WNBA Feature: League Inclusion in NBA LIVE 18 Is All About Representation

By Lamar Carter (@iamlamarcarter)

 

In August, a hashtag inspired by the Twitter account @BlackGirlNerds asked users to remember when the #FirstTimeISawMe in media was. 

Some of the best answers focused on impactful representation in TV, movies, and music. 

 

For fans of the WNBA and women’s basketball as a whole, the answer to that question in regards to video games will be fully realized on September 15, 2017.

 

That date marks the release of EA Sports’ NBA LIVE 18 and the historic addition of the complete WNBA roster for the first time ever in a basketball game. According to EA’s initial release, the WNBA will be available in the game’s “WNBA Play Now” mode and “teams and player skills have been specifically balanced to reflect the unique playstyle of the league and skills of its players”

 

The league that charges its supporters to “Watch Me Work” in arenas, on television screens, and within mobile apps will now be able to extend that rallying call to next generation gaming consoles.

 

“We are delighted to collaborate and make history with EA as NBA LIVE 18 becomes the first video game to feature the WNBA’s full roster of teams and players. With EA’s expertise and ingenuity, the game will provide a terrific platform to showcase the players and the league, enabling fans to experience the WNBA in a new, exciting way,” WNBA President Lisa Borders said when the announcement was made last month.

 

The distinction of adding the FULL complement of WNBA players and teams is important.

EA has worked with the league in the past, adding six WNBA legends - Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Lauren Jackson, Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, and Diana Taurasi - to their successful streetball simulation NBA Street: Homecourt back in 2007.

 EA has also had some practice with higher levels of inclusion since Homecourt’s release, adding several women’s national soccer teams to its FIFA soccer series since the release of FIFA 16 in the Fall of 2015.

 

Ten years later, the evolution of EA and the WNBA’s partnership is providing another milestone moment for the world’s longest running women’s professional sports league. 

 

“I think it’s a great opportunity for our league. We’re always looking for ways to improve and to get better so I think this is a huge step, a big step for us,” said the recently retired Catchings.

Within the women's basketball community, the possibility of NBA LIVE’s WNBA integration has been a point for discussion of about a year. 

Two August 2016 Twitter posts from former University of Washington players Talia Walton and Kelsey Plum - the eventual first pick in the 2017 WNBA Draft - started the conversation. 

 

The pair tweeted a photo of themselves in motion capture gear and gave a shout out to EA. At that point, the thought of seeing virtual WNBA players wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. 

“It was a great opportunity,” Plum said as she recalled the process. “It turned out to be a super fun experience. You get to see behind the scenes and learn a lot about how they make the game. I was very humbled to be a part of it.”

 

As amazing as the experience was for Plum and Walton, fans that saw the post could only guess what the ultimate significance of the photo would be as there would be no official follow up or outside lead for months that would help confirm the league’s involvement in the game.

 

That all changed in April after Steve Noah (@Steve_OS), owner of sports video game news site Operation Sports, tweeted a leaked screenshot of an NBA LIVE menu with a WNBA logo on it. 

The two images, considered together, gave a bit more credibility to the notion. When it was made official four months later, a year’s worth of speculation turned into tangible buzz. 

 

The most common feeling among players when asked about their inclusion in the game: excitement.

 

“I’m excited, too excited. I don’t have a gaming system so I’m actually going out to buy a PS4,” Washington Mystics guardIvory Latta said. “I’m going to be in the house all day playing. I hope I score like 60 a game.”

 

Dallas Wings guard Aerial Powers may have a different console than Latta, but her enthusiasm to play the game is just as high.

 “I love video games! I have an Xbox One so I play games all the time. I play basketball games and ‘Call of Duty’ so when I saw that we were going to be on NBA LIVE I was so excited. Growing up, I played the games as other players, players I might have known that made the NBA. Now I can play myself and be myself in the video game? It’s so exciting.”

 

The gratitude for equal representation was as evident in responses as fans’ overall interest in playing the game. The majority of sports games over the years have only allowed gamers to compete with male players - New York Liberty guard Epiphanny Prince would create a male player named “Kobe Prince” to “add her own touch.”

 

In terms of representation, to go from improvisation to actualization has only added to the excitement of the league’s participation in the game.

 

“It’s pretty surreal,” Phoenix Mercury guard Danielle Robinson said of the thought of playing as herself in the game. “[Going from] playing video games with my brother when I was younger to now being able to play as myself is pretty incredible.”

 

Getting the best women’s basketball players in the world into the digital realm is, in the words of Prince, a “blessing and a dream come true.” 

It is also only one part that dream. Realizing the second part will mean keeping them there in future iterations through the commercial success of the game and the continued growth and visibility of the league. 

 

The ideal result of this partnership would be reciprocal in nature: the women’s basketball community comes out in force to bring new fans to the video game industry and the WNBA adds a new way of gaining fans out of casual gamers.

 

Indiana Fever head coach Pokey Chatman believes the league won’t have an issue doing so if interested gamers experience a game - either virtually or, hopefully, in person after playing NBA LIVE. 

 

“I think it’s an opportunity for a totally different demographic to get eyes on players that may pique their interest and then get to a game,” Chatman said. “My motto is, ‘if we get them to a WNBA basketball game, we’ll wrap our arms around them and they’ll thoroughly enjoy it’ because they have an appreciation the athleticism and style of play that these young ladies have.”

 

On August 3, a couple days after the #FirstTimeISawMe hashtag was introduced by BGN and the same day EA confirmed the WNBA’s involvement, Mystics analyst Christy Winters Scott tweeted that she “could never give” her three kids - two boys and a girl - a good answer as to why the WNBA hadn’t had a presence in video games. In a few weeks, her kids - and anyone else that supports the league - won’t have to ever ask that question again. 

 

They can just ask, “who’s got next?”