone is on at the same time. I want to play Crew with my friends, but I also want to play. I would like a cap at 2 teams and double digit roster capacity.

# 98 Dayron1234 @ 08/07/15 05:32 PM

I have my players, team name, court, and jersey already thought of but is there going to be a bench so I can rotate my players? I currently have 9 people that are excited to play with me and I would hate to drop most of them just because we can only have 5 people playing.

So if anyone can answer my question, it'd be much appreciated.

# 99 TeamHawkins @ 08/07/15 06:09 PM

No position restrictions? And just like that we're back to cheesing and making the game look stupid for the little kids who can't play the game legit. SMH

# 100 MrWrestling3 @ 08/07/15 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TeamHawkins


	No position restrictions? And just like that we're back to cheesing and making the game look stupid for the little kids who can't play the game legit. SMH

That's kind of how I feel....it'll be cool if it works but i'm not about to build myself up just to be disappointed.

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