Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five things that make multi-season modes in basketball video games awesome.

Growing up with the basketball video games of the 90s, I was able to experience some classic releases and see the genre evolve in some big ways from year-to-year. That of course includes the introduction of multi-season modes. If you go back and look at our early Wishlists for NBA Live, you’ll see that we were keen to see Season mode expand into an experience that lasted several years, and truly allowed us to play GM. Our wish was granted in NBA Live 2000 PC, and since then, multi-season franchise and eventually career modes have become staples of NBA Live and NBA 2K.

For gamers who prefer online team play and competitive modes in general, playing several full seasons against the CPU may not sound like a lot of fun. Gamers who prefer the card collecting modes may also not find the structure of the NBA-oriented modes to be all that appealing. For that matter, anyone who’s satisfied with a single, isolated NBA campaign may not feel the need to continue into Year 2 and beyond. It should be noted that these are all valid opinions and ways to experience basketball games, but as someone who has really enjoyed the extended journey that franchise and career play offers, I’ll give you five reasons why multi-season modes are so fun.

1. Overall Depth

Simply put, multi-season play has brought us modes where there’s so much more to do! Franchise modes have put us in control of NBA teams, from roster management to financial dealings, and even given us the ability to re-brand and relocate clubs. Career modes have allowed us to role-play as an NBA player, making our mark on the league on the court and building a brand off of it. Over the years, both of these multi-season modes have become much deeper with new features and elements that add to the immersion. Unlike the Season modes in the early days of basketball gaming, we don’t have to use our imaginations to simulate elements that weren’t implemented.

Of course, that was part of the fun of season play in those old games, but it was vital that the genre moved forward and became a deeper simulation of the NBA through those multi-season modes. As much nostalgia as I have for flipping a coin to see if my trade proposal would be accepted, and imagining details that weren’t in the game, it’d be a massive blunder if we still had to do that kind of legwork for a more immersive experience! As for career modes, while they can have their issues with progression and cheesy stories, the best ones are a fun journey that easily beat mimicking the concept in a player-locked franchise. Both are modes that I’ll eagerly sink hours into.

2. Ability to Create Virtual History

In their day, single Season modes were fantastic. The best ones were an admirably accurate representation of the NBA campaign, and it was extremely satisfying to play through a whole year and capture the championship. It’s safe to say that many of us who grew up with those old games played and/or simulated through multiple single seasons in them. While we certainly had fun doing that, all of those seasons were isolated experiences. It was a rare game that allowed us to export rosters from a season file, and even then the stats and results weren’t reflected, so we were playing from the same starting point over and over again. It wasn’t true multi-season play.

Multi-season franchise and career modes have allowed us to create an alternate virtual NBA history. With league and team records being listed, players accumulating career statistics, and annual awards and championships up for grabs, everything matters. We can break records, and ultimately look back at years of fictional results. Every season adds to an ongoing experience; a legacy, if you will. That’s not to say there isn’t any use for single season play anymore. You might just want to play the one campaign, especially if you’re running with a fantasy scenario. With that being said, the ability to craft a virtual alternate history is something I’ve really enjoyed since NBA Live 2000.

3. Interesting Fictional Scenarios

One of the most enjoyable parts of creating virtual history in multi-season modes is seeing all kinds of weird and wonderful fictional scenarios come to pass. Naturally this includes anything that you can influence – from results to roster moves – but I’ve always enjoyed seeing the CPU-controlled teams helping to shape the fictional reality. While it was fun to mimic the real moves from the 1998 season when playing NBA Live 96’s Season mode with my roster update all those years ago, it’s an immersive, intriguing, and challenging situation when you don’t have that level of control. CPU teams will make some crazy trades, and marquee names will jump ship, as in real life.

In some respects, player movement is even more entertaining in career modes, since you often don’t have much (if any) control over the moves your team makes, let alone the rest of the league. Granted, the trading and free agency logic can lead to strange and rather unlikely scenarios. Sometimes that’s annoying, though it can also really spice things up! Besides, when you look at some of the shocking deals that have gone down in real life – Luka Doncic to the Lakers is an excellent example here – it’s tough to say what is and isn’t realistic! The CPU’s moves have been just as impactful as my own wheeling and dealing when it comes to making multi-season modes a real blast.

4. Happy Coincidences

Fictional scenarios that create an alternate reality are a big part of the fun in multi-season modes, but it’s also extremely novel when art imitates life! The circumstances may not be exactly the same, but broadly speaking, it’s still wild to see a real move or result occur in your franchise or career mode game when there’s no way it could’ve been programmed in. A great example is LeBron James going to the Lakers in my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER on PS4, in a playthrough that began after he went to Los Angeles in real life. It’s not a predetermined result, so it wasn’t NBA 2K14 making a prediction in 2013, and it happened after the fact besides, but it’s a happy coincidence!

In a similar vein, it’s also fun when life imitates art with an event from a career or franchise mode game subsequently becoming a reality. During the 2006 offseason in my NBA Live 06 PC Dynasty with the Chicago Bulls, I signed Mike Dunleavy Jr. to shore up my bench. It didn’t work out so well for me, but in any case, the real Bulls ended up signing him some seven years later in 2013! It’s also fun to inject some reality intentionally, such as when I acquired Carlos Boozer in that same Dynasty after the Bulls signed him in 2010. Once again though, it’s some serendipitous novelty when a move by the CPU mimics reality, or a move you make later comes to pass.

5. Replay Value

As I mentioned, many basketball gamers in the 90s undoubtedly played and simulated through multiple single campaigns in those early season modes, so it’d be inaccurate to suggest that they had no replay value. However, with all of the depth that multi-season modes provide, they easily outclass their predecessors in this regard! I should note that when I’m talking about replay value here, I’m also referring to the ability to return to a game you’ve temporarily shelved, and pick up where you’ve left off in a file that’s a few years in. Obviously it includes starting from scratch as well, but multi-season modes allow us to begin a lengthy journey that we can continue at our leisure.

Unfortunately, that has become more difficult or indeed impossible in recent years. Beginning with NBA 2K20, MyCAREER is no longer available offline, whether you want to continue a previous game or begin a new one. MyLEAGUE files have also become unplayable if they utilised any online content, namely downloaded files for re-branded teams. Basketball games have sadly become increasingly disposable over the past generation or so, but there are still many classics that remain fully-featured – or close enough to it – years and decades later. If you still enjoy playing them as I do, then diving into their multi-season modes is a great way to keep them in your rotation.

Do you enjoy multi-season modes in basketball games? What makes them appealing to you, and what are some of your fondest memories of franchise and career mode play? Have your say in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.

The post The Friday Five: 5 Things That Make Multi-Season Modes Awesome appeared first on NLSC.