Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

[Codysseus]

Hello, of course it is entirely up to each individual how he or she spends their money, but for the sake of us all and the future of NBA2k, I must plead.

Please, please stop paying for virtual currency with real currency. I know it's tempting, you want your player to improve and you want to buy accessories, but is it really worth it? These same accessories have been offered for free within player creation for years. Now we have a virtual currency that we can either earn through playing the game or we can inexplicably pay them more money than the $60 we've each thrown at them. The choice should be obvious, but I've seen numerous people claim to have purchased virtual currency to be used on virtual (re: NOT REAL) products to supplement our game.

I don't mean to condemn 2ksports or Visual Concepts or whoever for implementing the feature. They want more money, they're a relatively large business, that's the role they've embraced. Fine. But why do we continue to pledge our support? At least they give us the option to earn the virtual currency through play, but it's clear that by making accessories so expensive and rewarding virtual currency so stingily (specifically in MyCareer mode, where it's most valuable) that they're trying to guide players into unloading additional actual money.

It's a good business strategy and one that appears to be working, but if we want - and I think we do - future iterations to not include such cash-grabbing practices (especially on content that we've already had at our fingertip), it's crucial to not open our wallets. If they don't make the virtual currency system a bit more balanced with patches, well that kinda stinks, but at least we're not encouraging them to continue.

What corporation are you aware of that scraps an idea that gives them extra cash? By supporting this, it's only going to get worse from here. I really enjoy this game and am happy to support its creators, but at some point we have to draw the line.

Thanks

[ritz104]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

It's too late. Too easy and too tempting for the casual player to just shell out the $5-10 and improve immediately.

The sad part is, I can't blame them. I just recently got to the 50 games played milestone in MyCareer. 8 minute quarters and i'm averaging an A- team mate grade. For all that work, I have a 72 rating and an arm band to show for it.

How is the average person supposed to improve at that rate? Accumulating VC is impossibly difficult and one has to wonder whether 2K did this intentionally so as to force the user's hand into buying.

It's unfortunate. At this point it's my biggest gripe with the game and judging by how many people are spending, it's not going away.

[Codysseus]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

It may indeed be too late but cutting down on the amount of money they make from this thing over time couldn't possibly hurt our cause, could it? I too understand people who do buy VC, I think 2k probably did implement the system the way the did in order to force the consumer's hand. That's why I'm pleading people to resist. It really is good business strategy, but it's morally suspect.

[pegout]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

Play the game you DONT have to spend any money. Who does it really hurt if someone WANTS to buy VC. You act like its a must to play the game, you earn VC for everything you do in the game...

[ritz104]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

It may indeed be too late but cutting down on the amount of money they make from this thing over time couldn't possibly hurt our cause, could it? I too understand people who do buy VC, I think 2k probably did implement the system the way the did in order to force the consumer's hand. That's why I'm pleading people to resist. It really is good business strategy, but it's morally suspect.

Of course it would help, but I can't possibly see it happening.

There's always going to be the kid with his mom's credit card or the casual player who doesn't have the time to put in, and that;s fine with me. Where I agree with you is the fact that this is just an all round crappy move by 2K. Yes, they're in the business of making money, but it sucks to see an otherwise solid game bogged down by something so frustrating.

[Perfect23]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

Its never too late...

[Codysseus]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

Play the game you DONT have to spend any money. Who does it really hurt if someone WANTS to buy VC. You act like its a must to play the game, you earn VC for everything you do in the game...

I actually explicitly stated that I know it's not required. They merely provide a lot of incentive TO buy VC but at the same time they've not only made player accessories not available from the start of player creation, they've made them incredibly expensive relative to how much VC you earn through play. I suppose they're penalizing the impatient, compulsive consumers who can't put in the time necessary to earn such rewards, so shame on them. What they're doing isn't morally reprehensible, since they are offering a choice, but it is morally suspect because they've obviously shifted the balance towards you giving them more and more money.

By throwing financial support behind this idea you encourage them to continue to restrict access to, what were in years' past, immediately available features. I don't mean they restrict it in general, I mean they restrict it to the saps willing to pay for immediate gratification, or the people who have the overwhelming amount of free time required to unlock everything through play, artificially drawing out the game's longevity.

[Codysseus]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

There will always be those folks that are willing to pay, I'm not expecting everyone to quite buying VC all at once. I'm just hoping more people will choose not to. The less money they make from it, the better.

[willIam9387]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

I don't have a problem with virtual currency as it caters to those who want immediate gratification and those who would like to grind it out and achieve those rewards through putting in the effort rather than just immediately purchasing those things. I necessarily don't see any reason to buy VC for MyCareer as I play Association mode too, so I'll be able to fund my player through Association mode and what he earns in MyCareer. In so far as MyTeam, maybe I would purchase coins because you'd really have to grind it out for that mode and I don't have the time.....time is money as they say. In respect to MyTeam, you'll probably have those big pocket players who will pay for the super team, but then you probably will have the small ball owner who will grind it out and really pay attention to his lineups and sig skill upgrades to maximize his team. So buying VC is just an option for those people who either don't have the time and want immediate gratification.

[SouthBeach]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

Virtual Currency = VC

Visual Concepts = VC

Spending real USD on VC = spending real USD on VC

[MagicFan4Life]

I spent $10 on VC to buy certain things for my MyPLAYER (Dunk packages, pre-game rituals, arm sleeves, etc). I also needed to get the achievement for having a balance of 20,000 VC and buying the MJ dunk package. Those are pretty much impossible to get without buying VC. It would take about 33 MyPLAYER blacktop games to get the MJ dunk package or get an arm sleeve.

[MoleDude]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

There will always be those folks that are willing to pay, I'm not expecting everyone to quite buying VC all at once. I'm just hoping more people will choose not to. The less money they make from it, the better.

How is it better for a company that makes a game you like to play to make less money? That's totally backwards.

Micro transactions are already very prominent with gaming companies, 2k was smart to jump on board. It's not going away. Game development and support costs are going up...so it's either stuff like this where you can choose to spend money, or you can pay more than $60 for new games. I prefer the choice option.

[PurePlayinSerb]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

i bought 20 bucks worth of vc, and don't regret it at all, the way i look at it, it could be a lot worse like hackers in the past 2k's. or you can put up with an option everyone has that is fair cause you are not exceeding rating caps, and get a shortcut to a better my player... if you can't beat em join em, and don't try to justify being a cheap a$$

[nuckles2k2]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

Play the game you DONT have to spend any money. Who does it really hurt if someone WANTS to buy VC. You act like its a must to play the game, you earn VC for everything you do in the game...

Except I don't have the amount of time needed to dedicate myself to playing play-now, blacktop, online, or whatever, to earn VC.

I'm not a casual player by any stretch, I'm just a person whose free time is sporadic, and really only lasts about as long as a project will allow...which is usually not long at all.

So I was already pissed when I found out that my MyCareer dude was going to be paid in coins instead of regular money denominations (I'm not 7 years old, it looks dumb & it feels dumb)...but then I see that the coins come in drips and drabs to entice the player to buy VC if they're not going to devote hours upon hours of Play-Now or online games...and it's infuriating.

The way they went about it in MyCareer is all wrong. Attributes and accessories shouldn't be governed and earned by the same currency. The system they had last year was perfect. Skill points & money to do whatever else you wanted. It wasn't broken, they should have left it.

And your online MyPlayer should be 100% server-side. If their fear is people editing a guy and taking him online...it's simple...don't give them a file to edit.

I hate these arguments..."you earn VC for everything you do in the game..." man...I don't even....

What if you purchased the game solely for one mode, and people are telling you "oh...just play the other modes, earn fake money...to spend in that mode so you can improve your character, and.....yea..."

2K created a job within a video game, so you can play a mode that's essentially a fake job....within a video game. That, or pay real money, for fake money, so you can enjoy your fake job...in the video game.

If you're over the age of 16 and that seems perfectly logical to you, therein lies the problem. You ain't thinking straight.

[Codysseus]

Re: Stop Buying Virtual Currency, please

How is it better for a company that makes a game you like to play to make less money? That's totally backwards.

Micro transactions are already very prominent with gaming companies, 2k was smart to jump on board. It's not going away. Game development and support costs are going up...so it's either stuff like this where you can choose to spend money, or you can pay more than $60 for new games. I prefer the choice option.

I don't want them to go bankrupt, I'm sure they're making plenty of money from retail sales alone. I want them to make less money strictly from these micro-transactions because I don't like this micro-transaction trend and I don't like when a company I have financially supported for years decides to rake in more cash from us loyal customers by putting previously at-our-fingertips content behind significant time and/or monetary barriers. Costs of development are rising? Maybe you shouldn't pay Jay-Z and a host of wealthy NBA Legends for their expensive likenesses.

To be fair, it is nice that they did indeed allow us a choice. My issue is primarily with the consumers here. Future games are going to exclude more content to those with a surplus of time or money required. I suppose I should just shut up and grind.

i bought 20 bucks worth of vc, and don't regret it at all, the way i look at it, it could be a lot worse like hackers in the past 2k's. or you can put up with an option everyone has that is fair cause you are not exceeding rating caps, and get a shortcut to a better my player... if you can't beat em join em, and don't try to justify being a cheap a$$

I'm being cheap because I refuse to pay for virtual content after already shelling out $60 for the game? I don't think I have to justify that at all and I'm not nearly competitive enough to try to even the odds against cheesers by spending money that I should be spending on ACTUAL THINGS IN REALITY over virtual gold stars. Thanks for that though.