VC Implementation Threatens The Future Of The NBA 2K Series?

[benji]

http://www.pastapadre.com/2013/12/10/vc ... -2k-series

It’s somewhat startling to look back just a few weeks and see evaluations of NBA 2K14 that did not mention alarming tactics instituted by 2K Sports that would greatly affect consumers. The game for all intents and purposes requires an online connection and VC has been baked into almost every mode in a way that detracts from the enjoyment of the product. Of course reviews also didn’t bother to check how worthless the Online Leagues were and whether online even ran properly, and they wouldn’t have caught a roster that went nearly two months without an update and crashing problems that began occurring for many a week or two later.

The way VC has been implemented has brought about the most outrage and those feelings are justified. 2K14 is a full retail $60 purchase that is designed in a manner to push consumers to spend additional money on it. In many cases it is not optional, forces gamers to decide on a single mode to fully invest in rather than being able to play in the fashion they so choose, and ultimately appears to determine where 2K directs their development resources.

VC has always been problematic ever since it debuted in NBA 2K13 and continued to 360/PS3 2K14. Now it has gotten even worse on the Xbox One/PS4. The currency system extends to the new Association mode, known as MyGM, while still being at the heart of MyTeam and a major factor in MyCareer. VC is universally pooled so spending VC in one mode will harm potential in another, and payouts for completing games and tasks organically have been restricted further.

Its effect on MyGM is immediately evident. VC must be spent to unlock abilities – even the most simple of things like changing the team’s rotation. More VC then has to be spent to utilize those abilities. Fail to meet a goal or do what the owner asks because you don’t want to spend the VC or don’t have it on hand and you’ll struggle and risk getting fired. Those who like to sim portions or all of their seasons will be unable to play the mode without spending money as simming does not grant any VC besides the minuscule amounts awarded for meeting season goals.

MyTeam of course is built around the VC model, in similar fashion to Ultimate Team modes in EA Sports titles, and if it were isolated there fewer would complain about it. That’s exactly what EA has done by not instituting a way to pay-to-succeed in its Franchise modes with the community wholeheartedly supporting that decision. It was actually a big point of contention a few years ago with the company assuring that microtransactions would not become a part of Madden’s Connected Careers. Here though 2K Sports chose to ignore consumer feedback and do what they thought would generate additional revenue without a care to how it would be received.

The Park, which can house 100 MyPlayer’s just walking around while a portion play on blacktop courts, was designed with VC in mind. Want to be able to compete in the setting? Spend money to upgrade your player. Want to avoid looking like a default scrub? Spend money and show off all your gear and accessories in front of others! In MyCareer why would anyone spend their hard earned VC, a year’s worth of games that might barely cover a pair of shoes and outfit, on such pointless things when they can use it to upgrade skills? Again a choice that has to be made or money that will be spent.

Design decisions have clearly been influenced by the presence of VC. Needing to constantly contact the 2K servers, to the extent that many of the features of the game can’t be played offline, is because of VC. Features like Online Leagues take a back seat because the company hasn’t figured out how best to monetize it or didn’t have time to implement VC in the fashion they would like just yet.

Forza 5 recently faced blowback on its microtransaction model, which was anything but “micro” considering one of the cars cost over $100 to purchase, and Turn 10 announced changes to the game’s economy would be made. 2K14 has not gotten the same level of publicity but discontent has begun to spread. Over on Reddit there is a huge discussion taking place about VC. Then there are even articles like this one from Cinema Blend that illustrate how reviewers either didn’t care about how VC is being put into use (which is distressing) or simply didn’t recognize what it meant for consumers (and that may be even worse).

Between complaints about the servers, crashing, rosters, and VC no sports game in recent years has generated such a conflicted reception from consumers as next-gen NBA 2K14. That an excellent game is buried under a multitude of serious problems and design decisions has elicited a very emotional response from those who purchased it. As it relates to VC the concern is about more than just this year with the direction of the series clearly becoming troublesome for fans. Without viable competition it could get even worse but fans now do have a way to voice their displeasure and hopefully that can be enough to enact change going forward.

A dissenting view:

Keith. mbrink12 • 38 minutes ago −
Exactly. After 3 weeks with the game, I've built up my 3-point shooting PG to an 82 overall...without spending a dime. I've also been able to buy some clothes for MyPlayer to wear at The Park (great mode!), and buy things like Jerry West's free throw routine (very cool) -- again all without spending a dime.

The entire premise of Pasta's story is flawed for the simple reason that it completely overlooks all of the FREE ways there are to earn VC. Pick an envelope on the iPhone app every day for an easy 1,000-1,500 worth of VC. Pick the daily winners in the app for another 50-500 VC every day. Play in a game at The Park and get more free VC. I'd much rather have this type of points system -- which involves upgrading attributes over time much like one of the all time greats, Baseball Stars -- than have everyone running around with a bunch of 99-rated MyPlayers. Here, there are SO many cool things to buy -- like Dr. J's dunks or the earlier mentioned Jerry West routine -- that I'm sure I'll stay interested until June.

This is just another pile-on article that Pasta threw out there for the EA lovers to chime in, and to once again justify his giving Tiburon football the high rung on his annual EA Top 10 list in another couple of weeks. Most of the people you'll see complaining in an article like this don't even have the game. Certainly, they haven't spent any time taking advantage of the FREE VC that you and I are talking about (and that Pasta completely ignored in his hatchet-job article).

[shadowgrin]

The reddit thread is fun.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/ ... xtgen_nba/

Now this itself isn't a big deal. Who cares, right? Only, there's one major issue. They removed certain features in the franchise mode, and you have to use this currency, which you can purchase with real money, to re-unlock them. The Franchise mode is abysmal. You have to pay for really basic things, like the right to edit your lineups or fire coaches. You have to pay to send your players to training camps to improve their skills, which previously was entirely based on how well your previous season had gone. You have to pay to unlock facilities, which is this game's take on Owner Mode.

On top of this, the fact that it's meant to frustrate the player into buying VC means they removed a lot of freedom from the mode. You can't edit players ratings, you can't put on trade override, you can't edit player contracts, you can't edit shit. It forces you to play the game in ONE WAY and ONE WAY ONLY, and frustrates the player to the point where they either go buy the currency with real money or just stop playing.

Exactly. Micro transactions are for Free to Play games. And Pay to Win is never okay. But designing that game so that players have to grind through it or pay to get past that part is the epitome of horrendous game design. You should never want to skip a part of the game.

"Hey, do you know Bob from maintenance?"

[Andrew]

Pasta probably should've touched on the ability to earn VC without spending money, but I would have to agree with the underlying criticisms of the way VC is implemented throughout NBA 2K14 next gen. I think it has its place as an XP system and as long as it can be earned for free then it could be much worse, but it's unfortunate to see it tied to some basic functionality in MyGM. I feel it has a place in MyCAREER and MyTEAM, but MyGM, not so much.

[shadowgrin]

on the ability to earn VC without spending money

From the comments in pasta's article and the reddit thread...

The entire premise of Pasta's story is flawed for the simple reason that it completely overlooks all of the FREE ways there are to earn VC. Pick an envelope on the iPhone app every day for an easy 1,000-1,500 worth of VC. Pick the daily winners in the app for another 50-500 VC every day. Play in a game at The Park and get more free VC.

2K Sports also offers an app where you can earn daily VC (many times over 1,000) and use their 'Pick and Win' where you select teams you think will win that day in the real NBA and earn 50 VC per correct choice. Not a huge fan of micro-transactions, but I can live with this.

Which is a good alternative than grinding through the game. As mentioned in the impressions thread, with the less than desirable amount of VC rewards for playing the game that you can focus on improving in only one mode that is either MyGM, MyTeam, or MyCareer so the user really needs the help he can get in earning the much needed VC BUT...

You shouldn't have to use an iPhone app to sustain your player's progress-- especially if you earn much more for the effort than you do playing the game. It shouldn't even factor heavily at all. The fact that you bring it up as a major source of your VC income tells me the effort/reward/progress system is broken.

The question is, why the heck is all of this stuff here? Who enjoys doing this crap and going through hoops? It's a purely frustrating tactic made to prolong gameplay or force microtransactions. Horrible, horrible stuff.

Which is a good point. Granted that if the user can afford a $400 console and a $60 game surely he can afford a mobile device to use a free app but why should he waste time checking/playing an app everyday when that time wasting related to the game should be done with the console and the game the user bought in the first place.

[Andrew]

Agreed. Meanwhile, GoodGameBro have weighed in with this tongue-in-cheek video:

phpBB [video]

[chicagoRAW]

The free VC you get from playing games is a joke. If I play 6 minute quarters i get 300 VC. Last year I think you got 100-150 for playing blacktop online, I don't know how much you get this year because the 2 Park games I played on PS4 I didn't get any VC.

[EMan]

Ok, I'll admit it, I only play this series on PC. Obviously that means no VC for me. I'm also not a fan of microtransactions in games, never have been. I think this VC nonsense could be the literal nail in the coffin for this series and not just on PC. This year there have been numerous reports of VC being completely wiped out randomly all over the place with 2K being very tight lipped upon the subject. People buy VC from 2K and sometime after the payment goes through, POOF, VC mysteriously vanishes the next time the gamer logs on his XBone or PS4. I'm not saying 2K is doing something shady, I'm saying their servers and backup processes are trash and have been for years. Forcing people to buy a in-game currency that they are not guaranteed to even keep is horrible. The amount of posts on their own official forums mentioning this problem is astounding. The lack of a response outside of maybe one or two moderator posts (note: the moderators themselves aren't even players, just forum police) is equally astounding.

Unfortunately the PC version is not completely unaffected by, for lack of a better phrase, 2K's greed (forcing people to pay $60 for a game and then even MORE for VC? That is greed). The past two PC versions of this game have been largely clones of each other (one might even argue 2K12 as well, but that was before VC and probably was the last NBA game to get decent mileage out of me). 2K13 and 2K14 are basically roster updates, minor gameplay tweaks, and new soundtracks each time. I realize that consoles have always been, and always will be, 2K's sole focus, but it seems to me that ever since VC was introduced, support and updates for the PC version have gotten much worse (and it was pretty bad before). Not to mention the PC version has lost entire game modes because of exploits on consoles that earned players large amounts of VC. 2K's "IF we have to punish consoles players for an exploit we might as well punish PC players too" creed sucks.

If this series does eventually "die out", it will be undoubtedly true that VC played a part in it's demise. Lack of decent competition is another factor. Live 14 sure doesn't look like a good game from what I've seen. I think these exclusivity deals that game companies sign with major sports is akin to a monopoly and something should be done about it soon. Having only two companies nowadays responsible for major sports games and neither one putting too much effort into making them good causes us to suffer. 2K and EA still rake in the big bucks while we're left with garbage.

At least there's still a few sports management games made by smaller indie game companies to consider, but something needs to change. I might be a pessimist, but I feel that neither EA nor 2K can be trusted to make decent sports games anymore.

I realize that video posted by Andrew was a joke. Let's hope nobody from 2K sees it and decides that it would be a good idea for 2K15.

[Andrew]

To be fair, technically speaking gamers aren't forced to buy VC; it's earned for free by playing the game, while the companion app offers additional boosts on a daily basis. Of course, it does put people who understandably don't want to pay for VC at a disadvantage in modes such as The Park and in the case of purchased VC disappearing due to dodgy servers, that's something that needs to be addressed ASAP.

I don't see it being the death of the series because I think the game itself is too good and too popular, but these issues and the backlash should give 2K pause to think about the approach and consider making some changes moving forward.

[concolt]

Ive lost 70,000 VC and 2K has done nothing to fix this issue. This company is a joke and has lost a customer now.

[Andrew]

That's unacceptable. Purchased or earned?

[concolt]

Purchased unfortunately. They say it's under review but it's been under review for a couple of weeks now.

[shadowgrin]

Reminds me of that outright stealing by EA with NHL 12 & 13.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/NHL-13 ... 47948.html

There are continuous complaints on the EA forum board about users purchasing boost packs from the microtransaction store but the transaction not going through completely, resulting in players losing MS Points and not receiving the items they paid for. This issue has been ongoing since last year's NHL 12 outing and hasn't been fixed since.

The thread has continued on for the past year, covering both NHL 12 and NHL 13 where players are losing money and patience and put on a long waiting list to acquire a refund from either EA or Microsoft. Only a handful have actually reported that they were reimbursed, but usually with a catch or two, such as not getting all their points back or still failing to receive the goods they purchased.

I like how 2K is turning into EA.

[Patr1ck]

It's always the negative crowd that is the loudest. The ones who have their MyPlayer's and MyTeam's boosted by buying VC and haven't had problems with 2K servers aren't complaining, so you don't know about that side. I'm pretty sure VC is making them lots of money and they will keep it implemented.

[Andrew]

Purchased unfortunately. They say it's under review but it's been under review for a couple of weeks now.

Ouch. Sounds like my attempts to get a new CD key for NBA 2K13 after reinstalling Windows a few months back. I'm still nagging them about it out of principle, though I did pick up the Steam version when it was on sale as I know there'll be times when I go back to it every now and again.

[shadowgrin]

It's always the negative crowd that is the loudest. The ones who have their MyPlayer's and MyTeam's boosted by buying VC and haven't had problems with 2K servers aren't complaining, so you don't know about that side. I'm pretty sure VC is making them lots of money and they will keep it implemented.

Well obviously, why complain when nothing's wrong.

VC is indeed making 2K lots of money, just look at the guy above who purchased VC and still hasn't gotten it yet.

[Spree#8]

I like how 2K is turning into EA.

Are we sure they aren't worse than EA at this point? Haven't played any games from EA in a while, but I did hear that they only use a VC-like currency for Ultimate Team (and the amount of that currency you earn by playing the game isn't as laughable as in 2K) instead of stuffing every single game mode with VC barriers blocking basic features, while the few things that don't require VC are either completely broken or gone. It's amazing how greedy they've become and how quickly it's happened.

As long as people keep spending a lot of cash on VC, of course it's not going anywhere. The only thing that can be done about it is voting with your wallet. If the VC money doesn't cover the losses from dropping sales numbers, they'll have to do something about it. Unfortunately, I doubt enough people will quit buying the game for that to happen. It's a good thing that people are speaking out and the problem is being brought to attention, but that alone won't accomplish anything.

It appears I've saved myself a lot of frustration by sticking with the PC version. It's looking more and more like they only superior thing in next gen version is the graphics.

[chicagoRAW]

It's always the negative crowd that is the loudest. The ones who have their MyPlayer's and MyTeam's boosted by buying VC and haven't had problems with 2K servers aren't complaining, so you don't know about that side. I'm pretty sure VC is making them lots of money and they will keep it implemented.

Well if you're rich and you have money to throw towards VC then why would you complain? Using those anecdotes for that side of the argument doesn't do anything in accessing the issue.

I haven't gotten any VC from playing The Park yet.

[EMan]

http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?406 ... ce-etc-%29

I thought this post by JBiggy was worth linking to. Unfortunately it's already fallen to page 8 on those pits 2K calls the forums.

[shadowgrin]

He raises good points.

This new game is entirely built around VC. VC that is VERY hard to earn in the game, but that can be bought for $4.99, $9.99, $19.99, etc. Just look at the modes:

MyTeam - Not their most popular mode, but it requires VC.
MyCareer - A mode that was cleverly built from the ground up a couple of years ago to utilize VC.
MyGM - Which has replaced Association, has become a GM role playing game where every move costs VC. Make a trade? That costs VC. Fire your Coach? That costs VC. CHANGE YOUR STARTING LINEUP??? That costs VC.

The bottom line is that any mode or feature that interfered with 2K's ability to charge money for VC was removed. This includes the traditional association (replaced with MyGM) and Create-a-Player (a feature that detracted from MyCareer). Any issue or glitch that doesn't affect VC appears to have taken a backseat. All evidence suggests that their primary focus was on a system and game that allowed them to gain additional revenue through microtransactions. If your issue with the game doesn't earn additional microtransaction money, it appears to be a less important issue.

[kingjames23]

quit complaining. cheat.

play a 12 minute game quick matchup against the computer, call a time out (important!) and then save and exit the game a few seconds before its over. do this with an 11, 10, 9 and 8 minute game respectively. now, wait 20 minutes and load a game, and it will start with only a couple seconds left. let the buzzer sound and collect.. do this with each save. you will earn 2,500 vc in about 5 minutes. wait 20 minutes. do it again. i make 10,000 vc an hour doing this. i maxed out my "my career attributes" and paid for all my animations and leveled up the special skills shit. now i just earn vc in career to gain training boosts.

[Andrew]

To be honest, that doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me, nor does it change the fact that it's a bad and unpopular concept in the first place. I don't think it benefits us as consumers to "quit complaining" about this...especially when VC's implementation means that network/server downtime causes offline modes like MyGM to be unavailable.

[kingjames23]

thats the thing.. you dont even need to play the game to get the vc. just start a game and make sure you come back after its been running til its late in the 4th quarter, call time, save. and youre done. all you have to do is reload the save as many times as you want. i did this once. took me a couple hours. now i have a 12 min save, 11, 10, 9, and 8 minute saves already on my memory unit. i just load them one after the other, let time expire... usually enough time to inbound for a last second shot, and i get 600, 550, 500, 450,400 vc in the time it takes a game to load and end. starting the game as a 60 overall player sucks, and you cant earn enough vc to not be a scrub for a whole season. this is way better, and with the caps on attributes... it makes it worth it to earn the vc during career just for training boosts.

[Andrew]

We still shouldn't have to do that and like I said, the problems with VC run deeper than that.

[EMan]

If someone from 2K sees those cheat posts, exhibition/quick match might be gone from the game next year. You know, like what they did to coach mode this year because of the 'sploit last year. Unless they think up some more game modes soon, might not be anything other than MyWhatever left.

[shadowgrin]

To those suggesting and posting VC glitch farming, what happens then when 2K patches that out of the game? You're still stuck with the same problem of VC costs and at that point you'll be complaining too until you find the next glitch to exploit. Morons.