Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[amedawg00]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I will give you something better, a video tutorial for our new website system. Explaining how to introduce game scores and stats manually:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdfmAMHiG3g

(around 7:00 mark you will see me introducing random stats in case you want to skip)

Anyway, this is the old site: http://app.lvnba.es:8080/LVNBA_WEB/ and this is the new one under construction http://lvnba.com/

Wow. This is one of the most impressive community inspired 2k lg sites I've ever seen. Even though, I speak no Spanish whatsoever, I thoroughly enjoyed and understood the thought process behind the site.

You guys must have a dedicated group of members; asking them to play 12 minute quarter games, followed by manual stat inputs is hardcore! Your site is definitely a throw back to the pre 2k12 community league sites minus the live game tracking. Someone as technical and passionate about online leagues such as yourself should be working for 2k. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your site looks to be a dynamic site with a backend database to incorporate the stats. Very structured and well thought out.

In the mean time, we can only hope that the devs are lurking and see that a companion website that allows for league administration remotely is what this community wants implemented in future iterations. Again, this would be icing on the cake (per Guardian's list of must haves). Right now we absolutely need league creation with custom rosters, invites, and game registration, to work flawlessly. That is what shipped with the game and we have a right to demand to they work as advertised.

Thanks for sharing lvnba. Much respect to you and your crew for going to the ends of the earth to enjoy the game in a competitive league. Here in the states, many suffer from attention defecit disorder...lol. Not to mention the fact that most of us are adults with jobs, families, and responsibilities that makes our 2k time finite. If I asked my league members to play a 48 minute game followed by inputting stats manually, there would be a mass exodus from the league. But we all love the gameplay so much that this will soon become our reality if 2k doesn't atleast fix the games and stats not registering fiasco.

[lvnba]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Wow. This is one of the most impressive community inspired 2k lg sites I've ever seen. Even though, I speak no Spanish whatsoever, I thoroughly enjoyed and understood the thought process behind the site.

You guys must have a dedicated group of members; asking them to play 12 minute quarter games, followed by manual stat inputs is hardcore!

I am glad you like it (:

The thing is...it is really something that takes a lot of patience and dedication, but once newcomers have been in the league for more than a week you do not need to ask them to do a single thing.

It is one of the most motivating experiences that I have had in online gaming, as you are the GM of one team (dealing and constantly managing your team in the forum and chat), coach (managing rotations) and player.

That is why people fall in love with the league. Of course it has been a journey and we have been doing this for more than 6 years (look at this, you will like it http://lvnba.es/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1747)

As for the website, I am not the responsible for the technical side of it (something that will show you that in our case there is a lot of people putting effort into it), I have been only involved in the design and structuring of it. But yes, it has a database and it is completely functional for all of the aspects of a league, so it would be a good case study for our fellas from 2K.

One day we could see an 'american' division for our league, maybe. We also are people with families, jobs and a lot of duties, but everyone finds the time to play 4-5 hours a week and it is something very painful to leave behind, so we hang in there (:

[setis]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

.. most of us are adults with jobs, families, and responsibilities that makes our 2k time finite.

I'm a proud member of lvnba too and I must say that, we're all adults and many of us with the above responsibilities as well.

The thing is that, this is simply so fun and the time you spend "off court" with the others, discussing possible trades, thinking about your team, contracts, objectives for the FA period, scouting for the draft.. we even moved our draft to the actual NBA draft night, to make it more fun.

I understand that finding 30 members with this commitment level is not easy and that's certainly the reason why this mode is not as popular as others.

We just cross fingers, man, and hope, as you said, that a 2k dev. read this and finally "reward" the hardcore users, with a better platform to run the OAs. It shouldn't be that difficult, man... the gameplay is already there.

[KB2009Champ]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I guess I just don't understand how, in this day and age with all the technology available, why this mode keeps getting worse and worse.

Remember when there was a working website where you could follow games in progress as your league members played?

Remember when stats loaded accurately?

Remember being able to practice in the online league?

Remember when you could play scrimmages in said online league? You didn't have to play real games then reset them, you could actually play scrimmages.

Gotdamn 2k.........

[swimfunk]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I don't know what else we have to do to have them listen. They had some of the best leagues out there so they can't act like they forgot what is needed to be a successful league. This mode comes across as cheap and it looks like no time was spent on this. I feel like it's the same crap as last year. All we hear from 2K is we are gathering feedback. What is the point of the feedback if you don't listen? We had this same type of thread last year, ld2k came in said gathering feedback and that was it.

I get it, we are the minority but I feel like part of the reason we are the minority is the bad leagues. Between 2k9-2k13 the forums were filled of people recruiting for leagues or looking for leagues. The only thing that changed was The Park and bad implementation of leagues. My Park, My GM, My League, My Career all were addressed in the weekly stream. Online league was never mentioned once except for a few random tweets that are now considered incorrect.

I don't know what else needs to happen but something needs to change. Would be very interested in what 2K says to Rich Grisham after the podcasts when he basically called them out. There is no excuse for this. The communication between the customer and the company needs to change. We shouldn't have to rely on twitter for game info. What happened to using a website or a dev insight to promote a game mode? I understand 2K wants to keep modes close to their chest in regards of hyping the game. However, it would be beneficiary to both 2K and the customer to understand what is included in the game. Games nowadays don't come with a manual so everything is learned on the fly.

After going thru this last year I have no hope that online leagues will be addressed in a patch. This is the same exact situation as last year. They tried to improve the mode but just did a poor job. I have to believe there was 0 testing. How do you not see that the creator of the league gets all home games? Stuff like this makes it hard to believe a human tested this mode.

So I am putting this back on 2K to respond, apologize, acknowledge there is a problem with this mode. Your move 2k...

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I guess I just don't understand how, in this day and age with all the technology available, why this mode keeps getting worse and worse.

Why do we continue to ask a question that we KNOW the answer to? It's not about technology. It's about putting BODIES on the mode. VC was MORE than capable of making a more competitive baseball game, but they didn't put the talent on it like they did NBA. NBA has the talent, but it's on other modes. That's just the fact of the matter. The new-hires we know of - Czar, Leftos, Beds... NONE of them have been put on online leagues. The one that should was on MyGM and MyLeagues. So, when the higher priority stuff gets where they want it, they will turn their attention to the mode they think people will play.

SO, if they are made to be convinced that this mode is of HIGH importance, it will continue to be neglected. We know this. The only question now is - what to do about it?

So I am putting this back on 2K to respond, apologize, acknowledge there is a problem with this mode. Your move 2k...

I doubt OL will make any *significant* changes in a patch. That's not a patch. The things needed in this mode will take a full dev cycle of dedicated work on it. So, I've accepted that. ANY improvement will be a pleasant surprise. It will serve as a sign that folks are being heard. I don't think anyone is going to apologize for doing what they feel is best for the game overall - which I'm sure they did - but I'm sure there will be some sort of response and acknowledgement with an VASTLY improved OL/OA mode for 2K16. That's the kind of response I want and expect.

[swimfunk]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I doubt OL will make any *significant* changes in a patch. That's not a patch. The things needed in this mode will take a full dev cycle of dedicated work on it. So, I've accepted that. ANY improvement will be a pleasant surprise. It will serve as a sign that folks are being heard. I don't think anyone is going to apologize for doing what they feel is best for the game overall - which I'm sure they did - but I'm sure there will be some sort of response and acknowledgement with an VASTLY improved OL/OA mode for 2K16. That's the kind of response I want and expect.

I don't expect any type of acknowledgement. During last years disaster Ronnie2K told me people were happy with the mode and playing it. He also told me that Online Leagues were a big part of the future.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/12/04/nba-2k14-ps4-dev-diary-mycareer/

Comments #20, 28, 36, 45

"I guess we’re going to agree to disagree. That mode is super important to the future of 2K."-Ronnie2K

"Many people are playing the mode and enjoying it thoroughly. I am sorry if it’s not the OA or old OL that you remember. We will continue to push the envelope and make it something that grows."-Ronnie2K

So this is the type of ackowledgement we got last year and I expect something of the same this year. Super important huh? I'm sorry but super important doesn't mean 2 tweets leading up to the game along with a broken mode. Yea... that envelope was pushed alright.... right into the trash.

[NeptunePirate]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

It's really disappointing that you can only have human controlled teams in the online leagues. I only have one friend that plays 2k every year with me. We were hoping to start an online league this year, but it would only be our two teams. :/

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

It's really disappointing that you can only have human controlled teams in the online leagues. I only have one friend that plays 2k every year with me. We were hoping to start an online league this year, but it would only be our two teams. :/

This is the most disappointing part of it all.

[yungrod]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Online Association:

Why are games not registering when i clearly got 30 members and we complete games? its not registering in our standings.

[swimfunk]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Might as well add another "fix" to this thread... In order for the game to register the losing team has to quit the game. HAHAHA. So basically just quit when the game is in doubt or a couple seconds left and the game will register.

[amedawg00]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Might as well add another "fix" to this thread... In order for the game to register the losing team has to quit the game. HAHAHA. So basically just quit when the game is in doubt or a couple seconds left and the game will register.

Wow, yet another crippling revelation. Did the real stats register when the user quits the game in the final seconds? If it sims the stats and yet registers the game, that would be an immersion killer. But it would be palatable if 2k never gets around to fixing the issue. Good find swimfunk!

But seriously guys we have to do a better of job of getting out the word on this mode and 2k's lack of acknowledgement on both the technical flaws as well as the misleading information about the mode pre-release. This thread is serving that purprose, but we can and must do more, or the mode will cease to exist altogether in future iterations, let alone hoping for any significant fixes for 2k15.

We got a great boost from OS with the official review of the game, where the reviewer mentions and links this thread in regards to this embarrassment of a mode. The specific quote was "Online leagues return in NBA 2K15, though the server problems and missing features hurt its usability, as our forums detail." Likewise PastaPadre has also referenced this thread in an article that he posted on his site regarding OLs in 2k15.

During the most recent press row podcast, host Rich Grisham mentioned that 2k would be reaching out to him for clarification on the misleading information about the mode pre-release, so make sure to tweet him (@richgrisham) and also email the show at [email protected], in order for him to perhaps get us some level of transparency on the mode as it currently is, and 2ks plan to address its shortcomings in the near future.

Lastly, Kat Bailey, a reviewer at US Gamer, who is a regular guest on the Press Row Podcast, seemed to be the most avid supporter of online leagues during last weeks episode. She went on to lament 2k's neglect of the mode, and even offered ways of monetizing the mode in order to make it more profitable for Visual Concepts. So be sure to tweet her at (@The_Katbot), so that she can use her journalist/reviewer bully pulpit to seek answers from 2k.

So this will be a multi layered strategy of highlighting the crippling glitches in this mode, suggesting work-arounds if possible to remedy said glitches, and a public shaming of 2k via the various gaming outlets and their journalist/reviewers that could bear witness to this gimped mode. If this doesn't work, I have more direct guerilla campaigns and strategies to get the attention of the devs, but I will explore those options at a later time. If anyone has other methods that we can use to expose and bear witness to this mode, please share them. This community has got to stand up and be heard. Look what the crew heads were able to do after their mode was gimped by 2k. They did what they had to do, and now they have been rewarded with MyPark. Our ultimate goal will be MyLeague Online; that is the prize fellas; keep it civil and constructive, and we may just get what we want in this mode one day.

[lvnba]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

We have to be united and make a communication plan to voice this. I think we should start a mailing list to share ideas and plans to do it.

What do you say, amedawg00?

[silverskier]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I already commented it, but in PS4 if you purchased your game in Europe then you cannot play against an user who purchased his in USA. WTF?

[amedawg00]

Re: Online leagues 2k15, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I already commented it, but in PS4 if you purchased your game in Europe then you cannot play against an user who purchased his in USA. WTF?

Another revelation! Catch the drift? But in all seriousness, does this apply to online leagues or online games in general? I always thought that 2k was a region free game that allowed you to play anyone no matter their location? It's always been EA that made PAL and NTSC specific region games; but not 2k. In the past we have had European members in our Simsational (SSBA) leagues, who connected with our U.S. members without a probelm. Sigh....the body blows continue to mount. Dem's the breaks I guess.