2K Insider? #notsomuch

For years we've railed on Madden regarding how terrible the guy that does their rosters (Donny Moore) is. Sports Games function almost solely from a mixture of Engine & Ratings, so bad ratings can badly hurt or ruin a game. Donny Moore has done a great job of making a game that is barely playable into one "completely so" with his poor ratings. Luckily, 2K's gameplay is light-years ahead of Madden so ratings that are sometimes "off" don't ruin the game like they do in Madden. But recently many of the more hardcore offline players have been very vocal regarding how poorly many of the Tendencies, In-depth ratings and other elements are done. We've taken notice that they have some really valid points. You have to keep in mind that many offline players love NBA 2K for the Immersion it offers. When Lebron James scores most of his points from posting up--they frown, seeing Drew Gooden with a better mid-range rating than Kobe Bryant makes them scratch their heads, when Dirk Nowitzki isn't slotted properly ratings-wise in regards to other superstars, its puzzling to them, and we GET IT.



I went to my PS3 this morning after seeing on Twitter that the NBA 2K12 official rosters had been released. I downloaded it, looked it over, then promptly deleted it and downloaded the best roster on PS3, bedwardsroy19 from Operation Sports fame. I wasn't mad, didn't start a post on forums about how "2K sucks" or even send @Ronnie2K a nasty tweet. I just went and got a roster of good quality--and not only did his have adjusted ratings, but equipment changes as well! Therein lies the problem, the official 2K Roster should be the one the one that people consider impeccable. There's no way on God's green earth people on 2K Share should be doing all the hard work instead of the 2K Insider. I like Ronnie2K, i really do. Much of the heat he takes as a community manager is unwarranted, but tweets like "insane trades make this very unusual landscape (incl. guessing player rotation minutes) makes it tough 4 Insider to guess" are unacceptable when you have roster people in your community doing a much better job FOR FREE.

Roster people have to be top-notch. Especially when there are people in the community who are outdoing them and doing the work because they love it. @Thereal2kinsider is another roster guy who's work on correct ratings is impeccable when compared to The 2K Insider. His tweets are the stuff of legend and honestly show the 2K Insider to be a very poor ratings person at best, here's one of my personal favorites: Quentin Richardson went 3-20 from mid-range last season. 2K Insider raised his rating by 20 points. #notsureifserious now the operative question is how can a thorough roster person make a blunder like that? Just what did he base his increase off of? Is he guessing and just putting in random numbers? That's what it looks like, and most importantly, why didn't he scramble to adjust his rating after it was exposed so badly? I'm not sure about you, but i want my roster people to know better than that.


Here's the thing, we really don't care for Thereal2kinsider all that much. Like his Twitter handle he comes off very pompous, arrogant with a very i-know-better-than-you attitude. We wanted to highlight his work earlier in an interview and he blew us off because we asked him some tough questions (the same questions ratings-hungry members of the community will ask, mind you) and he declined because he felt like scrutiny undermined his work. While we were really just preparing him for what was coming (roster people need to have thick skin) All that notwithstanding His rosters and excellently done and he has a System, shows Consistency for the most part and to be honest roster people don't need to be high profile, they just need to do good work--so he was well within his rights to decline our interview. The work of Roster Editing needs to be awarded to a team who do a much better job than the 2K Insider, the job is honestly too much for one person. Perhaps let him assemble a real team of roster people who can give us complete rosters from positions 1-15 and who can tell you which guys are improving and which are declining regardless if they play for the Lakers or the Raptors, and the search needs to start with deserving guys like bedwardsroy19 and thereal2kinsider. Here are some other things we'd like to see:

Stats-based ratings - Like the thereal2kinsider pointed out. You can look INTO the numbers not AT them to rate players. At a basic level stats (or lack thereof) chart production, the one thing in sports there is no substitute for. Statistics are the objective gift that keeps on giving. While they don't always tell the entire story, they give us a great baseline to begin slotting and rating players. They disallow homerism, opinions and other preconceived notions. Stats should always determine 90% of the ratings, opinions and intangibles like playing for a contender or losing team, 1st team NBA, information from sites like Hoopdata, circumstances and other view-based awards should determine the other ten percent.

Ratings Team - The roster editing is too much for one person. In our opinion every team needs an Insider that rates them during and after the season. Its not fair to neglect Darko's becoming a serviceable center just because he never plays on TV, or to miss Aaron Afflalo's marked improvement into a very solid SG. Kushmir, a guy who wrote an article for our blog in the past went on Game Changers radio this past week and was told that the lesser Madden teams can't expect to be rated correctly because no one sees their games. And people wonder why Madden is in the state its in, what utter foolishness! I wonder if Donny Moore's Tampa Bay Buccaneers get watched and correctly rated despite making the playoffs once in the last 5 years and very rarely being on national TV? There are objective, hardcore community members who would LOVE to be a part of a roster team with guys like bedwardsroy19 and the real2kinsider,and that share similar views on rating with them. Let detail-oriented guys with passion team with them to develop a ratings system and give 2K ratings that can withstand any debate or scrutiny. We bet they'd do it for early copies of the game every year and to be able to test gameplay, and truth be told--these are the guys you need searching your game for kinks anyway. Many in the community loved how you incorporated Da_Czar's opinions into many of the changes in 2K's playcalling for instance. Use the great resources in your community to further your game.

Complete Rosters -We applaud 2K for attempting to rectify one of the most glaring issues their game had this year. No rookies on their rosters. (It was no fault of their own really, but luckily resourceful fans turned to the hardcore roster guys in the community and had complete rosters within days) but to even put out an update with only four of the rookies was probably not the best decision. What about Kings, Utah, Charlotte and Sixer fans? Aren't their rookies as important as Kyrie Irving? Many fans of lesser teams get an incomplete experience when they can't play with new, potentially impact players.We understand setbacks, so just say "Hey the roster will be out after all rookies are added." giving die-hard fans a weekend deadline and missing it only adds to the negativity that NBA 2K12 has been the victim of this year. Put a complete roster out when one is released, though it may seem excessive, many fans of the Immersion that 2K offers won't even start their seasons with an incomplete roster and fear of having to restart it when a full roster is released. TRUE STORY.

Substance - We don't want our roster people running contests for who should get the first 100 Speed rating in Madden, we want the rosters to be RIGHT and ACCURATE. We don't have any need for idiots that tweet bonuses to stats everytime someone makes a good play but neglect to when that same player makes no play or a bad one. Thats not being objective at all, thats noisy marketing. As a matter of fact we don't want them to be high-profile at all. Right now Madden suffers from a ratings "guru" (as if--trust me..he self-titled that) more obsessed with trying to be a celebrity than doing a great job rating players. There's no way anyone should know who his favorite team is; because that only reveals how objective he's NOT. Josh Freeman with a clutch rating when he's never sniffed a playoff game? COOL STORY BRO. Tell me how good the decision to award him that looks THIS year.We don't want some Dicky V who's watching the best player in the country every other broadcast. Most of all, no interaction with players that might hurt objectivity. Carmelo's got an issue with his three-point rating? TOUGH. shoot better. Ratings people should be there to provide accurate ratings. PERIOD.

Trends - Another hardcore gripe of Madden is that it has too much of a knee-jerk reaction to rating players. Calvin Johnson drops a pass in a game? lower his hands rating. Your LT missed a block? lower his footwork rating, Kicker hit a 60 yard FG? Raise his Kicking Strength! You get the idea. No offense, but thats the Dicky V mentality. Thats how casual fans who are politicking for higher ratings for THEIR players and who know little about the game they're watching rate players. We'd like ratings people knowledgeable enough to look over a longer period with more data to determine who advances and declines.

Consistency - We love a system. It establishes a pattern that can be followed and that no one can challenge. A poster years ago on OS said "Make SHAQ the most dominant player in the game and work your way down." We loved how he put that--made perfect sense. If Michael Jordan is a 99, no one else is. Rate the HOF players and then work your way down. We've always agreed with topping current players out at about a 96. Factor intangibles like championship team, contender and basement dweller, but yield to stats, especially in the cases of players with a first breakout year. If a player has put up 20/10 for 5 seasons, its inconsistent to rate a player who's in his first year of 20/10 as high (Black Griffin). And no one can argue that provided the player who has consistency on his side isn't declining. When someone asks why Paul Piece has an 80 mid-range rating its easily countered with "Because he's shot 50% from 10-22 feet for four straight seasons." Is that Asking too much? Ask yourself, what else do roster people have to do to besides be savvy with numbers like those? IT'S THEIR JOB TO MAKE SURE PLAYERS ARE REPRESENTED AS ACCURATELY AS POSSIBLE. Lastly, never compromise your rating system, no matter how highly touted, "sure bet" or "next big thing" a rookie is. Its embarrassing to rate players who've never dribbled a ball in the NBA higher than players who've actually performed. For every Lebron James and Kevin Garnett, there's a Kwame Brown, Dajuan Wagner, Ndubi Ebi, Jonathan Bender, Eddy Curry, Eddie Griffin (RIP), Stromile Swift, Darius Miles, Marcus Fizer, Rodney White, Darko, Mike Dunleavy, Shaun Livingston and Marvin Williams...remember how dominant they were supposed to be? (trust me there are more, we stopped at 2005) NBA 2K has a great system where most bench players are rated in the 50s and 60s. This is where those rookies should be slotted until they prove themselves--they won't be there long if they're deserving.

Well. there's our two cents worth. We hope a new trend is started and that some of the issues we brought up spurn the great team over at 2K into action. After 2K11, the 2K series was well on its way to being recognized as the #1 Sports Franchise. 2K12 lost some momentum due to the lockout but gameplay, immersion, quality and an authentic experience will always determine which franchise wears the crown. That same crown comes with intense scrutiny. Be prepared for it by offering the best most detailed and authentic ratings system sports games offer.