Monday Tip-Off is a weekly feature that comes out - as the name would imply - every Monday. Tip off your week with a column dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to basketball video games! This is a central discussion thread for the feature, in which I invite you to post any feedback along with your responses to each column's topic. A link to the latest article can always be found here in the first post, along with a link to the complete archive.
Latest Feature
Monday Tip-Off: The Reddit Post That Tried to Warn Us
There's a Reddit post that I've mentioned and linked to in quite a few articles since it was made in the official NBA 2K subreddit back in 2018. That post was titled "The 'MMO-ification' of NBA2K and the perils of ignoring player retention: Thoughts from a former MMO developer", and it was very well-received. After all, this wasn't just a random gamer speaking out in frustration, or even a prominent content creator or pundit. This was someone who worked in video game development, and saw first-hand how certain approaches affected both gamer enjoyment, and a game's success.
The criticisms this former EVE Online developer made were astute, and they were on the money about it only being the beginning. Their post touched on matters that many reviewers, and even content creators and community leaders, tend to ignore. It spoke about design philosophies - matters beyond tech and specific game features - that were responsible for problems in the games, and painted a worrying picture for the future. Today, I'm revisiting that Reddit post, and picking out some relevant quotes that identify problems that were troubling in NBA 2K18, and have remained so in its successors. As you'll see, the insights of that Reddit post were almost prophetic.