 NBA 2K22 has the community divided and for a lot of reasons we're going to explore here today. Step number one, let's identify the problems. Step number two, let's look for some solutions. We're talking to some members in the community and hopefully we can come up with some answers. Getting to the bottom of what it is that's wrong with NBA 2K22 is no easy task because as you'll see here in this video, as you ask people a question, you get a variety of responses. So we're going to dive into the most popular ones here in this video and see whether or not they even hold merit. Oh, the problem that they're having is like they're having a hard time keeping players on their game. After the people hit level 40 in two days, I'm off for two months. The game fell off. Fell off, it done four. The thing wrong with NBA 2K22 is that it's repetitive. It's not skill-based. So I feel like there's not a reason to make you want to grind and that's why I don't like the season system. There's nothing to keep me going. I might get on for 30 minutes or hour, but what's the reason for me to play all day? Having a city because it's just like, bro, everybody's not getting spots. You know, the people that go on streets, you know, the people that go on streets, they just, they're not getting that many games no more, man. They got to go back to the park, listen to the community, listen to it. And the funny part is that first people loved NBA 2K22. I mean, man, they had glowing reviews. I couldn't spot a person who didn't enjoy the game, but it could have been the updates. It could have been a slew of other problems, but now the sentiment is not the same. I've never seen the community this divided before, and I think I know why. You know, it sounded crazy. I didn't have a logo, and I was like, damn, I look, he can't get back to my games. And it's like, I don't know. That's just one of the things that made me stop playing. I'd have to like tweet out to get people on my game. And then they're like half the people that I was tweeting out to at next. And it was just annoying, you know? All right, let's find out how long it takes to really get into a game. Most people don't know my PSN because I don't post too many gameplay videos. So it shouldn't be a matter of people just flooding because they know this agent right there. It's starting now. Well, the benefit of my account is that I grind in my ass off for two weeks when the game dropped to get the penthouse. You have to go to the apartment and boom, I could zip line. This is easily the fastest way to get around. The argument people have is 2k should by default give us fast ways to get around. You shouldn't have to grind for them. I got to go across the... I got to go all the way to the right. Oh, here it is. Oh, this is going to be perfect. Wow. Oh, I got a game. Wow. That was under two minutes. So I'm not here to sell any kind of story, ladies and gentlemen. I did get the game in under two minutes. Well, that's probably not most people's experience. There you go. I guess it's possible. There's absolutely no reason to play the game. Usually in previous 2k that kept people on the game longer, it was harder to hit the max level. It took at least four, five months. And the fact that people can get the top repping two and a half days, and there's no fun in going for it. If everybody that's playing the game, it's a top rip. But I ain't going to lie to you. I haven't touched 2k since NBA 2k20. It's like this, man, they f***ed up once in 18. They f***ed up again in 19, in my opinion. And they f***ed up in 2k20, in my opinion. So back to back, I said three times is a strike. But I still been watching from afar. The most popular answer you'll probably get is franchise fatigue. The reality is, if you've been playing the game for a while, well, you might be tired of it. That's the truth that it mattered. The newbies are more forgiving of some of NBA 2k's flaws. So is franchise fatigue what's really at play here? Stop playing because of franchise fatigue, to be honest. I've been playing 2k for a long time. So that was my personal reason. But I personally was like, content creators got two games this year. That was a good fun game. But me personally, I just like the concept of park, like I had to take another year off just franchise fatigue. I've been doing it for so long. No, I don't think that is franchise fatigue. I think people are tired of surprises and building hype. I believe everybody just wants to be told the truth. They're tired of the lies. Simple. And actually, that one does hold a lot of merit. Fortnite's the best example. The first year, I mean, you couldn't catch anyone saying anything negative about Fortnite. Man, it was just positive comments on Twitter, of all places. Come year for, man, straight criticism for Epic Games in Fortnite. Reality is the longer you play a game, the less you want to put up with the bullsh**. It applies to actually a lot of things in your life, like your relationships. I mean, it's a pretty decent game, gameplay-wise. I just get on it whenever I'm bored. And I think that's the case with a lot of people. It's okay. I'm guessing I think that I might not like it after the new patch because they took away Speed Boosting. And every time 2K does that, I strongly dislike it. So I think I won't like it now, but I like the game when it came out. I feel like they took the rep rewards for the entire year and they split it up and they tried to make it seem like, oh, we gave you new rewards. And they took things you would get for free before, like animations, and now you have to unlock it. It's just not the same, bro. See, I wanted them. Oh, it's like the NBA 2K16 and 2K17. Look, if the games are still like that, I'm telling you, the games are still like that, I'll still be on that motherfucker. Hold up, hold up, hold up. This video right here is sponsored by C-Geek. I've been working with C-Geek for a very long time. They've helped save me money and time searching for tickets going to any events. Here, look at you, man. Wow, you're at an NBA arena. Wait, stop. What seats did you get? Were those the best seats you could have got? Did you get finessed? You don't know. Well, C-Geek, they analyze every single seat and they give you a rating from 1 to 10, letting you know whether it was a great deal or a bad deal based on where the seat is and how much is going for it. Green meaning good and red obviously meaning bad. I mean, the benefit of C-Geek is it aggregates tickets from all over the internet and it puts it in one place. So, if there's a better seat when you perform more, C-Geek knows about it. So, you're saving money and you're saving time and you get to go to the events you wanted to go to. So, don't have any regrets the next time you head out to an event. If you head to the top link in the description and you click the link, go over there to C-Geek and use code AGENT. You get $20 off your first order. Again, that's code AGENT, A-G-E-N-T. It's a huge shout out for C-Geek for helping sponsor this video. The reality is even if NBA 2K dropped a fantastic product, well, that's what we thought NBA 2K 22 was at launch. The people that have the biggest problem with it are the people that have been playing the game for the longest. That's the reality of franchise fatigue. You don't want to cash franchise fatigue because they hit you like a ton of bricks. I've seen it happen in the Call of Duty community where there's a huge dip and then a resurgence. The reality is if the game developer and the publisher aren't providing you a brand new experience and I feel like that's the core of what this is, you're going to get burnt out. You will always have franchise fatigue where people get tired of the game. Usually in successful franchises there are new people to replace them. I feel like in 2K what we're seeing is not only franchise fatigue, we're not seeing many new people get interested in this game. Honestly, it's not really new. I want to go back to where it was good in like 2K16 and 17 where it worked. If you looked at any other game when they find something that's good, they chime in on it. 2K is like, no, we're just going to like scrap everything and just start from fresh every single year, which makes no sense. Well, we established franchise fatigue is real. It applies to plenty of people, some OGs in the community, you know who you are, but that doesn't mean you have world criticism. Your criticism is real. It's just a new BC Passive because they're in the honeymoon phase. But that's besides the point. Giving a new experience to a video game is not just a new game mode or a new piece of content or a season 4 of NBA 2K22. It's a new way to play the game, a new way to actually experience the game. It could be something as simple as adding proximity chat so you can talk amongst the people in the city. Maybe then it would feel like an actual city, but it could be something as large as providing us with a whole entire new mode. That's what my career was. That's what Park was when it was first introduced. And it's been probably like seven years since 2K has given us that. How about we start there? No, hell no. You got a whole bunch of buildings that's not even like, you can't even interact with. They just buildings and then taking up a whole bunch of space. There's no more. You know, back in the day, 2K16, 17, even 18, 19, 20, you would have people around your court. Not no more. Because everybody's so spread out and nobody got time to skateboard from this side of the city all the way over to that side of the city just to see who playing. Like, no, but I stay over here. I see them another time. I hopped in the city this year. And even though it's a lot like really improved, I got PTSD from 2K21 next gen. So I didn't even, I couldn't play the next gen, the Cine 22, just because it looked too similar to 2K21. And even though a lot of people don't care, I'm an aesthetic guy. I personally like seeing new parks and new maps. So I couldn't play 22 because it reminded me too much of 21. I think the city was a huge failure. It's not like I hate it, but I feel like it's buggy. You get lag spikes all the time when you're just walking around. I feel like it's unneeded. Things that I would be able to access in the store menus before. Now I have to walk a long area for it. And I get it. It's for promotional purposes, but it serves no kind of use, I think, for like, average player. If ideas are plenty and execution is difficult, well, amongst the community, and I'm sure 2K employees themselves have some brilliant ideas, there's plenty of ideas to go around. 2K, what does the hold up with the execution? We almost at this point demand a new experience, something fresh, a new way to play the game. 2K hasn't done that for us in a while. I think instead of the city, 2K should keep it basic like it was in the previous two days. The park needs to be together. But everything that you have to travel in the city to go to, you should be able to do it straight from your menu. I'm definitely looking for brand new experiences, but in all honesty, I just want the base level line of things that other games have, like crossplay, like crossplay, like crossplay. The next nagging issue has to do with the fact that, well, where do we provide the new experience? Is it on current gen or next gen? The reality is, the game is split and the community split, and that's a big problem. Ain't no solution until they revert back to a one one console game. Crossplay might do it, though. I don't know. Crossplay might do it. I think current gen and next gen should be the exact same game. I think it should be crossplay between the two of them. And then I think next gen should have access to just slightly more rewards or slightly more moves or something to incentivize people to get next gen because I know that's what they're trying to do is push in that direction. But I think they should still be able to play with each other and have the same exact game. The sad reality is that the community is more divided than ever. They're torn by the fact that, well, does your friend play on current or next gen? The guard build he has, is it on current or next gen? It's harder now than ever to just find teammates to reasonably and consistently play the game with. And that's a problem. But I mean, it gets even worse than that. Next generation is supposed to be more and faster. But if you want things to be compatible with previous generation, because it's so hard and unaffordable to get the next generation, then you're kind of holding next gen back. I think realistically, you have to make the same game. I think they have to make the same game in order to stop the division between the consoles. Because I think that's ultimately what has an effect on content creators and just people in general. Imagine you and your friend both happen to like 2k, right? And now it's like you'll have to like 2k on the same console. I mean, it's crazy the fact that there's two games. So ultimately, they need to just make one game, make the next gen version have better graphics. But I say have it be console backwards compatible. People on last gen got to be able to play with next gen. So what would the solution be? You can't just pack up the current gen people. It's very challenging right now to continue to get these next generation consoles. Well, do you just not make any next gen improvements on next gen? Well, that's not a good solution either. It's clear that cross play is necessary. But is it even possible to cross play the city into current gen? Next gen is doing too much. You know what I'm saying? Current gen still has that park feel a little bit. It has just a teeny bit. But that, I don't know, man, the city, the city. I don't think cross play will save 2k. I think it'll add a lot to it. But I think the biggest thing that's going to save 2k is consistency. I think they missed the mark on back to back games and maybe a new innovative mode well done with save 2k. As far as saving 2k, I don't know. I think 2k is the only company that can save itself. You know what I mean? They have to do more, not just cross play. You just remove the city. It's an awful idea. It's an awful idea. It's awfully implemented. Get rid of it, please immediately, expeditiously. Get it the f**k out. Personally speaking, the city for me is just like way too big. 2k and I think even some members in the community want to continue to push this narrative or this idea. We want to be spending like five minutes trying to get from point A to point B because it's realistic. I want to get to things in a very convenient manner like it was in the park. The truth is 2k is actually incentivized to drop this game on both current and next gen. They sell it, well it used to be at $69.99. Now it sells at $79.99. You might even call it two units in the annual report. So how do you take a company that's incentivized to do the thing that you don't want to do to do something else? Well, you incentivize them properly. I'd be happy if 2k did no more annual releases. From a content creator perspective that's pretty bad because then it's like you don't get the hype of a new game. I guess they'd announce them as like new seasons almost like they're doing now. But I think it would be better for the game. I wish if they did that they just stuck on the 16 engine because that's by far the best engine 2k's ever had. Video game publishers published the stats of how their game performed sales and units and if you look at this list here November 2021 about two months after the release of NBA 2k 22 the game is already in 10th place being beaten by Madden who's in fifth place. Although the list doesn't provide full context it says here digital sales are not included obviously that propelled NBA 2k a lot higher. And on top of that Xbox digital sales aren't included at all for the entire list that might push games like Forza Horizon up more. Not to say the game sold poorly all of the best-selling 2k's of all time if you put them in order have been in the last three years. So when the peak keeps getting higher and higher 2k really doesn't have much motive to switch things up. Trying to incentivize a billion-dollar corporation to act in the interest of its consumers is well a billion-dollar question. Reality is 2k often makes decisions against the community's interests and they did it again in season three. Alright so what did we learn franchise fatigue exists how 2k can solve for it is providing people with a new experience. The ideas are plenty I've sat here and talked about a 3v3 ranked mode for years now a real one with leaderboards and stats you can reference you play against people at your level you can play in places all around the world like Shanghai Washington DC Venice Beach and you know it's funny 2k had something like this in NBA 2k 3 almost 20 years ago but let's be honest what's happening right now is crazy people that have been part of the 2k community for a while are leaving people that have been playing the game for a while have stopped. Now I'm be honest this is the most down I've probably seen 2k community in a very very long time so if 2k has any hope of helping put this back together and helping reinvigorate the reason why people even enjoyed playing 2k in the first place they should start by listening to the community and sometimes that means putting the quality of the game over the pursuit of profits. Hey scroll down to the comment section and let me know where you believe 2k went wrong and how you believe they can fix it if there was ever a video this is the one if you guys enjoyed or agreed drop a like on this video it took some time to make so I'd appreciate it but otherwise I'll catch you guys in the next one video on the screen right now if you're bored and I'm out peace