1-on-1 With Ronnie2K on the NBA2K Video Game Franchise

During halftime of the Dallas Mavericks’ game against Toronto, I got a chance to meet with the digital marketing director of 2K Sports, Ronnie Singh. Known for his Twitter presence, Ronnie2K was kind enough to answer a few questions regarding the world-renowned video game franchise.

If you are a die-hard NBA2K player, you have heard of Ronnie2K. For the past couple of years, Ronnie 2K has been our source for all news regarding the NBA2K franchise. Luckily for me, Ronnie was in Dallas to visit family and friends and decided to watch his good friend, Harrison Barnes, play at the AAC last Saturday night.

Although the Twitter juggernaut was being bombarded by young 2K players looking for pictures and game codes, Ronnie and I were able to have a solid one-on-one conversation in the following interview.

BH: “Do you ever hear from players who are unhappy with their 2k rating?”

RS: “Oh, all the time. It’s so wide-ranging. Everybody wants to be a 99 [overall rating]. Everybody thinks they are a 99 [overall rating, it’s fun, though. Those guys sometimes [have] legitimate gripes and sometimes we accommodate them. But, I have heard everything.”

BH: “Is that a difficult process?”

RS: “Yeah, the ratings are very complicated and a couple of years ago we got away from the 99 [overall rating]. Now, we stretched out the ratings and now someone could even get a 25 for a certain rating now. So, it really expanded the ratings and now there are not any 99 [overall] players outside of ’95-’96 [Michael] Jordan.”

“I think as the years go on you will see that team” -Ronnie2k on 2011 Mavs team in NBA2k

BH: “Is it hard to keep up with the hairstyle of Dirk Nowitzki?”

RS: [chuckles] “Yes. He definitely changes it a lot and there are a couple of years where he looked a little funky, but he looks pretty good in our game now.

BH: “Did you have to add Yogi Ferrell to the game on the fly?”

RS: “Those 10-day contracts are always challenging, but he was going in our game that night anyway, and it just so happened that he blew up that night. So, it was kind of awesome for him to go into the game the same night he blew up.”

*Ronnie was referring to the night where Yogi dropped 32 points against the Portland Trail Blazers.

BH: “Will we ever see a 2011 Mavericks classic team?”

RS: “I would think so. We haven’t done a lot of recent legendary rosters, but I think as the years go on you will see that team, you will see some of the Miami Heat teams, some of the Cavs teams, and probably that Warriors team.”

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BH: “For some players like Stephen Curry, Dirk Nowitzki, and LeBron James, you could say that their play is rigged in real life. So is it difficult to not overpower superstars even if it is realistic?”

RS: “Yeah, I don’t know if you saw that article we did about Stephen Curry last year, but all of a sudden he started launching 40-foot three pointers and we thought well if we start letting that happen in our video game everybody is going to cheese that’. So, he literally broke our game last year because of what he was doing. So we ended up adding a limitless badge, which was basically the Steph Curry badge. You can’t get it as a myPlayer, but you can get it as a player and couple of other guys who are getting close or have achieved it. When a guy becomes “too video game” for even us, we have to accommodate and we always do. But, the Steph thing last year was actually pretty awesome and it got so much pick up that everybody was talking about that.”

Next: Could Isaiah Thomas Be a Maverick?

I would like to thank Ronnie Singh and everyone at 2K Sports for allowing us to do this interview.

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