[The Slim Reaper]

I have to rant about this, and hopefully provide some bemusement at the state of gaming.

NBA 2k24 was released last Friday. It's the game I play more than any other, especially the online aspect (I used to play on the number 3 ranked team in Europe for 2k15, but now I'm mostly a casual).

It's a AAA release which costs £70 for the basic game. I bought the most expensive version for £129.99 because you get NBA league pass (All NBA games to watch) included which works out cheaper than me buying it separately for the year.

When you start, you get a 60 ovr player, which is basically useless for both single player and online, so you need to max him to an 85, and then you have to play the game to unlock levels 86-99.

There is virtual currency in this game, and it costs around 280k to get him to that level.

A pack of 200k vc costs £44.99
A pack of 450k vc costs £89.99

*New this year*
700k vc costs 129.99

To grind this player without buying VC would take around 300hrs of single player gameplay and way, way longer if you tried to do it online, because no one would play on a team with a 60 ovr.

So you're now instantly trapped into buying the vc.

It get's worse, way worse.

So I buy the £450k vc pack. I haven't dunked the ball or shot a jumpshot in anger yet, and I'm already £219.98 into it.

Everything you do in-game requires the purchase of animations, and there are around 20 animation slots that you need to fill up. These aren't too bad generally, only costing around 250 vc each, which obviously mounts up, but it's not terrible.

*This is where it gets worse*

So once you've maxed your attributes to 85, you then need to grind your badges.

So attributes on their own are ok, but to make them work at full capacity you need to grind. Want to dunk the ball better? You'd better grind, want to shoot the ball better? you'd better grind. Want to shoot the ball from further away? You've guessed it. etc, These badges are essential.

Badges are 4 levels - bronze, silver, gold, and hall of fame, and they take time to grind out to max, but you do it as you're playing single player or online.

This year, they've introduced badge regression. SO if you're playing online with bad teammates and don't get to rep[eat the actions in every game that it took to earn them, the badges go down. Which is a killer, because in online you're never going to get that opportunity, even on a team with the best players in the world, because it's impossible.

So 2k has a solution for us.

The game is broken up into 9 seasons across the year, and every season is 40 levels, and you earn this only by competing online.

So then, in order to stop badges regressing, the level 40 reward, is a blocker that you can only put on to one badge, so you can earn 9 in total across the year, which is most of the badges you wouldn't want your player to drop levels or lose.

To grind level 40 online takes around 300 hours, and the seasons last about 6 weeks (50hrs per week - quick maffs). However, good guy 2k have also implemented a level skip system, which means you can spend an extra £70 every 6 weeks to skip the online grind and hit level 40 instantly, just to get these badge stoppers.

There is so much more heinous stuff going on with this game, like single items of clothing for your player costing up to 50k vc for a single t=shirt, but you can also get cheapo stuff for 300vc

You also need to buy boosts if you're competing online because everyone else does, and not buying immediately puts you at a disadvantage. A minimum you would need to spend on boosts evey online game would bve 1800 vc, the maximum you earn per game online is around 400vc, so that maths doesn't work out and requires the purchasing of more vc throughout the year just to buy boosts.

Anyway, that's it, I'm done.

This will be my last year buying this sh1t, and I fear for GTA 6, because it's the same company .

Apologies if parts of this don't make sense, because no way I'm re-reading all that.