PHOENIX, AZ – DECEMBER 15: Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors puts up a three point shot against Marcus Morris #15 and Eric Bledsoe #2 of the Phoenix Suns during the second half of the NBA game at US Airways Center on December 15, 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns defeated the Warriors 106-102. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Back in the day, the secret to succeeding in an NBA video game was to jack up 3-pointers at every opportunity, because the game was overly rewarding of long-range shots. But in recent years, the 2K franchise has worked hard to reform its game so that 3s are harder to come by. After all, players can’t run around in circles and hoist off-balance, off-the-dribble shots from way behind the arc and expect them to go in.

Well actually, one player can, and that’s why Steph Curry has video-game designers stumped, according to Forbes.

So if you’re a basketball game developer, what do you do? You spend years developing a system that rewards good shot selections and punish players for taking ill-advised long range shots, but the real-life Steph is taking and making these supposedly terrible shots. If Wang and his team allow digital Steph to do these moves (meaning, take 25-foot bombs off the dribble) in the game without check, then that would just open the door for cheese again.

So yeah, Steph has the 2K guys somewhat stumped for now.

“To be completely honest, we are still looking for ways to better translate his game into NBA 2K,” says Wang. “He’s a ‘rule breaker’ when it comes to jump shooting … he becomes a problem in the video game world where we’ve been trying to train our gamers [to know] that certain types of shots should be rewarded versus others.”

Wang says they’ve already tweaked the gameplay a bit to give digital Curry a bit more leeway in the jacking-3s department, but they still want to discourage “over-dribbling hero ball.”

Basically the rules that apply to every other player in the NBA don’t apply to Steph.

I mean, no one hits off-the-dribble 3s at the highest level, right? Well..

And nobody makes 30-foot shots with any consistency. Well…  

And nobody hits contested fadeaways from long-range. Well..

Steph Curry: So good even video games can’t figure him out.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.

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