by Andrew on Sat Jun 19, 2021 2:48 am
Indeed. To BarateGites' point about how they can get away with such a lack of quality, my point was that 2K's in a comfortable spot with no competition or alternative in the basketball gaming space (and yes, it's been that way for a long time), and thus we're at their mercy when it comes to design choices, quality, and of course, recurrent revenue mechanics. Unfortunately when it comes to NBA 2K's legacy issues - like bugs with saving - we thus have two options: grin and bear them while hoping for the best, or don't play a new basketball game.
To that end, I was lamenting how 2K's dominance of the market has led to a drop in quality - and in some respects, mistreatment of its audience - over the years. When NBA Live was still leading in sales and competing in terms of gamer interest, 2K was doing all it could to pull ahead and put Live away. It did just that as NBA Live itself stumbled, and although it initially resulted in tremendous releases for 2K, over time it's led to stagnation, microtransaction gouging, and 2K Support kind of shrugging unhelpfully when things go wrong. After all, as some people like to say, what are you going to do? Play NBA Live? (And yes, if the roles were reversed, it'd be the same situation or worse. One only needs to look at what exclusivity has done to an EA franchise like Madden.)
Putting all of that aside however, I definitely commiserate with BarateGites over lost saves and technical issues, as well as having to deal with 2K Support. In the few times that I've had to contact 2K Support over things, they've honestly either been pretty unhelpful, or I've had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get any kind of satisfaction. I've been fortunate with MyCAREER saves so far, but I know how much grinding it takes to level up on No Money Spent. In the same position, I could see it completely destroying my enthusiasm, and that sucks because I know that mode can be very fun despite the grindy mechanics. There's also the issue of MyCAREER needing to be always online because of its connected modes, but unfortunately separating the experiences would be tough as there's a benefit to tying them together (not having to level up separate players for online and offline being chief among them).