Monday Tip-Off: Not So Fast, Past Me!
In this week's Monday Tip-Off, Andrew revisits a topic he discussed in a 2019 article in order to disagree and say "not so fast, Past Me!".
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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 by revisiting an article I wrote in 2019, in order to discuss just how much I disagree with Past Me.
Normally, I reserve revisiting and republishing articles for Wayback Wednesday, though it’s one of my more rarely-used topics. However, this is more of a sequel column; a follow-up to opinions I expressed going on five years ago, that I strongly disagree with now. That’s not a bad thing, of course. It’s a positive trait to be able to remain open-minded, changing your stance when new evidence is presented and not just continuing to believe something because it’s been your view for so long. Ideally, we should be able to look back at what we’ve said and who we were, and see growth.
While browsing our archives, I was reminded of a Monday Tip-Off that I wrote back in 2019: “The Difficulty of Going Back“. As that title suggests, Past Me was opining that it was becoming increasingly challenging to return to older releases, and bring them back into my basketball gaming rotation. Considering how passionately I’ve advocated for retro basketball gaming since then, it should be obvious how much my opinion has changed! Of course, just as there are reasons I’ve become more receptive to going back to older hoops titles once again, there were reasons why Past Me felt it was growing difficult; even with a long history of retro gaming. Allow me to explain.
When I published that article in December 2019, I was in the midst of enjoying NBA 2K20…for the most part. I was also coming off a fun year with NBA 2K19 – a real joy after feeling extremely let down by NBA 2K18 – and only a couple of years removed from having a blast with NBA 2K17. I was generally, and genuinely, feeling positive about the direction of the NBA 2K series. If nothing else, the quality was consistent, and I was finding a way to have a good time. I was satisfied enough with the latest games to not yearn to regularly play the classics, outside of revisiting them to produce Wayback Wednesday retrospectives. Mind you, I’d definitely grown too comfortable.
Even as I was having a good time – most of the time – with NBA 2K19 and NBA 2K20, I was undoubtedly falling into a routine; indeed, a rut. Levelling up a player to dominate the NBA in MyCAREER and compete in the online modes was an annual activity Past Me did out of habit, taking advantage of all the tricks to go No Money Spent. That didn’t leave time to change up the game I was playing, because I had to put in all that work. Realising that the games are demanding that is one of the main reasons I haven’t put time or energy into a new MyCAREER game since NBA 2K20. Looking back, I needed a nudge out of that rut, and fortunately Dee helped out there.
I was also inspired to write that article after an idea for Wayback Wednesday fell through. I’d planned on going back to NBA Live 15 and NBA Live 16 before the servers shut down, and completing some unfinished business in Ultimate Team. It’d been a while since I played either game though, and they didn’t impress when I fired them up. If I were revisiting them on a whim and not for content creation purposes, I might not have felt so put off. Instead, Past Me couldn’t fathom playing those games at length before the servers were shut down, and so I abandoned the idea. Again, taking time away from NBA 2K20’s grind was absolutely a factor here, too.
This is why I don’t want to be too hard on Past Me here. I was still in the mindset of getting on the grind every year, and yes, covering the latest game in my content. While I have developed more of an appreciation for eighth generation NBA Live releases, it wasn’t a Golden Age for the series, and there’s definitely roughness that didn’t make them appealing compared to NBA 2K titles that I was enjoying. I was obviously indulging nostalgia with Wayback Wednesday, but I wasn’t quite ready to shift towards retro basketball gaming as my primary source of fun on the virtual hardwood. I disagree with Past Me, but I understand where he was coming from.
With that being said, despite the fact that almost five years have passed since then, I no longer feel that my old favourites are showing their age to the point where I can’t play them. That is to say, they do show their age in graphics and mechanics, but that isn’t a barrier to enjoying them today. There are exceptions, of course. Any game that had questionable mechanics at the time has usually aged like milk, because a bad idea is a bad idea. For example, NBA Live 07’s gameplay is still bottom of the barrel, and there’s no amount of nostalgia that will change that. However, NBA Live 06 – despite some primitive aspects compared to much newer titles – remains a blast on the sticks.
It’s become easier to see that after feeling let down multiple years in a row, beginning with both versions of NBA 2K21. As I said, when I wrote that it was getting tougher to go back, it was during a time when I was relatively satisfied with the latest NBA 2K and the direction of the series. When dissatisfaction pointed me towards dusting off games – both old favourites and ones that I hadn’t spent enough time with – I gave them another chance to impress. That’s exactly what happened, and it’s led to having a handful of surprising and rewarding retro kicks. It’s not that I think they’re perfect or that I don’t notice their issues, but that isn’t standing in the way of enjoying them.
As much as I don’t want to be too hard on Past Me, what bothers me about reading what I wrote back in 2019 is that in a way, I was expressing the exact sentiments that I so often push back on. In more than a couple of articles, I’ve criticised the attitude of people who sneer at retro basketball gaming, and mockingly ask “How can you still play that?” I may not have been that extreme in my article, but I was approaching that territory. Sure, I wasn’t bashing anyone who preferred an older title; indeed, I did still advocate for retro gaming. At the same time, I was buying into the idea that games from the past were getting too old for me, and that nostalgia was best in small doses.
Once again, I’ve completely changed my mind about that. If anything, these days I’m trying to actively keep an open mind about future games, rather than the quality of past ones! My five seasons and counting in NBA 2K14 MyCAREER demonstrated that it’s the greedy approach and need to start over every year that I was burned out on, not the mode itself. That I’ve developed a new appreciation for NBA 2K14, as well as NBA Live 10 and even NBA 2K6 – a game that I had no nostalgia for – is a testament to how great games stand the test of time. I’ve always known and believed that, but for a while, Past Me was in denial when it came to the virtual hardwood.
Of course, there is another issue that I touched upon in that article that still holds true. I mentioned that it’s harder to return to more recent games that rely heavily on live service content, with core modes that are online only and no longer playable once a game’s servers are switched off. I’ve previously described recent NBA 2K games as feeling as though they’re disposable. Needless to say, in any series that sees an annual release, the goal is to get everyone to buy the latest game and move on. That’s always been the case! The difference is that it used to be viable to stick with a favourite for years at a time, or return to it. Nowadays, planned obsolescence is far more common.
Ironically, while this is a tactic to get us to move on – and it arguably worked on Past Me, at least for a time – these days, I find that it has the opposite effect. I just can’t get invested in a game when I know that any hard-earned progress or enjoyable saved games will be gone once the servers are shut down. Not only that, but with modes like MyTEAM and MyCAREER, I can’t even enjoy an offline version of them. The latter in particular stings, as earlier games stand as proof that even if a couple of the online features are no longer available, offline MyCAREER is still fun. Again, it’s ironic that a tactic intended to push us away from the past instead ends up making it look better!
It’s also depressing, because there’s a certain amount of hope and optimism in my previous article. Ideally, the latest game will always delight and feel like a good purchase every year. If even the fondest nostalgia has a tough time pulling us away from the newest release for too long, then basketball gaming is in great shape. Sadly, I don’t believe that’s the case. I won’t say that I didn’t have my concerns back in 2019 – NBA 2K18 had been a misstep, and NBA Live was on shaky ground to say the least – but since then, some of our worst fears have been realised. Greed is at an all-time high, the online scene is a toxic cesspool, and even offline gameplay isn’t that great.
And so, I’ve been looking to the classics for my virtual hooping fix, and for the past few years, that approach hasn’t let me down. It’s also allowed me to be more open-minded about older releases again, which I believe has benefitted my ability to cover them for Wayback Wednesday. It’s a shame that the servers for NBA Live 15 and NBA Live 16 have long since been switched off, because I likely could work my way through those tasks in Ultimate Team now. I’d at least be inclined to give it a more enthusiastic attempt! It does speak to the disposable nature of games beginning with the eighth generation, though. In hindsight, that should’ve been my takeaway in 2019.
I’m dismayed with the current state of basketball gaming and concerned about the future of the genre; at least for those of us who value the traditional experience, and wish to avoid the gambling mechanics and toxicity of the online team play scene. I hope things can improve, but NBA 2K’s monopoly and the state of Triple-A gaming doesn’t inspire confidence. However, in a way, I’m grateful that I’ve been reminded that newer isn’t always better. Planned obsolescence is meant to make the past look irrelevant, but it’s only made me seek out games that are timeless. Sure, Past Me did have a point, but was undoubtedly prematurely dismissive of retro gaming’s benefits.
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