Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike Wang

[Steve_OS]

Episode 45 is all about NBA 2K14 – and by extension, the PS3-360 generation NBA 2K franchise - as host Rich Grisham (@richgrisham) interviews Mike Wang (@Beluba), the Lead Gameplay Designer for the game. The two have a wide-ranging conversation about the generational transformation of NBA 2K, the road to NBA 2K14, an in-depth gameplay discussion, the decision process to significantly modify the controls again, and much more. If you love the NBA 2K series as much as we do, it’s a fascinating discussion about how these kinds of games come together.

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Enjoy the show!

Run Time: 1 Hour, 2 Minutes

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[JasonWilliams55]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

Good stuff here around 39 minutes, right after the commercial.

Holding L1/LB (43:30ish)

In backcourt

"...it calls the full blown play for best guy on team in that situtation..."

In frontcourt

"...calls more or less the right set, the right freelance set and play w/in the freelance sets, most teams run 3 out 2 in or 4 out 1 in..."

[RipCity71252]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

Good stuff here around 39 minutes, right after the commercial.

Holding L1/LB (43:30ish)

In backcourt

"...it calls the full blown play for best guy on team in that situtation..."

In frontcourt

"...calls more or less the right set, the right freelance set and play w/in the freelance sets, most teams run 3 out 2 in or 4 out 1 in..."

Wow. That sounds so much better than the "Run Best Play" option from 2k13.

[jyoung]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

The "dice roll" on steals is something that has existed in just about every basketball video game I can remember and has bugged the heck out of me for years. As someone who likes to play user defense on the ball handler at all times, it was one of those things that just made defense completely unfair and unfun to play.

Thank goodness a basketball video game will finally penalizes the ball handler for exposing the ball instead of having the defender's hand clip through the ball or charge the defender with a bogus foul call simply because he lost a dice roll.

The first thing you're taught as a ball handler is to keep your head up and use your off hand plus your body to shield the ball from defenders.

It amazes me that protecting the ball has never been a priority in basketball video games over the years, but thank goodness a developer is finally making ball security an important part of gameplay.

[VDusen04]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

The "dice roll" on steals is something that has existed in just about every basketball video game I can remember and has bugged the heck out of me for years. As someone who likes to play user defense on the ball handler at all times, it was one of those things that just made defense completely unfair and unfun to play.

Thank goodness a basketball video game will finally penalizes the ball handler for exposing the ball instead of having the defender's hand clip through the ball or charge the defender with a bogus foul call simply because he lost a dice roll.

The first thing you're taught as a ball handler is to keep your head up and use your off hand plus your body to shield the ball from defenders.

It amazes me that protecting the ball has never been a priority in basketball video games over the years, but thank goodness a developer is finally making ball security an important part of gameplay.

Could you point me in the direction of when that was discussed during the podcast? Or could you at least summarize what was mentioned (unless what you already said pretty much sums it up).

I'm with you 100% on the "dice roll" dynamic. Post-patch 2K13 was about as rough as I've come across when it's come to stealing the basketball. Nearly any and all strategy felt absent, replaced almost entirely with the aforementioned "dice roll", which was heavily stacked against the defense. Faced up, unprotected, waist-high dribble? How about a defender reaches through the basketball and gets whistled for a foul. For a game in which turnovers already seemed tough to come by, a steal mechanic that basically trained gamers to never attempt to force an on-ball turnover was pretty frustrating.

[blues rocker]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

awesome interview. definitely reinforces the passion and dedication to quality that 2k has.

[Agame]

Good Interview. Thanks- Can't wait for NEW GEN XBOX ONE GAME PLAY! More memory, Smarter A.I. .....Let's hope that Beluba can say he got what he wanted implemented into Next Gen.

[MoultonHawk]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

The best 2K interview to date for me. Thank you.

[Goffs]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

This was a great listen!

[ataman5]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

Very very good podcast, thanks.

[clipperfan811]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

Could you point me in the direction of when that was discussed during the podcast? Or could you at least summarize what was mentioned (unless what you already said pretty much sums it up).

I'm with you 100% on the "dice roll" dynamic. Post-patch 2K13 was about as rough as I've come across when it's come to stealing the basketball. Nearly any and all strategy felt absent, replaced almost entirely with the aforementioned "dice roll", which was heavily stacked against the defense. Faced up, unprotected, waist-high dribble? How about a defender reaches through the basketball and gets whistled for a foul. For a game in which turnovers already seemed tough to come by, a steal mechanic that basically trained gamers to never attempt to force an on-ball turnover was pretty frustrating.

Come on man I know you're a borderline hoop junkie, take the plunge and listen to the whole thing. It's got a ton of cool little insights.

There was a ton of talk about balancing, which seems to be a key point this year. I thought it was cool to hear about how they've gotten rid of a lot of the ai boost in favor of just smarter decision making. I think this is at the top of the list for a lot of guys who mostly play offline.

The steals thing was big for me as well, I doubt the clipping issues have been fixed entirely but it's going to be interesting to see how the new mechanics play out.

If it's really realistic I can already hear people complaining about too many steals. If steals are a bit of an issue the solution is pretty simple... 2k needs to patch in more reach in fouls NOT tune down the steals.

[VDusen04]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

Come on man I know you're a borderline hoop junkie, take the plunge and listen to the whole thing. It's got a ton of cool little insights.

Haha, yes, I love basketball, but I tend to draw the line at hour long video game podcasts. With respect, it's a little much for me.

[boltokPwnage04]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

Enjoyed the interview, that was my first time listening to the podcast. I would have liked to hear him answer specific questions from the forums.

[Da_Czar]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

Haha, yes, I love basketball, but I tend to draw the line at hour long video game podcasts. With respect, it's a little much for me.

For longer one's I use the itunes option and listen while doing something else like driving or cutting the grass.

[Jbron01]

Re: Operation Sports - Press Row Podcast: Episode 45 - NBA 2K14 Deep Dive with Mike W

People complain about too many steals, but they dribble right into defends and through crowds and in the paint for awhile etc. etc.

the reason that there aren't that many steals is that players play within their limits or they get benched. It is considered incredibly impressive to drive into the paint and keep your dribble. Very very few PGs can do it consistently against good defense. If a player drives into the paint with an average ball handler and doesn't pick up the dribble for a shot/layup/pass then he should lose the ball/dribble in a lot of situations

Also when dribbling around, if someone keeps the ball on the side of the defender, and the defender is someone like CP3 MPW Tony Allen etc., they should be able to easily strip the ball. No one in the entire NBA, regardless if their handle is Irving level, keeps the ball on the side of the defender for a continuos period of time. Yet in 2k, i can do whatever i want with the ball and the only thing that matters steal rating vs. ball security.

People who don't know a lot about Bball would get the ball stripped a lot in a true SIM game until they learned that not every player does dribble moves in the nba and players move the ball when defenses close and double, not spilt double teams like Prime MJ.

Some guys only ever take 1-3 dribbles in any possession. Its not cause they can't dribble, its because they can't dribble against NBA defenders. There is a reason that teams use PG's. In 2k, its better to put a big SG since every player can dribble/protect the ball like a PG.

/rant

then again, less iso and forcing people to play SIM(within reason) doesn't appeal to casuals.