Sports Sunday: NBA 2K11 to Feature Press Conferences

It seems every sports game these days allows players to create a star and lead them from the minors to the pros. Whether that be through the NHL, NBA, MLB, pro and college football, or soccer, it’s a fixture in sports gaming, and an addictive one at that. I’ve spent countless hours building up my player’s statistic through gaining skill points and I’ve loved feeling like a pro. But, there’s always been something missing. I’ve always wanted to truly embody what it’s like to be a pro, and NBA 2K11 is bringing players slightly closer to that point. 

 

NBA 2K11‘s My Player mode is adding post-game press conferences. 

 

Little has been revealed yet about the press conferences and how they will work, but 2K Sports did release a screenshot of what a press conference will look like and they also revealed the idea behind the addition. 

 

“In NBA 2K11 you gotta take the podium for your own post-game press conferences. But watch what you say, your answers can earn you admiration or get you run out of town. Will you claim all the glory or will you praise your coaches?”

 

Off the court elements would be really welcome in NBA 2K11‘s My Player mode, as it would help enhance the feeling that the mode tries to impart. As I’ve mentioned many times before in my Sunday Sports columns, the modes that allow you to embody one player help bring an RPG-like element to sports games, which in turn, helps them become even more addictive and engrossing. Feeling like you are turning a player into a star is great, but without the other elements of being a star it feels flat. 

 

 

Part of the problem with other pro modes is that they don’t allow for expansion of the pro experience. Sure, 90% of the experience is playing the game, but what about the press conferences? What about building up a reputation? What type of player are you? 

 

I imagine that I am a generally unselfish player, but what if I wanted my player to be like Lebron James? What if I wanted to create a media circus around me? What if I ran “The Decision” for myself? That’s what NBA 2K11 is beginning to bring to the game. It’s allowing players to do the part of defining who they are. 

 

Without seeing video of it in action it’s hard to judge how superficial it will be. It would be great to have different questions to answer based upon your performance, your team’s performance, and perhaps the situation. For instance, will questions be asked about the playoff implications of a game late in the season? Will a poor performance inspire questions about potential injury? The greater the diversity of questions and the greater the game’s ability to identify situations, the greater the immersion that will be prompted. 

 

I look forward to seeing how the press conferences are integrated. Hopefully they will add to the experience and serve as inspiration for other games to continue expanding their pro mode ambitions.