6 Improvements for NBA 2K11

With the announcement by 2K Sports that the next installment of their very popular NBA sports franchise will be released in October, I sincerely hope that they may add the following items as part of NBA 2K11.

Playoff eligibility check marks-
If you've been a basketball fan for more than ten years, then you are familiar with the x,y,z, and o letter designation next the standings printed in newspapers and on websites to indicate when a team has mathematically qualified for the playoffs, won their division, won their conference, and been eliminated from playoff contention. To my knowledge, this is not available in my favorite part of their game, My Player, which allows to you build a career in basketball and play yourself virtually on your favorite NBA team.

Fix the inbounds bug-

When playing My Player, there is a bug that takes place beneath your hoop when you are the player inbounding the ball after the opposing has scored. It has something to do with the collision algorithm that disables your ability to step out of bounds, which results in a 5 sec violation and subsequent turnover. I had heard that this problem was solved with a patch to NBA 2K10, but because I purchased mine through Steam I have yet to see the patch available, so I am unaware if indeed they did fix it. If they haven't, please get on it.

A True Way To Control Background Music-

In the existing game you have the ability to go to the Options menu and turn off the sound, but I've discovered that when I play at the NBA level, I am still subject to the software playing music at timeouts, even when the music has been turned off. This can result in a scratchy experience for the ears when I happen to have my own music playing in iTunes in the background already. I also want better integration with my existing music players, be they iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc., to play music from my library, or allow me to create playlists from my existing collection. I can do so with iTunes outside of the program, but as I mentioned earlier I cannot keep the timeout music from occurring, nor can I pause, skip, or resume music from the game interface, which would be a nice feature to have.

Headlines that actually generate a paragraph or two of story, instead of just hotlinking to the stats of the player, or the most recent box score of the team-

One of the charming things about NBA 2K10 is the headlines, which update the player about trades, trade demands by players, team records, NBA statistical records accomplished, injuries, etc. The result of this feature is that the NBA world created within the game feels more immersive and immediate, but when you click on these headlines you are faced usually with only the most recent box score of a game featuring that player, or the player's career stats.

What I would like to see is a script generator that comes up with one or two paragraphs explaining a grievance by a player about their contract, their play time, or even which team or NBA record the player set, or broke; even how many other injuries to a player have occurred in their career including the current one, or how their injury may affect the lineup.

I'm confident that this could be programmed, and would go a long way to making the My Player section an even more immersive and believable experience.

Allow Me To Make General Manager Decisions-

After bathing in the joy of making it through my favorite NBA team's training camp and making the 12 man rotation for the regular season, I was disturbed to find that following that one season, during the offseason, some of my favorite players on the team were traded, or allowed to drift away in free agency. I think the game has a real opportunity here to include the ability of the player to make General Manager decisions, if they so choose. I would love the opportunity to work within the salary cap to keep a core together, with adequate bench role players. This should be in accordance with the most recent collective bargaining agreement available to the game designers. It should also be an entirely optional feature as well. Some players of the game may not give a hoot as to which of their team's basketball players are kept for the next season, or they might be bored with the prospect of trying to negotiate a contract with a player. It would be interesting to see how your player's performance on the court affects the desire of the player to stay with the team, and what kind of impact it has on their contract demands. To be fair, this bit of programming might be a bit challenging to do well, but I see it as the next logical thing to add on to the NBA 2K experience.

And finally...

Let Me Know Where I Rank Statistically And Career Wise-

If an NBA fan visits the official league website and checks out a players stats, they are also able to see where that player ranks categorically in those stats among the league for that current year. I would love to have the same ability in my game. I can already see whether I top the list for scoring, or rebounding, or whatever, but I'd like to know if I rank 24^th, or 34^th in Assists. What about Turnovers? If I am not the best or the worst at controlling turnovers in the league, I'd like to know just where I am ranking among the players statistically.

I'd also like a quick way to compare how close I am to reaching NBA career records. I can look it up in one section of the game and then come back and gaze at my statistics, but I'd love to be able to have them side by side in columns, so that I'll know that if I expect to get the all time assists record from John Stockton, I am going to need another 4,000 to do so!

What improvements do you hope to see in NBA 2K11, in addition to the ones that have already been announced?