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 frequently spoil multi-season modes in basketball video games.

So, I’ve explained why I strongly believe that multi-season modes are awesome, and I stand by that. I wouldn’t maintain an interest in them if I didn’t! However, I also won’t pretend that they’re perfect and that nothing can spoil the experience. Please note that when I say spoil, I don’t necessarily mean that the mode is completely ruined and no longer capable of being enjoyed. Again, if these were insurmountable issues, then my interest in multi-season modes would soon evaporate, and even after all these years, that obviously isn’t the case!

Nevertheless, there are quirky things that are annoying or detract from the intended experience in some way. Even if they ultimately don’t stand in the way of enjoying multi-season modes, they’re among my pet peeves in some of my all-time favourite basketball video games, and issues that I’d prefer future games to avoid. In other words, if you were to ask me what are my least favourite aspects in some of my favourite modes and games, the issues that I’m discussing here are definitely on that list! I adore multi-season modes and will always recommend them as a fun way to play basketball games, but be warned: these are some issues that you might encounter.

1. Outdated & Repetitive Elements

On one hand, it’s great that multi-season modes stretch so far into the future. Indeed, it was mind-blowing to realise that at the conclusion of the 2024 season, we’d finally reached the end of the original Franchise mode in NBA Live 2000! MyCAREER also allows us to have a lengthy NBA journey through twenty seasons, while NBA 2K’s franchise modes can take us an unfathomable eighty years into the future. While that’s an awesome concept, it certainly presents a few problems in terms of both realism and repetition. Play far enough into the future and you’ll have commentators that are over a hundred years old, telling the same NBA anecdotes that they have for decades now!

Also, while MyCAREER is undoubtedly intended to be played for multiple seasons if you so desire, the story-driven elements are rarely well-implemented beyond the first year. Five years into your career as an established star, you’ll have press conferences where you’re congratulated on a 50-point game as if it’s your first one. Scenarios such as playing through illness or being called out by a Legend are repeated, becoming an annual event in some cases. NBA 2K14 and NBA 2K15 were particularly bad about that! As the cinematic aspects of MyCAREER were expanded and refined, this has improved a little. However, repetition still affects multi-season modes to some extent.

2. Lack of Player Movement

The appeal of multi-season modes is that the league isn’t static. Teams make moves during the year, and there’s a flurry of player movement during the offseason, as in real life. As I’ve discussed before, it’s difficult to pin down what constitutes realism when it comes to player movement. We’ve seen players jump ship unexpectedly, and teams make bewildering trades that the CPU would most likely reject in a franchise mode. In any case, while we can debate what realism looks like whenever trades and signings occur in multi-season modes, the bottom line is that we want to see them. We don’t want to see a general lack of player movement, resulting in an unchanging NBA.

It should be clear how much I’m enjoying playing through NBA 2K14 MyCAREER on PS4 to this day. I wouldn’t be seven years into the mode if I wasn’t having a blast! I am frustrated with the overall lack of player movement, though. Too many players are enjoying lengthy stints with teams, particularly journeymen role players who in reality tend to bounce around on one-year deals, and are often included in trades. Beyond the lack of realism, it’s definitely caused teams to stagnate, preventing fresh scenarios and intriguing new matchups. Look, too many unlikely trades and big free agent signings isn’t ideal either, but given the choice, I’ll take that over a lack of player movement.

3. Weak Generated Rookies

Even though we’ve had customisable Draft Classes for a long time now, I’m actually still a fan of generated rookies. They absolutely have an upside, contributing to the fictional scenarios that make multi-season modes so fun. With that being said, they don’t always pan out as well as one would hope. Some games have a tendency to generate very weak classes of rookies that don’t develop into stars. As real players begin to retire, they leave behind rosters increasingly filled with fictional players who aren’t nearly as competent, or indeed dominant. The result is a watered-down league where very few of the generated rookies ever become Virtual Hardwood Legends.

This can be alleviated in franchise modes that support custom Draft Classes, though you may still encounter this issue with a poorly-made Draft Class, or conversely be met by a plethora of overpowered rookies. Unfortunately, there’s nothing that can be done in career modes – at least, not modern ones – as they don’t support custom Draft Classes. Although my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER has produced a handful of fictional stars – and not just Terry Hanson, which is largely thanks to my influence – there have also been a couple of rather weak rookie crops, diluting the talent pool. The game isn’t ruined, but it’s a good example of how generated rookies can have a negative impact.

4. Too Many Upsets & Underdog Runs

As with player movement, we have high expectations of the sim engine when it comes to the results in multi-season modes, which means that we’ll sometimes be disappointed. Of course, given that the real NBA season doesn’t necessarily go the way one is hoping, this is a frustratingly realistic outcome! However, the sim engine in some games does leave something to be desired with its results from year-to-year in multi-season modes. Sometimes it may be too predictable, with the favourites always coming out on top. Other games meanwhile are too generous to the underdog teams, resulting in constant postseason upsets, and frequent Cinderella runs to the Finals.

That’s another complaint I have with my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER on PS4. As much fun as it’s been to play through multiple seasons and turn the Philadelphia 76ers into a dynasty, I’ve yet to have an epic NBA Finals series. Every year, the top teams in the West falter – quite often in the first round – and I’ve ended up facing a middle-of-the-pack team. The games themselves have still been enjoyable and competitive at times, but I’ve missed out on marquee matchups against contenders with stars. It’s made the Playoffs predictably unpredictable, so to speak. It’s a tough balancing act because upsets need to occur, but when they’re too frequent, they can spoil the postseason.

5. Players Not Becoming Stars They Actually Did

Considering how many predictions fans and pundits alike get wrong each and every year, we can’t hold it against developers when games are wrong about the future in their multi-season modes! We’ve seen players exceed and fall short of expectations, and unexpected success stories. That’s extremely challenging to account for to say the least, particularly players who really exceeded expectations and became superstars and all-time greats. Such players may not have good enough ratings or a high enough potential attribute in their earliest video games to match their actual career trajectory in multi-season modes. This results in a dismal alternate timeline for them (and us).

Thankfully, the novelty of fictional scenarios can make up for the lack of realism when it comes to certain results or players developing into stars. At the same time, it’s unfortunate to see Steph Curry as a very good but not great player, to say nothing of Giannis Antetokounmpo warming the bench in Milwaukee, in my aforementioned NBA 2K14 MyCAREER. Again, I’m having too much fun to say that these outcomes have completely ruined my game, but it is distracting, and definitely something that can spoil multi-season modes. Chalk it up to a What If and an alternate reality, but it’s still a shame to see players who became superstars languishing in virtual mediocrity.

Are these things that spoil or hamper multi-season modes for you? What else has detracted from your enjoyment of franchise and career modes? 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.

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