Monday Tip-Off: The Lure of Online Team Play

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 a few thoughts on the lure of online team play.

I haven’t bothered putting any serious effort into levelling up a MyPLAYER since NBA 2K21 on PlayStation 5. As I’ve explained in detail before, I was fed up with the grind, and weary of the toxicity in The Rec and NBA 2K’s online scene in general. After revisiting some old favourites and giving other older releases a second chance, I realised just how much fun I was missing out on, and quit the grind. Changing my basketball gaming habits has been so refreshing, and it’s obviously given me new topics to discuss as well. I left online team play behind, and I haven’t looked back.

Well…sort of. Kenny, Leo, and I gave 3-v-3 Pro-Am and The Rec another try in NBA 2K23 on PlayStation 5, and for the first month, we actually had some fun sessions! Of course, by Season 2, the community had figured out the meta and the hardcore online gamers had levelled up their MyPLAYERs, at which point the lack of matchmaking kept throwing us in there with super serious, souped-up opponents. It wasn’t a tough decision to leave it all behind again, and honestly, NBA 2K23 dropped out of my rotation entirely not long afterwards. However, that brief return and fond memories of NBA 2K16 and NBA 2K17 demonstrate that there’s still a lure to online team play.

It sounds crazy to say that when I’ve been so critical of the online scene in NBA 2K, and the greediness of the recurrent revenue mechanics that have made levelling up such an unenjoyable grind. As I just pointed out, the lack of in-depth matchmaking and heavy reliance on meta-gaming with MyPLAYER builds has detracted from the multiplayer experience. People can talk about stick skills and bleat “get good” forever and a day, but between artificial boosts, paying to skip the grind, and so many canned animations, the “skill gap” is questionable. Also, once again, if you’re avoiding tough opponents in order to rack up easy wins, you don’t believe in a competitive scene!

Then you’ve got selfishness, and lack of sportsmanship. I’m talking about the people who hog the ball and take bad shots, as well as those who sabotage the team because they don’t get to shoot fifty times a game. I’m talking about the people who start trying for stats and blow a big lead and let a win slip away, as well as those who quit in a huff because your opponents scored a couple of quick buckets in the first minute. I’m talking about opponents who triple team the last remaining user on a Rec squad, who’s just trying to do the honourable thing and play out the game, since quitting carries a penalty and loss of progress. Yes, I’ve seen online gamers at their worst in NBA 2K.

Thanks to a combination of greed and poor design choices, bad sportsmanship, elitism and gatekeeping, artificial boosts, and unreliable servers, NBA 2K’s online scene – in particular MyCAREER’s connected modes – is nowhere near as good as it could and should be. I’ve said as much several times before, having experienced it all firsthand. How, then, could I possibly say that there’s any lure to the online team play modes; especially when I’ve been so open about how refreshing it is to leave the whole scene behind? How I can possibly have any lingering interest in 2K Pro-Am, The Rec, or even The Playground, or at least miss an experience that could be utterly miserable?

Quite simply, I know how fun it can be, when everything goes well. When you jump into The Rec and find yourself teamed up with people who know how to play and aren’t selfish, it can lead to enjoyably competitive online games. When you get a victory and those teammates stick around in the Locker Room to play another game with you, it’s a good feeling. It’s a mutual understanding that you had a good time playing with each other, and that you’d like to have another run. It’s the same when randoms join you at the Got Next spots in The Playground, don’t jump off, and then you end up holding the court for a few games. It’s what online play is meant to be.

That’s just playing with randoms. Some of my fondest basketball gaming memories since 2016 have involved the online team play modes, when I’ve been able to team up with friends. There’s a reason that NLSC THRILLHO played over 500 games of 2K Pro-Am in NBA 2K17, with me taking part in 500 of them. There was always such great camaraderie, and it was nice catching up with friends every Friday night (and sometimes, for a couple of other sessions during the week, too). There were moments of frustration on the virtual hardwood of course, but the highlights, the victories, and the conversation on the mics, made it something that I always looked forward to.

As for the on-court experience, it’s never going to be perfect, even in the best case scenario. Connection issues can happen, and no, they’re not always the fault of 2K’s servers (though they’re more at fault than in-game error messages would have you believe!). As in real life, sometimes you play a bad game, and endure a tough loss. When that happens, you just have to pick yourself up and try harder next time. On a similar note, sometimes you’ll run into a superior opponent, and yes, that’s when you do need to “get good”! No basketball video game will be completely free of quirky and frustrating moments, but the best ones will be a blast more often than a chore.

While I’m a staunch advocate for single player modes and co-op play against the CPU, I also have an appreciation for the online multiplayer experience. It can be a fun challenge to face other basketball gamers with their own strategies and skill levels. Homogenisation in the preferred style of play aside, it means the experience can vary from game to game, and be less predictable than a CPU opponent that can’t think laterally and creatively. I don’t believe there’s one “correct” way to play basketball video games, which is why I’m open to playing single player, co-op, and online multiplayer, as long as the gameplay experience on offer is consistently enjoyable.

I also think that at its core, the online team play concept is really cool! I’ve thought that since a post-release update added a mode by that name to NBA Live 08 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, even if I did only take a casual interest in it at the time. I mean, up to ten different users on ten different consoles, potentially spread across the globe, each controlling a player? That’s an awesome idea! Obviously the concept has now become part of a connected experience with career mode avatars, but the original mode in NBA Live 08 saw gamers take control of real NBA teams, pick a player, and even have the choice of switching players if there were less than five users per side.

Honestly, I’d love to see that concept return as an alternative to the MyPLAYER-based online team play modes. There’s purity and balance to that approach, since you’re not concerned about discovering the meta and tweaking builds, and everyone must fill their role and play as a team to succeed. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’d be as popular nowadays. Many people do enjoy meta-gaming, and the original approach does require someone to be stuck with a lesser player. To use NBA Live 08 as an example, it was fun to be the Boston Celtics if you could control Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, or Rajon Rondo, but few people wanted to be Kendrick Perkins!

While it’s a long shot, I’d support a return of the original online team play concept, and I believe others would take interest in it as well. After all, variety is essential. If you prefer the streetball approach, there’s Park/The Playground. If you want a more organised format with NBA rules, there’s Pro-Am if you can organise a squad, and if you can’t – or your friends aren’t available – there’s The Rec. If you’d like a hybrid of the two or only have three squad members available, there’s 3v3 Pro-Am. While I do have my criticisms of NBA 2K’s online modes, from a lack of matchmaking to the way that they encourage selfish play, I do appreciate the variety that they provide.

The lure of online team play isn’t so strong that I’m itching to get back into those modes. I hate the pressure to pay above and beyond the price of the game just to make my MyPLAYER viable sooner, since the journey is less fun by design if you don’t. I can’t get invested in a mode where you have to treat the game like a job, or devise methods of levelling up faster that have nothing to do with basketball, just to get to the point where it’s fun and playable. Similarly, starting over from scratch every year gets tiresome, and I can no longer get hooked on a mode that I won’t be able to revisit when the servers are shut down. For me, the drawbacks still outweigh the appeal.

At the same time, I won’t deny that there’s a lure to those modes – not to mention some very fond memories – that make me wish I could still enjoy them. I’d like to see them get better and MyCAREER become far less of a greedy grind so that I could at least consider jumping in every now and again. Unfortunately, this is what happens when the online scene begins catering to the elitists. The gatekeeping that chases away any gamers that don’t want to treat the online modes like professional eSports ruins what should be a fun and accessible experience for all. The irony of course is that despite (or indeed, because of) its elitism, the game fosters a poor competitive scene anyway.

I suspect we’re beyond the point of return as far as improving the online team play modes. The original NBA team-based concept is probably going to be seen as old hat for old heads, VC sales generate too much recurrent revenue, and the vocal elitists screaming about skill gaps and “no casuals allowed” are the crowd that 2K favours these days. It’s a shame; as I said, online team play is such a cool concept when you think about it, and the scene in 2K could be so much better. Still, knowing how much fun online play can be when everything goes well, the lure is always going to be there. Without any improvements though, it’s gone as soon as I’m done fondly reminiscing.

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