Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

[UWfan206]

Imagine you're at a Bar-B Q and someone keeps insisting you try the hot dogs when really you're only there for the ribs. All he/she talks about is how good the hot dogs are. Despite you telling that person you don't like hot dogs he/she keeps rubbing it in your face and forcing you to try it.

This is how I feel about 2K pushing/promoting their "My Career" mode. Maybe the Bar-B Q thing was a bad analogy or comparison but I feel that they are putting too much emphasis on My Career and it is obvious that they're trying to sway us in that direction when in reality it's not for everyone. I like to play 5 on 5 and have control of my teams. My career doesn't cut it for me.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying My Career doesn't need to be improved cause I feel it does but so does Association and those annoying lags and animation for Online play. Lot's of people play My Career but it's not for everyone, some people like me prefer the game of 5 on 5.

[d23x]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I couldn't agree more. I'm an association type of player, I have just never been into the fiction "mycareer" story stuff. I feel MyGM was a really nice and refreshing mode this year compared to what we didn't get in 2k14, but it needs more in depth stories ect.

[Taer]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

2K is trying to convince the horde of people playing MyCareer that their movie scripting direction is the right direction.

There are a lot of 2K gamers that simply put do not like what has been going on with MyCareer for the last two years and these gamers are questioning whether 2K is the right game for them anymore.

MyCareer started out as one of the heaviest sim modes in the game. You had the d-league, draft combine and the ability to heavily impact your experience with your play. 2K really tried to emphasis the experience and a lot of people became addicted.

2k14 and 2k15 has strayed from what made the MyCareer mode "perfect" for a lot of these gamers. Decisions like the ones to force vc into every crevice of the mode and reaming a contrived fake rivalry down everyone's throat really made some of 2K's most loyal customers over the years question their loyalty.

I think this fact has hit 2K finally - look at what happened with the servers being turned off for 2K14; a backlash that caused an almost immediate reversal. I hope it scares 2K into rethinking their current trajectory and I hope it leads them to go back to their roots in sim for this mode.

2K is at a major crossroads. If they double down on this current path it will cost them a lot of gamers. If they end up going back to what made the mode strong in the first place they will avoid that loss.

[Junior Moe]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I don't think that we can make that determination just yet. All we have is this one sliver of info. For the record, I'm a staunch MyLeague player and I don't touch much outside of it. I tried MyCareer and I didn't make it past the 10 day contract part. Just not my thing. I never play those modes in any sports game. And that's cool. But NBA 2K added MyLeague for cats like me. That mode is a few tweaks from being perfect, IMO. And they just added it last year. NBA 2K caters to a large swath of gamers and they have to try to satisfy everyone while emphasizing the most played mode which was MyCareer, IIRC. Why upset the apple cart if it's the most played mode in a basketball game that's selling units at a pace unseen before?

I do agree on one thing, though. I would play it more if it was more sim with things like the draft combine and d league. The story was just too cheesy for me. Then again, it's a videogame. It's supposed to be fun and they do provide the options and modes for those of us more into the sim aspects of the league.

[zrohman]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

2K is trying to convince the horde of people playing MyCareer that their movie scripting direction is the right direction.

There are a lot of 2K gamers that simply put do not like what has been going on with MyCareer for the last two years and these gamers are questioning whether 2K is the right game for them anymore.

MyCareer started out as one of the heaviest sim modes in the game. You had the d-league, draft combine and the ability to heavily impact your experience with your play. 2K really tried to emphasis the experience and a lot of people became addicted.

2k14 and 2k15 has strayed from what made the MyCareer mode "perfect" for a lot of these gamers. Decisions like the ones to force vc into every crevice of the mode and reaming a contrived fake rivalry down everyone's throat really made some of 2K's most loyal customers over the years question their loyalty.

I think this fact has hit 2K finally - look at what happened with the servers being turned off for 2K14; a backlash that caused an almost immediate reversal. I hope it scares 2K into rethinking their current trajectory and I hope it leads them to go back to their roots in sim for this mode.

2K is at a major crossroads. If they double down on this current path it will cost them a lot of gamers. If they end up going back to what made the mode strong in the first place they will avoid that loss.

I'm not a big fan of mycareer but I couldn't put my finger on it. You hit it on the head though now that I think about it.... It's unrealistic and cheesy. My choices are either to be a suck up or to tell my teammates they all suck.

The basketball is the main thing

But truth is they are about to bring Spike Lee in... So it will be even less sim

[Magnus1959]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I think they push My Team and packs more than anything.

[zrohman]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I think they push My Team and packs more than anything.

That's because they expect you to pay for $1,000 worth of VC to get one legend in a pack. It's nuts how much people pay. They know that rich people will pay thousands to get the team they want, and even poor people will. It's like people who have no money and still manage to have every new pair of Jordan's. With their being demand I still think they will continue to overpaid my team, until it pushes regular players away

[VDusen04]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I don't really know what's driving 2K's decisions without really being there and seeing what's pushing them.

That said, I've been a part of a business that seemed to have similar product-building strategies. I think everyone starts off with the initial goal of creating the best, highest quality product possible. However, the absolute best quality - or at least one's perception of quality - does not always align with the most profitable.

Moreover, the creative minds behind a product are frequently at odds with those in charge of the product existing to begin with.

Imagine being a writer, for instance, being told by a publication to turn their online article into a 10-page slideshow that will yield additional ad profits for each page opened but will, in turn, alienate readers and compromise quality. Some statistics will show that 70% of readers will quit before making it through all 10 slides. However, other statistics will show that even with 70% never reading the full piece, profits are up from all the additional clicks, even if the clicks are done so begrudgingly.

I've had that feeling with 2K over the past few years. If I had to guess, there's a battle going on behind closed doors there, perhaps not outwardly, but I bet it's there. I bet many of the game's creators recognize the awfulness of the MyCareer story mode and a lot of the game's other lame facets. But then I bet there's a department in charge who holds a graph that supposedly shows that the amount of money being made via microtransactions and awful storylines outweighs the number of 2K lifers and fans of authenticity and quality being alienated in the process.

Only when the scale really begins to tip - as was the case in the NBA 2K14 debacle, where the exodus threatened to be large enough to effect business - will people in charge really decide to listen (perhaps hence the slight push back in the authentic direction in 2K15).

In my own ventures, it's actually pretty surprising how (willfully) out of touch people in charge of making money can really be when it comes to creating a great product. Sometimes, it seems as though it can be too black & white. Did it make more money? Good. Was it quality? Who cares.

[HowDareI]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

Honestly, I used to love the sim approach to My Career...when it was called My Player...

In 2K10, you take some bum that's like a 40 overall and truly build him however you want. You can get drafted wherever and even go to the d-league if you're not good enough. You had the summer leagues..the drills...even the draft combine dlc.
I think it would be cool if they added like cut scenes and interviews to the old style of My Career where you're in more control. If I play well before the draft I can go in the lottery, if not I can go in the 2nd round or even undrafted.

Everything now feels scripted, because it basically is. You start out at like a 70, and the game forces you to be a star day 1.

And if they took away VC, imagine how much more fun it would be to play online...you would actually feel accomplished becoming even an 80 overall.

I think they're spending too much time making My Career a story mode, instead of a sim/rpg mode it used to be.

Instead of spending time on that, fix the laggy online in Park and bring back Crew.

[BA2929]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I used to play nothing but MyPlayer/MyCareer. Then they went down this scripted movie cut-scene road in 2k14 next gen and lost me. I now basically play nothing but the new Franchise mode.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still having fun playing the game. But this shift to a scripted mode isn't something I want to get behind.

[ItsJustaGame]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I would imagine that 2K is pushing whatever game mode or modes that draw the most demand and micro purchases. If one of those modes is MyCareer (and it is), then I wouldn't hold my breath if I didn't play MyCareer (or MyTeam). Simple as that.

I buy 2K every year to play online, that's literally the only reason. So whatever they can do for online is all I care about, and certainly not some cut scene.

[YogurtProducer]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I just want all those myteam legends available for a regular roster for roster editers...

[etched Chaos]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I only ever play MyCareer and love the new scripting direction, because it more reflects what I want from my career modes. I want cut scenes, rivals and everything else, I want to feel like I'm going on a journey as a rookie to NBA Star.

[zello144]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I really hate how MyCareer has been lately I miss the sim focus it had in past games the Draft combine, D-league if you were bad, even getting cut from a couple of teams in 2k10 and working hard to get and stay on an NBA roster.
Now with this new direction we all have to follow 2k's cheesy story. I don't want to follow their story I want to make my own.

Not only that but they have been exclusively focusing on MyCareer and ignore their other modes like MyGM and MyLeague.

[Taer]

Re: Do You Feel 2K Is Pushing My Career Too Hard And Neglecting Other Needs?

I only ever play MyCareer and love the new scripting direction, because it more reflects what I want from my career modes. I want cut scenes, rivals and everything else, I want to feel like I'm going on a journey as a rookie to NBA Star.

A story mode is nothing but an interactive movie. One that you might as well just watch.

There is no journey because it is all scripted and forced. In 2K10 and 11 you were able to write your own journey based on everything you did in the game.

With 2k14 and 2k15, you had scripted injuries, rivalries that were forced on you even if it didn't make sense and you acted like a schizophrenic AI+KD mishmash one moment acting humble and down-to-earth while the next minute you were acting like a wannabe from Queens who talked like a g version of Reggie Miller.

tldr; 2k10 and 11 were closer to the real experience of going from rookie to star. 2K14 and 15 are more like a Hollywood scripted pre-teen fantasy flick.