Monday Tip-Off: Fear & Losing in NBA 2K
In this week's Monday Tip-Off, Andrew discusses how a fear of losing has impacted competitive spirit in NBA 2K's online modes.
The post Monday Tip-Off: Fear & Losing in NBA 2K appeared first on NLSC.
We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some thoughts on how a fear of losing and having a bad time in NBA 2K’s connected modes has poisoned the online scene.
It’s been a familiar sight since the introduction of The Neighborhood in NBA 2K18. Plenty of MyPLAYERs running around or just standing there idly, while others wait at the Got Next spots, hoping in vain to get the numbers to play a game. Meanwhile, in The Rec, MyPLAYERs enter the locker room, only to quickly exit before a game can begin. Naturally, you stand a much better chance of getting a game if you’re with friends, but the hub world concept is intended to encourage gamers to socialise and form impromptu squads for pick-up games. It hasn’t quite worked out that way!
To put it bluntly, there’s a fear of losing in MyCAREER’s connected modes. No one enjoys losing of course, but when the fear of taking an L is so great that you’d rather not even play, that’s a big problem! At the same time, there are legitimate concerns about the quality of the online experience. It isn’t just about not wanting to lose, but also having no desire to team up with selfish players and trolls who are going to make it incredibly difficult to win. Between some people taking things so seriously that they don’t want to risk a loss, and others not wanting to jump into a game knowing that it’s going to be a bad time, the online scene in NBA 2K remains shockingly substandard.
Before I get on my high horse and wag a scolding finger at people for having a fear of losing and a blemish on their record…I do get it. Many years ago, playing in my local junior league, I became very wrapped up in my streak of consecutive games started; even though I was the only one keeping track of such things! It became such a point of pride that I hadn’t come off the bench since my first game that when I arrived late one day and missed the tip-off, I feigned illness to sit that game out. At the time, it felt like a clever move to keep my streak intact. Looking back now, it was a selfish and petty act by an immature teenager who cared far too much about a meaningless stat.
Not only did I deny myself the fun of playing competitive basketball that afternoon, I let down my teammates, all of whom had willingly come off the bench before. In fact, many of the best players in the history of basketball have at least one game in which they didn’t start, so who was I to care about such things in a local junior league? As I said, I cared too much about a stat that ultimately meant nothing. You can definitely draw comparisons to our stats, streaks, winning percentages, ranks, and rep on the virtual hardwood here. There are far worse things than coming off the bench at any level of basketball, or for that matter, enduring an online loss in a video game!
With that being said, I do understand the obsession with avoiding blemishes on your record, which in turn leads to a fear of losing. I’ve also played my fair share of games with randoms in The Rec and The Playground over the years, so I get the reluctance to squad up with teammates who seem unlikely to give you a chance of at least being competitive. If you spot a playmaking build with paltry assist numbers, or someone with a low amount of wins and/or experience, it’s not unreasonable to see those as red flags if you’re a competitor. Each contest must have a loser, and losses should be accepted gracefully, but it’s only natural to want to try to win every game you play.
It isn’t fun for competitive gamers to be teamed up with anyone who lacks experience and skill, has no interest in taking the scene seriously, or is actively sabotaging other people’s good time. Of course, it also isn’t fun for newcomers to be thrown in there with more experienced gamers who don’t want them as teammates, or are well beyond their skill level as opponents. To that end, both groups of online gamers are going to want to avoid each other, for fear of having a subpar outing on the virtual hardwood or blacktop. No one wants to be at a huge disadvantage, iced out, abused over voice chat, or constantly lose, due to the other gamers they’re matched up with and against.
On top of that, MyCAREER’s connected modes are designed in a way to make us care about status and fear the prospect of losing, obsessing over numbers and ranks just as I did my meaningless games started streak all those years ago. Good performances are vital for attribute and Badge progression. Wins gain rep and XP that unlocks all the seasonal rewards. Your win-loss record and stats are displayed on your 2K card, and if those figures take a hit, other people might think that you need to “get good”, and not want to play with you! I can’t blame people for caring about these things, but it does nothing to foster a friendly community, competitive spirit, or cooperation.
If the fear of losing games and/or status is so great that people would rather not hit the court, then something is wrong with the design. So, how do we fix that? It’s what I’ve been saying for years now: proper matchmaking. There’s a semblance of it, and even modes within The City that forego the Got Next system, but it’s still very broad, and gamers will still back out if they don’t like the look of their teammates. Everyone is still thrown into the same hub world and forced to fend for themselves, because it’s better for recurrent revenue. After all, maybe if you pay to upgrade a little quicker and get the right clothes, you can be more competitive, and other people won’t avoid you!
When a game fosters and encourages an elitist attitude, when it gets content creators and gamers on social media and discussion boards alike to shill for microtransactions, the userbase is going to be picky about who they will and won’t play with. Rocket League has a mode that’ll randomly drop you into a game searching for users. It won’t always put you in a great situation, but it’s there because its userbase is keen to find teammates and opponents, and actually jump into games. Can you imagine such an approach to matchmaking in NBA 2K? I can’t; not when we have people who quit Rec games in the first minute simply because their team is down 0-4. It’s ridiculous!
That lack of competitive spirit is what bugs me the most. Backing out of Got Next or The Rec’s locker room because you’re not keen on the teammates you see? Fine, you might have a point. Quitting in the first minute because of an insignificant deficit while you’re still feeling each other out? That’s judgemental and cowardly! That’s the fear of losing that makes the online scene so toxic. Sure, maybe that 0-4 hole is a sign of things to come, and even if the game turns out to be competitive, you may still lose, and losing isn’t fun. However, if you’re giving up after a couple of buckets and you haven’t even given your teammates a chance, then frankly you’re already a huge loser!
Again, I can’t put all of the blame on gamers here. The design of MyCAREER and its online modes fosters these attitudes. In many ways, NBA 2K’s online scene represents the worst aspects of modern basketball and the discourse surrounding it: focusing on the individual over the team, seeking out the easiest path and treating it as though it was the hardest road, stat-padding to look good and deflect any blame in a loss, and inconsistent narratives when it comes to losses and shortcomings. The idea that a single loss makes one a loser is antithetical to competitive spirit, and encourages excuses rather than regrouping to try again, work harder, and strive for success.
And of course, NBA 2K24 introduced Badge regression, which only makes gamers pickier about who they play with and against. The long grind to upgrade attributes and attain Badges was already a problem as far as selfish play and an unwillingness to jump into games. Now that there’s a risk of losing your progress if you don’t play well enough (or get the opportunity to), there’s even more reason to think twice about an online matchup! Throw in the possibility of people getting banned if they quit, get graded out, or there’s a disconnection error, and online play is a mess. I’ve said it before, but 2K should be embarrassed and ashamed of how bad its online scene is!
I don’t want to let online gamers completely off the hook, though. If you’re ducking tough opponents because you want easy wins, then your fear of losing is making you a poor competitor. If you’re getting too wrapped up in winning and losing in a video game, you’re like my teenage self, sitting out a local junior league game unnecessarily because of some unimportant and foolish point of pride. As I said, not only did I ruin my afternoon by sitting out like that, but I let my teammates down as well. Likewise, when we’re selfish and needlessly concerned about stats and status in NBA 2K’s online modes, we don’t just spoil our fun, but make things worse for everyone else.
Ultimately, we’d do well to remember that at the end of the day, it is only a video game. A select few will get the opportunity to play it professionally thanks to the NBA 2K League, and if that’s your goal, then good luck to you! That doesn’t mean that the “home version” of league play should be so full of elitism and gatekeeping that it leads to a fear of losing, and too many people reluctant to play. I realise that “casual” is a dirty word when it comes to online gaming, but casual and competitive settings in Rocket League have fostered a much healthier scene that’s welcoming to newcomers. It’s not without its issues or toxic people, but it’s far better than NBA 2K.
To that point, the design of the online modes absolutely influences how we approach them. Again, I understand the desire to avoid potentially problematic teammates and to try to find a match that has the best chance of being enjoyable. The system doesn’t work in our favour, and there are so many distractions with rep, seasonal rewards, and status symbols. Still, just how important is all that stuff? Is the prospect of losing an online game so terrible that it’s actually preferable to idle in the hub world and never play? Has the userbase grown so toxic that the games must force us to play as a team and demonstrate good sportsmanship? Alright, that last question was rhetorical.
No one likes to lose. When NLSC THRILLHO was active in 2K Pro-Am, we had some tough nights. When I headed to The Rec solo or with a couple of the guys, there were some rough sessions. Losing streaks were discouraging, especially if the games hadn’t been fun. However, I’ll always prefer getting on the court and giving it a go to dodging competition, getting too picky about the randoms I’m teamed up with, or just idling in The City or The Neighborhood. I don’t like to lose, but I’m not going to let a fear of losing dissuade me from online play. Yes, the goal is to win, but I also want to play the game that I’ve purchased, while always competing to the best of my ability.
Of course, a poor experience is a deterrent to wanting to play, so when it comes to concerns about having a good time on the virtual hardwood or blacktop, I get being hesitant to jump into a game. Unfortunately, I don’t believe NBA 2K’s online scene will ever reach its full potential and provide a consistently enjoyable experience until it implements proper matchmaking. It’s also going to have to pull back on the pushy microtransactions and elitist status symbols that facilitate pay-to-win (or at least, pay-to-enjoy) and gatekeeping. That’s not to say you can’t have rep, and VC obviously isn’t going anywhere, but implement them in a way that doesn’t foster toxicity.
Proper matchmaking and a welcoming atmosphere are vital to online play. Newbies can get better in their own time, and not interfere with competitive players. If we don’t have that, if the games continue to focus on punishing failure than rewarding success, if elitism and gatekeeping are encouraged, and if losing carries too much stigma and potential drawbacks for your avatar, then there’s too much unnecessary risk in playing a video game online. It shouldn’t be that way. If a single loss is too much to bear, then the stakes are way, way too high. When a fear of losing makes gamers hesitant to play because of the risk, the online scene has truly lost all semblance of competitive spirit.
The post Monday Tip-Off: Fear & Losing in NBA 2K appeared first on NLSC.