The VC issue - perfectly put in words

[335TDC]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

Really guys... much appreciated. I spent like 2 hours slaving over a text and nobody has anything to say, add or any feedback whatsoever. Really cool stuff. Instead we regressed to

"Your petition won't matter cause it makes too much money"

"Yeah but it's a ****ty business model"

"Yeah but it's a cash cow"

"Yeah but they could just adjust it a bit too make it less greedy and ****ty"

"Will never happen because they make too much money"

"Yeah but... [insert stuff here]"

"Won't matter cause it's a cash cow"

[to be continued]

Seriously guys... what's the point now? Either we do something, anything, for our personal peace of mind or we don't. By the looks of it you rather discuss why they should change it to death with guys like x_NBA_x who will state their opinion to death. Not that his opinion is necessarily wrong but it leads to absolutely nothing in the end but to drag the discussion to a deadlock which will mean the thread will be closed. In my mind we should use it more productively. All of you who agree on the VC issue with the likes of me: read the draft, comment, criticise, tell me stuff to add or get cracking to get me the prices of the MyPark and ProAm stuff and other nonsense. I'll post this petition tomorrow afternoon once it's done with your feedback and then it's in your hands how much attention and signatures it gets as it depends on you guys to spread the word across social media and forums... tbh I think with 10.000 signatures we could probably get a response since that's a significant number, even among 8 mio sales.

Saxongirl, first one to give your initial post props...!

I think the petition is solid, but my worry is that it loses the forest for the trees when it goes into defining terms, etc. Should we not assume that the target audiences already know these things? Attention span here in the states isn't what it probably is in the UK...

My only tidbit of advice is to get rid of any emotional or inflammatory terms, like the time you called VC a "cancer." What's impressive about a petition like this is that it's written is such a professional and analytical way and avoids any unnecessary emotion. Make sure it's like that throughout -- I know, it's hard...!

On a more macro scale, I wonder if attacking ONE element in a petition might be more effective -- the transfer of VC from 16 to 17, or setting up MyCareer to be a VC rev stream, but NOT BOTH. Not sure yet if this is true, but just thinking out loud.

Good work, and keep plugging away!

Hwaet!

[Celtics4Life]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

Came across this article on Polygon.com thought you would like

http://www.polygon.com/2016/9/20/12987250/nba-2k17-review-ps4-xbox-one

"As great as MyPark and Pro-Am are in theory, both modes’ leaderboards are too full of players that appear to have paid their way upward. Regardless of where MyCareer gameplay happens, the slog of leveling eases with NBA 2K17’s Virtual Currency, which can be bought in amounts that range from $2 to $100. While gameplay skill factors in, high player ratings carry obvious and substantial impact, with less urgency to improve for higher VC payouts. Never mind how this comes at odds with the hard work and success theme of Aaron Covington’s story."

[SirGaryColeman]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

Problem is, your petition won't get anywhere. VC is the games biggest money earner and you want to take that away? They'll laugh in their office.

The only way to make them interested or willing to look at things is if their sales go down or they don't hit their targets. As long as people still buy the game (like all those moaning about VC) and people keep buying VC then you're petition will be completely ignored.

I think a lot of people will sign the petition. The point is to get them bad press.

If even 1 semi-popular YouTube personality or 1 semi-popular website posts a link to the petition - I think every 2k player would sign it. After that, game news sites and youtube channels will pick up on it and it will snowball and Visual Concepts will have to respond.

[SirGaryColeman]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

Saxongirl, first one to give your initial post props...!

I think the petition is solid, but my worry is that it loses the forest for the trees when it goes into defining terms, etc. Should we not assume that the target audiences already know these things? Attention span here in the states isn't what it probably is in the UK...

My only tidbit of advice is to get rid of any emotional or inflammatory terms, like the time you called VC a "cancer." What's impressive about a petition like this is that it's written is such a professional and analytical way and avoids any unnecessary emotion. Make sure it's like that throughout -- I know, it's hard...!

On a more macro scale, I wonder if attacking ONE element in a petition might be more effective -- the transfer of VC from 16 to 17, or setting up MyCareer to be a VC rev stream, but NOT BOTH. Not sure yet if this is true, but just thinking out loud.

Good work, and keep plugging away!

Hwaet!

Agree.

I think if you want to put a ton of info, you can organize it in a way that provides a TLDR.

Either way, as long as you give the link to someone with the words "sign this if you hate what VC has done to 2k" then people will sign it no matter what.

Either way, beautiful write up! I don't know all the prices either.

[SirGaryColeman]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

Can we please not call it "pay2win"? It's more like pay2progess.

I think it could be argued that MyPark is Pay 2 Win.

MyPark After Dark, Mountain Dew event, and Pro-Am Finals are all 1 time things as far as I can tell (at least 1 time cash prizes). So, there is a time limit on this.

You have to hurry up and grind up to be able to compete for the cash prize OR... pay for VC.

Also, repping up in the Park is way easier if you're a 99 vs a bunch of 75s. During the first 1-2 months you could totally "pay to win" the park because nobody else will be 99 but the people that paid for it.

I GUARANTEE you that all of the top park players on the CUMULATIVE Leaderboard paid for VC. Last year, their 2ktv interviewed the first Legend 5 and the dude admitted that he had to put his HEALTH in jeopardy to get to Legend 5. That's some Korean MMORPG sh*t, man.

[Saxongirl]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

I think it could be argued that MyPark is Pay 2 Win.

MyPark After Dark, Mountain Dew event, and Pro-Am Finals are all 1 time things as far as I can tell (at least 1 time cash prizes). So, there is a time limit on this.

You have to hurry up and grind up to be able to compete for the cash prize OR... pay for VC.

Also, repping up in the Park is way easier if you're a 99 vs a bunch of 75s. During the first 1-2 months you could totally "pay to win" the park because nobody else will be 99 but the people that paid for it.

I GUARANTEE you that all of the top park players on the CUMULATIVE Leaderboard paid for VC. Last year, their 2ktv interviewed the first Legend 5 and the dude admitted that he had to put his HEALTH in jeopardy to get to Legend 5. That's some Korean MMORPG sh*t, man.

I don't do much park, prefer ProAM so could you please explain the whole cash prize tournament stuff to me? Maybe this is something I can add to the petition.

What's a TLDR? Or rather how should I better organize the text to provide that?

Well I provide the definition and use of VC so that even for casuals who might not have given the concept much thought it becomes clear how it infests every game mode and for people who haven't played NBA 2k or think of buying it to be a warning of sorts. The pricelist is important to show how much cheap stuff costs in comparison to your possible earnings.

Fairly easy to find the price list for items. Just go online, go to the shop and check for them . Like I said... since I haven't upgraded myplayer and haven't played the park and what not I can't access the prices since those items are locked to me so I'd need people to do that for me.

Well sure it might be prudent to actually attack only one part but that's not far reaching enough... VC has infested everything and it gets worse and worse so the whole system needs to be attacked and changed.

[x_NBA_x]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

I think a lot of people will sign the petition. The point is to get them bad press.

If even 1 semi-popular YouTube personality or 1 semi-popular website posts a link to the petition - I think every 2k player would sign it. After that, game news sites and youtube channels will pick up on it and it will snowball and Visual Concepts will have to respond.

Again, you can attempt it and try to get them bad press but it won't get very far. I commend the attempts but I know it will mount to nothing. If this was outside of the gaming community, depending on the issue you could have a case..

I've seen EA chug out rubbish and be voted the worst company for customer service in America and look at their sales for FIFA for example and that game is horrific with bugs and money issues. Same with Ubisoft, they produce utter garbage each time that is bug riddled and they get bad reviews but they carry on releasing games and people buy them.

All NBA players and big review sites give the game high marks because they look at different aspects, they don't care about how much the in-game currency costs or what you can/cannot buy, like a headband which doesn't effect the gameplay at all. Again, the board only care about their numbers for profits and to appease the shareholders(if that's what they do have) so until that is the case, they won't budge.. Read more into how bad EA really are to get a better understanding of what I mean..

'Think every 2K player will sign it' - That'd be assuming that every 2K player watches this semi-Youtuber. Again I commend you and I will of course sign it for the cause, please don't think I'm against it, I'm just putting real world scenarios and how gaming companies work to what is being done on here as I don't want to see people waste their time and effort for something to not come to fruition.

Good luck and hopefully something comes from it.

[Mweemwee]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

^actually a lot of the review sites have slated the VC situation

[x_NBA_x]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

^actually a lot of the review sites have slated the VC situation

I checked IGN, Gamespot, Metacritic, GameInformer and a couple of others. I'd like to see which top review sites gave poor ratings as that was the point I made. Also none of those mentioned any issues about the VC.

[Mweemwee]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

I checked IGN, Gamespot, Metacritic, GameInformer and a couple of others. I'd like to see which top review sites gave poor ratings as that was the point I made. Also none of those mentioned any issues about the VC.

If you could take your head out of your backside for one minute you might see that I'm not talking to you.

Seriously, you have been the most arrogant pretentious know it all on this topic. You apparently don't agree with anything being said, but you sit here all day every day giving arrogant responses to everyone, regardless of whether they are talking to you or not.

Give it a rest.

[Saxongirl]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

If you could take your head out of your backside for one minute you might see that I'm not talking to you.

Seriously, you have been the most arrogant pretentious know it all on this topic. You apparently don't agree with anything being said, but you sit here all day every day giving arrogant responses to everyone, regardless of whether they are talking to you or not.

Give it a rest.

Please stop this. There is no point hurling personal insults around especially since this could easily lead to the thread being closed. This is a hot topic as is and I'm actually surprised such a candid discussion was allowed on OS given that several 2k Sports employees are members and regular contributors here and one might think that a topic like that might upset the relationship between OS and those employees. So let's not go down that road and keep it respectful between one another no matter how infuriating someone might feel to you.

[x_NBA_x]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

If you could take your head out of your backside for one minute you might see that I'm not talking to you.

Seriously, you have been the most arrogant pretentious know it all on this topic. You apparently don't agree with anything being said, but you sit here all day every day giving arrogant responses to everyone, regardless of whether they are talking to you or not.

Give it a rest.

Well you posted about a review and had an up arrow pointing to my post. What more can I base it on? No need for personal insults.

I've already stated quite clear that I will sign the petition and I wish you all well with it, as I would like to see the VC removed too of course.. However if you had read my posts too, I also stated that I don't like to see people go through all the hard work etc without seeing it from the other side. I was giving that perspective from the other side.

Now good day to you and once again.. Saxon, good luck with the petition.

[Hirtec]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

I will sign that petition. Thanks for the effort, Saxongirl.

I hate this year's grind. I had to start a second career to farm VC. I also tried to cheese to get some VC... no further details. With that VC I try to upgrade my player to a descent level. From that point I think I can continue with the normal career and enjoy the game... after hours of "work".

I've seen EA chug out rubbish and be voted the worst company for customer service in America and look at their sales for FIFA for example and that game is horrific with bugs and money issues. Same with Ubisoft, they produce utter garbage each time that is bug riddled and they get bad reviews but they carry on releasing games and people buy them.

But even EA and Ubisoft learned some lessons... at least a bit. EA didn't achieved the Three-peat ( I know this sounds ridiculous) sometimes they give away games for free. And even Ubisoft stopped the production of this year's Assassins Creed after the Unity debacle. Don't get me wrong, it's still EA and Ubisoft with "money, money, money", but maybe, just maybe, complaining can help to improve the situation for us. At least we have to try.

[jadert]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

I'll definitely sign the petition as well. I don't agree with the VC concept as a gamer. I do understand it as a business person. I just wanted to bring another perspective as I realize I'm probably a little older than most on here.

I personally NEVER buy VC. I use the app, VC from MYgym, quick games and NBA 2K TV. I can accrue it fairly quickly. I'm not a big pay to play guy. But man, these guys struck gold. I have to appreciate that lol.

[Saxongirl]

Re: The VC issue - perfectly put in words

There you go guys:

https://www.change.org/p/strauss-zelnick-change-the-vc-system-for-the-nba-2k-series