NBA 2K14 VC Shows Its Ugly Side

[sword1986]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

Count me in on this. I will not buy the game next year if this continues. Might sell my PS4 too. 2K was the only videogame I played.

Pay money to change rotations ... smh come on EA-- I mean 2K.

[magicman32]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

At this point it would just make sense to sell games for $80 and include everything cause then people wouldn't have any cause to complain (of course people would still complain about the price tag anyway)... But promising a full gaming experience before the game hits the shelves only to make people pay more money after purchase just strikes me as greediness... I don't think it actually threatens sales though cause the youngest consumers will grow up with this being the norm

2k isn't making anybody pay money for VC. VC IS FREE!!! I play mycareer mode and VC hasn't prevented me from making MYplayer better. I do agree with the people complaining about how expensive some of this stuff is though. I also don't agree with 2k making you spend VC on stuff like changing "Rotations". However, nobody is forced to buy VC. I refuse to spend real money. I don't get down like that. LOL.

2k really need to look into lowering the purchasing prices or allowing us to earn more VC for free. But I'm thinking a lot of people don't mind spending a few "real" bucks for VC and this is the reason they are doing it. For every person that won't buy VC, there are probably 10 people that really don't care and are willing to spend the money. Whether they are spending it themselves or asking "mommy" for 5 bucks, people are obviously buying it.

[basehead617]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

What's the difference between VC and 'gold' in an RPG?

[Hadlowe]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

VC has secondary effects beyond just skewing the game economy.

The only reason why you are limited to 5 saves for MyCareer/MyGM is because of VC. They have to use cloud saves to prevent people from hacking the save files to give themselves free VC.

So when the cloud storage runs into errors (as in my case) where the save files become corrupted, the entire game becomes unplayable because of VC. I have a gorgeous $60 game that I cannot play at all.

It is patently ridiculous that you have to be online to play MyGM, a fully offline game mode.

I have been a loyal 2k customer for 6 years. I will not buy another 2k game until VC goes away outside of MyTeam mode. It has no place in any other game mode.

[Optik]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

Pretty pointless blaming reviewers who generally don't give a rat's *** about sports games. Not really their job to inform the public. Aren't they paid by the game companies anyway?

Yeah 2K were tone deaf (as usual) with the VC thing, but they need to make that money. They'll probably tone it down next year when they know that Live will still be around so they can't just focus on just cashing in.

[Sinner]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

I wish VC was gone and would never come back. Unfortunately there are stupid people who spend money on it so as long as 2k is bringing in some sort of revenue from it it will never go away.

If sales go down enough to where that extra revenue they get from VC don't cover the lost you better believe they will change things, and i'm really hoping that's what happens.

We can send them negative emails...read, tweet, and/or post articles all we want but it's not going to mean a damn thing if people don't take action and not buy the game if they continue like they are.

[Sundown]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

My biggest issue is the fact MyTeam just seems so unplayable and unenjoyable. Gold packs are 13,000 VC now. That's rediculous. The whole VC concept shouldn't exist. But if it does, at least don't make everything so darn expensive to the point where we actually HAVE to pay for more VC.

The massive hike in gold pack prices is extremely revealing.

Previously you could plausibly say that 2K designed all modes to be playable without buying VC, even if they tweaked the work/reward ratio to be a little less than satisfying. For all you know, some of the tweaks could have been for game balancing purposes (for example, I'm okay with slower progression than 2K11 in MyPlayer, even if I'm not okay with playing MyPlayer being the worst way to progress in MyPlayer).

Now the incredible MyTeam and gear price hikes have pretty much revealed their true intentions-- certain modes are not meant to be enjoyable or remotely competitive without spending additional money after you've purchased the game at full price. If they are willing to do that with one mode, what other modes are they willing to apply this sort of philosophy to? What's to prevent them from pushing things in that direction with every mode more and more, year to year?

The only thing that will stop whatever/whoever is driving this at 2K is massive pushback and maybe even loss of sales (which would be unfortunate if it comes to that), but the move this year has revealed that we might not be able to trust the series to continue to provide fair play value and allow reasonable progression in all modes (or worst case, any mode) down the line. 2K management seems extremely willing to test our limits and breaking points for the sake of additional residual profit rather than ensuring we are satisified with the value, balance, and playability of our purchase from day one.

What's funny is that if MyTeam prices were somewhat reasonable, I might have played it more and entertained the thought of dropping 5 bucks to pick up Steph Curry for kicks. Now I likely won't touch the mode and find the idea of buying VC distasteful, as it essentially means I would be spending money to encourage 2K to make my game even less satsifying in more modes next year.

[Smirkin Dirk]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

VC has secondary effects beyond just skewing the game economy.

The only reason why you are limited to 5 saves for MyCareer/MyGM is because of VC. They have to use cloud saves to prevent people from hacking the save files to give themselves free VC.

So when the cloud storage runs into errors (as in my case) where the save files become corrupted, the entire game becomes unplayable because of VC. I have a gorgeous $60 game that I cannot play at all.

It is patently ridiculous that you have to be online to play MyGM, a fully offline game mode.

I have been a loyal 2k customer for 6 years. I will not buy another 2k game until VC goes away outside of MyTeam mode. It has no place in any other game mode.

Great post.

As someone above, said the only way VC goes away is if the losses from customers not buying the game outweigh the money they get from having VC.

No amount of internet whinging will get rid of it.

I wish I could un-buy this game.

[Smirkin Dirk]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

Pretty pointless blaming reviewers who generally don't give a rat's *** about sports games. Not really their job to inform the public. Aren't they paid by the game companies anyway?

I dont think they get paid but I know they get other benefits from being positive towards games.

Hypothetical examles: IGN gives 2K14 a great review, the publisher gives the site previews or whatever for other games.

Basically, reviewers and games publishers scratch each others backs.

[quehouston]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

I'm thankful that light has been shed upon this finally.

[Sundown]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

VC has secondary effects beyond just skewing the game economy.

The only reason why you are limited to 5 saves for MyCareer/MyGM is because of VC. They have to use cloud saves to prevent people from hacking the save files to give themselves free VC.

So when the cloud storage runs into errors (as in my case) where the save files become corrupted, the entire game becomes unplayable because of VC. I have a gorgeous $60 game that I cannot play at all.

It is patently ridiculous that you have to be online to play MyGM, a fully offline game mode.

I have been a loyal 2k customer for 6 years. I will not buy another 2k game until VC goes away outside of MyTeam mode. It has no place in any other game mode.

This. 2K's placing priority on securing profits through VC over quality and providing a fun, robust product above all has caused the game to suffer technically, in usability, in balance, in satisfaction, and in gameplay through the loss of various functional and gameplay features:

-MyPlayer save reliability
-MyGM save reliability
-Inability to turn off Autosave (making the above two issues catastrophic)
-MyGM couch co-op play (probably because it can be glitched to help earn VC faster)
-MyTeam playability
-MyPlayer and MyGM progress (gear is ridiculously expensive and impedes progress as VC sinks in a shared pool)
-MyPlayer customization (forget about collecting shoes, clothes, or accessories. Forget about even creating more than one shoe for your MyPlayer to actually wear.)
-Overall Game Balance and Authenticity (Why should I be able to instantly level my player just because I've been playing a lot of Quick Games or MyGM?)
-Loss of Coach Mode
-Ability to Save/Load Rosters to Hard Drive anytime (which I suspect was discouraged as part of the everything-online-walled-garden movement driven by VC)
-Expending resources on a barely functional The Park in liew of the highly demanded MyCrew (likely built simply to expose hundreds of MyPlayers to each other with forced waits to encourage more gear sales. It also makes sense that CG 2K featured and hyped "Crews", possibly a quick hack of Blacktop to get a homeless man's version of The Park in for the same purpose).

The core gameplay is good, but I am not sure I've ever seen a game lose so many features, modes, options, and simultaneously cause potential catastrophic technical issues all for the sake of expanding microtransaction residuals.

[vtcrb]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

The ONLY way to be heard is STOP playing Next Gen. Stop Downloading the Rosters, stop playing On-Line orany other game Mode, STOP spending VC, etc. Either Play a different NG game or go back to CG 2k14.

Now I know MOST wont do this, but the ONLY TRUE way to be heard is to stop playing 2k14 NG. The problem is You DAILY see on Twitter HOW GREAT the game is from Posters. How can a GAME be GREAT when it is BROKE(Freezing issues, cant SAVE ANYTHING, Cant Edit ANYTHING, Servers Down, etc). I know GRAPHICS are Great, etc, but that wears OFF after a week. It needs to be seen that IF USERs spend $60, they should be able to Edit the game as they see fit, play ALL Game Modes(On-Line, Off-Line, etc) and NOT have to PAY for Options that should be Included in the $60.

[RangersCruz]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

Say 20 of you on here might not buy VC Ronnie and them won't care because hundreads that don't ever go on here or other forums will buy it and not care

I admit if we go back to 2k13 till now i wasted at least 150-200 easy on VC..i don't hate it because i don't want to start crappy in MyCareer but it shouldn't be FORCED on those who don't want to or have extra money to spend

[Sundown]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

Curious, what's the reception on 2K's own forums?

[Sundown]

Re: PastaPadre: VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series

The ONLY way to be heard is STOP playing Next Gen. Stop Downloading the Rosters, stop playing On-Line orany other game Mode, STOP spending VC, etc. Either Play a different NG game or go back to CG 2k14.

You can't do this because then 2K will just read that as people only caring about MyTeam and will spend all their efforts on that mode.

The real way is to stop buying VC, stop playing The Park (the half-baked mode likely designed to promote gear sales), and stop playing MyTeam (likely their biggest VC cash cow). Or just stop buying the product until they lose more with VC and a smaller user base than they would have made with a larger one and a more fair VC implementation.

But starving 2K of data will just cause 2K to use and misread skewed data by people still paying 2K to play what they already purchased.