Re: Learning to Embrace the MyCareer Grind in NBA 2K19
I didn't feel like this piece was even worth responding to. But hey, might as well do it.
In the beginning, he says this "I thought I’d have a look at some of the complaints from the 2K community and analyze the validity of their arguments. To do this, I’ll be using actual comments taken directly from the NBA2K subreddit."
Alright, so he's decided to personally pick which comments he wants to go after. I'll bet you people there made the same counterpoints I make, but he chose to ignore it. These are the quotes he used:
Counterpoint: Nobody is expecting to start at 80, but being a 60 with no skills is also way too far on the other end of the spectrum.
Counterpoint: Who took this to 2k slave labor camp? Nobody except the author. If he actually paid attention to what the person wrote, then he might catch the point, which is that the amount of VC you earn per game isn't proportional to what you spend it on. A max contract is 1100 VC, and a shoe can be 5k VC. It might be less, but either way, a shoe costs more than what you earn. But, it's just cosmetics and doesn't have an effect on gameplay, so I personally don't really care about that. Problem is that if you start from 0 VC, then you're spending all your VC on upgrades, which costs a lot.
I don't have specific feelings towards this thing either way. Offline and online should be separated. Offline guys should have much more freedom. Archetypes, I think, are necessary online for balance. With that being said, "In a perfect world they'd be able to create a 7-footer who moves with quickness of Westbrook, etc. etc." Who said this except the author? He's just making things up. This is a problem I have with this kind of writing. He just takes everything people say to the extreme.
Don't feel much about this, I do think it can be unforgiving, but it's not the biggest deal in the world (And quite frankly doesn't really have much to do with the grind) But again, he says "What they are really seeking though is absolute validation after every game that they played the best possible game imaginable and could not have done one little thing better if they tried. But shouldn’t an A+ grade be fairly hard to achieve?" He's right, an A+ SHOULD be hard to achieve. But again, his first statement is him just making things up. Nobody said that A+ should be easy. They said there are flaws in the grading system. That's all.
-He's not wrong about this, but this goes to another topic: there needs to be a mode, similar to the combine, where people can just play with preset builds and go at it competitively. These preset builds don't need to be demigods, but what they had at the combine last year was just fine. There are several other games doing just fine that give you a similar option and I don't think it's too much to ask to play on equal footing. There will always be people who want to have players with lots of badges and all that, park cheese etc., that's not going away, but there are also people who wish they can play a balanced mode where they're not at a constant disadvantage because somebody else plays the game far more frequently. There can be room for a grinded mode and a non-grinded mode.
He acknowledges this as a problem, and this IS a problem. There should be ways for everybody to play, and the nature of this mode can be rather exclusive. I don't think that's a good thing, to have a "Grind for weeks or pay $X for VC" entry fee.
Didn't really find this series of questions to pertain to "embracing the grind" so I'm not going to bother.
I would love to find the person that says "I want everything now" or even close to it. I think everybody has a different reason for not liking the system, so putting everybody under the same umbrella isn't right.
I'm a huge hoops fan. A lot of people here are. A lot of us like to play in different ways. And a very common gripe is that you are stuck with one player unless you fork over a crazy amount of time or money, and that dampens the experience. You see a game like NHL or FIFA where you can play these kinds of modes immediately without having to sacrifice so much, if I want to play defense one game I can, and I can play offense the next game. I'm not Messi or Crosby but I'm serviceable, you can't say that about a 60 rated player in 2k. it's disappointing to see 2k charging these prices while releasing a buggy as hell game (MLO is so broken right now and that would have been the other go to), and when EVERYTHING is centered around VC, you really can't afford to make mistakes with your build.
TBH, at first in 2k15, I didn't really care about putting in extra money for VC. It's the game I play most, and that extra cost didn't bother me. But throughout the years, they've done a bunch of little things that start to nag on you. Charging for animations, making you buy it for each player you make, limiting the VC you can earn from the phone app (It's only 100 VC a day, you used to be able to get 1000+ on a good day), upgrades used to cost MUCH less and it ballooned in 2k16 or 2k17, charging higher prices for animations, etc. It started making little things that much more annoying, especially buggy releases where Pro-AM doesn't work for the first 2 months of release. It really started to feel like they were trying to see how far they could go with it, good thing the community had such strong backlash or it would have been even worse this year.
As for the "Stop supporting it then" Well, I would, but they pretty much embellished some things about the game that are not holding up. MLO is a completely broken disaster and that's what I used to get 2k for. But even if I didn't buy the game, I'd still post these same complaints in hopes that next year's game is a better experience, and the year after. It's something called feedback and it's never going away.....
I didn't feel like this piece was even worth responding to. But hey, might as well do it.
In the beginning, he says this "I thought I’d have a look at some of the complaints from the 2K community and analyze the validity of their arguments. To do this, I’ll be using actual comments taken directly from the NBA2K subreddit."
Alright, so he's decided to personally pick which comments he wants to go after. I'll bet you people there made the same counterpoints I make, but he chose to ignore it. These are the quotes he used:
“2K makes you a piece of human trash so you feel forced to buy VC.”
-I don’t know about a piece of human trash, but is it really all that surprising that you would start as a lowly scrub when you begin your career in NBA 2K19? What were you expecting? That you would start out as an 80 overall without doing anything at all? That would defeat the whole purpose of progression and provide little sense of accomplishment for improving. Yes, your player isn’t going to be very good at all at the outset but that offers all the more incentive to play the game, improve your skills on the court, and this will ultimately lead to accumulating enough VC to start boosting those attributes.
-I don’t know about a piece of human trash, but is it really all that surprising that you would start as a lowly scrub when you begin your career in NBA 2K19? What were you expecting? That you would start out as an 80 overall without doing anything at all? That would defeat the whole purpose of progression and provide little sense of accomplishment for improving. Yes, your player isn’t going to be very good at all at the outset but that offers all the more incentive to play the game, improve your skills on the court, and this will ultimately lead to accumulating enough VC to start boosting those attributes.
“Grinding for VC instead of paying for it is equal to working for 40 cents per hour.”
-I’m sorry, are you being forced to work long hours at some sort of 2K slave labor camp? It clearly must be some kind of horrible predicament that people find themselves in to speak of playing a basketball video game as if they are instead toiling away in a coal mine or doing similarly hard labor.
A friendly reminder: this game is supposed to be fun. If you look at the prospect of playing a basketball video game as some sort of punishment or indignity that has to be suffered through rather than enjoyed, there’s real possibility that this might not be the game for you.
-I’m sorry, are you being forced to work long hours at some sort of 2K slave labor camp? It clearly must be some kind of horrible predicament that people find themselves in to speak of playing a basketball video game as if they are instead toiling away in a coal mine or doing similarly hard labor.
A friendly reminder: this game is supposed to be fun. If you look at the prospect of playing a basketball video game as some sort of punishment or indignity that has to be suffered through rather than enjoyed, there’s real possibility that this might not be the game for you.
“MyCareer archetypes need to be changed.”
The archetypes in NBA 2K19 are in place to allow you to create specific types of players that do can do a couple of things well at the cost of being limited in other facets of the game. The main reason that people like this want to see these archetypes changed is because they’d probably like their player to be good at absolutely everything instead. In a perfect world, they’d be able to create a 7-footer who moves with the quickness of Westbrook, rebounds like Rodman and shoots three-pointers as if he was the second coming of Steph Curry. Learn to embrace the strengths and accept the shortcomings of your players and focus on what they do well instead of what they are lacking.
The archetypes in NBA 2K19 are in place to allow you to create specific types of players that do can do a couple of things well at the cost of being limited in other facets of the game. The main reason that people like this want to see these archetypes changed is because they’d probably like their player to be good at absolutely everything instead. In a perfect world, they’d be able to create a 7-footer who moves with the quickness of Westbrook, rebounds like Rodman and shoots three-pointers as if he was the second coming of Steph Curry. Learn to embrace the strengths and accept the shortcomings of your players and focus on what they do well instead of what they are lacking.
“2K Needs to Revamp the Grading System.”
Don't feel much about this, I do think it can be unforgiving, but it's not the biggest deal in the world (And quite frankly doesn't really have much to do with the grind) But again, he says "What they are really seeking though is absolute validation after every game that they played the best possible game imaginable and could not have done one little thing better if they tried. But shouldn’t an A+ grade be fairly hard to achieve?" He's right, an A+ SHOULD be hard to achieve. But again, his first statement is him just making things up. Nobody said that A+ should be easy. They said there are flaws in the grading system. That's all.
“Wow this grind is something else. Takes forever just to get silver badges.”
Guess what? It takes a lot of practice to become a professional basketball player. You can’t just step on a court and suddenly start hitting shots from all over the court. It’s going to take some time in the team training facility working on the same drills over and over again.
Guess what? It takes a lot of practice to become a professional basketball player. You can’t just step on a court and suddenly start hitting shots from all over the court. It’s going to take some time in the team training facility working on the same drills over and over again.
“Trying to play in the neighborhood as a player under 80 overall is infuriating.”
. Yes, it would be nice if NBA 2K19 had separate parks for people depending on how high an overall their player is to make things a little more fair and competitive, but until that happens to steer clear of the Park unless you’re prepared to go up against players that have better attributes than you.
. Yes, it would be nice if NBA 2K19 had separate parks for people depending on how high an overall their player is to make things a little more fair and competitive, but until that happens to steer clear of the Park unless you’re prepared to go up against players that have better attributes than you.
“It’s time to get rid of the park and the neighborhood.”
“I Can Never Find Games in Jordan Rec Center!!!!”
“Skateboard costs 60k VC LOL”
“2K how you gonna charge me 10k VC for shoes I made??
“How To feed MyPlayer – He keeps complaining at the end of games that he’s starving and how his old coach used to make sandwiches or something”
“I Can Never Find Games in Jordan Rec Center!!!!”
“Skateboard costs 60k VC LOL”
“2K how you gonna charge me 10k VC for shoes I made??
“How To feed MyPlayer – He keeps complaining at the end of games that he’s starving and how his old coach used to make sandwiches or something”
“Why does everyone want to have a 99 player so quickly?”
Here’s the big question at the heart of MyCareer. And the answer is pretty simple really. Most people don’t want to wait. Most people don’t want to have to put in the kind of effort required to make your player good. They want everything now. I would say to those people in all sincerity: just buy the VC then. But please don’t then turn around and complain that the game requires you to buy VC to play because you know that isn’t true. What the game does ask you to do is play basketball if you want your player to get better. A lot of it. There’s certainly an argument to be made that the game doesn’t reward you with enough MyPoints or VC along the way, but purchasing VC to level up your player is entirely optional. The choice is yours: play the game regularly and give in to the grind, or use a shortcut and invest some extra cash in your player.
Here’s the big question at the heart of MyCareer. And the answer is pretty simple really. Most people don’t want to wait. Most people don’t want to have to put in the kind of effort required to make your player good. They want everything now. I would say to those people in all sincerity: just buy the VC then. But please don’t then turn around and complain that the game requires you to buy VC to play because you know that isn’t true. What the game does ask you to do is play basketball if you want your player to get better. A lot of it. There’s certainly an argument to be made that the game doesn’t reward you with enough MyPoints or VC along the way, but purchasing VC to level up your player is entirely optional. The choice is yours: play the game regularly and give in to the grind, or use a shortcut and invest some extra cash in your player.
I'm a huge hoops fan. A lot of people here are. A lot of us like to play in different ways. And a very common gripe is that you are stuck with one player unless you fork over a crazy amount of time or money, and that dampens the experience. You see a game like NHL or FIFA where you can play these kinds of modes immediately without having to sacrifice so much, if I want to play defense one game I can, and I can play offense the next game. I'm not Messi or Crosby but I'm serviceable, you can't say that about a 60 rated player in 2k. it's disappointing to see 2k charging these prices while releasing a buggy as hell game (MLO is so broken right now and that would have been the other go to), and when EVERYTHING is centered around VC, you really can't afford to make mistakes with your build.
TBH, at first in 2k15, I didn't really care about putting in extra money for VC. It's the game I play most, and that extra cost didn't bother me. But throughout the years, they've done a bunch of little things that start to nag on you. Charging for animations, making you buy it for each player you make, limiting the VC you can earn from the phone app (It's only 100 VC a day, you used to be able to get 1000+ on a good day), upgrades used to cost MUCH less and it ballooned in 2k16 or 2k17, charging higher prices for animations, etc. It started making little things that much more annoying, especially buggy releases where Pro-AM doesn't work for the first 2 months of release. It really started to feel like they were trying to see how far they could go with it, good thing the community had such strong backlash or it would have been even worse this year.
As for the "Stop supporting it then" Well, I would, but they pretty much embellished some things about the game that are not holding up. MLO is a completely broken disaster and that's what I used to get 2k for. But even if I didn't buy the game, I'd still post these same complaints in hopes that next year's game is a better experience, and the year after. It's something called feedback and it's never going away.....
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