Patrick O’Farrell

ENG 281

Professor Nyland

27 October 2021

Essay 1: Evaluation or Analysis Essay

The game I chose is NBA2K16. This is my all-time favorite game because it has a very realistic feel as well as being a professional basketball player. The story mode also known as my career is the best part of the game. In my career you create a player and design him however you want then you go through senior year of high school and get to make the choice of where you go to college. While making these decisions you also are having problems with your best friend Vic because he does not know what to do with his life. Once, you get to college you have to make decisions there that can impact your draft stock. After college, you get drafted into the NBA which can vary based on how you did in college. When you are finally in the NBA then you have very tough decisions to make. The biggest one is when Vic is asking for money to try to become a rapper. Your agent wants you to cut him out of your life but regardless of your decision Vic is going to end up holding you back mentally or physically. In the end, Vic ends up getting in a car accident and dying. Vic dying emotionally destroys your player because you are left thinking if you should have done more which can end up affecting your play on the court. Not only do you have to deal with your best friend Vic, but you also have a wife and parents to take care of so there is a lot on your plate. NBA2K16 created a very realistic feel using character’s emotions and the game taught us a lesson not to judge a book by its cover.

My career story mode gives you a look into what it is like to be a professional athlete. When we look at professional athletes, we only see their performance on the courts/fields but, they have struggles just as big as we do. The character development is great in this game because you get to develop from an 18-year-old high school student into a professional basketball player. While doing this get you get to see the path getting into the NBA and see your player mature into a man making life changing decisions. The thing I really like about my career is that while you are developing the other characters in the game are developing as well based off of the decisions you are making. Your friends and family both affect the development of your character which not only affects your morale but your play on the court and interaction with fans.

The game sends you a message that us as players can relate to more than anybody else which is that no matter how famous or wealthy you are things are not always perfect. When we see big time celebrities, we look at them as what we see on social media when in reality that is just an image of them that we see, that is not actually who they are as people. When you the player must make all these tough decisions it is very important that you think about how they can affect not only your character but the characters who you do not control as well. Not only do you have to take care of your close friends, but you also have a Mom, Dad, sister, and wife that are relying on you to make the right decisions for your family.

In the game there is some great dialogue which gives it a real feel to it. With all of the ups and downs for your player, you get to see the emotion that goes through him. Not only him but the other players that you do not control have the same type of emotions. In the game Vic wrote a letter before he died and said, “You got one life, a fragile life God can take this life whenever he sees fit so live and live plentiful.” This quote hits very deep for your character because Vic was thinking about this right before he died which just shows he already gave up before his car accident. This relates so much to real life especially now with all the mental health issues people face each day. There are issues that are bigger than other like Vic’s which ultimately lead to his death, but the quote is a great example of how we should live by. God is a greater being and at any point he sees fit he can take our lives from us, so Vic is saying live life to the fullest because you never know when your time is coming.

NBA2K16 was a great game because it had such a realistic feel. It was great because you got to feel the emotions of the players which made it even better. It sent us a message about how nothing is perfect for anybody, and we all have bad days but to make sure to keep pushing forward and not to give up.

References

NBA 2K16. (n.d.).https://www.2k.com/nba2k16/buy/.