The NBA 2K official account tweeted about Jalen Johnson, Atlanta Hawks’ forward, having ‘a career night over the Jazz’, and the tweet included lots of emojis, the fire one among them. One would think that basketball simulation gamers would consider that a very nice moment, right? They would think something like, our game is reflecting real-life NBA action. But the players did not have even the slightest such opinion.
The response came almost immediately and was very harsh. The comment section almost completely turned into the biggest roast of NBA 2K and mainly for one reason, which is the player’s rating in the game of Johnson. It is literally the only topic that everyone is talking about. It is like the main event. The tweet itself was simply the warm-up for the main act: the community judging the developers for what, in their opinion, is a massive oversight.
Gamers were very quick to notice that Johnson’s starting overall rating in NBA 2K24 had been set at merely 81. A user named ‘ItsDaGawd’ bluntly wrote: ‘But yah had him a 81 overall 💀💀’. The use of skull emojis could not be any more indicative of the situation. The overall sentiment about the rating was repeatedly confirmed. ‘You losers had him as an 81 btw’ was one comment from ‘itschillgang’. ‘Don’t tweet him you rated him lower than amen thompson’ was another from ‘goingnuclearrr’. The same discontent was expressed by different users though.
And it is not as if no one saw this coming. Players have always argued that Johnson’s in-game rating does not reflect how well he plays in real life. One user, ‘Tomfoooleryy’, responded to someone who was downplaying the performance by saying ‘Brother been putting up 20/9/5 before this statline🙄🙄’. So this wasn’t a one-off game the community was talking about; they feel he has been underrated for quite a while and this amazing performance just made them speak up.
There were constant calls for a rating upgrade. ‘Update his overall ASAP’ was the message coming from ‘chris_justin12’. ‘He should be at least a 89’ was ‘BryceElderMuse’s’ opinion. Some even suggested higher and ‘ftShikamaru’ said, ‘yup now update his rating to a 92-93. ain’t no one done this in NBA history’. That may be a bit of exaggeration, but the point is, the players want more than a +1.
But wait, what was I even saying? Oh, yes, the rating. The rating is what the melodrama revolves around. It is incredible how one number in a video game can cause such a unified outcry. It is a testament to the engagement of the NBA 2K community with the accurate representation of their virtual basketball world. They are not just gamers; they live in that world and want it to reflect the real league as closely as possible. When it does not happen, they inform the developers. And they do it very loud.
Moreover, the rating was not the sole issue to be focused on. The replies also uncovered other users’ problems with NBA 2K that have not been resolved. Many of the comments completely disregarded the Jalen Johnson debate and took the chance to vent about server problems instead. ‘The servers still aren’t working… please fix this event has ended error 😢’ was the desperate cry from ‘RoashieP’. ‘I don’t care about this right now I can’t play any games right now in the theater only park keeps saying event has ended’ was the message from ‘TheCartoonPlug_’. ‘Just fix the darn servers’ was the straightforward and angry demand from ‘Rick_SoWest’. This gives off the impression of a community that is dealing with more than just player ratings—they are having difficulties playing the game that they have bought.
A tinge of doubt was also evident in the conversations regarding the way NBA 2K operates. One user, ‘BigRedEd2’, was very blunt and said: ‘Before making a tweet, consider putting content into the game related to this. We don’t follow for NBA news, we follow because we all play the NBA game that you make us pay a fortune for with false promises and then use to trash us at every opportunity.’ Ouch! That’s something a lot of long-time players probably would agree with—they feel the focus is more on monetization than on fixing core issues or rewarding player performance with timely updates.
A few users even went so far as to make specific requests for in-game content. ‘Give him a diamond moments card’ was the demand from ‘ajb2k’. ‘Please update his face scan’ was the request of ‘willjota_’. This proves that the community not only is engaged but also has very specific requests for in-game content and major player reactions to game updates. Additionally, they expect fair pricing and content quality across platforms.
