I’ve been playing NBA 2K16 for a few weeks now. The first thing I did was make my favourite team, the Perth Wildcats. If you haven’t yet, you can see all about it here.

I do suck at this game, but not in the conventional way. At first I was playing on the difficulty of Rookie. I must admit, even though this was my usual habit of choosing the easiest difficulty possible, I kept winning games. And I don’t mean just winning games. I was beating the absolute crap out of every team I versed.

To try and rectify this and make the game a little more interesting I changed the difficulty setting to Pro. I’m about nine games into my eighty-two game season and I still seem to be winning pretty much every game. The exception being when I verse a team who is known to excel, such as Golden State, who Steph Curry plays for or LeBron with the Caveliers. I’m not just losing these games. I ‘m getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter. Actually it’s not even a silver platter. Or bronze platter. More like a ‘did not place’ platter.

It’s probably about now you’re wanting to ask me “So, why is it you suck at this game if you are self proclaimedly ‘constantly winning with the rare occasions against a decent team?'”

Well, that really is a valid question and as always, thank you for asking it.

There are two factors to this answer. First we need to look at why I keep winning these games. And by winning I mean flogging the shit out of these standard teams. The other thing we need to investigate is why do I keep getting the excrement removed from me in a beating manor against the teams which are known to be good in the NBA.

The overarching question being why such a large difference between these two things?

Let’s start by looking at part 1

Why do I keep winning.

Well, it’s not because I’m awesome at the game. I wouldn’t even go so far as saying I’m pretty good at it or even decent. I consider myself casually ok, at least against the computer. I haven’t actually played against a live flashbag. I keep winning because I suck at the creation tools in the game. I made the Wildcats way too overpowered. I gave my players skills that they shouldn’t possess.

For example my main guard, Damian Martin, is known to be a great defensive player has several times won best defensive player in the league, in real life. But for some reason he is my best shooter. Sure, he is known to get baskets here and there, but not at the rate that he does in-game, especially compared to some of the other players.

I also suck at setting the game sliders to make a realistic or at least a ‘realistically playable’ version of the game. It seems like I set things way too high or way too low. For example, it’s either get away with every foul imaginable or get called for the slightest breath on the neck of the opposing team. Too low and every shot misses. A bit too high and I’m hitting  3’s from way beyond the arc, everyday of the week.

I need to learn how to balance the Sliders perfectly whilst at the same time giving my players the attributes that are true to life and not too high. I guess the reason why I spec’d my team so well is that I don’t like to lose. I don’t WANT to lose. It feels like a waste of time if I don’t win. I guess the trade off being I enjoy it just a little bit less.

Why I suck so hard against these other teams.

I kind of touched on this before when I said I’m kind of OK at the game. And that’s exactly the issue. I’m only kind of OK. As for beating me to a bloody pulp, sure part of it goes towards the game being built that way. It’s a fact that star teams with star players are a lot better than you. However most of the blame lies with me and my skill level.

Yet, the first time I played against the Cavs, LeBron was healthy and saw a lot of court time. I was absolutely pulverized. But the next time I played, LeBron had an injury and was on the bench. I managed to get within 10 points instead of the usual 30 point deficit.

I need to hone my skills better. I need to learn plays and run them more often. I have to take away some of the coaches power and manually set points of emphasis and even substitution rotations.

So why such a large difference between these two things?

There’s not much more to say. I need to play better. They say in sports that practice makes perfect. I don’t see how that relates to a BASKETBALL game… I’m also going to have to spend too much time tweaking and trying. It all comes down to how I have tweaked the game crossed with how I play it.

That was kind of a let down wasn’t it. You were probably expecting some kind of revelation? Yeah, me too.