My Elevator Pitch to 2K

Franchise mode is the greatest thing since sliced bread 🍞

It doesn't matter which sports game it is, I can sink countless hours into franchise mode. I love crafting blockbuster trades, signing free agents in the offseason, and drafting fake rookies. There is something alluring about taking over all these operations of the club, and bringing home the championship trophy.  Luckily for me, I can do all this in NBA 2K25, as it has the most fleshed-out franchise modes in all current sports games. The level of customization is insane. If I really wanted to, I could move the Oklahoma City Thunder back to Seattle, make their jerseys pink, and insert myself as the head coach. If I wasn't feelin' the 2024-25 season, 2K also give us the ability to start a franchise with a team from the past from certain eras. For example, I could also take control of the 2010 Trail Blazers from the LeBron Era and play with an injury-free Brandon Roy and Greg Oden. I mean how cool is that!?

While franchise mode in 2K25 a blast, I also have enjoyed switching it up with some MyCareer. This year I shockingly departed from creating a low post specialist (Big Al Jefferson is my hero), and instead went with a pass first point guard build (Andre Miller-esque!). Racking up assists via PnRs and lobs never gets old. While it has been a bunch of fun, I have a big problem….

My character SUCKS!

When you first start your MyCareer journey, you start off as a 60 overall. For those of you not familiar with the MyCareer mode, being a 60 overall is essentially like being level 1 in an RPG. At this rating your character wouldn’t even make a g league roster let alone an NBA team. Instead your skills match that of your local LA Fitness player who makes statements like, "Yeah I was going to play D1 'till I tore my ACL." This low rating is not a huge problem offline against the CPU. You can squeak out a couple points here and there if you are any good, but it will take a long time to make any meaningful progress on your attributes. Now, I have nothing against grinding for hours in a game to slowly improve my character. After all, it’s exactly why I love games like Persona or Dragon Quest. The problem is that the grind in 2K here is a maaaajor grind. Hours of online gameplay will result in a few minute point increases in your character. I’ve put over 24 hours (some of these hours was me stuck on the trade machine trying to find a buyer for Jordan Poole without any luck) into the game and have leveled up from a 70 overall to. Oh, and imagine trying taking your LA Fitness bum ass MyPlayer online against players with similar attributes of basketball goats like, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Michael Beasley. Yeah, it won't be a close game, and you'll be questioning why you spent the last hour even trying.

There is a shortcut to a higher rating though….

SPEND MORE MONEY!

That’s right. You can dump real life hard earned money into your character to quickly increase your player’s overall rating. If I had to guess, it would take around $40 (rough estimate) to get your player from the starting point of 60 to a 90 overall. It seems like a huge majority of the online players have all paid an additional amount of money to get their players to high ratings as its rare to come across anyone with an overall rating below an 80. The disparity in the ratings difference between my current player's stat and that dude ho dropped an additional 50 bones on his guy creates a challenging and frankly a bit unfair match up. My ankles (cankles?) get snatched every time they make a dribble move, or I get posterized via a windmill dunk trying to contest anything. When I'm on offense it's brick after brick after brick.  There are definitely players with high ratings who are legitimately good at the game, however a majority have just paid more money than me and can make more shots. If someone wants to pay an additional 30-40 bucks to be able to win some games, go for it. I just wish there was some skill based matched making of some sort.

Here’s my elevator pitch to 2K

Create a game mode where all the MyPlayer attribute points are adjust to be completely even! For example, all players have their skill points set to 70 (am I a 2K Communist?). This would make for a more level playing field and reward good basketball and quality teamwork. I want to be able to brag that we kicked the other team’s ass because we straight up kicked their ass, not because I spent $20 more dollars on VC than them. If they want to be labeled as a simulation basketball game, this could potentially reward good basketball instead of cheesy play-to-win players dominating the game.

I've been playing NBA 2K since 2K8 and will continue to buy it each year, I just wish that playing against other players online felt a bit less pay-to-win, and more of a skill based challenge. That is the end of my Ted Talk.

P.S if you're reading this 2K, can you bring back Euroleague teams?