#Nba 2k16 my player caps series#

Originally, I just spot-edited here and there, fixing things about the gameвЂ™s ratings that felt off or updating things based on the slumps or hot streaks certain players were on. вЂњWhen I saw that I could create new players, edit rosters, change the way the stars of the league played, I was immediately drawn to that. вЂњI lived off the original NBA 2K ,вЂќ he says of the first installment of the now preeminent roundball franchise. But it wasnвЂ™t until he upgraded to the more robust Sega Dreamcast in 1999 that he began to experiment with editing rosters.

The realism of that game, at the time considered to be one of the most accurate virtual simulations of sport ever, was what initially appealed to Stauffer.

#Nba 2k16 my player caps series#

His first love was baseball, and while in elementary school he would spend hours memorizing the information on the backs of Topps cards and playing World Series Baseball on his Sega Nomad. Growing up in the small town of Twinsburg, Ohio, he was a die-hard Cleveland sports fan, a self-described stats geek, and an avid gamer. These ratings are an inexact science that Stauffer, hired by 2K in May 2014, has been studying for a long time. He decides how high Andrew Wiggins can jump, how effortlessly Russell Westbrook can split double teams, and with how much tenacity Tony Allen plays defense in the closing minutes of games.Д«ut despite his godlike presence within this immersive world, Stauffer is refreshingly realistic about the limitations of simulating real life using 61 attribute sliders that range from straightforward staples like speed and free-throw shooting, to more complex measures, like defensive pass perception and boxing out.

ItвЂ™s 2KвЂ™s development team that creates the universe within which the greatest basketball players in the world are digitally confined, but it is Stauffer who creates the boundaries that keep those 1,500 players in check. The 25-year-old leads a modest team at 2KвЂ™s headquarters in Novato, Calif., working tirelessly to make the worldвЂ™s most popular basketball video game as authentic as it is addictive. Stay tuned as more player ratings will be revealed in the coming days while we wait for the release.ItвЂ™s one week until the soft launch of NBA 2K16, and Mike Stauffer is feverishly typing values into a lengthy spreadsheet, his shoulders hunched and his face obscured by dual monitors. It's a solid philosophy, and it also helps to level the playing field when mixing classic rosters with current teams and players. Based on the information provided to me, the 1995-96 Jordan is the ratings standard-bearer, and everyone else follows his lead. He shot 3.2 treys per game as he had one of his best seasons statistically. There are multiple versions of Jordan in the game, but that year His Airness shot just under 43 percent from three-point range. I was told by the ratings team that the 1995-96 version of Michael Jordan was the only 99-rated player in the game.

We haven't seen media or literature on the classic teams, but I did find out some information about a few of the legends when I visited the 2K headquarters last week.

It only makes sense as he's still the best all-around player in the game. The Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James seems like a lock to be the highest-rated active player.