So this happened.

I have always been a big basketball fan, NBA fan, basketball player, and gamer. I have always played some basketball game or another. I used to be big into your more arcade basketball games like NBA Jam and the NBA Street series.

Then the 360 was ready to arrive and boy was I hyped. When things started being shown off going into the consoles, my jaw was definitely dropping and the hype was growing. There was the infamous Madden trailer that never even came close to being real. But one of the ones that hit me was NBA 2K6 and all that glorious sweat.

I had never owned a Dreamcast or been around one all that much. The times I had been I ended up playing Soul Caliber and NFL 2K, which was very impressive. I was always interested in NBA 2K and NBA Live I always found too fast and loose for me. Now with these consoles, I got into the series a lot. Yes, the jerseys were baggy and bouncy, the sweat was extreme, the animations could be limiting for control at times, but it was all really impressive and the gameplay was deep and really fun. You had to dig through menus and be willing to practice on your own, but you could and benefit. But almost all the real moves were there and when you used them right there was a great sense of reward and accomplishment.

In the last 2-3 years my gaming habits have changed a lot. I'm in my mid 20's and where I used to play absolutely as many new releases as I could get my hands on, at many times playing just about it all, I really have slowed down. The time figures above are of course not exact. I am a big "pause and walk away" guy and not every game I play is tracked through Steam. But clearly a lot of my gaming time now being spent with one series these days.

In this blog I will discuss how I play the series at this point, how I feel about it compared to other games, and why it particularly brings me back, as a guy who actually would say foremost I am into other genres than typical sports games. If you really deconstruct what is going on in NBA 2K, you really can find the most complex and deepest mix of action, strategy, tactics, RPG mechanics, and simulation in games today. Then I will talk about my basketball playing experience and how 2K has shaped and related to it. 2K has made me a lot better player and been really helpful to my personal game. It's a long one and I know sports games aren't exactly GB's wheelhouse, but I figure maybe you can enjoy my perspective on it in these ways and get some appreciation for what a sports game can do.

I know this is long and I understand if you are scared, but I felt like my gaming obsession finally deserved a write up.

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NBA 2K16 is the Deepest and Most Fun Tactical/Strategy Action RPG on the Market

Yes it's true. Although I have a taste for a lot of different genres and combinations, I would say RPG is my favorite and a particular love of mine is tactical RPGs or SRPGs or however you want to name them. I love the mix of development, roles, and then the tactical decision making at the core of decisions you make in those games. The recent XCOMs, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Silent Storm are good examples of games I love along these lines.

NBA 2K is a sports game. If there is any trend in recent gaming, I would say it is a huge convergence and blending of genre. Many games now have RPG mechanics. Some straight up action games will have some strategy layer alongside gameplay. And Witcher 3 has straight up action game play, full open world gameplay, and then full RPG gameplay on top of that, with little to no sacrifice in any regard. To me, there is no reason NBA 2K should be looked at differently given what it is bringing to the table.

There is pure action and reflex based gameplay, with fighting game like input precision required.

It is fast paced and real time, but there are constant tactical judgements to be made on the floor with match ups and possible mismatches that can develop, what and if to run any plays, trying to attack certain parts of the game (like making an effort to get in transition), how and when to use subs to make sure your top players are performing with energy in key moments of the game and the subs fit in when they come in the game. If I get a switch, my tactics entirely change, either using my size advantage in the post or trying to dribble around a bigger, slower defender.

There are strategy judgements to make, like if to trade for any players, dealing with player development and deciding where any given player needs to work and get better, who to draft, dictating player roles and managing their personalities, even scouting players which relies on your scouts stats and gives you imperfect info in return.

And then there are the RPG aspects: a vast and complex set of skill ratings, player classes with specific roles and usual strengths and weaknesses (and physical builds within them for height, weight, and even length of your arms which matters a lot in 2K16 and is accurately modeled), even badges which work just like RPG abilities do in many games (they can activate when running certain plays, they can buff your team when you make a play and debuff the other team when you do something like block a shot, and they can kick in at certain moments to give a boost, like in key moments in the game, similar to RPG abilities that kick in when your HP is low). You get your post game XP and you use it to upgrade players.

Then there is a degree of customization and control rare to games like this. Not only can I assemble a whole team and guide them through, ala a party based RPG (hell I can even create every player like it's Icewind Dale if I want) but I have a career mode where I can play one player and guide them through. Not every mode is fully customizable (it's a shame MyCareer is not, part of a few issues clearly based around microtransactions that drag that mode down) but most are in a way that goes past other games in similar genres. It is interesting to see some options at the start of the recent XCOM series, which is very reminiscent of sports games and is the first thing I thought of. Now imagine if you could dig into XCOM and adjust how much damage a certain attack did, or how often your shots landed, or how aggressive and smart the AI was. Yes, 2K allows that level of depth which its sliders. It's common to other sports games, but in this context it's pretty crazy to think how much power they give you to tweak your experience. I can make a faster paced game where open shots are almost always makes or I can try to make a slower paced game with very realistic shooting percentages, for example, within this one games framework. Imagine if I could make XCOM much breezier and less cautious with sliders in game.

Now as far as story... yeah. There have been bad attempts at that and I think all sports games are working towards now having the ability to tell more story and have it work dynamically within their very dynamic and customizable game. That will be really hard to do right. Straight up RPGs can struggle with that and Ken Levine is currently toiling away on some "narrative LEGO" game aimed to solve this problem too. It won't be easy to do this right and that's clearly an area where it lacks as an RPG. However, there are a fair amount of RPGs that get by on poor stories and little story focus so I say give it time there. I think it is an area that could add a ton however. If you follow sports, narrative clearly is such a huge part of how fans take in the game and talk about it and sports games finally breaking into that aspect of things would be huge. If a sports game could capture a situation like LeBron went through, struggling to win for years in Cleveland and then bringing a championship there, avenging a loss the previous year with pure domination dynamically? Imagine that.

I had been building this thinking for a the last couple years but this last one really solidified it. Players feel more differentiated than ever, with they physical attributes accurately modeled and height being a bigger factor than ever while not making short players useless. The modes have all improved and there are those I haven't even touched on.

I have also settled into a method for my franchise modes that involved combining all the best of the current roster and the best historical players into one roster, then doing a fantasy draft. This means awesome, talented teams and basically no team is under an 87 rating which really makes the game all about targeting the small weaknesses of your opponents and specific match ups since no one is a slouch out there.

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From the Controller to the Hardwood

Later today, after I listen to the Bombcast, I'm going to go to basketball court at the park right by my house and work out. If there are people there I will play, but if not I will settle into my way of things. I sort of do light drills, picking certain shots and areas on the floor and repeatedly attacking them through repetition, working on different moves and counter moves, imaging the defensive reaction that you get after you make the initial shot and can then fake and attack off of the opening. I might do full court runs and take shots in between. I will jump rope every so often to keep a good sweat.

This is stuff I have learned since I was a child. I have played basketball since I was really young, fitting into a family enjoyment of the sport. It helped that I was always basically the tallest kid in class and now I'm 6'5". But I had skill at shooting that came from work. I could really jump and I was always a pretty smart player. I always took to it and liked to play, even alone. Back then I was not as directed and thoughtful with the work outs, but still I did my up and unders and moves like that. They looked great with no one guarding me, believe it.

As I kept playing into high school, even with that work on offense and skill, I really did not have any aggressive nature to score. Basketball is much more of a mental game than many realize. You can easily take virtually identical players physically with similar skill in the game and see one excel at things like attacking the basket while the other never gets to the rim. The reason would be because the aggressive player looks at the defense and sees an opening to attack, or even doesn't consider the defense as a huge challenge that could prevent them from scoring. The less aggressive player might see a defender solidly in front of them and consider the play over for them, immediately looking to pass.

I dealt with shyness mainly caused by anxiety when I was younger. Not that I am not still that way, it's something I still struggle with, but back then it went to the level that it made me purely a defensive player. I was a great shot blocker and could rebound. Yes I could hit an open jumper on offense but that was virtually all I did, besides offensive rebound. There was something easy about ruining someone else's shot attempt but the thought of aggressively attacking the rim was not really considered and in fact actively avoided. When I got the ball, immediately I had a million thoughts and worries, far too many to then relax, make a read, and execute, and then was overwhelmed by the desire to pass to anyone else.

I declined to play at smaller D2 and D3 colleges and went to a big D1 one just for fun. I took to 2K and as previously mentioned in high school but most of all after it, and I would sit in the practice mode and learn. I would see the defender's positioning. I would pull the trigger to make my player go back to the basket and seal them off. Since the defense was leaning to the middle of the floor, I would throw the stick to the middle to get them on a fake, then swing the stick the other way and lean around them to score at the open basket. It became very routine and practiced for me and I really learned the post game. I watched the animations and saw them so many times they became burned into my memory.

Some time later, in a bad case of post college depression, I ended up seeking out basketball a lot to help me cope and found myself out there alone. I played a lot of basketball while I was in college but almost always in games which were virtually always running at the campus gym, rarely having time to just work on myself. Now as I had that time, I felt myself thinking just how I was playing 2K. I practiced the same moves I watched work in 2K. The same fakes, the same way your player leaned past and around to score, the same way that I would read the defense. The same way you could throw a jab step to create a little space or how you could lean back into the defense then bounce off to get some room.

Suddenly when I was playing in real games, I would feel the defender on my back and immediately have not even a thought, but a feeling, something instinctual, and then act. If they are on my left I can quickly fade over my other shoulder and be confident in the shot. I would purposefully lean into the defender to change his positioning and then act based off of what he did in response. Through repetition on the court and truly the mental training and repetition of NBA 2K, suddenly I had done it. Some lizard part of my brain had broken through and I was acting instead of thinking so much.

I mastered the hook shot and then, with newfound instinct, aggression, I would act off of that, using the hook shot fake keep defenders constantly guessing. Now I have many moves to go to around the floor. Where I used to be purely defense, I actually slack a bit and end up being a big scorer on the floor, from the post and stepping out. Hell, now I can handle the ball and calmly make the right passes. I know how to attack a defense on a fast break in part from 2K.

This is due to growth in myself foremost and plenty of time out there playing almost every day, but I really have to say 2K played a big factor. There was some melding of my mental thought playing the game and my play that met and brought about a breakthrough. It helped me read the floor and more calmly make tactical choices. This wouldn't be possible if not for the depth of the game, in the controls it gives you and the way it replicates the game. To many this might seem like small potatoes, but I can't tell you how inspiring these break throughs were for me personally in a life often filled with reluctance, shyness, and a lack of confidence towards my strengths.

Since I really improved on basketball this way, I have tried to conquer anxiety in part by harnessing these lessons and that growth. Thinking less and mental discipline. Confident action. Meditation and thought. The way NBA 2K is so based on something relatable and accessible as basketball makes interacting with it interesting to compare to real life and certainly a different dynamic than you get playing through a dungeon crawler. Clearly it relates to the real pro game, but as I have written, even for a 27 year old who still loves to play the game like someone pays me to do so just for fun and exercise, there is a lot to get out of it.

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I'm sitting here writing this waiting for 2K17 to be released. We know really little about the game, to the point where some in the sports game press felt the need to make a whole podcast being offended about it on Operation Sports (I do not agree clearly but it's an interesting example of much of the recent negative reactions to games marketing). I have not pre-ordered... but probably will just before it comes out. And I'm getting it. 300 hours for $60 is just fine. $60 for the best SRPG, best sports game, best sports trainer, and a life coach? Well that's just a steal.