2K and EA Are Fumbling the Bag

[ChaseB]

The mixed emotions I have this year during the peak of the major sports game release...

Written By: Chase Becotte

Click here to view the article.

[scagwi]

Well ... that nuked my enjoyment for the week

lol

In all seriousness though, I totally agree with you Chase

The greed is ruining everything

[drugsbunny]

I don't mind the paying a little extra to boost up my player. I do mind the fact that I can't make certain player types. I would rather be able to put all my attributes up to 99 regardless of height, weight and such. I would be ok if they made certain attributes higher in cost to increase, i.e. if you make a 6'10 280 pound point guard, it would cost a lot of VC to increase his speed and vertical and such, but not too much for strength and rebounding. i hate having caps. I can't re-create Ben Simmons or LeBron.

[leoribas3]

Re: 2K and EA Are Fumbling the Bag

Im not an online 2k player, havent been since 2k11.
This stuff doesnt really bother me, yet i know it affects me because it takes dev time and affects dev decisions and game mechanics.

That being said your article is 100% facts. I really dont think people grasp how much they are charging.

I dont know about yall but Im not from the US. Minimum wage in my country equals to $212 dollars a month. The game costs $70 bucks. 200k VC costs $50.

Read what he said about the MyTeam grind and add to it the MyCareer grind and you clearly cant even play both modes in the same yearly cycle.

Just to put things in perspective.

[HenryClay1844]

Modern gaming under capitalism. You have to decide what you want to put your time into and what you enjoy. If you have fun and are ok with a certain amount of exploitation there are worse things to do. Even if I try these gambling modes for a little while (and normally I entirely ignore them), I tire quickly because, at the basic level, they are designed to suck more money out of you. Why grind for some player card when you can play my Eras anyway.

[Gosens6]

Re: 2K and EA Are Fumbling the Bag

Great write up here. I can’t speak for madden, but since I’ve started playing 2K My Career, I’ve never seen the price gouging as bad as it is this year.

If you don’t pay to play, you might as well not even think of taking your player to the park or Rec, it’s not even worth it. This is pure greed at its finest


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[jimbo3772]

Re: 2K and EA Are Fumbling the Bag

Im not an online 2k player, havent been since 2k11.
This stuff doesnt really bother me, yet i know it affects me because it takes dev time and affects dev decisions and game mechanics.

Same. I played MUT in Madden 16 and the prices were ridiculous and I've never played any of the pay-to-play online modes in sports games again. It sucks for franchise and offline players because we're always at the bottom of the priority list for game devs because we're not making them extra money like the online modes. That's why the MyEras stuff in 2K23 was such a pleasant surprise. I'm totally behind anyone boycotting online purchases though because maybe that will cause the devs in these games to stop catering the games so much to the online crowd over the offline players.

[ksuttonjr76]

Re: 2K and EA Are Fumbling the Bag

Read what he said about the MyTeam grind and add to it the MyCareer grind and you clearly cant even play both modes in the same yearly cycle.

Just to put things in perspective.

I wish that I could thank this comment 1000 times. I understand SOME grinding, but this game is way too large for that. It literally feels like a full time job playing just ONE mode. I'm currently playing MyTeam, but the agendas are so freaking time consuming, that I haven't really had a real opportunity to play PNO and MyPlayer like I want to. Then there's still the WNBA which I think will get cheated due to how much time people are "forced" to play the other modes.

2KSports really need to loosen up the grinding, so people can enjoy or at least experience the other modes in the game. You never know. They could make more money from microtransactions, because people want to be and have time to be competitive in multiple modes.

[Therebelyell626]

If You feed the greed machine…. You get more greed. Why is anyone shocked by this?

[Formula1Racing]

Very well written and very true....Excellent Job Chase!

[ksuttonjr76]

Re: 2K and EA Are Fumbling the Bag

If You feed the greed machine…. You get more greed. Why is anyone shocked by this?

I'm sorry, but this comment can be applied to ANY product sold in a capitalistic economy. Unless you're planning to live your life in the stone age, you're feeding a greed machine every time you spend money. It's not like we're still paying .59 for a taco at Taco Bell.

[Therebelyell626]

Re: 2K and EA Are Fumbling the Bag

I'm sorry, but this comment can be applied to ANY product sold in a capitalistic economy. Unless you're planning to live your life in the stone age, you're feeding a greed machine every time you spend money. It's not like we're still paying .59 for a taco at Taco Bell.

What you speak of is inflation. Not greed. A taco is not no longer .59 because someone arbitrarily decided it should costs more money. The price of the taco went up because the cost to produce and the labor to produce said taco went up. I am fine with this as this is the natural evolution of currency.

A digital card has zero tangible value. It literally has no material costs because it is something you will physically never own. Someone slaps an NBA players face on it, with an over inflated overall of 100, and says that it is special. It is so special in fact that it will cost you this much in fake currency. Fake currency that you can purchase with REAL money. It literally has no purpose outside of the video game. You can’t sell it. It will never create a return on investment. It’s only purpose in life is to remove your money from your pocket in to theirs. You can then manipulate the value of this non tangible good, by making it hard to obtain and scarce to find. Thus manipulating its perceived value when it costs you nearly zero dollars to produce.

That’s the difference between greed and inflation

[ksuttonjr76]

Re: 2K and EA Are Fumbling the Bag

What you speak of is inflation. Not greed. A taco is not no longer .59 because someone arbitrarily decided it should costs more money. The price of the taco went up because the cost to produce and the labor to produce said taco went up. I am fine with this as this is the natural evolution of currency.

A digital card has zero tangible value. It literally has no material costs because it is something you will physically never own. Someone slaps an NBA players face on it, with an over inflated overall of 100, and says that it is special. It is so special in fact that it will cost you this much in fake currency. Fake currency that you can purchase with REAL money. It literally has no purpose outside of the video game. You can’t sell it. It will never create a return on investment. It’s only purpose in life is to remove your money from your pocket in to theirs. You can then manipulate the value of this non tangible good, by making it hard to obtain and scarce to find. Thus manipulating its perceived value when it costs you nearly zero dollars to produce.

That’s the difference between greed and inflation

What you call inflation is what I call a fancy word that Corporate America hides behind to justify the cost of raising the prices on certain products and services at a pace that impacts the way you live.

Say what you want about NBA 2K or any game that has microtransactions. At least, I have a choice to walk away and never look back. I wish I had that same power of choice with my electric bill/company.

Natural evolution? Okay. Trust me when I say this. That taco which saw almost a 300% increase still tastes the same like it did in 1996. Minimum wage in 1996 was $4.25. Minimum wage is now $7.25. Granted, I can walk away from a taco, but I can't walk away from the fact I need to eat to live. I don't need a video game to live.

EDIT: Funny. I just thought about this. Technically, I can cite the same reasons that you gave for inflation for microtransactions. 2K Sports could be merely recouping their costs for bringing you a "better" game. My taco is still a taco at Taco Bell.

[ESPOMAN]

Re: 2K and EA Are Fumbling the Bag

I 100% agree, the cost of VC is insane and it is crazy how you pretty much have to buy it to compete in My Career and My Team. I only play My Career and play as a Center so I can get away without buying VC, but the grind is crazy. It costs so much VC to upgrade your guy that I am even discouraged to play the mode because of how long it'll take to upgrade him. I played the W mode for a bit and it is so much easier to upgrade your player.


It is a shame because the gameplay itself in 2k23 is great, but the micro transactions are insane and I hope it will change, though I don't think it will anytime soon.

[swac07]

Re: 2K and EA Are Fumbling the Bag

The mixed emotions I have this year during the peak of the major sports game release...

Written By: Chase Becotte

Click here to view the article.

Spot on!!!

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