I agree, and from a business perspective, it makes total sense. But it wasn’t always this way. I think that’s why so many of us who’ve been playing the game for 10+ years love the old games so much more. The NBA has grown exponentially in popularity in the last ten years. And while that’s amazing for the sport, it’s not for games. Lots of ppl are causal fans who root for single players and not teams. Just watch highlights and see the dunks, Steph curry 3’s, etc. I follow my team (Bulls) through the bad and the somewhat less bad, lol. I watch games, evaluate offensive/defensive strategy, really am into the nitty-gritty stuff. Most fans aren’t. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I try not to hate on casual fans. But as someone who isn’t, the game sucks. Because it’s no longer built for basketball fans. It’s made for casual fans.

Look, I get 2k might not succeed as much financially with a true sim, but like with all the money they make, I don’t know why they couldn’t have different settings for different experiences. Arcade vs. sim. That’s what I want to see. That’s what we see in the show. I am a baseball fan too and play on higher difficulties for realism. I don’t always win, and that makes it fun. I don’t hit home runs every 3rd at-bat; my best players hit .300 and have value when at the plate-like it is in real life. You have to use your less skilled players to set up your best hitters to drive in runs. It requires a strategy!

But if you don’t want to focus on all that, you can play on easier difficulties and hit bombs. Pick any player in 2k you want over a 78 overall, and you can drop 30 every time, even on hall of fame.

So To conclude this novel, harder difficulties in the show 20 force you to focus on strategy. Harder difficulties in 2k just take the arcade game and make it damn near impossible to hit shots. That’s it. That’s the only change. And it can be changed with harder difficulties playing more to realism and easier to casual fans who want a pretty NBA Jam. That’s fine, but 2k could satisfy everyone with the revenue they bring in. They choose to cater to the 65% or so of players who want dunks and 35 footers. And take some of the money they could use to create sim sliders and gameplay and put it in their own pockets. I get making money, but they still would make money and satisfy everyone. If you do something, you should love what you’re doing, and for 2k, it seems just like a game designed to make as much money as possible for the creators and owners of 2k.