by Andrew on Sat Oct 31, 2020 10:09 am
It depends on how you look at it. It's definitely possible to build a decent team without spending money and enjoy much of the mode that way, but there are also pushy mechanics. NBA 2K21 introduced a couple of sketchy ones in that regard.
For example, a lot of the challenges in the new Season approach require cards from new packs as they're released. To even attempt those challenges, you must have those players. They also introduced a new mechanic this year whereby cards are marked as being originally owned if they came from packs, but not if they're bought from the Auction House. Some challenges require cards to be originally owned, meaning if you want to attempt them, you can't just find the card in the Auction House; you have to rip open packs in the hopes of getting that card, with the low odds that entails. That makes the whole Season approach less gamer-friendly than it appears.
With that being said though, you can work the system in other ways and have fun with the mode without buying packs and investing real money to do so frequently. It's worth noting that the generosity does mask some sketchy tactics, but the free content does deserve to be acknowledged all the same.
(Also, I actually wrote the article before the release of NBA 2K21 so I hadn't anticipated those new tactics, and I figured I'd save them for another article once I was getting ready to run this one. Besides, it doesn't change the fact that there is still free content.)