A lot of video game media websites review a game based purely on what the game is and not what it should be. To me that makes logical sense, some games will get high review scores, but the general consensus is that it’s a crappy game.
Sometimes it can be the exact opposite of that, take Days Gone for example, a 71 on Metacritic, but is absolutely adored by a lot of PS4 players like myself. The reason media outlets review a game with this in mind, is that it gives the game and its developers a fair shot. It’s not fair to the developers vision if the reviewer is contradictory towards what they believe the game should be. This process upsets people quite often. Fans can feel very fatigued of a certain franchise, but every entry in the series is still being reviewed well.
So the fan is fed up with the franchise that has overstayed its welcome and the reviewer is just telling you that the game that was put out is still a very solid game, even if it is a recycled formula.
Call of Duty fans have always seemed to feel this way, myself included. I’m writing all this because I feel like there is no franchise that fits this mold better than the NBA 2K franchise. I grew up playing NBA Live until its untimely demise with the last entry being NBA Live 10, featuring Dwight Howard as the cover athlete. I still find this to be one of the best sports game of all time (Fight Night Round 3 is my number 1).
So with NBA Live gone, I got NBA 2K11 for my 15th birthday. I don’t know what I was expecting but I remember playing that game all night long, I created a character and put him on the Hornets and played until 6AM in the morning. I remember specifically the way it felt and sounded when the ball hit nothing but net, it was as close to the real thing that you could get. I never looked for another basketball game until NBA Live 14 came out, I bought that when it first came out and the controls felt the same as they did in 2010. While I love that game, these controls aged poorly.
The next 5 entries in the NBA Live series failed to attract me, they feel so far and away less refined than 2K. 2K takes real NBA games that you watch on a TV and puts them in a video game console. Every animation (except for a few hilarious glitches) is designed perfectly to mimic the real life player, all thanks to motion capturing technology. All of my friends and coworkers love 2K’s moment to moment gameplay. It’s when you dig a little deeper that you start to expose the bigger issues in 2K’s last couple of releases. It’s every gamers favorite thing, micro transactions!
From what I have learned about micro transactions, you either hate them, or you ignore them. I fall more into the ignore them scene on most occasions but not when it comes to 2K. I used to pay $60 every year for their new release, I was as loyal a customer as you would get. To me that should be enough if a game is annualized. I understand the need for some micro transactions for games like Fortnite or Rainbow Six Siege, as these games depend on continual income so they can keep adding to an existing game world.
However when you release a game every year while only changing a few things and charge $60 every time ($100 plus for special editions), fans don’t want to have to pour money into your game in order to have any fun in some modes. If the argument is “Well that’s just one person’s opinion” I encourage you to look at Metacritic.
I use Metacritic often when I’m trying to get a feel for the overall reception of a game. The Metascore for NBA 2K20 is 78, a pretty solid score that would leave most developers happy. However, the user score is a whole different story, that falls to a pathetic 0.7. The Metascore being 37 critic reviews put together to find an average score. The user score is from 329 average gamers who rated the game on their own. While 0.7 is horrible, I’m well aware that part of the reason for being this low is your classic case of mob mentality. Some people, especially people on the internet, will over exaggerate how bad a game is just for the sake of the game becoming meme worthy. Just ask Hello Games about this.
For the honest and thoughtful user reviews I read on Metacritic, the issue was simple, little to differentiate from the last game, and over bearing micro transactions. My personal favorite mode, My League, had almost nothing changed to it. The micro transactions really rear their ugly head in My Team. My Team, is of course a direct spin off of EA’s Madden Ultimate Team. EA, who is largely recognized as one of the more “Evil” gaming developers and publishers, introduced Ultimate Team in Madden 10. It was the most revolutionary mode added to a sports game in a decade, and at first at was not to money hungry. But of course with time it got greedier and greedier, now to the point where each Madden takes a hit because of it. But because EA has a monopoly over NFL games, they take that as a license to do whatever they want.
2K adopted a similar game mode and just changed the name in 2K13, and much similar to Madden, it got worse over time. They are so bad nowadays that it would be difficult to enjoy the game mode without spending any extra money on it. To add insult to injury, the developers decided to add a Price is Right style giant wheel to spin and get various prizes. This taps into many people’s inherent weaknesses when it comes to gambling. It almost feels like the person who thought of this idea finds it funny to take advantage of the people who can’t control their impulses. Now, to play devils advocate, you can very well blame the people who buy into this and say that they should be able to control themselves, and that’s a good point. But I’ve been on that side of things; where I was gung-ho with my money, and bought everything I could get my hands on in video games. And at the end of the day for 2K as well as all its stock holders, it’s about making money. But if you ask most gamers, there are better ways to go about it.
For example, make 2K a game of “service experience”. Don’t release a new one every year, just update it on a set schedule and make the changes that you normally would from year-to-year. Then you have an excuse for some of these in game charges you have. That also cuts down your fees for getting the game put on a disc and shipped to stores every year.
With the constant rise of development costs, I would imagine they are looking for every way possible to cut unnecessary spending. This of course is coming from a man who has no idea how to run a successful business, so take all this with a grain of salt.
So I will say what I always say, vote with your wallet. If you’re upset with 2K like I am, don’t buy the new game every year just because it’s new. I buy one every other year, Madden and 2K personally. I stick to My League and Franchise mode and I don’t poor any extra money in to the game. At the end of the day nothing speaks more clearly to these publishers than your money.
