NBA 2K14: My GM Interview, Hands-On Impressions, More! (Next-Gen)

[rjohns23]

I just have 3 questions:

1) Can we edit the rosters on our team and the other teams throughout the season?

2) Will there be custom draft classes and can we edit the draft classes while in the season?

3) Can we resign from a team and chose another team as we wish and then sign back to our original team? (I only do this if the CPU does a dumb trade or if the CPU has 4 injured players and they refuse to sign someone in free agency, allowing the player to play injured when he should be out)

The thing that made 2k's association mode so great was that we had the ability to customize everything associated with the mode if we wanted to. I have a strong feeling that we won't be able to do this with Next Gen this year, hopefully we will, but more than likely not.

[kjjnesb]

Quote: Originally Posted by VDusen04

I believe there's a lot of folks (myself included) attempting to see how much the new "Association on steroids" really has in common with the original idea of an Association. Folks are rightfully curious and wondering as to how much of the MyGM will be gamers being able to dictate their own path as realistically as they see fit, and how much of MyGM will be simply attempting to manage RPG madness ("Chauncey's happy! Crap! Now Jenning's pissed! Ah! I'm fired!"). A lot of folks have looked to NBA 2K for a simulation experience. Often, those folks have welcomed new additions as long as that simulation ability remained. If MyGM removes the ability for folks to control their own franchise seasons through activities such as dictating real life trades, draft choices, editing all players' jersey numbers, shoes, dunks, abilities, accessories, so on and so forth

Well said I welcome these changes as long as they're building on top of existing Association concepts

[Cowboy008]

Nice video can't wait to hear more about MyGM.

[VDusen04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sundown

Why would you guys even assume that? The whole point of association is to win games and championships. The whole point of GMing is to put together a team to do so. They shouldn't have to detail the obvious when introducing features.

Again, I believe that point could vary from person to person. I kind of feel that, if I wanted to, I'd probably be able to manipulate current gen 2K's to put together a 2013 Detroit Pistons team that'd be championship ready almost immediately. But I've done that, and for me, it's not always fun.

More times, the point of Association for me is just to feel like I'm the Pistons. Through this current era, that's meant miring in a little bit of mediocrity (or altogether awfulness) in hopes of building myself up in the future. At some point I like to envision my Pistons being contenders, but I don't like the idea of being cut down and not being allowed to proceed through my Association just because the computer feels I'm not doing a good enough job.

So in short, I play Association for the realistic experience, and winning is just a part of that experience. I'm not sure if I view watching a virtual version of my 29 year old self pretending to be GM of the Pistons chatting in the same chair position with players in hopes of leveling up as a realistic experience.

[Sundown]

Quote: Originally Posted by VDusen04

I believe it may be argued as to whether certain RPG elements make the game more realistic or more like a fictional story. For instance, I think many would not have hesitated to agree that the introduction of "Player Roles" was a move in a realistic direction years ago. However, in many cases, it yielded unrealistic results and forced gamers in fictional directions (ex: certain off-the-bench staples in real life refusing their "Sixth Man" role in-game, demanding a trade or else ruining your entire team's chemistry). As a result, I actually found my Associations were more realistic without player roles, even though it was a realistic-based idea. Regarding being fired, I have to believe that's an option that can be turned on and off. Wasn't that a feature in 2K before as well? I'm not someone who starts a franchise as the Detroit Pistons and hopes to keep my "job" as fake general manager. I start a franchise with the Pistons so I can do what I want, for as long as I want, with the Detroit Pistons. I'd hate to think the game would arbitrarily fire me after year one in Detroit because I mimicked a trade that occurred in real life and my fictional owner didn't like it.

I can agree that some of the realistic features were not well implemented, but there's nothing sim about being able to set your lineups any way you want without repercussion regardless of player role.

The right solution is to fix these issues and move forward, and allow people to turn it off if it doesn't work well for them, which is exactly what they've done. The right solution isn't to just leave these features out and make no progress because some players are more content faking results themselves in an association that has less gameplay mechanics and rules.

If there's anything to harp on 2K for it's not their willingness to innovate. It's their slowness to fix what's broken and move the genre forward.

[cthurt]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sundown

Why would you guys even assume that? The whole point of association is to win games and championships. The whole point of GMing is to put together a team to do so. They shouldn't have to detail the obvious when introducing features. We don't assume that there are no layups in the game just because they show new dunks. We don't assume the score doesn't matter in game's now just because they advertise highlights. They shouldn't have to say, "by the way, higher score still wins" after every new feature bullet point. I understand concerns but the fear mongering gets a little much here sometimes.

I understand what your saying and I admit I said that without watching the entire video, Ill just hold my thoughts until we get all the info about this mode, I can see the direction 2k is going and if everything works it should be a good thing, Its just hard to forget 2ks history when it comes to ai logic in association mode.

[Sundown]

Quote: Originally Posted by VDusen04

Again, I believe that point could vary from person to person. I kind of feel that, if I wanted to, I'd probably be able to manipulate current gen 2K's to put together a 2013 Detroit Pistons team that'd be championship ready almost immediately. But I've done that, and for me, it's not always fun. More times, the point of Association for me is just to feel like I'm the Pistons. Through this current era, that's meant miring in a little bit of mediocrity (or altogether awfulness) in hopes of building myself up in the future. At some point I like to envision my Pistons being contenders, but I don't like the idea of being cut down and not being allowed to proceed through my Association just because the computer feels I'm not doing a good enough job. So in short, I play Association for the realistic experience, and winning is just a part of that experience. I'm not sure if I view watching a virtual version of my 29 year old self pretending to be GM of the Pistons chatting in the same chair position with players in hopes of leveling up as a realistic experience.

I know winning is not the only goal, but it's an "implied" goal. I was just pointing out that it's somewhat silly to think that winning doesn't factor into an association at all.

Why not make a MyPlayer that looks like the actual pistons GM? I'm hoping that we can have more than one MyPlayer (don't have my hopes up though) and model one after our franchise GM. Except the CAP system is probably not good for making old dudes. At least GSW GM Bob Myers is actually relatively young so lucked out there.

[VDusen04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sundown

I can agree that some of the realistic features were not well implemented, but there's nothing sim about being able to set your lineups any way you want without repercussion regardless of player role. The right solution is to fix these issues and move forward, and allow people to turn it off if it doesn't work well for them, which is exactly what they've done. The right solution isn't to just leave these features out and make no progress because some players are more content faking results themselves in an association that has less gameplay mechanics and rules. If there's anything to harp on 2K for it's not their willingness to innovate. It's their slowness to fix what's broken and move the genre forward.

I'm with your general idea here. I do believe, however, that people setting their lineups to mimic real life is about as sim as it gets, whether computer data makes video game versions of real life players upset or not.

But again, I'm with you on the rest of your post. I think the issue here is abilities have been removed, as opposed to just being relegated as "on or off" functions. I'm personally holding out for information as to whether it's going to be possible to edit other team's players in Associations. If not, that may kind of compound the issue for me. It does not sound promising at this point in that regard.

Quote: Originally Posted by Sundown

I know winning is not the only goal, but it's an "implied" goal. I was just pointing out that it's somewhat silly to think that winning doesn't factor into an association at all. Why not make a MyPlayer that looks like the actual pistons GM? I'm hoping that we can have more than one MyPlayer (don't have my hopes up though) and model one after our franchise GM. Except the CAP system is probably not good for making old dudes. At least GSW GM Bob Myers is actually relatively young so lucked out there.

Yeah, I suppose it'll depend on the multiple MyPlayer front. I guess I was operating under their recent push to allow just one single MyPlayer, almost as an avatar of sorts, for all modes. At least allowing us to create a separate MyPlayer for MyGM (Joe Dumars) and being able to hire a completely accurate coaching staff would be a push in the right direction.