THE NBA 2K RANT

I’m going to go ahead and bend the rule on staying on topic with this post, as it’s an issue that is dear to me. While I will normally only talk about “real life” basketball, the NBA 2K video game series has gotten progressively more egregious every year with the way that they scam basketball fans out of money.

The first issue I want to address is the blatantly exploitative practices of 2K Sports. While there are plenty of instances of scummy monetization structures in gaming, I want to focus on 2K for the sake of staying within the realm of basketball. Not only that, but 2K’s greed is genuinely harmful to consumers, the gaming industry, and maybe even basketball itself.

Launch day. Once a year, 2K releases its new version of NBA 2K. Every year on launch, the game isn’t perfect. As someone who plays way too much video games, I understand a game will not always come out perfectly finished or balanced. However, the gameplay is not what I take issue with. The issue here is that they monetize the game in such a way that if you don’t buy their currency on launch, you don’t get to enjoy the game. Sure, you can play against your friend in a casual match. Sure, you can play against the computer, or make your created character and start the process of making them better in the single player mode. If that’s fun for you, great, the game is worth the 60 dollars. If you’re like me and your ego is tied to glorious victory in multiplayer games, you might feel a little ripped off. I am going to provide two examples of how the monetization system in 2K forces players to buy in-game currency, spend hundreds of hours gaining the paid equivalent, to be worse than everyone else in a multiplayer setting.

Alright so.. What the heck have I been ranting about for three paragraphs? What is this monetization system and why have I been treating it like it’s a crime against humanity? Well, when you first create your character, it starts off around a “60 overall” rating. The player’s overall rating is to indicate how good the player is overall, with individual categories of basketball skills having their own value that contributes to their overall rating. The ratings are based on a maximum overall rating of 99, with a 60 being one of the worst ratings. So, you start off as a 60 overall, can’t-hit-a-shot rookie with similar basketball skills to current day me. It’s a terrible feeling to play a game to be reminded of your own limitations when playing a video game, we play video games to escape those! Maybe next year they can give my character a beer gut and a receeding hairline so I can get that extra layer of immersion. Anyways, what are the options when you have that 60 overall character? Well, we’ve established that your character starts off with the basketball skill of a middle school junior varsity bench player. So how do you make him better? Hundreds and hundreds of hours of repetitive, boring, single player grinding. Not only is the grind a tedious nightmare, but your player is hot garbage and you miss all the time, increasing the time investment required. Most people don’t have time for that. So if you want to keep playing and actually have competitive matches, you HAVE to shell out 20-40 dollars to buy their in-game currency and upgrade your player. This is what most people do, which perpetuates the need for others to buy currency.

They also allow you to purchase packs of cards for your MyTeam mode. This would require another long explaination, so I will just say that you can buy access to the best players with real money. A 10 pack box of cards costs 20 REAL DOLLARS. You get one player per pack, and the odds are a joke. They post the odds of getting a certain tier of card on the packs, which likely covers them from illegal gambling charges, with the best cards having a less than 2% drop chance. I know what you may be thinking, who cares if this weird guy in my class spends his money poorly? You don’t need to worry about me, I’ve learned my lesson. What we need to be concerned about is children. This game isn’t age restricted, it’s for all audiences. Minors play more video games than adults, they’re the ones being targeted by microtransactions. Kids have a limited perspective on life and will beg their parents for money until they get it. Or worse, they’ll go behind their parents’ backs and charge their card anyways. This isn’t a flaw in their monetization system, it’s a FEATURE. They’re counting on children to overspend their parents’money and impulse purchases from others. I would argue that at best they’re setting children up for a life of justifying gambling, and at worst they’re actively causing children to gamble their parents’ money.

September 27, 2020. Uncategorized.