The NBA 2K official Oaccount announced with a tweet full of hype the beginning of the NBA season while at the same time revealing some All-Stars who had won the season opener. Unfortunately instead of enjoying the moment the replies were just full of players coming together and demanding the return of Moments cards. Like, they wanted it right now.
It was a typical tweet from 2K’s social media posts, “The All-Stars put their stamp on the season with wins,” along with some fire emojis and what appears to be a graphic of the players with big opening games. However, the players were not going to let that pass without a reaction. They took it as a good opportunity to attack 2K for discontinuing one of the most sought-after features of the MyTEAM mode.
So what are Moments cards exactly? In case you are not familiar with the concept of 2K enforced back in the day, these were rare cards made available immediately after the performances of the actual NBA players in real-life matches. For example, if someone had an unbelievable scored 50 points performance on a Tuesday night, then by Thursday you could probably get a special version of that player in your MyTEAM. It was as if the mode was in tandem with the real NBA season and players always had a reason to come back and check the game out.
And the replies section was just full of people posting the hashtag #PlayersOverProfits. There were literally dozens of replies telling basically the same thing – “bring back Moments cards” but different degrees of frustration. One user, 2kmyteamintel, was very blunt, and stated, “Back in the glory days of myteam we would have moment cards for these performances,” which is really relatable and true because it was really the case.
There was this whole business surrounding Luka Doncic. User mikesauce143 accused 2K of not mentioning Luka in their post even though he had put up 43 points, 12 rebounds, and 9 assists. Then a whole debate erupted in the replies about why Luka wasn’t featured, with one user saying “Ronnie hates Luka because he doesn’t play his game” which sounds pretty much like some serious insider stuff but who knows.
And the complaints about face scanning were really quite serious. A lot of people referenced the Anthony Edwards model with X_Sanabria11 commenting, “Yall really share that AE picture & have no shame” and FlikM97 going even further with his comment “No way y’all have the guts to post this face model of AE” along with a screenshot. The discussion about facial accuracy in sports games is always a very sensitive issue, but players seem to be especially irritated about this one.
Of course, server issues were brought up too, and how could they not? User MadeirosMarcos said that he had connectivity problems when he was trying to play Theater mode, and Andrew “XO” Rodriguez replied saying he was having the same issue – getting connection errors even though he was logged into Xbox Live. This led jaogabrel to simply say “Fix the server problema,” and yes, that’s going to be the eternal complaint from gamers.
It is very interesting to notice though that the community has seemingly come to a very solid agreement on the issue of the moments cards. It is not a few isolated complaints but rather the great majority of the interactions on what should have been a simple celebratory tweet. User Bucks Fan in particular, requested “fix myteam Bring back moments cards rewards spotlight Sims token market collector level” and Ortizsyevens33 added “Let us see the moments cards for these players” which was a clear reference to the performances 2K was highlighting.
A very strong desire for the good old MyTEAM days is present. User Pixelmaster_211 expresses it quite well when he says, “CAN WE MAYBE GET SOME MOMENTS CARDS? Something that ALL OF YOUR PlayStation PLAYERS would really love? No? Figures,” followed by the #PlayersOverProfits hashtag. It’s as if the developers took away something that players really enjoyed, and in turn, gave them… well, whatever they are getting now.
Even the crew recruitment topic was raised when BCWRLD asked for players to join his crew hinting that despite complaints people are still playing and trying to get the most out of the current game. Nonetheless, the main theme was the disconnect between what 2K is selling and what players really want from the game.
The whole thing can be seen as a classic skirmish between the developers of sports games and their users. 2K is trying to promote the thrilling start of the NBA season and at the same time link it to their game but on the other hand users are taking the same Twitter communication channel to vent their grievances about the missing features. Moreover, it’s like the game is presenting us with the most outstanding real-world performances, but we still don’t have their digital counterparts in the game we are playing.
And it looks like the #PlayersOverProfits movement is now on its way to reaching a tipping point if the comments alone are anything to go by. The same exact hashtag has been used by quite a few users, and JABridgeforth even went as far as to repeat it around fifteen times in a single reply. When players are this eager to have their point heard, it might just be the right time for developers to start listening.
2K is still on top of the branch as the most popular sports game, but the reply section of this tweet shows that the player satisfaction score might be decreasing. The desire for Moments cards will not go away, and with the NBA season just starting, there are going to be a lot more real-life actions that would have been perfect Moments card opportunities in the past. It is still not certain whether 2K will react to this or not, but one thing is for sure, the player community has made its stance crystal clear.
