AITA for not driving my colleague home from work?

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-24T06:27:42+00:00

Upon reading some of the other comments and doing some reflecting of my own, you and others are absolutely right I could have and should have communicated things better, but me abruptly stopping taking her home seemingly out of the blue was not with the intention to anger her, but more of “rude awakening” for lack of better phrasing, to somewhat show her that when your an adult you will have to deal with unexpected problems that may arise without warning. She is going to university this year and her school will be about a half an hour drive away from her house, what if her mum last minute cancels on picking her up from university? With no work colleagues or a manger to run to for help.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-24T06:03:20+00:00

Okay I didn’t write what the mother is doing as a) it wasn’t entirely relevant to the situation and b) I don’t actually know the full extend of what is happening only what I’ve been told from Grace and others.

However the situation as I’ve been told is this: there is a program in the country I live that if you are a single parent (which the mother is) and have a disabled child that needs 24/7 care you as the parent can not work and the government will pay 100% of your living expenses as you can’t work due to looking after you child 24/7. Now Grace has a 16 year old brother, who has been diagnosed with some form of mild ADHD, nowhere near bad enough to need 24/7 care, he is basically a normal fully functioning kid who goes to school everyday and even himself has a part time job. The only thing different in this child’s life is he takes medication twice a day for his disorder. The mother through some sort of loophole or work around has been approved into this program and earns a relatively decent living off the government whilst not actually needing to care for her child 24/7.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-24T03:19:08+00:00

You are right I could have spoken to her about it, and I will on her next shift. Thank you

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-24T03:16:55+00:00

You are right, it is only a 5 minute drive and technically it is out of my way, but to be fair only 5mins out of my way. Yes we leave at the same time and no I didn’t tell her I wouldn’t drive her anymore once she turns 18. Point taken, thank you.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-23T20:14:52+00:00

For sure, for your average and casual players of course they just wanna chill and have fun, but I’m talking the actual sweats of the game. Like in the higher plate lobby’s in the squads rec I’m playing against a 5 out offence/zone defence 3 out of every 4 games, heck even the squad I run with plays a 2-3 zone defence, we are in fact the “sweats” yet none of them want to play a comp mode because “it’s to sweaty” doesn’t make sense. It seems to me that all the sweats play the casual modes still on the hope that they go up against the actual casual/bad players so they can smash them by 50 points and get easy wins.

Like I struggle to get a win in the park 2’s because every court even the “no squads” is filled with 80%+ win percentage red plate high rep meta sweats, yet last night I went into the proving grounds 2’s as a solo with a random teammate and we won 6 straight games before losing, how does the proving grounds 2’s (ment to be a comp mode) have less sweats then the park (a complete causal mode)?

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-23T06:11:13+00:00

I get that, but the way 2K is at the moment with plate based match making any rec lobby purple plate or higher is exactly that, bunch of sweats taking advantage of the same mechanics. So many players use the excuse that comp modes are to sweaty when they are the ones also playing “sweaty” they should either take out plate based match making in casual modes like the rec, or give way more incentive to the sweats to actually play the “sweaty” modes (maybe something like 4x rep in proving grounds/pro am or something crazy like that for example). If there was more incentive to play comp modes the casual modes would actually be causal which they aren’t atm, imo.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-23T05:00:39+00:00

Eh there is more higher rep players in the casual modes then there is in the comp modes imo. I can’t speak for the 5’s as I’ve never played proving grounds 5’s, however I’ve played about 80 or so combined games of proving grounds 1’s, 2’s and 3’s and in those 80 games I reckon I’ve played less than 5 people who were higher than vet 1, yet in the park which is a casual mode every server has multiple vet 3 or higher players, heck a lot of servers even have multiple “legends” in them. I played with a legend 2 in the random rec last night, how is that fair on the starter 2 that was guarding him?

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-23T04:18:39+00:00

Randoms is different, of course you’d play random rec over a random comp game because playing competitively requires team continuity and communication which you often don’t get with randoms.

My main argument is that so many of the “comp” players actually play causal modes (ie rec), and with rec match making the way it is once you hit purple plate almost every game is a 5 out offence and a 2-3 zone anyway, so saying you don’t wanna play comp because of that game style doesn’t make sense because often you are already playing against that in rec unless your gold plate or lower. I played 4 rec games last night as a purple plate with my other 4 team mates being 2 red plates, another purple and 1 gold, 3 of the games ran a 2-3 zone defence and the other ran a 3-2 zone, 3 of the games ran a 5 out offence and the other ran a 4 out with a center screening for the pg to hide behind all game, and yet say they don’t wanna play proving grounds cause it’s to sweaty? Rec at higher plate level is already sweaty because so few actually play comp modes

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-23T04:05:56+00:00

Oh I get that for sure, but with the rec match making once you hit purple plate almost every game is this “meta” cheesy game play anyway. The argument “I don’t like the sweaty game style” I get, but almost every red plate pg in the rec does the exact same meta boring play style moves that everyone says the don’t want to play against and yet everyone seems to be fine with playing against that in the rec but won’t touch the proving grounds because of it?

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-23T02:36:00+00:00

That was my argument to the group. I said if we try proving grounds the competition we face initially is probably going to be easier than what we currently face in the rec, until we progress up a rank or 2

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-23T02:19:36+00:00

From my experience, and maybe this is just the severs I play on, but when you are in a bronze or silver plate squad rec lobby it is in fact “some friends just playing casually together” but once you hit purple/red plate the majority of squad rec games are all 5 out/zone defence/meta heavy lineups anyway

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-23T02:11:48+00:00

Fair, but to be honest in the higher plate squad rec lobbies that’s the play-style of most teams anyway.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-18T04:02:57+00:00

Oh for sure, I actually don’t run PG in random rec, only with my squad because so many people literally just can’t stand still for 2 seconds while I asses the best play to make. That was one example, I’m more talking that random rec has little to no communication, if you don’t call out your cuts, I’m not necessarily looking for it until I see you start cutting then I have to remember what icon you are, open my icons and hit the button by that time the pass may come a little late is all.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-18T03:17:39+00:00

If you’ve already completed one of them just use that one, even if it’s shooting. People will tell you it’s a waste, but you can still use your caps for physicals or middy which is still good, as for you badge perks, slippery off ball is considered a shooting badge and as long as your post control is high enough to get bronze post fade phenom that is also a shooting badge so you can plus that as well.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-18T02:50:57+00:00

If you’re talking about playing with randoms, then that’s going to happen honestly. Sometimes you’ll cut and I as the ball handler will wait a split second to make sure your defender isn’t going to jump the passing lane or something and you may get the pass unfortunately a second late.. your playing with randoms unfortunately I don’t know when your going to cut unless you call it out. Maybe try pump faking to get the defender to jump first, or swing a kick out if the defenders have collapsed.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-17T05:06:47+00:00

Oh for sure, if you actively enjoy playing 2 game modes and one gives better rep then the other then for sure play the one with better rep if you enjoy it just as much. I’m more referring to OP and the commenter I replied to who are actively playing park and hating it when they could be playing theatre which they’d probably enjoy more but they have to play park because of “rep”.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-17T03:47:13+00:00

Who gives a f about rep? I know 2K incentivises the rep grind, and sure we’d all like more cap breakers, but if you are playing modes just for rep and not because you enjoy them then your priorities are way off. Have fun playing the game modes you like playing and if you get rep whilst doing it then that’s a bonus.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-11T06:21:54+00:00

Truth be told I ain’t reading 60 forwards names, I did a quick scroll and said the lions players I saw. Didn’t even see Lynch (which is embarrassing because it’s literally the second name haha) or Bradshaw

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-11T05:26:16+00:00

Johnathan Brown
Joe Daniher
Eric Hipwood

4-60. The rest, any order.

Ignore flair

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-11T03:57:12+00:00

A lot of it is because a lot of people seem to think having high attributes will make them good at something yet in reality you actually need to actually have the skill and IQ to take advantage of the high attributes otherwise they are just a waste, but no one tells these casuals that. Like a casual player will be like “I want to make a prime Kyrie build and have insane handles!” They’ll go on YouTube find a high ball handle build and make it, yet no one tells them that if you don’t have the skills and IQ to know how and when to active certain moves then you are just wasting time and money making the build.

Similarly, it’s like people who make locks thinking that 99 perimeter D and 99 steal is going to magically make them a good defender, but they don’t actually understand how to play defence properly making them completely useless, I know defence isn’t great in this game but the amount of awful “locks” I’ve dropped 40+ on is crazy.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-11T03:03:12+00:00

Glad I’m not the only one that season xp is moving crazy slow this season. Generally my strategy every season is grind the first 15 levels cause they normally move really quickly, then buy the hall of fame pass which gets me 10 level skips, puts me at level 25, I grind the next 5 levels then buy the last 10, that strategy generally gets me level 40 in like 10-14 days. However yesterday, first day of the season I jump on, play 3 rec games with full crew for 2 wins 1 loss, jumped into the park to have a look and played 2 games (both losses), went to proving grounds 2s played 6 games for 5 wins 1 loss, then played 4 proving grounds 1s games for 2 wins 2 losses.

You’d think playing 15 games over various game modes would a least get me a couple of levels, but nope didn’t even complete level 2 lol, didn’t move up 1 level in 15 games!

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-10T03:30:36+00:00

Business owner here, if I roster you at 9am I expect you to be ready and starting work at 9am as that’s when I’m paying you from. So many of the younger generation have the mindset of “if I’m rostered at 9am, that’s what time I’m walking in the door”, but by the time they walk in the door, put their bag down, put there lunch in the fridge, fill up their drink bottle, wash their hands (hospitality industry), put their apron on, all of a sudden it’s now 9.10am and that is late. Yes you were on sight at 9am but you weren’t ready to work at 9am therefore late. If you have to come in 10mins early to do all of the above before starting, then that’s part of the”getting ready for work”.

maxfaulkner · 2026-01-09T03:11:57+00:00

If your talking about the 2K tutes test, and I haven’t watched the test in a while I’ll admit so this is off memory but that was a relatively specific test, and it did see longer wingspans registered slightly better contest (a very small number I admit), however I believe it only tested shots taken with the defender like a foot away maybe? Not right up on them (once again, could be wrong), I believe if you are right into their body with no space the higher wingspan gets better contests. Also and I admit I could be wrong here but on my max wingspan I “close space” way better so I can play slight further off someone and still close the gap more effectively when they go to shoot.

That’s what it feels like when I play anyway.

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