Monday Tip-Off: Fictional Players & Sim Games
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 some thoughts on fictional players in sim basketball games.
By definition, sim basketball games are anchored in reality. Unlike arcade games, we don’t expect or desire to see mascots and other secret characters being playable on team rosters. However, we are invited to create fictional scenarios through fantasy drafts and the trades and signings of our choice in franchise play, as well as the card collecting and old school custom teams modes. We can also inject NBA Legends and classic teams into the current NBA, play inter-era exhibitions, and mod in fictional characters. The All-Time Teams in NBA 2K are ready-made fantasy scenarios, too.
In other words, sim games aren’t always serious business, or about playing with real rosters, be they contemporary or historical. That is still the default starting point, of course. Any breaks from reality that we see are either at our discretion, or intrinsic to the concept of a specific mode. Furthermore, these fictional scenarios still involve real players. We’re generally not clamouring to see completely fictional characters inserted into modes where rosters are expected to reflect reality; at least to begin with. With that being said, we have seen fictional players who aren’t placeholders take part in modes based around the real NBA. I certainly have mixed feelings about that idea.
One of the most prominent recurring examples of fictional players in otherwise NBA-oriented modes is the presence of characters from MyCAREER stories. Needless to say, the very concept of career modes requires at least one fictional player to be added to the league, namely our avatar. To that end, the NBA rosters in MyCAREER are never going to be completely realistic. However, sometimes the story ends up adding other fictional players to the league, including teammates and rivals alike. This means that real players are pushed off rosters to make room for them, and in turn, there’s a bigger focus on playing with and against fictional characters than actual NBA stars.
If you’ve played MyCAREER since it adopted a story-driven approach, you’ll be quite familiar with this. It began in NBA 2K14 with Jackson Ellis, your rival that you can later team up with if you choose. NBA 2K17’s tale was all about forming a legendary duo with Justice Young nicknamed Orange Juice, with comic relief character Denver Levins also joining your team. NBA 2K18 gave us Shammy Wells. If you didn’t skip the story in NBA 2K19, Marcus Young would join the Spurs, while Corey Harris would be on the Lakers. NBA 2K20’s mode rather randomly added Anderson Murray as a teammate, while Shep Owens is NBA 2K23’s (lousy) answer to Jackson Ellis.
With the exception of Murray, who still appeared even if you skipped NBA 2K20’s story, there’s a narrative reason for those fictional players joining your MyPLAYER in the league. Keeping that in mind, as well as the fact that those fictional players are still greatly outnumbered by real ones, it’d be extremely melodramatic to say that they ruined MyCAREER. It wouldn’t be an honest opinion either, as I did indeed enjoy a couple of those stories and finished at least one season in most of those games. At the same time, some of those characters were better than others, and even the enjoyable characters have some tiresome moments that make me wish they weren’t in the mode.
For example, seven years into NBA 2K14 MyCAREER, every game against Jackson Ellis still begins with a cutscene that makes us seem like rookies, and a wager that we’ve made umpteen times before. As you can imagine, it makes me dread facing Ellis’ Pistons in the Playoffs, and not because I’m afraid we’ll lose! The arrogant and backstabbing Marcus Young was a weird fit on Gregg Popovich’s Spurs. Anderson Murray felt pointless compared to Justice Young, who was part of a fun story and gameplay mechanic. As for Shep Owens, he was an unpleasant character in a story that turned me off MyCAREER as much as any other issue I had with NBA 2K23.
On top of everything else, it didn’t feel necessary to have that much fictional content in MyCAREER. That may sound like a strange complaint given that it’s all about putting yourself in the NBA and becoming a superstar – something that most of us playing NBA 2K never were or will be – but that’s the point. It’s already a fantasy scenario in a sim game, so adding more fictional players may be a step too far. As the suspension of disbelief in fiction is often summarised, “you can ask an audience to believe the impossible, but not the improbable”. We’re already buying into the idea of our avatar being a star player, but all those other characters might be a bit too much.
Mind you, that’s mostly just when they become a prominent part of a semi-fictional NBA. I’ve appreciated having them in the “prelude” portion of MyCAREER stories. It makes sense to have colourful personalities and fictional opponents when the story is about your journey to the league, and then discarding them and the cinematic aspects in favour of real players and gameplay-driven narratives. It’s why I skipped the story for my main build in NBA 2K19. While I enjoyed Marcus Young and Corey Harris in “The Way Back“, I didn’t want to encounter them in my NBA career. To that point, I’m still puzzled as to why Anderson Murray was considered essential in NBA 2K20!
I’ve also enjoyed having fictional players as part of the Pro-Am Tour in The Streets in NBA Live 18’s The One. Conceptually, it’s only logical to have a mix of NBA players and unknown amateurs teaming up in each venue’s pro-am tournament. Likewise, it’s a perfect fit for the throwback challenges and their pick-up game atmosphere. I guess EA could’ve potentially licensed some of the regulars at those pro-am leagues, but it’s ultimately unnecessary. The fictional players achieve the same effect without taking attention away from your avatar, or the NBA players that participate in those games. As part of a surprisingly enjoyable story, teammate Nick Howard is an exception.
Despite my desire for realism in franchise modes and the ability to create and share custom Draft Classes, I’m actually fond of generated rookies. This is due in part to the fact that that’s all we had when Franchise mode came to NBA Live 2000 PC, rookie Draft and all in Year 2 onwards. Additionally, while I prefer a realistic starting point for franchise play, I still enjoy seeing a fictional alternate reality take shape as both I and the CPU make moves, injuries occur in gameplay and simulation, and the season plays out. Ironically, having fictional generated rookies also feels less unrealistic to me than having real prospects that then get drafted by a completely different team.
This preference is obviously compatible with MyCAREER, which doesn’t allow for custom rosters or Draft Classes. It’s one of the reasons that I’m quite happy that Terry Hanson came along in the third year of my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER, and don’t miss having real Class of 2015 Draftees such as Devin Booker, D’Angelo Russell, Jahlil Okafor, and so on. Sure, if I’d been able to import a custom Draft Class with those players, I’m sure it could’ve still been fun to have one of them as a rookie teammate. Apart from the aforementioned break from reality however, because they are real players, there isn’t any room to give them characters and imaginative back stories.
Honestly, that’s one of the best parts of generated rookies in franchise and career modes! As someone who has always enjoyed creative writing, those fictional players are a blank slate for original characters in our story topics. Even if we aren’t sharing those tales with our fellow gamers, those generated rookies still invite us to use our imaginations, and they often become Virtual Hardwood Legends. Because they’re not pre-made and voiced like characters in MyCAREER stories, and are introduced to the league gradually, they’re also more organic and less intrusive. Generated rookies in franchise and career modes are undoubtedly my favourite type of fictional players.
One of the weirdest examples of fictional players in a sim game is the array of free agents in early NBA 2K games. It was clearly done to ensure that there were players for teams to sign in franchise mode, but given the goal of authenticity, it’s weird to see those fictional placeholders! Although later games have featured real players in the Free Agents, the rosters have still been padded out with fake ones. As boxMAN29 has pointed out, the Atlanta Hawks had two fake rookies in ESPN NBA 2K5 as the result of having fewer than 12 players when the game’s rosters were being finalised. And of course, the classic teams and MyNBA Eras rosters continue to utilise Roster Players.
Speaking of those Roster Players, I’m in two minds about the current approach of using them as placeholders in Eras rosters, especially when it comes to MyNBA. They have to be there because some teams only have six or seven real players, and due to potential legal issues, they obviously can’t directly stand in for any specific absentees. Unfortunately, this does mean that they have a much bigger role than the placeholders on classic teams in past games, who were frequently assigned minimal or indeed zero minutes in the rotation. It makes me hesitant to dive into MyNBA Eras without a comprehensive custom roster that overwrites all of those fictional players.
Now, if we’re talking about sim games that feature completely fictional rosters out of the box, that’s another story! Although I like having the ability to add real names and edit players accordingly in college basketball games – especially the retro squads – it’s also fun to play with the rosters as-is. There’s something very freeing about not having to worry that this player can’t do that, or that player shouldn’t score this many points, and just playing virtual basketball. It’s also why World League Basketball for SNES – the PAL re-skin of an NCAA title – is one of my all-time favourite games. The same goes for the Japanese version – Super Dunk Shot – and of course, Basketball Classics.
Similarly, when it comes to arcade games, fictional players are part of the fun. Indeed, quite often the sillier, the better! I remember how excited I was to see mascots and the other secret characters show up in NBA Jam Tournament Edition once I’d defeated all 27 teams. “Stretch” Monroe and the other fictional streetball legends in NBA Street gave the series character, beyond simply placing NBA players on the blacktop. The AND 1 ballers were the main draw for Street Hoops – which obviously paved the way for AND 1 Streetball – but the fictional players that make up a bulk of the game’s roster aren’t the drawback you might expect. The fun is in the moves, not the names.
Even the old NES game Hoops is charming because of its fictional characters. As I observed in my retrospective of the game, they’re very much stock stereotypes, but it still works. On the other hand, while games like Michael Jordan in Flight and Barkley Shut Up & Jam are interesting and have their moments, it’s somewhat underwhelming to have those legends surrounded by fictional players. It doesn’t help that neither title has truly outstanding gameplay, but even if you enjoy the on-court experience, it’s just not as exciting to have MJ and Sir Charles team up with and take on fictional players; especially since they were both absent from most contemporary NBA-licensed games.
After all, the NBA is the main draw, and it’s why fictional players can be a hit-and-miss idea. They’re a necessity to facilitate historical content and viable team rosters, though ideally they should fade into the background. Some of them are undoubtedly interesting trivia notes many years later! As for fictional characters with a prominent role, while they’re generally more suited to arcade titles than sim games, they can still enhance the experience depending on the mode. Of course, they can also stick out like a sore thumb and feel highly unnecessary! I can’t say that fictional players have ruined sim games for me, but they’re not always ideal, and are an annoyance if mishandled.
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