MyLeague Online - A Sad History, A Bleak Future

[swimfunk]

I'll save simballer the time of typing a response. Here is last years response:

Quote:

Hi folks, In hindsight, I don't think I did a good job of eloquently explaining why MyLEAGUE Online is what it is, and how it came to be in 2K16. About 5 years ago, I made a strong push to management to give me the resources to provide a fully featured online franchise mode, which later came to be known as The Association: Online. Ambitious, and by-and-large, it worked. Sure, there were some quirks or design decisions that people didn't like (e.g. the moving window of advancement). Once that project was complete, my team and I moved on to other areas of the game. Having watched Online Leagues in NBA 2K14 and NBA 2K15 falter (for lack of a better word), I went back to management very early this year and told them I would be taking over the online league experience once again. This wasn't up for debate. To be fair, the people at VC that worked on this mode the last two years did a very admirable job, they just didn't have the experienced resources needed to deliver the proper experience you guys were craving. Those guys were hungry this year to right the ship. I loved seeing it. For NBA 2K16, we combined our resource pools, which gave us the opportunity for me to allocate some of my more specialized and experienced engineers on this project. One such engineer, Brad, spent the majority of his year coming up with a completely new server-based architecture that is the heart and soul of NBA 2K16's MyLEAGUE Online feature. This brings me to my main point for writing this. I've seen a few mentions (and about 12 of the same post from ataman (oh snap!)) and assumptions of this being the same mode as last year with potentially x and y feature added. This really couldn't be further from the truth. This is a completely new experience built with an all-new backend driving it. Gosh knows it won't be 100% perfect (though we certainly hope it is), but you do have my word that we will give you 110% until it is. We'll work through anything that comes up. Heck, Leftos won't sleep until issues are resolved. Brad is the same way. You guys got the 'A' team supporting you at this point; these are some of the brightest guys in the industry. I played last year's Online Leagues pretty heavily. MyLEAGUE Online isn't last year's leagues. It may not have the offseason you covet, but it does contain the features that make MyLEAGUE such a special experience. You will be able to (and I can't believe some of these weren't there last year, sorry): Make Rotational adjustments Implement Gameplans (and everything that comes with that) Utilize custom playbooks Adjust gameplay sliders (at the admin level) Adjust MyLEAGUE-specific sliders like Trade Negotiation Difficulty (at the admin level) Custom Roster support Control everything as an admin (trade approval, force winners, force losers, reset games, etc. etc. etc.) I see people mention things like, "did they fix the bug about being able to rejoin the league once you leave?" To that, I say no. No, we didn't because this an entirely new experience. That bug never existed in this experience. Unfortunately, time IS a factor when you release an annual title. It's not an excuse I use, because it is my problem, not yours. You want (and deserve) the universe. That being said, I'm tremendously proud of the people who managed to create an all-new online league foundation (that will serve us well as new features are added) while simultaneously making what I think is probably the biggest single year jump in our franchise in a long time. Lastly, I truly appreciate the discussion taking place within this thread regarding MyLEAGUE Online. I'm not one to shy away from a solid discussion or get my feelings hurt because someone doesn't like the way something isn't done. While this is business, this is my passion. This is the same for Leftos, Dave Z, Brad, and everyone else that played a major part in these modes. We WANT to hear your thoughts on what we're adding (or not adding if the case may be). At the end of the day, if it's not abundantly clear even after reading the "Little Things" section of my blog post...We've got your best interests at heart. Enjoy the mode(s) this year.

[ataman5]

Well all i can say is no expections = no frustrations that i learnt over the years like over the last 6 years.. (A lot huh..)

Once a year we come to a thread like this some has been created by me some by Ame, some by Swim or Lvnba or some other beloved Online League player here. I think i stop trying to understand the reasoning, the words that devs put in every year in the same time and in the same manner, clearly they don't really care as we do which i find is ok, well they're there we're here, the world is round etc.

What really bothered me with this new dev blog was that literally there was 2 lines about Online League, 2 lines in a full year. And one was about playoff resets which i asked with all kindness from the devs like 3 years and now it's come alive, i think i should be grateful for that, well. I don't wanna be cynical, too, it's gotten to a point that i don't see any point.

The other game has its spot to hit and the competition is really vulnerable here, i've never been a fanboy i love 2k but that doesn't mean i won't love competitive 'Stable' Online Simulation basketball league over a brand sake so.

[swimfunk]

We got the A team supporting this?? The A team gave us playoff resets and relocations (which no one wanted or will use). Never been more disappointed in Mr. T and we've been through a lot together.


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[ph33]

+1 for someone who is upset with the lack of progression with this mode.

They have gone backwards year after year. The ability to reset playoff games was something they listed as a new feature? This goes to show how far they have to go, and compared to their peers, they still have such a long way to go.

I miss how leagues could be flexible before. We weren't forced to have AI teams just because. We could control so many things. Now it's just a big mess.

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

MyLeague Online isn't really my thing (maybe because of how barebones the mode is, but I honestly can't say with certainty that I'd be playing it much even if it rivaled the offline franchise mode).

Still, I truly feel for you guys. Madden's franchise offering is still so barebones but it blows the MyLeague Online feature out of the water. As someone that loves the offline MyLeague, I wish you guys could be as happy with today's blog as I am. It's really a shame because 2K's team has proven that when they want to create a deep feature, they're capable of it.

[amedawg00]

Quote: Originally Posted by Yeah...THAT Guy

MyLeague Online isn't really my thing (maybe because of how barebones the mode is, but I honestly can't say with certainty that I'd be playing it much even if it rivaled the offline franchise mode). Still, I truly feel for you guys. Madden's franchise offering is still so barebones but it blows the MyLeague Online feature out of the water. As someone that loves the offline MyLeague, I wish you guys could be as happy with today's blog as I am. It's really a shame because 2K's team has proven that when they want to create a deep feature, they're capable of it.

Thanks for supporting the MLO community even though you have no dog in the fight. We just want a tenth of what you offline guys have. Year after year, all we get are scraps. Most MLOs are very sim in nature and the game play against like minded sim heads is what keeps it fresh and addicting year round. I wish more offline guys had the Necessary time and commitment to give it a chance. It's a hell of a mode when you find the right group of users and community to enjoy it with.

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[Caveman24]

I can't lie that little 2 line sentence for MLO hurt. I re read the entire post to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'm sure it can't be that hard to copy over the offline experience to the online one. I love 2K, it's just mind boggling that the MLO crowd gets completely ignored.

[alabamarob]

If they could just get the gameplay setting to stay on HOF that would be great. Everytime they patched the game the shooting on our MLO would be messed up because the sliders changed. We got to the playoffs and everyone was shooting 10 percent from 3.

So hopefully they can at least keep the existing MLO to function with the patches in 18.

Also, it would be good if the Admin could trade and adjust CPU rosters and lineups. Watching the CPU put together horrible lineups and rotations is all bad.

The people and the competition will always make the MLO something I do, however it would be nice if we had more options, and more stability.