Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

[jd@os]

Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

I see what you mean—your friend has to come over for WNBA gameplay but it would be nice to be able to play him (and others) online. Not having that option doesn’t make you angry; just makes you think. I get it.

And apparently enough people were “thinking” about mixing men and women footballers that EA gave it a shot in FC24. I wonder if that will be a feature that sticks around.


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[ggsimmonds]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

The answer (its probably already been stated multiple times) is that doing so does nothing for 2k.

Its nearly at the point (if it isn't already) that promoting and marketing the WNBA isn't worth the effort. The attempts don't lead to sustained increases in viewership.

As for brining WNBA teams into PNO, probably also not worth the effort even if the effort is very small.

[zello144]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

I’d play the WNBA modes if they gave us a nice chunk of VC. For those of us who refuse to buy VC and microtransactions the game has unfortunately felt like a job. We are not going to waste time for very small VC payouts when we could be gaining more somewhere else. Now if the W Mycareer paid more than 500 VC a game it’d get my attention. I only really touch it during launch day when the games installing and you can’t access Mycareer yet.

[ggsimmonds]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

I’d play the WNBA modes if they gave us a nice chunk of VC. For those of us who refuse to buy VC and microtransactions the game has unfortunately felt like a job. We are not going to waste time for very small VC payouts when we could be gaining more somewhere else. Now if the W Mycareer paid more than 500 VC a game it’d get my attention. I only really touch it during launch day when the games installing and you can’t access Mycareer yet.

Think I disagree with this. On the surface it seems acceptable, but I feel like it would more than likely create the following cycle:
Players would complain that standard NBA modes should offer the same reward>>2k patches it to increase the VC payout everywhere>>VC inflation as a result

Think I'm also just predisposed to dislike any instance where VC is the proposed solution.

[zello144]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

Think I disagree with this. On the surface it seems acceptable, but I feel like it would more than likely create the following cycle:
Players would complain that standard NBA modes should offer the same reward>>2k patches it to increase the VC payout everywhere>>VC inflation as a result

Think I'm also just predisposed to dislike any instance where VC is the proposed solution.

WNBA modes should give you some more VC not more than NBA modes but enough to where you shouldn’t ignore it. At least increase it from its current levels.

[vetmin]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

And just to re-iterate, these are things they barely do for the NBA. Few if any in the company have a pulse on the modern NBA. How many do you think have one for the WNBA?

I didn't reply to that point earlier just because I think it's fair to criticize 2K for things on the NBA side as well.

Time is a finite resource. It's not zero additional resources when they likely have one marketing guy for two leagues (who also likely wears 2-3 other hats as well). There is always a give and take. Social media posts aren't a snap your fingers *voila* content. They do actually require time & investment to craft.

Apologies for the vagueness (I wasn't so specific since my intent was just to point back to what I had argued earlier in more detail), but the "zero-risk" "painless" "zero-additional-resource-requiring" promotion I was alluding to there was more the inclusion of WNBA players in MyTeam (i.e., what I've mainly been talking about in this thread), my point being that—since the real-life NBA players in MyTeam are just glorified NBA Jam-esque avatars, and since plenty of these avatars are actually LESS known than star WNBA players—2K has nothing to lose by bringing the WNBA into that space. There's really only upside, as the presence of WNBA players in MyTeam will make them more familiar to gamers and encourage more engagement with other WNBA-related modes and content. Making MyPlayers fully 'co-ed' would naturally go along with this development too.

To me the social media stuff makes more sense in conjunction with these changes to the actual game. If you've got some sort of Steph x Sabrina Shootout event / card pack / challenge, then it makes for a natural tie-in to the WNBA (and NBA, for that matter) 3-Point Contest, for instance, when that rolls around. I'm well aware of the realities of social media work, but in my comments about that, I was suggesting more a change in the balance / character of what they're posting (at least during the WNBA season) rather than literally adding a stream of WNBA-related posts to their existing social media flow. In that scenario, I do think you have a point with this:

Marketing the WNBA on 2K's platform certainly isn't growing 2K or generating purchases - it actually risks devaluing their platform by forcing undesirable content down the average fan's throat.

...but I think that point is valid only really if we're discussing social media promotions alone without any sort of changes to the actual game that would bring the WNBA into the game's most popular modes. If WNBA promotion on social media is really functioning as promotion for useful in-game products in marquee modes, then I think a competent social media person / team should be able to leverage that into engaging social media content.

Ultimately, I think we just fundamentally disagree about the potential of the WNBA to be an attractive part of the game. None of what I'm saying is motivated by a sense of "2K should do it because it's the right thing to do!" No 'feelings over facts' on this end (to reply to one user above). I don't even follow the WNBA myself, but in recent years I've found myself becoming unwittingly more and more aware of the league via more trending content on social media and seemingly more embracement from NBA players. It just seems like it's becoming more of a 'thing'.

So, with that in mind, when I see this not-insignificant WNBA portion of the game on the one hand, and a bunch of essentially anonymous / zero-cachet 'avatars' in MyTeam on the other, it just feels like a wasted opportunity to make the WNBA feel less like dead weight in 2K. I'm not criticizing 2K for failing to stand up for women; I'm criticizing them for failing to get as much as they could out of their product. I don't buy that—for all of our complaining about goofy ratings, broken stuff in franchise mode, etc.—2K is some perfect, well-oiled machine when it comes to the cash-cow aspects of the game. I think they can be short-sighted and inefficient there too, and that this is one area where they're behind the curve. (FWIW I think they and others* will follow EA FC's lead before too long.)

EDIT: *Again, where a female equivalent is even available to work with (so maybe FIFA, PGA, etc.?). Not sure what all other non-combat sports game franchises are out there that have popular fantasy-style modes as well as whose sports have a real-life professional equivalent for women.

[vetmin]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

One of the old UFC games in the early 2000s that came out on the PS2 did it. Around like 2004. But there was only one female fighter that you could fight. Went under the radar because all the games before THQ were ***.

https://youtu.be/7ynMhND7ud0?si=9dXdZA9knjtfNecl

UFC Sudden impact

Yeah, I remember the old WWF Royal Rumble game on SNES had Luna Vachon as a plain ol' regular wrestler, too—undifferentiated from and usable against all of the male wrestlers. I'm not so inclined to reference older wrestling/MMA games though because the further back you go, the less sensitivity there was in general about domestic violence, so it could be argued that maybe those older games aren't worth applauding. One might disagree, but it's just a tangent I didn't want to potentially get off on in an NBA 2K thread.

[jd@os]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

EDIT: *Again, where a female equivalent is even available to work with (so maybe FIFA, PGA, etc.?). Not sure what all other non-combat sports game franchises are out there that have popular fantasy-style modes as well as whose sports have a real-life professional equivalent for women.

Again, I think that you and jeebs have brought up good points. There are people on the forums that seem to take issue with people disagreeing with them and even voicing a different opinion, but then act like you're the one with the problem.

Take me for example. I don't watch the WNBA and would never play with one of the teams online, use a player card, team-up mode, etc: but I can respect where you're coming from. Mixing the genders in an NBA 2K team-up mode is something I would not do but it makes sense....

....But I am also one of those people who question why LPGA players are playing in the same (specific) tour events as the men in PGA Tour 2K23. It wouldn't take me out of NBA 2K to see A'ja Wilson playing in the park with NBA players, but it does when I see Lydia Ko at the top of the leader board in (specific) PGA Tour events in 2K23.

[jeebs9]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

Also don't know if y'all saw this on Twitter. Looks like the league is asking for more about the women poster models. That's some of the stuff I'm talking about.

https://twitter.com/nba2kcmty/status/1710768383296188890?t=4cXygvM0Hj4hRX_Jb_3srA&s=19

I think this all started with Lexi player model literally having no hairline.

[bo_jax2000]

Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

Does anyone know how to access the player models they have under WNBA history?


Under League News, WNBA records. Options are Game (Season), Game (Playoffs), Season, Career

Katie Smith 96 overall
Tamika Catchings 98 overall
Lisa Leslie 98 overall
Lauren Jackson 97 overall
Becky Hammon 97 overall
Delisha Milton-Jones 93 overall
Swin Cash 96 overall
Taj McWilliams-Franklin 96 overall
Sheryl Swoopes 98 overall
Chamique Holdsclaw 95 overall
Yolanda Griffith 96 overall
Ticha Penicheiro 96 overall
Cheryl Ford 95 overall
Dawn Staley 95 overall
Teresa Weatherspoon 96 overall
Kim Perrot 98 overall

[vtcrb]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

Does anyone know how to access the player models they have under WNBA history?


Under League News, WNBA records. Options are Game (Season), Game (Playoffs), Season, Career

Katie Smith 96 overall
Tamika Catchings 98 overall
Lisa Leslie 98 overall
Lauren Jackson 97 overall
Becky Hammon 97 overall
Delisha Milton-Jones 93 overall
Swin Cash 96 overall
Taj McWilliams-Franklin 96 overall
Sheryl Swoopes 98 overall
Chamique Holdsclaw 95 overall
Yolanda Griffith 96 overall
Ticha Penicheiro 96 overall
Cheryl Ford 95 overall
Dawn Staley 95 overall
Teresa Weatherspoon 96 overall
Kim Perrot 98 overall

It is really Odd they have actual Players Portraits for some of them. I tried everything I could think of to Copy their DNA and it didn't give any options.

[bo_jax2000]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

It is really Odd they have actual Players Portraits for some of them. I tried everything I could think of to Copy their DNA and it didn't give any options.

Becky Hammon and Katie Smith are in as coaches. I wonder if those players show up in WNBA MyPlayer. They could also be VIP guests that show up during random WNBA games.

[JJ232323]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

WNBA mode should be removed and pay those devs to work on the actual game

[jeebs9]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

WNBA mode should be removed and pay those devs to work on the actual game

SMH... Why are people like this? I get it if you don't play this part of the game. But other people do.

[jd@os]

Re: Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

SMH... Why are people like this? I get it if you don't play this part of the game. But other people do.

I've been seeing this in other threads, too. I don't watch the WNBA nor do I play the mode on 2K, but I can see why the question was asked in the title.