Words, Design, and Play - Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games - page 163

tasks the designers of NBA 2K11 have determined make a good teammate,
rather than the skills of a dominant basketball player. Players get credit
for dunks, blocks, and assists, but they only get credit for shots if they are
judged as “good shots” and are penalized for “bad shots.” The assessment
of the quality of the shot is independent of whether or not a basket is made,
and there is no direct teammate reward for scoring points, even though the
primary objective of basketball is to score more points than the other team.
Often, especially when fi rst developing one's player, the easiest way to raise
Teammate Rating is to set multiple picks 16 on every of ensive play. This
pick-based approach does not do a whole lot to help the of ense succeed,
but the design of the primary means of improving one's player is shaped by
NBA 2K11 ' s assumptions about how basketball should work.
The fi nal notable aspect of NBA 2K11 ' s design bleeds into concerns
of words and play. In redesigning the game, developer Take-Two secured
Michael Jordan as their cover athlete and made him a playable character
within the game. Accompanied by breathless coverage about the decision
by sports news leaders like ESPN 17 and FOX Sports, 18 the design choice of
including the greatest basketball player of all time framed how the game was
received. After predecessor NBA2K10 sold 2 million copies, a 60% jump
from the previous year, 19 expectations for NBA 2K11 were high. Reception
of the game marked it as “where amazing happens” and that “[i]t's fi tting
that NBA 2K11 prominently features Michael Jordan. After all, His Air-
ness is the greatest basketball player of all time and NBA 2K11 is the great-
est basketball game ever made.” 20 A number of design improvements made
NBA 2K11 better than other games, but it was the Jordan Challenges that
made the game shine. Incorporating key moments from various points in
Michael Jordan's career, successful players could unlock a playable Michael
Jordan to lead through My Player mode. For some, “the stuf with Michael
Jordan is reason enough to pick up NBA 2K11 .” 21 Building from the design
choices programmed into the game and the lack of a competitor from EA
Sports, as NBA Elite failed to ship, 22 NBA 2K11 went on to sell more than
5 million copies. 23 By structuring the game around an element of nostalgia
and harnessing the likeness of a player rarely represented in video games, 24
the design choices of NBA 2K11 set the game apart from other sports
games by making it feel special and dif erent. Escaping concerns about an
oncoming obsolescence, the design of NBA 2K11 was able to deviate from
the annual cycle of sports games by looking backward to make the design
of this version distinct. Although this approach may prove to be a one-shot
success, the runaway sales of the game have prompted NBA 2K12 and
Madden NFL 12 to more prominently integrate historical players.
The force of design decisions can also be seen in other kinds of games.
With series like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor among the best-selling
video games in the industry, competitors in the shooter genre are frequently
measured against their massive sales totals. Although the science fi ction
inspired Halo managed to help sell the original Xbox, shooters that do not