Lamrock wrote:Rambly post, but anyway
About once a year, I come back and attempt to make a new story, but I usually lose interest pretty quick. I like having a creative outlet and remain obsessed with the NBA but due to the lack of activity in the section, and more importantly, the reality of being an adult, I don't find it to be a very good use of my time.
While I'll probably make more myLeague threads in the future, I think that YouTube videos have replaced forum threads when it comes to this kind of thing. Even those he's abandoned his 2K series for mediocre NBA commentary (if you can make a living doing that, more power to you), AFunkyDiabetic's video series on his myLeague games in 2K16 were leagues ahead of everything I've seen in this section, save for SIt's A Legend Is Born series.
That's not to disparage the hobby. I've had a lot of fun at times making my threads, and people who weren't lazy fucks like me were able to develop and hone their writing and Photoshop skills. However, I just see it as largely obsolete. If they were to add a feature to 2K that tracks and uploads stats and screenshots to a server (perhaps a mod for the PC version is possible?), kind of like what they had for 2K10, perhaps people would be more inclined to post this kind of stuff. As it is, I think that story threads have become obsolete.
Of course, there will always be some kind of following for niche 00's era internet hobbies. http://www.thpsx.com is a website dedicated to the long-dead Tony Hawk series, mainly its THUG Pro mod. Though it's a small community, they still run create-a-park contests and host showcase gameplay videos. I like the idea of renaming the section (myStories is probably my favorite - perhaps we can change it to include Live if their franchise mode catches up to where it was 15 years ago) and bringing back things like Story of the Year. Not sure if this section can ever be as popular as it was in the day, but I certainly would miss it if it went away.
Agree with all this 100%, and it's like what Andrew said: the primitivity of the old games was huge; we had make up stories to match up all the crazy happenings in the league, so it kind of wrote itself in that way. With the realism of the newer titles, there isn't much need for imagination.
Heck, I'd even say MyTEAM/MyCAREER (mainly online) videos are now the move; that's at least what I'm seeing, and if it's a franchise story, it's a one-and-done "Rebuilding the ________" video.
In a way, our dynasty stories were like jobs before we had them.
I do like "MySTORIES" (obviously as a take on everything being "My______" nowadays) as well as "Fan Fiction".
Much like you mention Tony Hawk (which oddly enough my brother just bought Pro Skater 5 and gave it to me), one of the recent dead '00s things I've gotten into is Star Wars Galaxies: it's an old (dead) sandbox MMO in the truest sense of the word, with multiple emulators and servers that keep different versions of the game running. You could be a musician, Jedi, bounty hunter, Imperial, Rebel, dancer, politician, etc, as well as build and customize your own homes among other things.