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 inaccuracies and other issues that have bothered me while basketball gaming.

Even the best basketball video games have had issues and inaccuracies. Perfection is basically an impossible bar to reach, and coding a sophisticated video game of any genre is hardly as simple as typing plain English into a word processor! Also, some ideas simply just don’t pan out. And so, we accept that our favourite hoops titles will have imperfections. In the best case scenario, it doesn’t stop us from enjoying them. Mind you, because we’re passionate about basketball and basketball gaming alike, any major inaccuracies and technical issues are naturally difficult to ignore.

Of course, these issues and inaccuracies don’t always ruin basketball video games. As I said, even our favourite games have them, and we all have different standards and expectations besides. With that being said, while technical problems, inaccuracies, and other issues may not completely spoil a game, they can still end up bothering us. The good ultimately outweighs the bad, but they’re still the finer points that we can’t help but notice, and would like to see fixed and improved upon for an even better experience. To that end, while the following five issues and inaccuracies didn’t stop me from having fun on the virtual hardwood, they were nevertheless a bit annoying!

1. Contrived Injury Subplots (NBA 2K14 & NBA 2K17 MyCAREER)

As much as I’ve come to appreciate MyCAREER stories, I’m not entirely fond of unavoidable story beats that impact the gameplay. They can certainly set up some interesting scenarios, but given the choice, I’d rather have the gameplay drive the narrative; especially when it comes to the prospect of injuries. A couple of the tales have seen us get hurt, and while it injects some realism into our journey, it also feels contrived. The first MyCAREER story in NBA 2K14 sidelines us for a few games midseason. Considering that we’re already forced to sit out the first two games and remain a bench player for far too long at the GM’s insistence, it’s rather frustrating!

NBA 2K17’s contrived injury is even worse. Although we’re given a choice to play through it – taking a temporary hit to our ratings in the process – it can still end up spoiling our season. If you’re unlucky enough for the scenario to occur around the All-Star break, a bug will result in you missing the All-Star Game; even if you choose to power through and play hurt. Going back to NBA 2K14, you’ll also have an annual “Flu Game”, since it’s tied to a Trophy/Achievement that you may not get on the first try. I appreciate the attempts at switching things up with true-to-life scenarios and I still had a blast with those two modes, but the contrived nature was still bothersome.

2. Zero Games, Another Year Pro (NBA Live 2000 Franchise)

We take it for granted now, but multi-season play was a huge addition to basketball games in the late 90s. NBA Live 99 had given us a taste of it, but NBA Live 2000 PC brought us the first proper Franchise mode with free agency, salary cap, rookie draft, player progression and decline, and retirements. It was fascinating to see when aging veterans retired, which young stars became all-time greats and how long their careers lasted, and how a fictional future would unfold. Because the game kept track of who won each championship and all of the players’ career stats, there was a sense of virtual NBA history being created as you progressed through 25 years of a Franchise game.

Needless to say, while the first Franchise mode in NBA Live 2000 is respectably deep for its time and generally well-made, it does have a couple of issues. The first is that veteran players retain their DSTATS, i.e. the example statistics that determined their simulated performance. As such, if they happened to remain starters as they aged and declined, they’d still put up big numbers. The bug that really bothered me however was that players who spent the year on the inactive list and tallied zero games would still see their Years Pro increase. I remember arguing that this wasn’t accurate to real life, and I was correct! Fortunately, this inaccuracy was fixed in NBA Live 2001 PC.

3. DNP-CDs Don’t Register (NBA Live 2002 Franchise)

In a similar vein, Franchise mode in NBA Live 2002 also had a bug that affected the stats of players who didn’t play. The Season and Franchise modes in previous NBA Live titles had correctly recognised players logging zero minutes as having not played in the game, and thus didn’t add it to their season total. Conversely, NBA Live 2002 didn’t properly account for “Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision” scenarios outside of simulated games. As long as a player was on the active roster, they’d still tally a game played, even if you never subbed them in. Because they posted zeros across the board in those DNP-CDs, this obviously ended up affecting their averages for the season.

Such inaccuracies were annoying to enthusiastic sim gamers who enjoyed tinkering with their lineups to shorten the rotation, and watching player stats accumulate over the course of the year. During my Sacramento Kings Franchise, I felt compelled to give my deep bench players a run every game since it was going to count towards their totals anyway! Inactive players wouldn’t tally games and it was possible to have a minimum of eight active players in the lineup, so at least there was a viable method of sitting players. It may sound like I’m nitpicking, but Franchise mode is aimed at hardcore simheads who care about this stuff, so inaccuracies were definitely a pain!

4. That Game Didn’t Count, Somehow (NBA 2K19 MyCAREER)

Getting back to MyCAREER stories, there’s a massive plot hole in NBA 2K19’s tale. For those who don’t remember or never played through The Way Back, the story sees our player go undrafted, head overseas for a stint in China, make it to the G League, and finally get their big break in the final game of the 2018 regular season, leading to an opportunity to sign with the team of their choice for the 2019 campaign. It was a fresh idea, but there was one problem: somehow, that lone game in the 2018 season didn’t count, and you’re still a rookie in 2019! It was nice not to be disqualified from competing for Rookie of the Year, but there’s no explanation as to why that’s the case.

Strangely, the game actually calls attention to this with the commentators making a throwaway reference to you still being a rookie despite debuting the previous season. This would seem to be setting up another story beat, or at least providing us with an explanation, but no! What’s funny is that the plot hole was completely avoidable. The game that earned you a contract in the NBA could’ve easily been a Summer League or preseason contest, as they actually wouldn’t count towards your career numbers, and it’d ensure your rookie status. Does it really matter? I guess not, but as someone who’s passionate about storytelling, such an obvious plot hole sticks out like a sore thumb.

5. Bench Player Statistics (Several Older Games)

There’s no rule that says you must play franchise modes realistically, and indeed, they can facilitate some wild fantasy scenarios. However, for those who do prefer to start with real rosters and create a fictional alternate reality that still imitates life to some extent, they certainly allow you to do just that. Franchise modes have become deeper and more authentic since they were introduced, but their earliest iterations were no slouches in that regard, especially given the technical limitations. There were some recurring inaccuracies in those older season and franchise modes though, and one that springs immediately to mind is that bench players’ statistics were often far too low.

Before the implementation of in-depth rotation settings and logic, the entire starting five played upwards of 40 mpg in both gameplay and simulation. As a result, sixth men didn’t see big minutes and weren’t on the floor in crunch time, role-playing big men didn’t split court time as equally as they usually did in real life, and other key reserves also warmed the bench. They could only manage mediocre numbers in their very limited minutes, which led to lacklustre Sixth Man of the Year award winners! Once again, statistical inaccuracies jump out to franchise gamers who are seeking a deep, realistic experience, so it’s been great to see a significant improvement here.

Do you recall these issues and inaccuracies? What are some of the bugs and breaks from reality that bothered you over the years? 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 Bothersome Issues & Inaccuracies appeared first on NLSC.