NBA 2K20: MyGM 2.0
NBA 2K·
Monday, July 29, 2019·19 minutes
Hello, world! It’s the franchise team here, ready to give you a sneak peek as to what MyLEAGUE has in store for NBA 2K20. We do our best to comb through sources of feedback from all over the net – Operation Sports, Reddit, Twitter, the 2K Forums and more. We can feel the passion that fans have for the NBA, and for NBA 2K and every year we try to respect and honor that devotion with many hours worked and sleepless nights. Every year we strive to make that year’s franchise the best it’s ever been, and 2K20 is no exception.
One of the difficulties we face on the franchise team is how to improve something that, for the most part people already love? Do we play it steady and make sure that the formulas we’ve worked on stay safe, or do we swing for the fences? We think that the answer is always swinging for the fences because we all want the same thing – for the fans to have as much fun in MyLEAGUE as possible. We’ll never stop working to keep improving what we’ve already done, and never quit innovating the series to make sure that we always surprise and delight.
We’ve been hard at work all year to polish the roster-driven action you’ve come to love since it was called the Association, and we’re excited to share details about the biggest new feature of the year – MyGM 2.0. We’ve reworked a ton on the way MyGM plays to try and give fans a brand new experience. We feel like we’ve really made our mark on the next page in quality franchise gameplay and we hope you do too.
MyGM 2.0 Overview
MyGM was the cornerstone of the revitalized new era of franchise, dating back to 2K14. We delivered to our fans the first-person experience of what it’s truly like to be a GM; to be at the helm of a team in one of the most prestigious sports in the world. There were goals to complete, rosters to build, and conversations to have in a variety of environments. The fans loved it; overall it paved the way for MyLEAGUE in 2K15 and the storylines present in 2K18 and 2K19.
The fans were clear; they liked the conversations, for the most part. There were a few minor annoyances; hearing from your 6th man for the thousandth time that they wanted to be a part of the starting lineup could get a little old, but overall being able to actually talk to the players and staff made a huge difference in how the game felt.
Yet as the years went on, the focus clearly shifted as MyGM was no longer the new kid on the block – the fan base loved the sandbox nature of MyLEAGUE, and a lot of the major elements of MyGM were the same year-to-year. You’d still have the same conversations, still have the same goals and STILL have that sixth man that wants a starting spot. When asked to describe MyGM to someone not familiar, the most common description was “It’s like MyLEAGUE… but with conversations.” That is accurate, but we want more. We want to have MyGM carve out its own identity, and to really make it feel like a distinct experience from MyLEAGUE. To do that, we completely overhauled the system to what we call MyGM 2.0.
Here’s a quick overview of some of the new features contained in MyGM 2.0:
· Action Points
· Score and leaderboards
· Skills, featuring a skill tree and an updated leveling structure
· Completely new task system
· Revamped relationships
· Sponsorships and branding
MyGM 2.0 – Everyone is Welcome!
We’ll talk more a bit later about this, but one of the most important things we strived for in MyGM 2.0 is to make the mode more accessible to all NBA 2K fans. We’ll be talking more about the new features soon, but for folks that don’t normally play franchise but are giving this a read please know that MyGM 2.0 was built with YOU in mind! We’ll explain a bit later on how this works exactly, but for now let’s take a quick look at the overall design philosophy behind MyGM 2.0…
MyGM 2.0 - Design Philosophy
We feel that one of the fundamental signs of good gameplay is that there’s a high number of meaningful choices made. Tic-tac-toe is a fun game at first, because there are strategy elements uncovered with each passing game. Yet with time, the ideal strategy is found and each game results in a boring draw. You don’t make meaningful choices, you simply react in the optimal way.
Yet say we’re no longer playing tic tac toe, we’re playing chess, bridge, go, or any other high-level strategy game. Now we require both mechanical learning of optimal play in predefined conditions, and the creativity to see moves ahead of time. This offers great variety and challenge to the experts, so can we claim that those games are superior to tic-tac-toe? I don’t believe we can, because without a doubt some people would prefer tic tac toe. It’s simple to learn, and easy to share with someone that’s never played before.
So how does this aside into classical games relate to NBA 2K? Because they help clearly display the two driving philosophies behind MyGM 2.0:
1. To increase the number of meaningful decisions made by the player.
2. To make the entire system more intuitive and fun for new and old players.
After pondering on how best to make point #1 happen, we moved to the new heart of MyGM 2.0…
MyGM 2.0 – Action Points and the Overview
We’re adding a brand-new overview landing menu, along with a new system of Action Points (or AP) that drive interactions in MyGM. Every day you play in MyGM, you’re going to have to make a conscious choice on what’s the best thing to do to help turn your team into a winner. Do you want to spend time trying to make the team better via a trade? Do you want to spend time having chit chats with the players, staff or other GMs? Do you want to take control of the team directly and play a game on the sticks? Now, all of the core actions will now take an AP, causing you to make meaningful choices about how the best and most efficient way is to build a winning team.
The hope is that moving things over to an AP system will help drive the decision-making and relationships to offer GMs a different path to carve out their legacy in the NBA. Players that feel confident the path to victory is to control the team from the sidelines can play games to get an edge, or the analytics gurus can constantly churn trade assets to try and build a monster out of a rebuilding team. Different difficulties will offer different amounts of AP per day, so all fans can feel the thrill that makes decision-making seem fun rather than stifling.
All of the classic landing menus are still present in MyGM 2.0, so feel free to throw players up on the trading block or list your next superstar as untouchable – the core of the mode should still feel familiar enough to veterans of the series so your next journey into the world of MyGM is only a click of the sticks away. Yet how do we separate the newbies from the juggernauts when it comes to the world of MyGM? By the newly revamped…
MyGM 2.0 – Score and Leaderboards
Every time you take the helm of a new franchise, you’re going to have to pick a difficulty – Easy, Medium or Hard. The harder the difficulty, the longer the scoring period is and the fewer AP you’ll get per day. Generally, most of the actions you take will fall under two categories:
· Things that help improve your team will earn you experience.
· Things that help show off your prowess as a GM will earn you score.
We’ll talk more about experience a little later, but let’s dive in a bit more on what score means in MyGM 2.0. Every time you prove that you’re a great GM, you’re going to earn points. These are generally represented by winning games, making the playoffs, or having players win various awards. We lower the amount of score you receive from players that were inherited when you started the mode, but as time goes on and more of the signings are completely yours, the score you earn will continue to grow. You can’t simply choose a stacked team and expect to crush the leaderboards; you’ll need to make sure that you’re constantly moving and shaking the roster to be your own perfect vision as to how to win chip after chip.
MyGM 2.0 is now global. It’s not just about taking your team to the top, now the name of the game is to do it with flawless efficiency. To get to the top and stay there. To outplay, out-draft, outwit and outlast all of the other sim rivals across the world in our brand-new leaderboards.
With the leaderboards, you’ll be able to see how your team is faring against everyone else in the same difficulty, and judge them against the greatest of all-time, or just filter it down to the month. You can even filter it down to just you and your friends to compete for local supremacy and bragging rights over who can build the best team. Rep your favorite team on top of the leaderboards, as everyone will get to see the team that YOU chose to make a splash with in MyGM 2.0.
Depending on the difficulty, you have a set amount of years to try and increase your score before your time is up for leaderboard progress. Five years for easy, ten for medium and fifteen for hard. Beyond that, you’re welcome to keep playing the full eighty years of a standard MyGM. We’ll still let you keep playing and racking up the score; though only the initial portion will count on the leaderboards.
Well, that sounds neat and all; we get score by winning. Yet what do we have to help us build a winner in the first place? We get some help by looking at…
MyGM 2.0 – Leveling
The leveling system has been revamped heavily from MyGM 1.0. Back then, you would gain experience tied to your user profile that gave two main benefits: facility upgrades and purchasing persuasive pitches. These boosts tended to be pretty overpowered; giving +5-10 across the board and boosting potential made it easy for anyone to simply walk in and simulate their way to a championship. We tried to figure out what the coolest parts were about leveling, learn the lessons of what worked with the previous system, and fold it together into the new MyGM 2.0 leveling experience.
Each save starts from level 1.
Some people liked the OP 1.0 facilities, some people didn’t. Now you have the luxury of picking them if you want, or don’t – but everyone’s going to be competing, so you’ll want to leverage every strength you can to try and be at the top of the leaderboards.
You gain experience by making the team better.
The primary way that you gain experience now is by winning games and completing tasks. We’ll touch on tasks in a little bit, but the basic idea is that by completing goals randomly generated throughout each save, you’re going to be taking steps that improve your team. Winning also gives experience, as chemistry and morale are building blocks to a dynasty, but don’t forget that you’ll get a lower amount of experience for players you haven’t signed.
Each save will end up around level 20.
Experience is tuned to try and make it so that you’re about level 20 when you finish the portion of the save that score counts for the leaderboards. The goal is to try and make meaningful decisions as you progress, and that your own managerial style can come through strongly by the choices you make as you level up. What kinds of choices? Well…