Use More Consequences to teach the Sport

Sometimes games can serve the function of teacher to the people who play it. They can serve as lessons for what to do and what not to. Too often we see things in the gaming sports medium that we would never see in reality. Some welcome and enjoy this, but frequently it causes frustration and disapproval. Some might even say that it is in the Gamer Contract (the unspoken agreement between gamer and developer) for the virtual version of a sport to emulate its real-life counterpart as much as possible. What 2K did with pump fakes this year (long overdue, by the way) and forced backcourt violations last year was a great thing. Its important to realize that exploits like these aren't uncommon, one look at the sports gaming landscape will show you developers who take the easy way out in terms of replicating their sport and refuse to limit things that don't happen in reality *looks at Madden*. NBA 2K is virtually the one sports game we can depend on to mirror its sport correctly. So when longtime issues persist its a sore spot. Here are a few of the legacy issues (and new ones) we'd like to see cleared up.



Reaching Fouls - Probably the most head-scratching issue of all just based on 2K's history of simulation gameplay and because its such a long-time issue in general. This has been an online issue since about 2K6 and its way past needing addressing. Its also confusing because you'd never get away with it offline versus the CPU. Does this mean online is 2K Lite? It shouldn't be. We'd like to address it two ways 1) call a foul...and we're serious about this one. CALL FOULS, gameplay is sorely in need of them anyway. The NBA is a position-defense league, where defenders make shots harder for offensive players, play passing lanes and try to stay between their men and the basket. No one reaches in on every play and if they did they'll be riddled with fouls. So that's what has to happen first, riddle violators with fouls 9 in 10 times that they reach. If they steal the ball? fine. If not? consequences.

2) Stop throwing us into "reaction" animations when defenders reach. It forces us into bad passes and throws off the timing, its super easy to disrupt things like floppy plays by attempting a steal, triggering an animation and disrupting the passer. If the defender pokes the ball away and steals it? FINE. But if not? He misses and is badly out of position or is called for a foul. By forcing the offensive player into an animation you give the defender a way to succeed even if he fails--which is all the way bad. This aspect of gameplay needs to be more risk/reward so that players use it more judiciously or suffer the consequences.

Long Passes - Open gameplay is good, we love the way more contested shots fall this year, but open gameplay has also given us the Pandora's Box of full-court passes this year. Nothing save the excess of offensive rebounds we currently see is more harmful to core gameplay. To add insult to injury, mechanics like these are a welcome sight to Cheesers and other exploit-savvy players.We've heard a number of solutions on Twitter regarding this. The most popular are more bad passes from long throws (resulting in turnovers) more bobbled and mishandled catches and more passes deflected out of bounds by defenders. These would seem like great ways to rectify this problem.

Transition Defense - This is directly tied to long passes above as both combined make the throw-it-long offense one that works easily. NBA 2K is too good a series to punish longtime fans with gameplay that includes like these.  Most of the issues seem to reside in the fact that our players show no urgency in getting back on defense when they should actually be trying to hustle back so their assignments don't beat them down the floor. Watching replays we see our players almost delay while the offense sprints down for easy baskets. Hopefully this tendency can be corrected quickly so that we can all get back to playing a realistic brand of basketball.

Offensive Rebounds - As mentioned above the amount of offensive rebounding is game-breaking and must be resolved. The problem is online/offline and in short there are an excessive amount of offensive boards. The problem seems rooted in the fact that in some instances rebounders block out rather than attack the ball. Offensive players then attack the glass and then have a natural advantage. Block out animations are nice but if they affect gameplay this badly they need to either be more effective or trigger less. It would be nice if they would actually work, by drawing some over-the-back and loose ball fouls, but we'll settle for a game without major rebounding issues. 

Contested Shots - It seems we've gone a little overboard with the contested shots. Its too much of a good thing. Its to the point where people may forget the difference between a GOOD and BAD shot and that is never good. In the end, Contested shots should go down at a much lower rate than open ones. And when all else fails we need to be sure that realistic shooting percentages are hard-wired into the game.

Block Spam - We almost can't be too hard on people that try to block everything, previously; blocks and steals were the only way to defend. But the NBA 2K series now has the gameplay elements necessary to eliminate this once and for all. But first we have to retrain users on how to play defense and this will take some, you guessed it...consequences. The first rule? The right stick must be expanded to a Defense Stick that can be used to challenge shots. And we mean all kinds of shots from dunks to layups, jumpers, everything. Point the Defense Stick toward an offensive player and instead of just a hands up animation we'll get countless close-out and even physical contest animations where fouls may still be called, but not regularly. Add the modifier and get more physical contests (along with more fouls) but in the end this should be THE WAY to properly contest offensive players. The NBA is much more of a change shots/make them harder league than it is a put-your-shot-in-the-front-row one. Especially for non-shot blockers. So when someone (especially with a non-shot blocker) commits the sin of trying to block a jumpshot? call a foul on them 7 times in 10. Now this doesn't mean blocks aren't allowed. If I have someone with the proper skillset (A block rating over 50 i'm thinking...successful blocks with guys like Wesley Matthews should be rare) and good timing? Reward me with a block. If I try to block someone at the basket without good timing? Or from poor position? FOUL. Gameplay sorely needs much more of them. Its to the point where we're hampering players like Durant, Lebron, Kobe, Carmelo and Howard that make a living going to the line because fouls rarely get called.

Next, allow offenses to take advantage of over-aggressive defenders by drawing fouls. If I pump fake and a guy leaps into the air for a block and falls for it? Let me push the shot-stick in his direction and get an easy whistle. There has to be balance to gameplay or people will exploit it. Similar to steal attempts, lowering the shot percentage because a guy is near me mashing the block button is bad design. Accuracy by volume only works in paintball. Lower my percentage because he's successful and blocks my shot, not because he's pressing the button an awful lot.

Zone Defenses - By my count something like 90% of the players online use zone defenses. Why? Do they know something NBA coaches don't? Could it be lag online makes shot releases and passing difficult? Or is it because gameplay has included a feature without properly balancing it? I can online recall one team in recent memory that used a zone effectively and it was because the Dallas Mavericks had three of the most well-rounded defenders in recent history (Kidd, Marion and Chandler) and played teams in shooting slumps. Zones give up a tremendous amount of offensive rebounds, leave a large number of open shooters and are vulnerable to penetration when the ball is swung. These weaknesses need to be present if zones are going to be in NBA 2K. Teach the sport to those those who look for shortcuts with exploits. Don't allow them to dominate.

Force Outs - Know that the unscrupulous will use anything at their disposal to win. Even if it means going against everything that is basketball. Before it was pushing players into backcourt violations, now they're forcing players out of bounds because the game doesn't call fouls in the right instances. Lets get this fixed. We've also seen players easily get between the inbounder and the PG for too long. What PG in the league doesn't flash to the ball when defenses apply pressure on the inbound? Lets see our ball-handlers come to the ball aggressively on the inbound and fouls called when defenders try to hold or force their way between the ball and its recipients.

Those are just a few ways NBA 2K can limit non-basketball behaviors through gameplay. We hope the first patch for NBA 2K13 includes some fixes to the above issues.