These forums have been dead since implementing the new format.

[tsbmolina]

Bring back the old format. The forums have not been the sane since changing. Not nearly as much engamemt and the new format is cumbersome. Let me know if you agree or is it just me?

[PhlliesPhan6]

The new format is fine and functions basically the same as the old one (And pretty much every other online forum?) What am I missing?

[scottyp180]

It could depend on the browser you're using and device (mobile vs PC). It can be weird on my phone sometimes.

The ads are also kind of ridiculous and can get in the way and take up too much space.

[PhlliesPhan6]

Ah ok. I mostly browse on my Windows PC. Ads were bad for me on the old forum too though.

[scottyp180]

I'm not sure the cause exactly, but this place is a ghost town compared to 2 years ago.

I know it's still early but I was expecting to see at least a few impressions for early access.

[Fake Empire]

I don't think it's the new format. I'm a member since the beginning of OS (lost my email and password this is why it shows I'm a new member) and gaming has changed. I'm in my late 40s, I don't care about greens, online, cap breakers. All new generation has moved to Discord and Reddit and every post there is about all the above. Nobody cares about sim, it's all about ego and winning online.
I want to buy the game in a few hours to play as I do for 25 years now and there's absolutely zero information about the offline modes and improvements. It looks like 2K doesn't want us old folks as customers anymore.

[jeebs9]

I don't think it's the new format. I'm a member since the beginning of OS (lost my email and password this is why it shows I'm a new member) and gaming has changed. I'm in my late 40s, I don't care about greens, online, cap breakers. All new generation has moved to Discord and Reddit and every post there is about all the above. Nobody cares about sim, it's all about ego and winning online.
I want to buy the game in a few hours to play as I do for 25 years now and there's absolutely zero information about the offline modes and improvements. It looks like 2K doesn't want us old folks as customers anymore.

Here is the problem. It's like the Facebook movie showed. Any amount of downtime will kill user interaction period. OS was already slowing down for years. But that transfer or port really killed users coming back. They obviously went to the places that are up and going to where most of the user base is. I still think the heart of OS is here. But it's faint at best right now.

[TarHeelPhenom]

I don't think it's the new format. I'm a member since the beginning of OS (lost my email and password this is why it shows I'm a new member) and gaming has changed. I'm in my late 40s, I don't care about greens, online, cap breakers. All new generation has moved to Discord and Reddit and every post there is about all the above. Nobody cares about sim, it's all about ego and winning online.
I want to buy the game in a few hours to play as I do for 25 years now and there's absolutely zero information about the offline modes and improvements. It looks like 2K doesn't want us old folks as customers anymore.

I think this is it right here. I've been here for over 20 years. I'll be 50 Lord willing in a couple of weeks. I think the generation of gamers and what means most to them has changed. I've bought 2k every year just to have a basketball game; but I haven't really been immersed in a few years now. I wish we had more options, and that's not just when it comes to basketball, but over all sports genres. From the 80's to the early 2000's, we always had several options of sports games. If one game didn't satisfy, we had options. I get bored of playing the same title every year. Madden, 2k, The Show...rinse and repeat. I still love gaming, but it's not the same. I'm not sure when I'll buy 2k26, but for the first time ever, I'm in no hurry whatsoever.

[rudyjuly2]

The forum software itself is so slow and littered with ads that it doesn’t even function on my iPad. It’s not a lot better with my phone. Interacting is a chore.

i don’t even know what the “upgrade” did to upgrade anything. Subs to threads don’t work. Don’t get notifications. Forums look the same otherwise.

[MakaveliLPC]

I don’t think it’s because of the new format but I agree the boards are dead, also the ads on here are out of control. Full stop. But it sucks because there’s no other community that fills the void of what OS used to be. All other 2K online communities are just about complaining about the game and making the best build to play online. It’s not even about the NBA anymore

[Bgrd1080]

Discord. No ads and over 1000 OS members

[scottyp180]

I think this is it right here. I've been here for over 20 years. I'll be 50 Lord willing in a couple of weeks. I think the generation of gamers and what means most to them has changed. I've bought 2k every year just to have a basketball game; but I haven't really been immersed in a few years now. I wish we had more options, and that's not just when it comes to basketball, but over all sports genres. From the 80's to the early 2000's, we always had several options of sports games. If one game didn't satisfy, we had options. I get bored of playing the same title every year. Madden, 2k, The Show...rinse and repeat. I still love gaming, but it's not the same. I'm not sure when I'll buy 2k26, but for the first time ever, I'm in no hurry whatsoever.

Maybe it's simply that the game has moved in a different direction and some gamers have aged out and lost interest. Many of us long time OSers are older and at a point in our lives where there are more important priorities other video games and 2k.

Still, it's weird to me that a lot of the users who scoured the forums and would post nearly daily, especially in the lead up to launch, have basically disappeared. For those of us who consider ourselves "sim heads" and focused on the gameplay and core NBA side of things (including things like legends, classic teams, My Eras, etc) OS was the place to go. I can't imagine all of the OSers moved to other platforms to discuss the game.

I remember the days before early access when people would talk about stores breaking the street date and selling the game early. That's how invested people were. Now the game is actually available through early access and I don't see anyone here talking about it.

[jeebs9]

I'm still going to post in my normal threads. So follow in the post up triple threat thread 😂

[cch99]

I've been here a long time. I am 52. Even when I was kid playing Lakers vs Celtics on my Tandy1000 HX I wanted to play seasons. I would track it all myself. Did the same with Strat-O-Matic. Would play 6 game seasons and go to my hoop outside and do the highlights, haha. Point is even what I wanted back then in the late 80''s was way more than those games could do. When Madden came out with Franchise Mode it was incredible and really hit that sweet spot.

That being said kids nowadays aren't looking for that. I am basing that on my son and all his friends. They do franchise a little online but they will sim a ton and play like 3 minute quarters trying to get through seasons quick as opposed to the longer full length games. I've always struggled with not having full game stats, That's why I like the Sim to minutes in 2k. Great feature. But anyway, my son plays My Career and MyTeam 95% of the time. Madden he plays Head to Head 75% of the time.

I mean I only still play the new game because my son always asks for it for his birthday. Otherwise I would have stuck with 23.

Point being to get back to original though I don't think it's the format. I just think that it's just one of those things when younger people use different ways to interact than us older people. And TapTalk isn't great or super user friendly IMO.

As far as the game. I mean it came out over an hour ago and there isn't even an impressions thread started. I've never seen that. The Madden and NCAA threads are nothing like they used to be. It is what it is. Times change.

[Gramps91]

I signed up here just a few weeks shy of turning 19. NBA 2K11 was two weeks from the release and this place was thriving. I'm very thankful for that time and I really miss the community. I miss 2K being focused on NBA.
When the 2K18 hype was put behind The City I felt they made it clear that was the direction of the series and for the most part is hasn't been the same.

That being said, I LOVED 2K23 because The Eras is such a cool feature, I think. I had a blast creating teams using the updated player models that were included that wouldn't have been otherwise. I DO still enjoy the games.
But it certainly doesn't have that magic it had during the PS3/Xbox360 era.

And yes, I also agree with the notion that it was even better in the late 90s and early 2000s when you had multiple companies making basketball video games.
Look at the year 2000
NBA 2K
NBA Live 2000
NBA Jam 2000
NBA Basketball 2000
NBA In The Zone 2000
NBA Shootout 2000

So many options and I really do miss that.

[Fake Empire]

Oh, another thing: I have full respect for all OS staff but articles like "How to dunk in NBA 2k26" are just bizarre. I don't even know why Steve doesn't have at least a 15 days early access to the game provided by 2K to publish early impressions.

[VDusen04]

The new format is fine and functions basically the same as the old one (And pretty much every other online forum?) What am I missing?

I mostly browse on PC and it's the little things for me. I'm fully ready to be criticized for these things but what impacts my experience just impacts my experience and I can't help that. The big ones that have stuck out to me:

1. Lots more scrolling to get to what I want to see (new posts, namely). The new website has everything spaced out way further and the good stuff is generally located about 66 percent of the way down a much bigger page (bigger in terms of how much you have to scroll). New posts on the old forum were in the top 33 percent of a smaller page. In short, it was easier and more convenient to get down to business and see what you wanted to see (here's a wayback link for the old forum: https://web.archive.org/web/20220523...2k-basketball/)

2. Page time takes longer to load (guessing this will be fixed as the new forum is continually refined).

3. This will sound so lazy but since webpage design is probably all about this kind of thing, I find it much more annoying to find a thread I'm looking for then to get the portion of that thread I'm looking for. On the old forum, threads would have page numbers right under the thread title with "last page" always there as an option. So far, from what I can tell on the new forum, my options for entering a thread is to click the thread title or to scroll my cursor over to the right to click a small double chevron. Small thing, but still annoying and limiting.

4. There's less topics showing per page than there used to be. I think this may have been improved in recent weeks but I can't be sure. Either way, I see around 20 threads per page in the new 2K forum whereas I used to see 35-40 on the old forum.

5. Page jumps within threads are more annoying to me. In the old forum, you had clickable page numbers at the top and bottom of the page, alongside a "next page" option (and maybe a "last page" but I can't recall). The new format swapped that out for a "next page" option or top or the ability to type in the page number you desire. Kind of annoying to go from mouse to keyboard and back to pick the page you desire.

6. The way the page "rolls" back up on a page change is a little bit disorienting and annoying.

7. My eyes have not gotten used to where to look to figure out what topics are really cooking. When I popped into the old forums, it was really easy to tell when some news dropped because I'd see a thread with like 10 page numbers below it and a prominent number that highlighted the number of replies. On the new forum, I still find my eyes confusing the number of reactions for number of replies, with everything feeling so spread out that I get a bit disoriented in terms of knowing quickly as to which topics are really jumping off.

I think two big solutions that would help me personally would:

1. Condensing the amount of space everything takes up now. Every page feels like I'm going on a scrolling journey with less than half the payoff of an old OS page.

2. Bring the necessities closer to a single eyeline location. If I see a thread title, it'd be nice to have page options and information right there instead of being relegated to a small double chevron on the opposite side of the page.

I know it's still all a work in progress but yeah, I can totally understand how the new format has impacted usage, because it certainly has for me.

[Heisman]

The older generations are just different imo.
I was talking to 20-24 year olds at work today. All they planned on doing was hoping in park and buying vc.
When I was that age I was trying to find realistic sliders for a long term franchise.

The kids have no interest in that today. It honestly baffles me, but I think it’s a more general problem. Most people aren’t real hardcore sports fans. I’m talking about real actual fans of sports. They don’t have a deep appreciation and love for the game. People are only caring about their fantasy teams and their bets. Rooting for an actual team comes second.