[HILO OFICIAL] NBA 2k12 --YA A LA VENTA--

"Hey guys,
Rob Jones here, bringing you an in-depth look at NBA 2K12’s new strategy features and play system.

NBA 2K11 marked a year of many successful implementations by our development team. From the inclusion of Michael Jordan, with his challenges and rivals, to marked improvements in gameplay, AI and controls, one of the factors we wanted to really step up was the authenticity of playcalling and strategy. Let’s say just it. NBA 2K11 boasted the most authentic and varied playbooks for each team to grace any basketball game. That said, there is always room for improvement. At 2K, improvement is generally not our target, though. We aim to create new experiences and, to do that, you have to be willing to sacrifice all that came before.

With that in mind, we set up to do the following things:
Dramatically improve the play system.
Make Playcalling more accessible to the user, so that more players will understand the value of strategic basketball.
Add On the Fly Strategic Adjustments to allow users to change their team’s approach to the game without having to go to the Coaching menu.
PLAYSYSTEM AND PLAYCALLING
Play distribution became a major area of focus for the team this year. First, there were a few major hurdles we needed to overcome to take our system to the next level.

Our fans had voiced their desire for having plays assigned to players, not positions. As a response, in 2K11, we allowed users to assign four plays to each of their starters. In addition to the four plays for each starter, we had the ability to share four plays between your bench players who played the same position.

As an intermediate solution, this answered some of the community’s requests, but also introduced a few unintended obstacles.

One of those obstacles was play management. Because the playbooks were hardcoded into our game last year, anytime a player moved from a starter to the bench or changed teams, plays had to be manually tracked and updated, even for the smallest roster move. This resulted in many players having plays assigned to them that did not make the best use of their own abilities.

Another long lamented issue for fans of our game was the four play limitation for plays assigned to each player. This may not seem like a big of an issue if you play the game sparingly. However, over time, the lack of offensive play variety for specific players became a major limitation to the strategic element of the game.

So when reviewing this internally, we sought out the best solution to this issue. All of our gameplay team and a member of the SIM gaming community (the man behind some of the great playcall videos put together last year – Da Czar) locked themselves in a meeting room for six hours until they came up with an equitable solution. Yes, we do bring in our most dedicated community members for their opinions - as you’ve seen with Da Czar’s involvement and with our Momentous videos from over the years.

From that meeting we decided that play types distribute themselves into eight key groups:

Pick and Roll Ballhandler
The man who dribbles the ball around the screen in Pick and Roll situations

Pick and Roll Screener
Man who sets a screen on the ballhandler’s man

Isolation
Space created for one-on-one opportunities

Low Post
Post plays where you receive on or near the low block.

High Post
Post plays where you receive the ball at the high post extended

Cutter
Plays where a man comes off a screen or receives a hand off headed towards the basket

Screen Mid
Plays where a player comes off a screen looking to get open for a Jumpshot from Midrange

Screen 3PT
Plays where a player comes off a screen looking to get open for a Jumpshot from 3PT range.



In NBA 2K12, any player in the game can be assigned as many as four different play types. These four playtypes are ranked 1-4 and weighted accordingly, so those who choose auto playcalling can influence which types of plays are called more often.

This allows a team’s playbook to be created dynamically which means that no manual intervention is needed when a player is moved into or out of the starting lineup and/or is traded. As in the real NBA, if a player is traded, he will keep his play type assignment and simply inherit all the plays of that type in his new team’s playbook.



We, of course, made sure to have a few plays of each type in every current team’s playbook to account for trades that may happen during the course of the year.

One benefit of this new system is that now, once a player is assigned a play type, he has access to every play of that type in his team’s playbook. So if you have Carmelo Anthony assigned as an Isolation player and you have 10 Iso plays in your playbook, he has access to all 10 of those plays in addition to any other plays in the other three slots.

The only drawback to this system is that the playbooks are created dynamically based on which play types you select for each player; therefore, you cannot choose the order in which the plays show up in the play call screen. The order the plays appear will remain static until you choose to change the play types assigned to a particular player. Then, the play call list is dynamically recreated again and remains the same until changed.

The Regular Playcalling interface remains virtually unchanged.

Bring up the Playcalling interface by tapping LB (R1 on PS3). Then select the icon of the player you wish to run a play for. Once you get here, the plays display for that player.

This menu has changed a bit from 2K11. Last year you had four plays to choose from. This year you have five. You can call a play by selecting either A, B, X, Y, or LT on the 360. However, if a player has more than five plays assigned to his selected play type, then at the bottom of the menu you will see a RT followed by current page / Total number of pages. Advanced users can use the RT to page through all available plays for this particular player.



Now users are freed from the four play limitation and can get as creative as they desire (as all current teams play-books are fully editable). You are free to stack your playbook with plays that only apply to the play types of your stars or spread the playtypes evenly between the different types of player personnel on your team.

You can choose to look for players that fit within your current play scheme or expand your horizons as your front office increases your talent pool.

A second and quicker way of calling a play is to touch D-Pad Right and select RUN BEST PLAY. The AI will select the best play at the time and set it up for you to run. This feature can turn even the most casual player into a veritable Phil Jackson.



Now that the interface and play selection part is done, let’s get to what I consider the most exciting part about the play system changes that are implemented in NBA 2K12.

Living Branches
We went back to the well as a team, along with Da Czar, to provide additional feedback to help us design a system that surpasses any before it in play execution and implementation. It quickly became apparent that our current play system would need to be refactored in order to do the job. One of our top engineers was tasked to redesign our play system to accommodate the massive overhaul to both play logic and play execution. We believe NBA 2K12 offers the most up-to-date and authentic NBA play calling experience available today.

One of the main critiques was that our plays were too static and lacked the ability to branch into other scoring opportunities. In addition, some plays just took too long to get started while others were just plain ineffective.

While past branching systems relied heavily on the pass or no pass option to initiate a branch, NBA 2k12's Living branch system is the first to allow branching based on a pass / no pass option, as well as branches initiated by movement including off the dribble or dribble entry branches. We also have off-ball movement options where the play can branch depending on which way the offensive player decides to run off of available screens

We are also excited to be the first to offer you plays with nested branching. Traditional play branch options usually only provide the option to branch on the initial pass / no pass opportunity. Nested branching is the key to some of the more advanced offensive options we will discuss as we continue.

Persistent Offense
In most basketball games, it has been relatively easy for a savvy defender to take away your best offensive option by simply fronting or denying your star offensive player the basketball. This leads to the offense being forced to freelance at the end of games when they really should be going with an established play. The limited number of plays and the lack of intelligent teammates has given the defense a decided advantage in key moments.

This year, we developed what we call Persistent Offensive technology. These are key plays that some teams have available for their stars. These plays are identified in your team playbooks with a capital P in the name of the play.

These are highly advanced and resilient plays that anticipate a defender attempting to take your star out of the play. As an example, we will review a play for the Knicks called NYK P 3 Ice High. In this play, Carmelo Anthony posts up on high post extended. If open, the pass is made from the top of the key and Melo has the ball 17 feet from the basket and can either post or face up.

After you run this play a few times, the defense will more than likely adjust. If they front him or play off the passer, you have the option to run a dribble entry. Once the dribble entry option is initiated the PG (Chauncey Billups) runs a Pick and Post with Carmelo. Now you have Chauncey and Carmelo isolated on one side of the floor with Melo having great post position. If the defense is somehow able to deny the post entry pass to Carmelo or if you see a bigger stronger post defender guarding Melo you can initiate another dribble branch towards the top of the key that will make Carmelo give up the post up opportunity and cut to the Wing for the isolation.

Some of the more advanced Persistent Offensive plays can offer you as many as six opportunities to score the basketball within the same play.

Before NBA 2K12, it was only necessary to know the play that was being run to be able to fully shut it down. In NBA2K12 and beyond, knowing is only half the battle. Multiple offensive decision points means a greater interactive experience, be it User vs. Computer or User vs. User. There have been some epic battles going on during this development cycle. User vs. User games have an added strategic layer that makes NBA2K12 a blast to play.

Not every play in the game is as complex as the one mentioned above. There are plenty of simple and effective plays that allow everyone from beginners to seasoned experts an opportunity to channel their inner Phil Jackson.

Another area that benefits greatly from nested branches are alley oop plays. In the past, alley oops were a hit or miss proposition. If the play was well defended, there was rarely any time left on the clock to run another play. With the introduction of nested branching, if the defense takes away the lob, you have another option that flows naturally. Many times the defense’s overreaction to stopping the embarrassing alley oop sets them up perfectly for the counter.

Out of Bounds Plays
It's been awhile since a videogame has treated out of bounds plays with the proper respect. In the NBA, out of bounds plays are a crucial part of either winning or losing a game. In most basketball videogames up to this point, they have been more of an afterthought.

With all of the new options mentioned above, NBA 2K12 looks to change that in a big way. All of the inbounds plays from NBA 2K11 have been destroyed. Some plays have retained the same name but have all-new designs. For the first time in the NBA 2K series, we have authentic NBA out of bounds plays for your gaming enjoyment.

The out of bounds plays range from simple and effective to layered and lethal. The plays for this year’s game were created to fit within the following categories for Baseline and Sideline out of bounds.

Inbound protect / secure ball plays
These are plays were the goal is to get the ball to a specific player if possible usually your best free throw shooter.

Quick 2 plays
These are plays were you need a quick 2 point field goal.

3PT plays
We have plays for when you need a 3 for the tie or win

Post
These are plays were you want to get a post up opportunity

Alley
Some plays give you two alley opportunities. One from the inbounder and another once the ball has been inbounded.

You can call inbound plays from the Quick Play menu (D-Pad Right), or for finite control of play type and targets, choose the Inbounding Play Selection Tab in the Time Out overlay.



QUICK STRATEGY OPTIONS
NBA 2K12 also offers brand new quick strategy options to the user. These options, both on offense and on defense, allow the user to quickly adjust their style of play based on their preference and/or game situation.

Offense
These offensive options are tied to individual tendencies and behavior and affect the directives of each player on the team to achieve the approach dictated by the User.
Space the Floor – Better spacing from the ballhandler; less running around / no onball screens
Screen for Shooters – set up shooters on team to get open using Offball screens
Leak Out – Outside player leaks out on shots to get a break going
Collapse and Rebound – team attacks the basket for offensive boards
Coach Default – resets current active strategy



Defense
This gives the user a quick access to setting up the Defensive Settings on the fly:
Pressure Shooters – for opposing players good at med/long range shots; tight onball, deny ball, go over screens, hedge on screens
Lock Down Paint – double down in the post for all players, go under screens
Focus on Stars – for opposing star players; always double, tight onball, deny ball
Constant Pressure – double team on drive for guards, double team in post for bigs, play tight on stars, go over screens, hard hedge
Coach Default - resets current active strategy



That about wraps it up - as you can see, a ton of effort has been put into improving the strategic elements of NBA 2K12. We’ve always longed for a time where an older user can compete against his gaming wiz child and be successful due to his understanding of the game. NBA 2K12 takes a giant leap forward in achieving that goal.

Also, I hope you caught me on Spike TV this past Thursday night with Geoff Keighley of Game Trailers showing off the first gameplay of NBA 2K12. Hope you enjoy!

- Rob Jones
Gameplay Director "

aircriss89 escribió:Mas info, nueva Insight sobre My Player

"Erick Boenisch, Producer for NBA 2K12, back again. I know you’ve all been waiting to hear what’s new in My Player this year, and I’m pleased to tell you that we have a LOT going on. All of our improvements stem from the ideas that you, our fans, have brought forward to us. With your help, I feel that we have collectively developed the single best career mode in sports video gaming. With that being said, let’s check out what’s new…



Rookie Showcase + Pre-Draft Interviews

The road to the NBA is a lot different than what you encountered in 2K11. Gone are the monotonous Draft Combine and Summer League games. This year, you are immediately thrust into the Rookie Showcase upon creating your player. Taking place in the historic Madison Square Garden, the Rookie Showcase is an exhibition featuring all of the top prospects in the draft competing against each other. The Rookie Showcase is a big event; every scout and GM in the league will be on-hand to assess your performance. Your play in this game plays a significant role in where you get drafted in the NBA Draft.



While your performance does indeed play a significant role in where you get drafted, it doesn’t play the ONLY role. Our first new feature this year, and one of my favorites, is Pre-Draft Interviews. After the Rookie Showcase game is over, a number of GMs will come visit you in the locker room for a sequence of interviews.



Each GM will ask you a couple of unique questions. Their questions are going to be very specific to the current makeup of their team with respect to your chosen position. For example, if you are a point guard and the Bulls choose to interview you, they are likely going to tell you that Derrick Rose is their guy and they are only looking for some energy off the bench. Are you comfortable with that role? If you’re not, be honest and tell them. Or don’t. The choice is ultimately yours. How you answer these questions definitely plays a big role in where you end up getting drafted. If your answers are music to the ears of the GMs, word will spread that you are an easy going personality who would gel with just about any team. On the other hand, if you answer negatively or arrogantly to all of the questions, teams will start to develop character concerns that could cause you to plummet in the draft. The important thing is to be honest and let them know how you really feel.



2011 NBA Draft

So you played your heart out in the Rookie Showcase and answered every Pre-Draft Interview question to the best of your ability. Your hard work is about to pay off, it’s draft day! Upon entering the draft room, you’ll be met by another new feature this year, the Mock Draft.



The Mock Draft is dynamically created for you based on the type of player you created, how you performed in the Rookie Showcase, and how you chose to answer your Pre-Draft Interview questions. Every player in the draft has a full scouting report available so, should you be so inclined, you can read up on all the other prospects who are vying to be a top pick. The important thing to note is the Mock Draft is NOT how the draft is going to play out, it’s merely a prognostication by a draft pundit who has done his homework!



Once you continue past the Mock Draft, the NBA Draft will finally commence. Herein lies the first surprise that I’ve been dying to tell everyone about for a long time. Through our great partnership with the NBA, I’m extremely proud to announce that were able to get Mr. David Stern into the studio to record all necessary audio required to have him announce the entire 1st round of the draft (Association Spoiler: Our great partnership also allowed us to secure Deputy Commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver. When the 2nd Round of the draft rolls around, Mr. Silver will walk onto the stage and call out the remainder of the draft. Now seriously, how many other sports games out there would go to this level of detail to bring you what you truly want? Answer: None).

Once your player is finally drafted (Ronnie fell to #20, where the Timberwolves nabbed him), you will pose with Mr. Stern for a picture before being whisked away to our next new feature in My Player this year…



Contract Negotiations + Spending

In NBA 2K12’s My Player, you’ll be negotiating for every last penny when it comes time to sign a contract. Now, it’s important to note that rookie contracts in the NBA are more or less slotted, so you won’t be doing any real negotiating immediately after getting drafted. Once your rookie contract is up, you’ll be on your own to negotiate the best deal possible. When this time comes, a number of teams interested in your talents will approach you with an opening offer. From there, you can choose to do a number of things including accepting the offer, negotiating a better deal, or simply ignoring the offer altogether. One important note on negotiating is that you have to know your limits. If you press your luck at the negotiating table, teams will start to become frustrated, and will eventually walk away if you push too hard. It’s a game of give and take. Like any negotiation, you’re going to have to make concessions on something they want in order to get something you want.



Every 14 days during the season, your team is going to drop that next paycheck on you. Using the new ‘My Purchases’ menu, you’ll be able to spend your hard earned money on a number of things including: Purchasing skill points, increasing your attribute caps, purchasing signature animations (Kobe’s jumper, Jordan’s dunk package, etc.), hosting Youth Basketball Clinics (that raise your Local Fan Support), and much more. These items can give you a distinct advantage in your career, so you’ll definitely want to squeeze every dollar from a team when contract time rolls around.

Hall of Fame

For two years now, people have constantly been asking me, ‘What is the goal of My Player?’ I always felt it was an open book. We gave you the tools to do what you wanted with your career. You could play one season and achieve gratification. Or you could play multiple seasons and become the best player in the NBA. With NBA 2K12, I’m pleased to say that we have implemented a new addition that provides a definitive answer to this question. Your goal in My Player is now very simple, make the Hall of Fame!



Based on your position and play style, we give you 15 goals at the outset of your career. In order to make the Hall of Fame, you will need to accomplish 10 of those goals before you retire. The goals range from ‘Win the MVP award’ to ‘Score 20,000 career points’ to ‘Get 50 A+ teammate grades’ (this one is much harder this year!). Throughout your career, you’re constantly going to be striving for that next goal that gets you one step closer to your induction ceremony.



That’s right, making the Hall of Fame in 2K12 isn’t a simple pat on the back with a ‘Congratulations’ dialog. When you make the Hall of Fame, you’ll be constructing your very own hall of fame speech.

After an illustrious 17 year career, in which he was moved to become the final piece in the Knicks quest for a championship, Ronnie decided to call it a day. Here he is delivering his Hall of Fame induction speech. In NBA 2K12, you get to decide how you want your speech to play out. Are you thankful to your teammate and fans, or is it all about you? It’s your moment…



The Hall of Fame speeches are tailored to your My Player based on how his career played out. If you never managed to get that elusive NBA championship, you can lament about that during your speech. You can thank your teammates and the fans for getting you where you are. You can pat yourself on the back and talk about how everyone tried to hold you back from achieving your goals. The choices are entirely yours. This is all about your career; go out however you want…



Play Next Key Game

At this point, you’re probably telling yourself, ‘I don’t have the time to play through an entire career and make the Hall of Fame.’ I hear you, loud and clear. New to NBA 2K12’s My Player is the ability to play only the ‘Key Games’ in your schedule. We’ve taken the liberty of highlighting the most important games during the season (these may be Rival games, or Key Player matchups, or games that have playoff implications). With this option, you’ll be able to play through an entire season in a fraction of the time it took you to play through a season in previous years. Don’t worry though, your simulated stats for the games you choose to not play will still count towards your Hall of Fame goals!



For those of you who want to control every single step of your career, we still offer you the ability to play every game on the schedule. You can even do a little of both. As always with this mode, the choice is yours.



Endorsements

NBA 2K11 introduced the concept of endorsements to My Player mode. I’m proud to announce that we have significantly increased the quantity and improved the quality of endorsements this year. In total, we have five times as many endorsements this year over last. Endorsements are earned by being the best player you can be on the court. If you dominate on the floor and carry yourself well in the press conferences, good things will come.



If it sounds like I’m being a little vague here, that is intentional. While I understand you are here to learn about everything we’ve done with My Player this year, I also don’t want to spoil everything. The element of surprise holds a lot of value in my opinion. I’ll give you one little tidbit that should grab your attention; you’ll be starring in your own commercials this year…



Here are a few examples of what we have cooking this year:


Player Abilities

No folks, we’re not done yet. Not even close. With 2K12, we’re giving you a whole new way to upgrade your My Player. Your player now has a number of skill ‘Abilities’, in addition to his existing attributes, that you will be able to upgrade throughout his career. These Abilities are broken down into the following categories: Shooting, Layups/Dunks, Dribbling, and Post Moves. Within each category is a set of specific skills/moves. For example, in the Dribbling section you will find Sizeup, Hesitation, Crossover, In and Out, Spin, Behind Back, and Stepback. Each skill is rated on four skill levels: Poor, Average, Good, and Great.

Continuing with the dribbling example above, in previous years, your player did not have a proficiency level with each individual skill. As he crossed certain rating thresholds, he would simply gain access to new animations and ultimately, his success rates for the moves would increase as well. With 2K12, you will need to upgrade the skills individually for your player. It’s entirely possible for your player to have an incredible Crossover skill only to have a poor Spin move or Stepback. To play the way you want, you are going to need to upgrade specific skills and develop go-to moves. No longer will you be able to be a master of every move unless you invest the skill points required to develop these. And trust me, that won’t be easy. These cost a LOT of skill points to upgrade!



Things You Need To Know

I realize I’m starting to run a little long here, so I’d like to take this opportunity to combine some other features I wanted to discuss into a more condensed section.



Dynamic Goals

New to My Player 2K12 is the concept of Dynamic Goals. These are in-game objectives that contextually trigger, with respect to what is currently happening in the game. For example, if the man you are guarding runs down the court and drains two buckets in your face, you might get a Dynamic Goal telling you to shut down said player the next time down the court on defense.

Dynamic Goals are designed to help your My Player achieve success. There is no penalty for failing a Dynamic Goal, but should you complete one, a handsome Skill Point reward awaits. To help give you a better idea of what other types of goals you can expect to see during the course of a game, here are a few examples:



Starting Out Strong: Make 3 of your first 4 shots.

Finish Strong: Raise your FG% to 50% before the end of the game.

Foul Trouble: Don’t pick up another foul for the remainder of the quarter.

The Essence of Clutch: Score the go-ahead points and win the game.



Drills

Drills in My Player have been completely revamped . This year features a more diverse set of drills that will offer you a greater challenge, while ultimately making you a better player at the same time. Here are the drills you will be playing this year:



Shooting

Dribble Course (re-done!)

Knockout

Around the World

2 Man Rebound & Post-Up

Screen and Read

Sign Out

Fastbreak

Full Court Pressure



Wondering what many of these are and how they work? Don’t worry, once you get the controller in your hands, the game will walk you through it. I must say, these are a lot of fun this year!



Press Conferences

NBA 2K11 saw the introduction of our Press Conference feature. Due to the extremely positive feedback we received on this, we decided to blow it out this year. In total, we ended up with over four times as many questions as we had in the game last year. What this means for you is a LOT more categories and specific events that the reporters will be asking you about. You will be seeing a lot fewer generic questions and a lot more specific questions about the game that was just played, the current state of the team, and your thoughts on…just about everything.

My Player 2K12 features over four times as many press conference questions as last year. New this year, you will be selecting short answer descriptions instead of simply choosing ‘Answer with Arrogance’ type answers. This will help you more easily express how you are truly feeling.



Another change to the Press Conference system is that you will no longer be answering with a direct personality-type answer. Last year you would select an option like, “Answer with Arrogance.” This year, we have created 3-6 word mini-answers that give you the gist of what the long answer is. We don’t want you to pick a personality-type and just answer that every game for the desired results. Instead, this year, we’re trying to get you to answer with how you really feel. The end result is a much more organic press conference where there isn’t a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer…most of the time…



Player Buzz

In My Player 2K12, you will be able to easily track the current state of your League-Wide Popularity, Teammate Chemistry, and Local Fan Support in our easy-to-read My Buzz menu. Your values are simply shown on a 0 to 100 scale. If you have treated your teammates poorly in the press conferences and you feel like they are shutting you out on the court, drop by this menu and take a closer look to see what they think about you.

New Milestones

Things are a little more expensive this year. Attributes cost a little more to upgrade, and the above-mentioned Abilities are VERY expensive to upgrade. To compensate for this, we tripled the amount of milestones in the game this year. Milestones are the stepping stones on your path to the Hall of Fame. Every time you achieve a milestone, you will be rewarded with skill points. Plus, who doesn’t like receiving more awards?



Starting Rating

One major change to the mode this year based on the overwhelming feedback from our great community is the starting rating of the My Player. Last year, your player started out in the 37-41rating range. This was definitely very low, but left you a lot of room for improvement. Unfortunately, it also meant you were quite inept at many fundamental basketball skills. This year, your player is coming out of the gate in the low 60s.



Upgrading your player isn’t going to come any easier this year with the rating change. Attribute upgrades have become a little more costly across the board to keep things balanced. I believe this change is a very positive one for the mode. Thanks for all the great feedback on this folks.



Run Plays

I trust at this point that you’ve all read Rob’s great insight on playcalling and the playcall system. If you haven’t, I recommend you give that a read. I’m pleased to say that you’ll be able to take advantage of these advancements in My Player mode this year. Users who are interested in running plays / having plays ran will be able turn this option ON at any time in-game or in the menus. For those users who enjoy freelancing in the game and don’t want to follow set plays, you can simply keep this option turned OFF and play however you want. I highly recommend everyone give Run Plays a shot this year. I think you’ll find the gameplay team here has put together something pretty special in My Player mode.



Wrapping Things Up

My Player has seen a lot of changes this year, obviously. There are still many more system level changes that I didn’t get into as they didn’t really fit into any of the above categories. For example, our gameplay team spent a considerable amount of time ensuring that your teammates play true to their tendencies. The days of Dwight Howard stepping back for a 3 are long over. I think you’ll find the AI within this experience to be greatly improved over last year.



For the first time, I can take a step back and look at all that we have accomplished with My Player in 2K12, and I can honestly say that I’m amazed at just how far this mode has come this year. There have been so many improvements across the board. I would like to thank everyone in the community who continues to provide us with the comments, ideas, and inspiration to continue developing this mode into what it has become. This one is for you…



- Erick Boenisch

a.k.a. SimBaller


"