Why doesn't NBA 2K push or promote the WNBA playoffs?

[vetmin]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

And I am pretty sure 2K has some internal data showing how many customers play WNBA and for how long. If the numbers aren't there, they will not spend the resources on it.

You and a few others above are missing the point. The WNBA has been struggling mightily for viewers and any sort of public interest ever since it began. Everyone knows this, including 2K, yet they decided a few years ago that it was worth the effort and investment to develop an entire WNBA aspect of the 2K franchise. Many 2K gamers have disagreed with their decision to do so, but nevertheless that was the strategy they embarked upon, and they continue to build out the WNBA aspects of the game with each installment.

NBA 2K, in other words, is already directly invested in the success and popularity of the WNBA, so it's in their interest to play as active a role as they can in promoting it. One could speculate that their negligence in this area reflects a shift in strategy, but that's doubtful given that the WNBA is probably more popular now than it's ever been, simply because social media has made it easier to consume without needing to commit to actually sitting down and watching the games. And again, 2K keeps adding WNBA-related features, which isn't what 2K does when they're abandoning something.

Integrating WNBA players into MyTeam is a no-brainer for supporting their investment in the league, as MyTeam players (mostly young males) will always just try to get the best cards, regardless of who the player is. If Super Emerald Scooby-Doo is the most OP card in the game, then Scooby's gonna be what every MyTeam player wants. It's a surefire way to grow familiarity with WNBA players. There's no reason some souped-up Sabrina Ionescu shouldn't be one of the most coveted cards in the game.

[Real2KInsider]

Quote: Originally Posted by vetmin

You and a few others above are missing the point. The WNBA has been struggling mightily for viewers and any sort of public interest ever since it began. Everyone knows this, including 2K, yet they decided a few years ago that it was worth the effort and investment to develop an entire WNBA aspect of the 2K franchise. Many 2K gamers have disagreed with their decision to do so, but nevertheless that was the strategy they embarked upon, and they continue to build out the WNBA aspects of the game with each installment.

THEY didn't decide it. The NBA did. This was something that was forced upon 2K (with extremely short notice the year it was implemented - like 2 months).

As such they're going to do the bare minimum until otherwise forced to. You're now asking the marketing etc team to do two jobs for the price of one. Because they're not going to hire additional staff until the numbers warrant it.

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Integrating WNBA players into MyTeam is a no-brainer for supporting their investment in the league

Just to re-iterate, 2K didn't invest a dime into the WNBA, the NBA required them to SPEND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES to add it per the Licensing agreement (the 160 million they already spend per year)

MyTeam is a money mode. They are going to cater to the crowd that spends money on packs. It's a Gacha game that literally hits the reset button once a year and people actually continue to participate.

The marketing data has clearly shown them that people will buy packs for Fantasy characters like Shooting Shaq, etc. Even someone like Bol Bol is known way more than a WNBA star. That's just how it is until the NBA itself can get more people invested.

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As MyTeam players (mostly young males) will always just try to get the best cards, regardless of who the player is. If Super Emerald Scooby-Doo is the most OP card in the game, then Scooby's gonna be what every MyTeam player wants.

You'd better believe those young males will tune out if the best players are ones they don't recognize. It's the same reason they never added Euroleague players when they had the Euroleague.

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It's a surefire way to grow familiarity with WNBA players.

Growing familiarity isn't going to grow their wallet. It would likely lose them millions in the short-term.

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There's no reason some souped-up Sabrina Ionescu shouldn't be one of the most coveted cards in the game.

If MyTeam were what it was in the initial years (pre-VC) then sure.

[DL1287]

I haven't played MyTeam in a couple of years but height is the most important thing in the mode. Tacko, Yao, the Bols, and Tim Thomas end up being some of the best players in the mode every year. Undersized players like Zeke, CP3, and Stockton and guys that can't dunk are basically useless. Some 6 ft WNBA player who can't dunk would be the least desired player in the game. Somebody would rather spend money trying to get 99 Sim Bhullar than Sabrina or A'ja.

I tried the WNBA MyCareer mode in 2k23 and the progression system is what I wish the NBA MyCareer mode would be like. Also, the Playstation trophy for winning a game in the WNBA career mode has 1.2% of players that earned it.

Some of the high drafted 1st and 2nd year players don't have actual face scans, including the 1st pick in 2022, so that shows how much 2k cares about the mode.

[vetmin]

Quote: Originally Posted by Real2KInsider

THEY didn't decide it. The NBA did. This was something that was forced upon 2K (with extremely short notice the year it was implemented - like 2 months). Just to re-iterate, 2K didn't invest a dime into the WNBA, the NBA required them to SPEND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES to add it per the Licensing agreement (the 160 million they already spend per year)

Source for all this stuff? You may very well be right that the NBA essentially forced their hand, but I'd be interested to read more if this info is out there.

Nevertheless, this aspect of my post that you're taking issue with is immaterial to the point I was making, which was simply that—however they may have gotten there—2K is now knee-deep in the WNBA business and seems to be settled there for the foreseeable future. As such, they are invested in the success and popularity of the WNBA whether they like it or not.

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As such they're going to do the bare minimum until otherwise forced to. You're now asking the marketing etc team to do two jobs for the price of one. Because they're not going to hire additional staff until the numbers warrant it.

That's not usually how marketing works. When McDonalds introduces a new dessert, it's not like they hire new staff to promote it. It just changes the character of what their existing staff is being asked to sell. The point here is that it's in 2K's interest to better integrate the WNBA into the image of the game that they pay marketing to project, particularly since the WNBA season doesn't even overlap with the NBA season, with a lot of important games happening at the absolute most lifeless point of the NBA offseason. Obviously, when something like Dame getting traded happens, that bumps any and all planned posts for WNBA content, but generally speaking 2K is simply not making the most of its entwinement with the WNBA.

Quote:

The marketing data has clearly shown them that people will buy packs for Fantasy characters like Shooting Shaq, etc. Even someone like Bol Bol is known way more than a WNBA star. That's just how it is until the NBA itself can get more people invested. You'd better believe those young males will tune out if the best players are ones they don't recognize. It's the same reason they never added Euroleague players when they had the Euroleague. Growing familiarity isn't going to grow their wallet. It would likely lose them millions in the short-term.

So I Googled a few 2K23 MyTeam best-cards lists and Reddit discussions, and it seems that Galaxy Opal Bob Netolicky and Terry Dischinger are two of the best cards in the game. Bob Netolicky. And Terry freakin' Dischinger. Yeah I'm sure everyone on MyTeam tuned right in and jumped at the opportunity to grab that Netolicky as fond memories of the 1970 and '72 ABA Finals replayed in their heads. And who could forget good ol' Terry's 1963 ROTY run with the Chicago Zephyrs? Certainly not the high schoolers and wannabe YouTubers who play MyTeam.

Come on, lol. To MyTeam gamers and even most NBA fans, they're as unfamiliar as the least-known WNBA players, and they're undoubtedly much less familiar than higher-profile WNBA players like Sabrina Ionescu, Liz Cambage, A'ja Wilson, Diana Taurasi, etc. Shoot, even Tim Thomas, who was apparently the 2K23 MyTeam GOAT, is quite possibly less familiar to the teenage MyTeam demographic than Sabrina at the very least, who you see all the time on social media if you follow NBA players and other NBA-related accounts.

I just don't think you have an argument here. Players will use whatever they think will help them win. In my Google search I even saw someone on Reddit talking about kicking his Giannis to the curb in favor of Bob Netolicky. These gamers ain't loyal, lol. Even if there is a segment of the user base that would keep a crappier card over a buying a new better one purely due to greater familiarity with the former's real-life player, 2K has already shown that it doesn't care, or else these souped-up Bobs and Terrys wouldn't exist, and there's no reason Bob and Terry couldn't be Breanna Stewart and A'ja Wilson.

Quote: Originally Posted by DL1287

I haven't played MyTeam in a couple of years but height is the most important thing in the mode. Tacko, Yao, the Bols, and Tim Thomas end up being some of the best players in the mode every year. Undersized players like Zeke, CP3, and Stockton and guys that can't dunk are basically useless. Some 6 ft WNBA player who can't dunk would be the least desired player in the game. Somebody would rather spend money trying to get 99 Sim Bhullar than Sabrina or A'ja.

They could just scale WNBA players' heights so that they're calibrated to the NBA league average. This is a mode where Shaq can shoot and Lil Wayne can not only play basketball, but is 6'1". In real life I'm not even sure he can ride the rollercoasters at Six Flags. No objections on the grounds of realism can be taken seriously with this mode.

[jeebs9]

Quote: Originally Posted by vetmin

Source for all this stuff? You may very well be right that the NBA essentially forced their hand, but I'd be interested to read more if this info is out there. Nevertheless, this aspect of my post that you're taking issue with is immaterial to the point I was making, which was simply that—however they may have gotten there—2K is now knee-deep in the WNBA business and seems to be settled there for the foreseeable future. As such, they are invested in the success and popularity of the WNBA whether they like it or not. That's not usually how marketing works. When McDonalds introduces a new dessert, it's not like they hire new staff to promote it. It just changes the character of what their existing staff is being asked to sell. The point here is that it's in 2K's interest to better integrate the WNBA into the image of the game that they pay marketing to project, particularly since the WNBA season doesn't even overlap with the NBA season, with a lot of important games happening at the absolute most lifeless point of the NBA offseason. Obviously, when something like Dame getting traded happens, that bumps any and all planned posts for WNBA content, but generally speaking 2K is simply not making the most of its entwinement with the WNBA. So I Googled a few 2K23 MyTeam best-cards lists and Reddit discussions, and it seems that Galaxy Opal Bob Netolicky and Terry Dischinger are two of the best cards in the game. Bob Netolicky. And Terry freakin' Dischinger. Yeah I'm sure everyone on MyTeam tuned right in and jumped at the opportunity to grab that Netolicky as fond memories of the 1970 and '72 ABA Finals replayed in their heads. And who could forget good ol' Terry's 1963 ROTY run with the Chicago Zephyrs? Certainly not the high schoolers and wannabe YouTubers who play MyTeam. Come on, lol. To MyTeam gamers and even most NBA fans, they're as unfamiliar as the least-known WNBA players, and they're undoubtedly much less familiar than higher-profile WNBA players like Sabrina Ionescu, Liz Cambage, A'ja Wilson, Diana Taurasi, etc. Shoot, even Tim Thomas, who was apparently the 2K23 MyTeam GOAT, is quite possibly less familiar to the teenage MyTeam demographic than Sabrina at the very least, who you see all the time on social media if you follow NBA players and other NBA-related accounts. I just don't think you have an argument here. Players will use whatever they think will help them win. In my Google search I even saw someone on Reddit talking about kicking his Giannis to the curb in favor of Bob Netolicky. These gamers ain't loyal, lol. Even if there is a segment of the user base that would keep a crappier card over a buying a new better one purely due to greater familiarity with the former's real-life player, 2K has already shown that it doesn't care, or else these souped-up Bobs and Terrys wouldn't exist, and there's no reason Bob and Terry couldn't be Breanna Stewart and A'ja Wilson. They could just scale WNBA players' heights so that they're calibrated to the NBA league average. This is a mode where Shaq can shoot and Lil Wayne can not only play basketball, but is 6'1". In real life I'm not even sure he can ride the rollercoasters at Six Flags. No objections on the grounds of realism can be taken seriously with this mode.

Boom! knocked it out of the park!

[Keshunleon33]

Quote: Originally Posted by vetmin

On that note, why not just integrate WNBA players into MyTeam, so they can be used interchangeably with NBA players? In a mode with Galaxy Quasar Zaza Pachulia raining logo 3s I don’t think concerns about realism should prevent the ladies from playing alongside the men.

WNBA players vs NBA players would be a disadvantage to the WNBA players in Myteam.

I get it because I'm a W fan too but not conducive to winning or profit.

[Real2KInsider]

Quote: Originally Posted by vetmin

Source for all this stuff? You may very well be right that the NBA essentially forced their hand, but I'd be interested to read more if this info is out there.

I have an inside source. The rest of my views are opinion. This part is factual.

Giving more thought to it, not mixing genders in game modes is LIKELY an NBA directive.

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but generally speaking 2K is simply not making the most of its entwinement with the WNBA.

2K barely even promotes the NBA as it is. They don't give two ****s about the league, their partnership is simply for the MTX cash cow. As is the case with most other licensed MTX games.

Quote:

They could just scale WNBA players' heights so that they're calibrated to the NBA league average.

I doubt the women (or league) would be in favor of this. These are PEOPLE, not video game characters. You're not really sensitive to the perceptions that would create either.

It's ultimately why they're kept separate. WNBA players don't need to get dunked on and have misogynists pulling Too-Small taunts etc. Or the vice versa of using WNBA players specifically to emasculate other gamers.

I assume we don't have mixed-gender competition in any other sports titles.

[jd@os]

We do in EA's FC 24.
Not getting "defensive"; just sayin.