NBA 2K14 MyCareer - the Grind

aceattorney

aceattorney

TXB Join Date: 02/2002
Sep 11, 2013
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I've been playing quite a bit of MyCareer and although I am having fun with the story of my player rising through the ranks, it's getting too much of a grind to actually improve his skills.

In order to improve your various skills (various ranges of shooting, layups, rebounds, consistency, etc.), you have to spend credits. You earn credits through your performance and your team's performance during a game (you made a good pass, forced a turnover, scored, gave an assist, etc.).

Unfortunately, if your team sucks and can't score, rebound, or do anything quite well, you're going to be struggling as well, since you can't do it all. This translates into less points you earn per game.

Now, of course, this is all perfectly planned, because you can spend real money to purchase points. The game is designed to make it frustratingly difficult and/or time-consuming to progress without spending money (i.e., farmville).

What are your thoughts on the matter?
 
Hard to say, I mean, there have been games where leveling up your dudes was time consuming with zero option to purchase any upgrades. Granted, I'm thinking RPGs here, but grinding has always been a part of gaming and to me, it just depends on how much fun it is to actually play the game during said grinding. The better the masking, the better the game. I don't play NBA games, but I've played plenty of games that wanted me to be a higher level. I remember in Diablo 2 going to old areas and bosses just so I could get more XP in the least challenging way.
 
sharkboy1200 said:
Hard to say, I mean, there have been games where leveling up your dudes was time consuming with zero option to purchase any upgrades. Granted, I'm thinking RPGs here, but grinding has always been a part of gaming and to me, it just depends on how much fun it is to actually play the game during said grinding. The better the masking, the better the game. I don't play NBA games, but I've played plenty of games that wanted me to be a higher level. I remember in Diablo 2 going to old areas and bosses just so I could get more XP in the least challenging way.
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Very fair point. Maybe I need to think about this game in those terms. Or try to get traded to a better team lol.
 
I get what you mean. I play it on Pro difficulty and should've made the quarter length to 6 minutes instead of 12, that way it's more fun. I smartened up and made myGM on 5 minute quarters so that I could rank up faster and go through the season. Grinding really takes the fun out of the game especially when each quarter is 12 minutes long and each game is about 45 minutes-1 hour long.
 
Finally had enough with playing on the Hawks. Got traded to Miami and we can't seem to lose. Still not making a lot of money, but it beats losing all the time.
 
You guys are having trouble?

I got drafted by the Bucks and now am in the starting line up over O.J. Mayo. We're actually pretty decent in the East partly due to my averaging of 30 6 6. ;)
 
Yes, many games have a 'loot grind' component. As someone said, Diablo 2 was built on grinding. The difference is, you paid a one time price for Diablo 2 and the grinding was balanced in a manner that most found very enjoyable. Diablo 3 tried to change this by adding a real money auction house. To 'encourage' its use, Blizzard seriously gimped gamers ability to self find loot. This experiment made the grind so slow that many turned away. Blizzard has announced the self found loot will be rebalanced and the real money auction shut down with the first expansion.

Forza 5 is another recent example that stands out. Turn10 has always offered gamers a 'short cut' to the best cars in the game. Until this year, buying a top tier car was a relatively low set price while at the same time it was pretty easy to earn credits in game to afford almost anything. So the ability to short cut your way to the top was really only for the most impatient. I don't agree with paid short cuts like this but if balanced correctly then its easy to overlook. I enjoyed Forza's gameplay and never felt like the publisher was making it so hard to earn a car that I had to spend more cash. The formula changed in Forza 5 and that balance was lost. It was suddenly next to impossible to not make Forza 5 your job if you wanted to own a top tier car. Simultaneously T10 also adjusted the real money price of cars to make 'shot cutting' to top tiers more expensive. T10 has since recognized the in game economy was unbalanced and announced a patch to address it - so you earn more and cars are less. Their goal, so they say, was not to push player to pay, only to make shot cutters pay more. Even with this unbalanced economy there were few features you couldn't access.

EA has continually had Ultimate Team modes in there games. Basically card collecting to build a team of stars and play online. Card packs can be purchased with in game or real world money. The in game coins are not so easy to earn but they balance this by isolating the use coins to one modes even tho coins are paid out for playing most any part of the game. Some may enjoy UT and others may not but you are not forced into that mode..the game is still feature rich even if you do not like UT. That said, EA does make a lot off those who get into this collecting aspect.

Finally there is NBA 2K14 where the publisher has pretty much broken every rule of game balance just so they can line their pockets. VC is tied to almost everything so your pool of self earned coins is always at a give and take - building one mode means you have no savings left for other modes. There is no escaping its reach. Secondly, the economy is tipped heavily forcing the gamer to pay. The so called grind is balanced toward paying to play and many take issue with this model for a $60 retail game. Finally, because VC is so prevalent to ever mode 2K must insist you are always online. They must be able to track your not cheating the VC system so any network instability leaves most of the game unplayable. Add 2Ks ongoing online issues and bugs, where saved games and millions of VC credits end up lost to a corrupt save, and you have a recipe for disaster. A disaster that 2K seems more than willing to sit back and watch. No concern for the customers =, just for the experiment and how far they can push the line.

Well, I say f*** them. I don't need any game so badly that I'll give up my spine just to play it.
 
Wiseguy said:
I got drafted by the Hawks too. f*** MyCareer...lol
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You can always demand a trade, lol. I'll demand a trade once I get named All-star to get the trophy because I think your fans and everything reset or decrease once you get traded.
 
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DriedMangoes said:
You can always demand a trade, lol. I'll demand a trade once I get named All-star to get the trophy because I think your fans and everything reset or decrease once you get traded.
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I was joking really. The MyCareer mode is like an RPG/Sports game of sorts. It's not bad but yes, like Ace said, it is a grind. I like the one player control aspect of it but there have been times when we're leading the game and I was doing well and then they bench me near the end of the game, we lose and I'm like WTF?

They probably should have had a traditional career mode as well as the RPGesque MyCareer.
 
The fact that they removed the mini-games where you were able to boost your points shows they want you to purchase points. I demanded a trade five times until I ended up on a team I want to stay on, the Chicago Bulls. I was drafter by the Sixers, traded to the Jazz, traded to the Wizards, traded to the Raptors, traded to the Knicks and finally I ended up on the Bulls. Playing on low rung teams makes it even harder to progress.
 
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