MyCareer Dev Blog and The City Trailer

First the trailer:

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It shows... well the city, but also some tidbits about the hip hop and cloth careers.

And the Dev Blog on MyCareer: https://nba.2k.com/courtside-report/nba-2k22-mycareer

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Some notes from the dev blog:

• MyCareer will be happening inside the City.
• There's a quest and side-quest system making it somewhat more interactive.
• MyPlayer's nickname is MP and he's a high school star.
• MyCareer's goal is to get into the NBA and lead your team to a championship.
• "difficult conversations with coaches, GMs, agents, and the press"
• To talk with people you might need to visit them in The City.
• Endorsement system evolved into something called "Personal Brand" - you'll get points into characteristics like "Free Spirit, Flashy, Corporate, Fundamental"
• Some side quests are unlocked by what you do in NBA games.
• "MVP of the City" - some extra rewards, can be earned by playing NBA, City, etc.
• No loading for entering interiors (at least some I guess).
• 5 daily quests.
• Rookie to Legend is replaced by seasons, each season has 40 rep levels.
• If you reach level 40 in at least 4 seasons you get Legend status.
• Race of the Week - one person across PS5 and XSS/XSX will win 1 million VC for fastest time.
• Matchmaking details:
  
  • 3v3 PvP - no squads allowed.
  • 3v3 PvE - squads allowed.
  • 1v1 PvP.
• Rental courts are no longer rental.

I've posted a summary here as well.

I'm in two minds about the new approach on Next Gen. I can appreciate the creativity, moving away from a linear story and making proper use of The City as something of an open world experience. It sounds as though Park players will be able to ignore the NBA side of things more easily than before, though the NBA experience is probably going to be very tied up in The City, which may not be to a lot of people's tastes. As always, there's a lot of stuff that sounds cool and creative on one hand, but also makes you wonder how much of a priority basketball actually was.

I have to say that the matchmaking options, while welcome, are slightly underwhelming. While they should improve Park play, I'm guessing The Rec and Pro-Am will still be a disorganised, toxic mess. Proper matchmaking was already years overdue, and it looks like it'll be another year before it's truly implemented in the online scene. I've been drifting away from MyCAREER and its connected experiences so it likely won't be an issue for me, but I want it to be as good as it can be for everyone else. I've spent a lot of time with those modes and know how fun they can be when they're good, and how much better they'd be if they made some sorely needed improvements. It's a step in the right direction, but again, it's lacking improvement for The Rec and Pro-Am.

Current Gen's approach is likewise creative, and I understand freshening things up with out of the box ideas and aesthetically pleasing and interesting locations. At the same time, it won't matter if the experience on the sticks doesn't improve. With no changes as far as matchmaking, and a questionable level of improvement compared to what's being promised for Next Gen, I'm not setting the bar high on that front.

All in all, there's some cool stuff here, but also a lot of stuff that's superfluous to the core experience of virtual basketball, be it single player or online multiplayer.

I'd point out two things, one good (potentially), one bad.

Good: if the MyCareer story goal is to win a championship it might mean that we'll not get this weird state where we have cinematic pre-NBA experience and then nothing. With the quests and side quests we might actually get some interaction after we get into the NBA which is nice.

Bad: The one million VC weekly race.
So the game does not have crossplay. Xbox Series S/X and PS5 players can't play with each other.
But... the race somehow is crossplay.

The person with the fastest time in the entire community - one winner across both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S platforms - will receive one million VC.

Yes, it's a time that is sent to 2K servers and they'll just pick the best one to give the main prize. It's easier to implement than fully fledged crossplay. I get that.
But it has kinda bad optics when you have the game split into two platforms, but this big prize is shared.

Agreed on both counts. I believe the trivia prize in previous games' Neighborhoods was similarly cross-platform in that manner. A number of times in NBA 2K19 when I was grinding for VC, I took part in trivia on PC and PS4 simultaneously. The pool of players remaining was always identical on both platforms.

Ah yes, the trivia. I remember staying up one weekend for it - because the genius decision to have only one per day meant it was at 3 am here.
Then like 5th question was some baseball question and I never bothered again.

Anything about recent music or movies had a very good chance of eliminating me.