Splinterfest: The Good, the Bad, there was no Ugly!

It's already been awhile from the Splinterfest, and there have been many posts written on that. However, I have been travelling a lot since then and had no time to write anything. If I do not do it, I won't have a record on by blog, so I must write something from my personal perspective.

Trip

September and October have been incredibly busy for me professionally. Majority of time I was overseas and travelling on business. So although I have booked the Vegas trip very early, I wasn't sure I'd be able to go ot not due to my business travel schedule. Actually I booked my Vegas trip from Friday to Monday Oct 07 to 10, so that I can relax a bit in Vegas and watch a couple of shows, which I did. However, I barely squeezed that Vegas trip between two business trips!

People

For me, the biggest joy at the fest was meeting people. I know a lot of Splinterlands players, but I have never met them in person. Seeing them for the first time and talking to them was the biggest plus point for me.

Thanks to Jarvie for this picture above, because it was not easy to put both the SL-Fest logo and Hive logo on the same frame in this circulat room. It was nice to pose with Aggy, I think I will remember it for a long time.

Neutral!

I think I was fairly stoked at the release of Lux Vega. This is simply because for the longest time I have heard Matt say that there won't be any neutral summoner ever. This was a while back, I have known that he has moved from his position already and I welcome it honestly. I also like the reasoning Matt put forward on stage. He mentioned the promo card Archmage Arius, with 3 attack boosts; Lux Vega is the other element, boosting the remaining three stats, Shield-Speed-Health. This idea makes a lot of sense to me.

No idea how it will pan out in real world game play. I will cross the bridge when I get to it. I will have one GF one for the VIP pass that I had purchased. In addition, likely I have to purchase a couple of extra ones.

More People and Conversations!

From right to left it is @fatjimmy @davemccoy yourdaddy (I don't know the hive handle). I had a long chat with Dave on various things Splinterlands, especially on retention of existing players, onboarding of new skilled players, rise of guilds as professional clubs, and current economy of the game. In most of these subjects I felt I see eye-to-eye with Dave, which is very comforting becuase if there are any OG in the game, Dave will certainly be one of them. I had a lot of respect for Dave, meeting him in person, it only improved!

Tower Defense

I had extended conversion with with the two Tower Defense game developers/business development dudes; David Fox and Rob Carroll. I do not know their discord or hive handles, so if someone knows please tag them. The point being, I was very oblivious regarding the Tower Defense game, and my knowledge was limited. More importantly I didn't enjoy the art (the limited amount that is revealed publicly so far). I still don't, but the good thing is I have made my thinking visible to both David and Rob, and they were both very patient and eager the take the criticism. Kudos to both of them for that. I am told, that they will be re-visiting the art of the game and hopefully made it fit to match the gorgeous graphics that we are used to with Splinterlands.

Venue, Tournament and Food

They were all excellent. The only complain is the lack to live broadcast on the big screen and to the internet of the main tournaments. Even there, we actually gathered around computer to see the game live. However, the team recognizes the issue and will look to mitigate it during the next fest. All in all, I am so glad that I went. I like to do this again, as soon as possible!