Monday Tip-Off: Set Trends, Don’t Follow Them
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 basketball video games chasing trends in gaming, rather than doing their own thing.
I’m going to make a comparison here. Although I’m not a fan of Adam Silver and I have some gripes with his NBA, I won’t pretend that the late David Stern always got it right, either. Like many older fans, I rolled my eyes whenever he talked about the pipe dream of expanding into Europe; an idea that seemed like a logistical nightmare for a league in which teams play four to five games per week, and players can get traded wherever and whenever, whether they like it or not. In particular, I remember cringing when he once used the word “friendlies” when referring to exhibition games.
Obviously, those two words do mean the same thing in terms of sports. Of course, “friendlies” is commonly used in football (that is, association football, or soccer if you prefer) to describe a match that doesn’t count, and is more of a British/European term. Conversely, American leagues such as the NBA tend to use the word “exhibition” for such games. As an Australian, they’re interchangeable terms for me. As for Stern, he was clearly trying to sell the NBA to the European market and ingratiate himself by using a familiar term. I understood that, but I still cringed because it felt inauthentic. Basketball video games chasing trends instead of setting them reminds me of that.
It’s difficult to broach this topic without sounding like a purist or elitist, which gives way to gatekeeping. Not everything is going to be accessible for everyone – some interests are very niche, after all – but basketball and basketball video games are mainstream interests, and there’s nothing wrong with that! To that point, just as David Stern was trying to make the NBA and basketball more accessible to a new audience by using familiar terms, so too do basketball video games borrow ideas from other genres. It’s not a bad thing, and indeed, I do believe that NBA 2K should take some cues from other games, particularly in regards to their online competitive scenes.
Of course, focusing on the online competitive scene and building the game around it has also been detrimental to the traditional offline experience. We’ve gone from sim games that were all about being the most realistic representation of basketball, to a game where a significant amount of online gamers parrot some variation of the phrase “Who cares about realism? It’s a video game!” Jumping on the MMORPG and open world bandwagon has pushed MyCAREER away from the concept of stepping into the shoes of an NBA player, and towards an experience based on quests, competitive play, and meta-gaming. Of course, it’s not the only video game to follow those trends.
What bothered me about David Stern’s “friendlies” comment all those years ago is that it felt like it was tossing out the NBA’s established identity and nomenclature, to sell it to an audience that already preferred something else. It’d be the same as if he’d referred to “standings” as “fixtures”, or if someone was trying to promote cricket in the United States by calling the wickets and crease “home plate”. By all means make comparisons to familiar concepts that help explain a sport, but don’t change the whole identity and associated terminology! Again, it’s impossible to say that without sounding elitist, but such inauthentic rebranding often comes across as pandering.
But that’s enough about remarks that the late NBA commissioner emeritus made several years ago; we’re talking about basketball video games! Once again, the trends and identity crisis that I have in mind revolve around designing NBA 2K for online competitive play, and padding out the experience with an open world that includes far too many non-basketball activities. Mind you, I do think that my complaint is with video games in general, which is why I’m even more disheartened to see NBA 2K (and to some extent, NBA Live before its most recent hiatus) chasing trends instead of doing its own thing. It’s made video games a disappointingly homogenised hobby.
I know I’m getting off track again here, but the Mortal Kombat series is another prime example. Traditionally, MK was enjoyed for its gore, lore, and more casual gameplay compared to other fighting games. I’m not into the online fighting game scene, but I am aware that MK once had a poor reputation with competitive players. Recent games have sought to change that, including the new Mortal Kombat 1. These titles have also been – let’s say – “creative” with the narrative and lore. There are fans that are far more interested in MK’s viability as an eSports title, and they’ll readily dismiss criticisms of the story or offline content as out of touch whining. “Go play an old game, old head!”
Sounds rather familiar, doesn’t it? Gaming discourse nowadays feels more like a clash of gatekeepers determined to win a zero-sum game, rather than people with a common interest and hobby. I suppose it was always that way, but like many topics, it’s been amplified by social media. For my part, while I have generally enjoyed the recent MK games including 1, I do feel like they’re chasing trends, from focusing on competitive play to seasonal content. It’s understandable, but to me, the series has lost some of the charm it once had. The changes to the game, and the reboots of the lore, almost feel hostile to older fans at times; a declaration to get on board, or get out of the fandom.
Fallout 76 is another example. Sure, the Fallout games are known for their lore and depth as single player games, but MMORPGs are in, so Fallout 76 needed to be an online game! The Grand Theft Auto series established itself with over-the-top satire of pop culture and society, banking heavily on the controversy that comes with a villain protagonist. Connected experiences are all the rage though, so GTA V and GTA Online get released and re-released for three generations. Once again, should you not be a fan of this direction, you’re labelled an out of touch old head that needs to shut up and get with the times, or meekly slink away and stick to retro gaming.
There’s a reason that Triple-A games have a reputation for being uninspired and just following the leader, while indie games are lauded for their creativity. Now, there is a certain amount of snobbery in that view, especially when it’s expressed as an absolute. There are very creative Triple-A games that are brilliant, and subpar indie games that are just jumping on current trends. However, Triple-A gaming is big business, and publishers don’t want to be left behind, nor do they want to leave any money on the table. If a game gets popular, then other titles – even ones that are in a completely different genre – will attempt to copy that success by implementing similar concepts.
Unfortunately, that approach has come to basketball gaming. Brian Mazique once noted that these days, NBA 2K is no longer competing with NBA Live, but rather Fortnite, Call of Duty, and other non-basketball titles. He was highlighting NBA Live’s current irrelevance when he made that point, but it also explains an issue that many of us have with the recent direction of NBA 2K. When it was battling NBA Live for sim supremacy, NBA 2K was focused on being the better, more realistic basketball game. As it competes with other genres and chases trends, the focus has shifted towards online play, cosmetics, live service content, and microtransactions.
With that being said, I do think that all genres are suffering from this homogenisation that revolves around designing them for competitive play. It’s prioritised as though it’s the be-all, end-all; the only way to “correctly” enjoy a video game. There’s got to be a meta to discover and master. It’s all about being the very best on the sticks – even in a game that’s heavy on canned animations, ironically – and anyone who doesn’t make that their goal is a filthy casual whose opinions don’t matter, because they shouldn’t even play the game. Genre-specific mechanics must be discarded, or altered so that they fit a standard approach that’s been optimised for a competitive online scene.
The irony here is that since basketball video games depict an actual sport, they are competitive by default! Broadly speaking, there are two ways to represent hoops in video games: the sim way, as NBA 2K and NBA Live have traditionally done, or the arcade style of NBA Jam and NBA Street. The best basketball games, both sim and arcade, have provided exciting head-to-head gameplay with their own techniques for success. Neither style is incompatible with competitive play, especially since sim play is mimicking what we see in an actual professional basketball league! Having to use real basketball strategies in a sim game can test skill level and meta-gaming acumen.
Instead, the online scene has degenerated into who can master repetitive inputs with an avatar that’s appropriately tuned and loaded up with boosts for success. Seasonal rewards and cosmetic items become status symbols, because it’s important that other gamers know that you’re elite. The sad thing is that I could be talking about a number of games here, but that’s the point. Instead of the game that set the goal of being the premiere simulation basketball title, and succeeded spectacularly while toppling an established brand, we’re getting a competitive online experience that just happens to feature basketball. And sure, you don’t have to play online, but it’s not that simple.
After all, whether you play offline or online, the gameplay shares mechanics. That means a game needs to be very careful in making changes that cater to the needs of offline and online play, because they can end up adversely affecting the other. NBA 2K17 is one of my all-time favourite basketball games, but the decision to nerf long passes to address cherry-picking online spoiled fast breaks offline (and was kind of a bummer online too, actually). Taking away Green Releases on closely-guarded shots may have balanced online play in NBA Live 19, but it ruined shooting in offline play, since the AI was far more adept at sticking with their man and closing in on shooters.
This isn’t to say that online play should be neglected, or that basketball video games should completely ignore trends. I mean, I wish that NBA 2K would forego the trend of trying to milk gamers for every last cent, but that problem is admittedly bigger than the virtual hardwood. Going back to Mortal Kombat, it makes sense that NetherRealm have been striving to make their game more palatable for the competitive scene as eSports have become popular, and it has resulted in some improved mechanics. It also has some great onboarding and explanations of the meta, which NBA 2K lacks. That’s also an issue: following trends, but ignoring what makes them work in other games!
As much as I don’t want to sound like a grumpy old man yelling at clouds, this is what algorithms and analytics have led to. The desire to hit the algorithm and trend, or devise a sure-fire blueprint for success based on analytics without further context, has stifled creativity and originality. It’s no longer good enough to be great in your own way, and refusing to follow trends is seen as too risky. Yet, it’s differences, unique ideas, and setting your own trends, that makes you stand out; not palely imitating the style and success of others! Just as David Stern didn’t need to sell the NBA like it was association football, basketball video games don’t need to be something they’re not.
I’ll leave you with one last comparison. Many years ago, when my hometown still had an NBL team, I saw a game advertised as “a great night out with a game of basketball thrown in”. I knew what they were going for: they wanted to broaden appeal, and get some families to the game and make new fans. For a hardcore fan like myself though, making the sport sound like an afterthought was off-putting. Similarly, I understand chasing trends and continuing to build an audience, but when basketball video games forget they’re about basketball, they’re neglecting what makes them unique! At the risk of sounding corny, they need to be themselves. Set trends, don’t follow them.
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