The NBA 2K official account has no choice but to make a tweet regarding the Lakers vs Thunder matchup happening tonight, and even though that is not a bad thing at all, the responses… OMG, the responses are a completely different universe. It seems as if all the anger that the gamers had been keeping inside them has been unleashed at once. At first, it was just a simple tweet. Two star players, the battle on ESPN at 6:30 PM PT. All of this is just routine advertising for sports.
But going downward, you will find the mental chaos. The fans of the game are not talking about the basketball game; they are using their grievances about NBA 2K to take the chance and speak up. It is very amusing indeed, just like life when you are seriously talking and your partner is constantly reminding you of that one mistake you did three years ago.
The major issue was with the servers. Numerous players reported disconnections and “shit servers”, as one user most politely expressed it. What I mean is joining a game, but it just does not work? That is the most frustrating situation of all, especially if you have only a little time to play. One of the users said that scenario mode had been crashing for a week, which is really bad. Would you like to be playing a story mode and the game crashes on you every single time? That is really cruel.
Then there is the whole saga of the city jerseys. Diverse users are asking when the city edition jerseys will be available in the game, and some are even confused whether those are in or not already. One says “they’re not in the game yet tf you saying” and another responds “they r literally in the game buddy” – what a nostalgic gaming community moment! Everybody is in a cloud of confusion and no one has clear answers.
The gameplay has also been criticized. A player’s remark was “The gameplay is horrible just revert everything back to release day at this point”, which is a tad severe. However, the truth is when updates change games and everything around them, sometimes, the community still prefers the way things were at launch. It is a never-ending battle between developers who want to improve things and players who got used to the way things were.
And then there is the hype surrounding the locker code. Someone commented “Bullshit locker code tonight can’t wait”, which is that strange mix of excitement and disbelief that only gaming communities are capable of generating. They appear to be eager to see it but at the same time braced for disappointment? That is the modern gamer experience in one line.
What is even more interesting is how the tweet from this official sports account became an immediate customer service forum. Users of all kinds were seen asking for a mobile building app, demanding fixes for certain modes, complaining about servers – as if a lot of people had seen this as their opportunity to be heard and they are absolutely right. When else do you get to talk to the official account?
The number is few, but there are still some people who talk in basketball terms. “Nothing beats that buzzer-beater drama when these two go at it live,” one said, which is nice, and another one said he is “just here for the popcorn and the highlight reels,” which is, I think, the most relatable comment throughout the thread.
Nevertheless, the main point is very clear – NBA 2K players want fixes and they want them right away. On one side, you have the sleek, polished professional sports tweet and the extremely frustrated yet honest replies on the other; the contrast is very poetic. It seems that the two worlds – the dazzling NBA display and the gloomy reality of the video game based on it – have merged.
Ironically, the clocks are almost synchronized: real NBA players are on live TV, and the virtual counterparts are, according to the community, practically suffering from the same problems to which they cannot do anything because of a lack of basic functionality. One would expect that the servers would be…uh, working? when there’s all that NBA money and partnership at play.
However, there is also a positive side – new content and locker codes are still on people’s lips. But even this anticipation comes off as muted on account of previous annoyances. The gamers have gone through the whole process and are now simply cautiously optimistic about new content, nothing more.
What this whole situation really points out is the passion and loyalty of the NBA 2K community. They are very tough critics because they are so much in love with the game. The moment people stop complaining, that is when you should start worrying – it means they have completely given up. Therefore, in a curious way, all this frustration is a strong indicator that people want this game to be good.
The whole situation is reminiscent of that movie scene where someone is giving a nice speech and all the audience’s people are just shouting their problems out loud. The difference is that it is digital here, and many players are enjoying the experience on their PlayStation or Xbox consoles.
